Little Statisticians in the Forest of Tales: Towards a New Comparative Mythology

Abstract

A new trend has been swelling in the ocean of comparative mythology. Different research has been carried out using statistics to reconstruct the (pre)history of myths and mythological motifs (replicable episodes of traditional narratives) and to understand how they have evolved. The results obtained by using these different approaches converge and make it possible to intertwine numerous strands of evidence. We will try to summarize it in this paper, with special focus in the first part on the research on motifs, in the second part, on the research on different versions of a same myth. Folklore and mythology form an autonomous sphere of culture being largely independent from outer factors. The transition of folklore and mythology motifs between generations does not require material resources. Accordingly, they can be preserved during an indeterminately long period of time and this ability to be preserved can become a major asset in the study of the human past.