An acceptance and exclusion of Malaysian Folktales based on established qualifying factors to create a Malaysian Folktale classification system for safeguarding purpose

Abstract

As one of Malaysia's intangible cultural heritages, it is admitted that Malaysian folktales are laden with identities and voices of the past generations. Such qualities of beckon it to be systematically preserved but it is noted that thus far, such endeavour is countable if not absent at all in this country. Therefore, to counter such issue, a study was conducted with an aim to safeguard such heritage via a structural classification of folktale systematically. However, before the classification took place, an identification of Malaysian folktales in a literary form as data is imperative. The identification is crucial because it determines whether the data collected in the form of folklore required for the study which is folktale. In the context of the study, such task was guided by an integration of two qualifying factors: an operational definition and an ownership of the folktales. As the centre of this article, the method of identification revealed the Malaysian folktales accepted and excluded to be structurally classified for systematic safeguarding.