The Thief, His Mother, and Us: Sociological Issues with Implications in Ten Pedagogisable Aesop Fables

Abstract

He was an “ugly” slave. Born around 620 BCE, Aesop has magnificently depicted timeless sociological issues in numerous universally known fables. Unknown in schools, for being probably too “popular” to be taken seriously, Aesop fables could represent a significant source of wisdom and even knowledge about sociology. Men, women, boys, daughters, sons, wives, maids, thieves, fathers, almost every member of a modern society has been immortalized in a strikingly simple complexity. The present paper will be an investigation through a conceptual content analysis of Aesop’s embedded theories -texts and sub-texts- found in ten selected fables around the notions of security, parentlessness, ageism in the work place, power, status, and even surprisingly beyond that. The hidden facet of the Greek slave as a sociologist might be (re)discovered through a comparative study between sociology theories (academic content) and ancient Greek fables (popular culture). The connection between the two words/worlds -academic vs. the non-academic fictional pop culture- is often known to be exclusive since apparently conflictual. The outcome of this study has shown a potentially pedagogisable content to be taught in sociology schools and elsewhere like psychology schools and probably more. Aesop Fables: a modern handbook of sociology?

Keywords

• academic long form content
• aesop fables
• sociology
• pedagogisation
• pop culture