Towards a Machine-Readable Classification System based on Thompson's Motif-Index: A Case Study on South American Indigenous Narratives

Jan Jokisch

doi:10.24215/27187470e069

Authors

Jan Jokisch Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Germany

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24215/27187470e069

Keywords:

comparative mythology, folklore, classification, network analysis

Abstract

Thompson's Motif-Index (TMI) is one of the most important classificatory references within folklore studies. However, leveraging its potential within contemporary digital methodologies presents us with a manifold of problems. The paper explores general issues and operational limits of the TMI, discusses possible solutions, and ultimately presents a proof of concept to reimagine motifs as labeled digraphs. It does so along a subset of 1,969 narratives from Johannes Wilbert and Karin Simoneau's Folk Literature of the South American Indians (1970–1992) as well as their 23,624 individual motif assignments.

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