On the origins of stories: the cultural evolution of international folktales

Abstract

Storytelling is a universal human behaviour and a unique characteristic of our species. In this talk, I will begin by discussing how our capacity to imagine and share fictional worlds was central to the evolution of human sociality and culture, before turning to some of the recurrent themes and plots that are found in diverse traditions around the world. I will focus especially on so-called “international folktales”, which include such tales as Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Beauty and the Beast. I argue that cross-cultural patterns of continuity and variation in these folktales reflect basic evolutionary processes of mutation, selection, and inheritance as they get transmitted from generation to generation and spread into new “habitats”. I will show how variations in the plots and characters of these stories can be analysed in a similar way to sequences of DNA, enabling us to reconstruct the deep history and dispersal of these traditions. I will also reflect on some of the wider implications of this research for understanding the cultural success and stability of traditional stories, what they can tell us about the past, and the complex relationships between patterns of cultural, linguistic, and genetic inheritance.

Author bio

Jamshid Tehrani is a Professor at the Department of Anthropology, Durham University (UK) and member of the Durham Cultural Evolution Research Centre (DCERC). His research examines how culture evolves as it gets transmitted from person to person and from generation to generation, with a special focus on popular narratives, such as traditional folktales, urban legends and modern day conspiracy theories.