The Application of Propp's Functional Analysis to a Yagua Folktale

Abstract

THIS PAPER PRESENTS A DETAILED STUDY of a Yagua folktale from a folkloristic morphological viewpoint using the structural analysis advanced by Vladimir Propp.1 Morphology is here used in folktale analysis in the sense Propp uses it, that is, a description of the folktale as a genre in terms of its component parts and the relationships of these parts to each other and to the whole. Yagua is classified as a major division of the Peba-Yaguan language family.2 The Yagua tribe was once concentrated in the northeast corner of Peru but is now scattered from the Brazilian border to positions on the Marafi6n River west of Iquitos, Peru. In his Morphology of the Folktale,3 Propp presents a structural analysis of Russian fairy tales in terms of functions, an analysis he implied should be applicable to all tales of the fairy tale category anywhere in the world. A doctoral thesis by Alan Dundes made it appear that American Indian tales were much more limited in their manifestation of functions than the European tales analyzed by Propp.4 Dundes demonstrated only eight units in his analysis, compared to Propp's thirtyone; however, an examination of some of the tales Dundes analyzed shows that his analysis was not strictly Proppian and thus does not give an accurate means of comparison. In making a tentative check through a Yagua tale, I was struck by the number of Propp's functions that could be identified. The ordering of these functions also agreed remarkably well with that set forth by Propp. I determined, therefore, to make a detailed study of this tale's structure in terms of Propp's analysis to see how it would compare with his analysis of Russian fairy tales and to see if the results would substantiate or refute his claims for his analysis. In the process