Abstract:
ABSTRACT
AN EXPERIENCE-CENTERED APPROACH TO EASTERN
MEDITERRANEAN FOUNDLING NARRATIVES
by
© Tanya Kieselbach 2011
Master of Arts in Anthropology
California State University, Chico
Fall 2011
This thesis examines aspects of the relationship between folklore and social history, specifically the divergences of these narratives, from the primary theoretical perspective of Historical Particularism, as proposed by Franz Boas. The narratives and the socio-historical context explored in this study include foundling narratives and social histories of the Eastern Mediterranean and Southwest Asia.
The research questions asked in this study are these: “are differential social histories at the root of divergences in traditional narratives?” and “can the experience-centered approach to folklore, as developed by David Hufford and William Dewan, be applied to narratives that emerged in antiquity?”
In order to answer these question, the study first compares foundling narratives of ancient Greece and Rome, Southwest Asia, and Dynastic Egypt with their
respective social histories, and then compares the results of the first step in this study with each other.
Agreement between socio-cultural practices and themes expressed in narratives confirms the validity of the narrator‟s experiences as a force in the emergence of traditional narratives. Discernable divergences in, both, socio-cultural practices and narratives in a comparison between the three regions involved in this study confirms social history as a factor in the development of divergences of traditional narratives and the appropriateness of Historical Particularism as a theoretical approach to folklore.
An important implication of this study is that it points to the value of folklore as a potential information source on socio-cultural practices and experiences.
