Abstract
Explaining the rationale and main objectives for his motif system; Stith Thompson declared that it emulates what “the scientists have done with the worldwide phenomena of biology” (Thompson 1955, I, p. 10). In this respect; the underlying principles for motif identification and indexing are comparable to those devised by anthropologists at Yale for “categorizing” culture materials into 78 macro-units and 629 subdivisions thereof used to establish “The Human Relations Area Files” (HRAF). By comparison, 23 divisions (chapters) make up the spectrum of sociocultural materials covered in Thompson’s Motif-Index system. Thompson’s cardinal themes are divided into 1730 subdivisions permitting more specificity of identification (El-Shamy 1995, I, xiii). Historically; the disciplines of “anthropology” and of “folklore” targeted different categories of the human population; with “folklore” assigned to populations stratified into “social classes” (Dorson 1972, pp. 4–5: For details, see El-Shamy: “Folk Groups” (1997b, pp. 318–322, in: T.A Green, gen. ed. 1997c, p. 321); El-Shamy 1980, p. li; compare El-Shamy (1997a), p. 233 (“African hunter”). The limitations Thompson placed on the goals of his motif system (along with its tale-type companion) were triggered by the fact that “folklore” was; then; primarily interested in literature (prose and verse). The sociocultural milieu surrounding the creation of the literary forms occupied minor roles. Considering that a folktale is a “description of life and/or living” including all five universal culture institutions; the relevance of the contents of folktales are of primary significance for understanding the community in which they were born and maintained (El-Shamy 1995, I, p. xiii). Consequently; for the present writer; a folktale is considered a sixth (universal) culture institution. Also; because Thompson’s Motif-Index sought global coverage; many regions and national entities didn’t receive adequate attention: significant fields of human experience are missing or sketchily presented. This article offers two cases as examples of: (1) How editors of folklore publications ignore novel ideas incompatible with established trends; and (2) Samples of the spectrum of current psychosocial issues addressed in an expanded Thompson’s System (with more than 26,000 new motifs and 630 tale-types added).
Highlights
Introduction to ThisEdition, and Classification by Tale-Type and Motif” (2002), etc
Batu: the Egyptian “Two Brothers” Tale) and El-Shamy’s call for reconsideration of Liungman’s (1946) misleading conclusions (“as represented by his maps, pp. 11, 51)” were ignored and the fallacious conclusions continue.True to this inexplicable pattern, works published at a later stage fail to be even submitted to reviewers knowledgeable with the kinship system involved; these include: A Motif Index of
All new tale-types added to the Aarne-Thompson system and new motifs added to the Thompson’s motif system are marked by the sign ($; formerly: § = section = ASCII 4,6) at the end of the number
Summary
Impressions and impressionistic studies, regardless of well-meaning underlying motivation, lead only to the creation of fallacies, which in turn generate harmful social, cultural and psychological constructs. The earliest recorded occurrence of the theme of multiple male agents for the same pregnancy of a female seems to be the ancient Egyptian myth of “Gods (and goddesses) sired by different fathers born in one pregnancy” (new Motif A164.5.1$) This is the case with its companion themes of “Multiple births in the same pregnancy (twins, triplets, quadruplets, etc.) with unusually long time intervals separating the births” (T586.5.0.1$), and “Five babies born during five successive days” (T586.5.0.1.1$).. 48).A comparable event occurs in the story of “C Umar al-NuC mân” in Alf laylah wa laylah) It tells of a case of twin birth in which a second infant (a male) was born after such an extended period that all involved were content that the delivery was complete and announced the birth of only the first born (a girl), MITON (El-Shamy 2006a).See, The concept of twinship as expressed in verbal lore and as applied in daily social practices may be grouped into three major divisions: biological, quasi biological, and social:
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