Folk memory
Encyclopedia
Folk memories is a term sometimes used to describe stories, folklore
or myths
about past events that have passed orally from generation to generation. The events described by the memories may date back hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of years and often have a local significance. They may explain physical features in the local environment
, provide reasons for cultural traditions or give etymologies for the names of local places.
Some of the oldest purported folk memories include:
Even more so that is ordinary for the study of history
, the plausible historical connections listed above could be inaccurate due to the difficulty of piecing together prehistoric and/or preliterate fragments of evidence into a meaningful understanding. They must, rely on more speculation
to fill in evidence gaps than would be acceptable in another context that provided more rigorous verifiability of the records available.
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
or myths
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
about past events that have passed orally from generation to generation. The events described by the memories may date back hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of years and often have a local significance. They may explain physical features in the local environment
Environment (biophysical)
The biophysical environment is the combined modeling of the physical environment and the biological life forms within the environment, and includes all variables, parameters as well as conditions and modes inside the Earth's biosphere. The biophysical environment can be divided into two categories:...
, provide reasons for cultural traditions or give etymologies for the names of local places.
Some of the oldest purported folk memories include:
- various Great Flood myths, possibly reflecting a flooding of the Black Sea basinBlack Sea deluge theoryThe Black Sea deluge is a hypothesized catastrophic rise in the level of the Black Sea circa 5600 BC due to waters from the Mediterranean Sea breaching a sill in the Bosporus Strait. The hypothesis made headlines when The New York Times published it in December 1996, shortly before it was published...
c. 5600 BC - ElasmotheriumElasmotheriumElasmotherium is an extinct genus of giant rhinoceros endemic to Eurasia during the Late Pliocene through the Pleistocene, documented from 2.6 mya to as late as 50,000 years ago, possibly later, in the Late Pleistocene, an approximate span of slightly less than 2.6 million years. Three species...
is a rhinoceros-like creature that is believed to have been extinct for at least 50,000 years, but may be a source for the oldest unicornUnicornThe unicorn is a legendary animal from European folklore that resembles a white horse with a large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead, and sometimes a goat's beard...
legends, especially if they survived longer than is currently known. - the Klamath Indian myth concerning the eruption of Mount MazamaMount MazamaMount Mazama is a destroyed stratovolcano in the Oregon part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the Cascade Range. The volcano's collapsed caldera holds Crater Lake, and the entire mountain is located within Crater Lake National Park....
c. 5700 BC - InuitInuitThe Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
string figureString figureA string figure is a design formed by manipulating string on, around, and using one's fingers or sometimes between the fingers of multiple people. String figures may also involve the use of the mouth, wrist, and feet. They may consist of singular images or be created and altered as a game, known as...
representing a large creature, identified with the extinct woolly mammothWoolly mammothThe woolly mammoth , also called the tundra mammoth, is a species of mammoth. This animal is known from bones and frozen carcasses from northern North America and northern Eurasia with the best preserved carcasses in Siberia... - MapinguariMapinguariThe mapinguari or mapinguary , also known as the Isnashi , is a legendary cryptid said to resemble a ground sloth-like creature with red fur living in the Amazon rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia...
legends about a giant sloth-like creature that corresponds with the MylodonMylodonMylodon is an extinct genus of giant ground sloth that lived in the Patagonia area of South America until roughly 10,000 years ago.Mylodon weighed about and stood up to tall when raised up on its hind legs. Preserved dung has shown it was a herbivore. It had very thick hide and had osteoderms...
, which has been extinct for 10,000 years. - Australian Aboriginal mythologyAustralian Aboriginal mythologyAustralian Aboriginal myths are the stories traditionally performed by Aboriginal peoples within each of the language groups across Australia....
has been suggested to contain accurate descriptions of geographic features and flora from as far back as 10,000 BCE. - The Ebu GogoEbu GogoEbu Gogo are a group of human-like creatures that appear in the mythology of Flores, Indonesia. In the Nage language of central Flores, ebu means 'grandmother' and gogo means 'he who eats anything'.-Appearance:...
myths of the people of FloresFloresFlores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, an island arc with an estimated area of 14,300 km² extending east from the Java island of Indonesia. The population was 1.831.000 in the 2010 census and the largest town is Maumere. Flores is Portuguese for "flowers".Flores is located east of Sumbawa...
have been hypothesised to represent Homo floresiensisHomo floresiensisHomo floresiensis is a possible species, now extinct, in the genus Homo. The remains were discovered in 2003 on the island of Flores in Indonesia. Partial skeletons of nine individuals have been recovered, including one complete cranium...
, which perhaps became extinct around 10,000 BCE (although the Flores Islanders hold that the Ebu Gogo remained alive 400 years ago).
Even more so that is ordinary for the study of history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, the plausible historical connections listed above could be inaccurate due to the difficulty of piecing together prehistoric and/or preliterate fragments of evidence into a meaningful understanding. They must, rely on more speculation
Speculation
In finance, speculation is a financial action that does not promise safety of the initial investment along with the return on the principal sum...
to fill in evidence gaps than would be acceptable in another context that provided more rigorous verifiability of the records available.
Further reading
- Guy BeinerGuy BeinerGuy Beiner is a historian of the late-modern period. He is a senior lecturer at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer Sheva, Israel.-Life and works:Guy Beiner is a graduate of Tel Aviv University and holds a PhD from the National University of Ireland...
, Remembering the Year of the French: Irish Folk History and Social Memory, University of Wisconsin Press (2007)