Friday, December 18, 2009

Bedtime stories are more ancient


We would have heard some bedtime stories in our childhood said by our parents and now a recent study says the fairy tales are more ancient than was previously thought. So to reach this conclusion, at the Durham University a cultural anthropologist Dr Jamie Tehrani has studied nearly 35 versions of Little Red Riding Hood from around the world and he said that they have small variations, indicating a common ancestor. But till now in France it was believed that the tale originated before Charles Perrault produced the first version in the 17th century.

In Europe, China and Iran has some common similarities in their tales and before 2,600 years they share a common ancestor dating. For example People would have heard the story of a little girl tricked by a wolf masquerading as her grandmother in European version, but this same tale will differ in the Chinese version i.e. a tiger replaces the wolf and in the Iranian version a boy replaces a girl in that story. Finally Tehrani says these tales have been subtly changed and evolved just like a biological organism.

1 comment:

  1. Keep those ancestor stories coming!

    Bill ;-)

    http://drbilltellsancestorstories.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete