فصلنامه نقد ادبی (Oct 2023)
Narrative Origin of the Fairy Tales and the Political-Ideological Foundations of the Indo-European Cultures
Abstract
"Fairy tales" are considered one of the popular narrative and literary genres in the world. The global spread of these stories is such that reaching a convinced and comprehensive theory about the origin of fairy tales has been associated with many challenges and difficulties, as well as the views expressed in this field also face many challenges and problems. The widespread popularity of these stories in Indo-European cultures, and the existence of similar narrative patterns, elements and functions in these stories are other issues that show the necessity of research to explain the narrative and historical origins of fairy tales. In this article, in order to analyze the narrative and historical origins of the formation of fairy tales; the problem of the ancient spread and dissemination of these stories in Indo-European cultures; ritual and epistemic functions of these stories in these cultures and its connection with the cultural and ritual foundations of the Indo-European peoples, relying on the narrative, ritual and mythological evidence, we investigate and analyze the origins of the formation of fairy tales. The results of the research show that the primary origin of the formation of fairy tales goes to "the second millennium BC"; That is, it goes back to the period of confrontation between the Indo-European peoples in Iran, Asia Minor and Europe with the native cultures and rituals of the lands they migrated to, as a common narrative and epistemological system can be seen in these stories, which had an educational function with a political-ideological approach for their audience and in connection with the young or adult audience, they have had their own special narrative and cultural form and function. Also, the long-term and ancient continuation of these stories has been the source of the formation of some narratives such as exogamy. Extended Abstract Fairy tales are among the important literary genres in Indo-European cultures. Similar meanings and derivations of the concept 'fairy' in Indo-European languages, as well as the presence of relatively common narrative elements, motifs, functions, and narrative structures in these tales, indicate a common narrative and epistemological system in these stories. Given the global spread of these tales in Indo-European cultures, this indicates the very old age of this narrative and epistemological system in these stories. One of the significant challenges in the field of fairy tale studies is understanding the narrative and historical origins of these stories. In this article, relying on various narrative, historical and mythological evidences, the narrative and historical origins of the formation of fairy tales are investigated and analyzed. In this study, we try to find out the reason for the ancient spread of fairy tales in Indo-European cultures; the relation between the intellectual and epistemological system of these stories with the cultural and ritual foundations of Indo-European peoples; and the ritual and epistemological functions of these narratives in these cultures, so that finally a historical and narrative origin can be considered as the origin of the formation of fairy tales. Before the dominance of Indo-European immigrant tribes in the regions of Greece, Asia Minor and Iran, the Mesopotamia civilization with a history of five thousand years BC, as one of the oldest origins of human civilization and one of the most important origins of the systematic rituals of goddesses in the ancient world, had significant effects on religious systems in Iran, Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt and even Central Asia and parts of Europe. Archaeological evidence shows that in Iranian societies before the Aryans (under the influence of Mesopotamian rituals) there have been rituals of worshiping female gods. The dominance of Indo-European peoples over Greece and Asia Minor in the second millennium BC and later Iran in the first millennium BC played an important role in the evolutions of the ancient world, especially in Iran and its surrounding lands. The belief of the Indo-European peoples in gods with the characteristics of order, treaty and militarism with male characteristics; their tendency towards social centralism and descentism based on their own cultural-ideological characteristics, gave them different cultural and ritual characteristics, which was in conflict with the cultural and ritual foundations of the natives of their migration destination. On the other hand, close to the age of arrival of the first branches of the Aryan peoples in the Asia Minor, significant political and ideological developments had also begun in the Mesopotamia, as parallel to the concentration and consolidation of powers in the Mesopotamian states, and the transformation of city-states into larger states and the rise of the powerful states of Assyria and Babylon, a gradual transformation from subjectivity to objectivity and centralism occurred in ancient discourses and ideologies, which altogether, it was accompanied by the increasing decline of matrilineal rituals and cultures related to goddesses and the predominance of rituals and cultures related to male gods. One of the oldest forms of these cultural developments can be seen in the Sumerian narrative "The Tale of Gilgamesh" (which is the oldest surviving written epic from about 4175 years ago). This story is one of the primary forms of cultural transformation of an ancient goddess (i.e. Ishtar: the powerful goddess of Mesopotamia and Syria). The continuation of these developments has played an important role in the political (and later cultural) domination of Indo-European peoples in the lands of their immigration destination. In fact, the secret of the gradual dominance of the less advanced Indo-Europeans over the advanced and long-lasting civilizations of the lands of their migration destination lies in the deep political-social-cultural changes in the ancient world and the increasing decline of the cultural and civilizational energy of the cultures related to the goddesses and the alignment of these changes with the cultural-ideological foundations of the Aryans. In total, factors such as: the ritual and cultural confrontations of the Indo-European peoples with the native rituals around the goddesses in the local communities of their migration destination; Trying to overcome the native communities (especially considering the specific descentism and authoritarianism that was hidden in the culture and ideology of the Aryans) and also the effort to preserve own ritual and cultural foundations in the face of the ancient and influential rituals of goddesses, provided the ground for ritual and ideological confrontations with the cultures and rituals of the natives in the Indo-European narratives. In these narratives, the nature of goddesses (through conceptual and ideological transformation) was transformed into a demonic and harmful nature (in the form of the concept of "fairy"). Among these, Zoroastrian texts have a special place. Iran's proximity to Mesopotamia caused that religion and culture of the Aryan immigrants in Iran to be directly confronted with the influential Mesopotamian rituals. In Zoroastrian texts (such as Yashthā, Vandidād, Bondahesh, and Dinkard) in many cases the name of fairy appears in the ranks of demonic creatures and enemies of Minavī creations. According to their ideological basis, these religious and ritual narratives have played a very important role in the formation of the narrative and epistemological system of fairy tales, such as the origin of the functions, main elements and identity components (such as: the demonic nature of the fairy) in fairy tales (and their changed forms in epic narratives and romances) can be found in these religious and ritual narratives. Based on this, the historical origin of the narrating fairy tales' date backs to the "Second Millennium BC"; which means to the period of the beginning of the encounter between the Indo-European peoples in Iran, Asia Minor and Europe with the native cultures and customs of their destination lands of migration. In fact, the secret of the common structures and motifs of fairy tales in Indo-European cultures, on the one hand, goes back to the cultural and ritual foundations of the Indo-European peoples and on the other hand, to the confrontation of these peoples with the cultures and rituals of the natives of the lands they migrated to, which have been in opposition to the religion and culture of the Indo-European peoples, especially in the regions of Iran, Asia Minor and Europe, which faced the influence of Mesopotamian religions from far or near. Therefore, the Indo-European branches that immigrated to Iran (which were adjacent to the Mesopotamia) played an important role in the creation and expansion of these stories, as well as among the ritual narratives of the Indo-European cultures, the highest frequency of confrontation and enmity with fairies is seen in Zoroastrian texts. The narrative pattern of fairy tales is based on a "fundamental educational doctrine". It has been an organized and widespread effort in Indo-European cultures based on their political-ideological tendencies and interests in dealing with indigenous peoples. The ideological basis of all these narratives is the "alienization" of fairies (=Goddesses) and then describing and defining them as alien and demonic beings that distance the hero from the traditions and religious and moral teachings of his society and culture, and one should stay away from them, as the Avestan word "Pairïkä", which Bartholomew considered to be the main root of the concept of "Fairy" in Indo-European languages, in addition to meaning "female procreative and fertile", also means "alien and foreigner". These narratives functioned as an effective educational media in the ancient world and were a way to moral and ritual education to children, teenagers and young audiences. The popularity and wide spread of these stories and their various appearances in religious and literary narratives shows the wide-ranging effort of the ancient narrators to confrontation the very old and influential rituals of the goddesses. In transformed narratives of fairies such as the stories of Zāl & Rudābeh, Rostam & Tahmineh, and Kaikāvus & Sudābeh the role of fairy as a "woman from a foreign land" (and in a more completely transformed form: from a society or a class opposite to the society or class of the hero, even with an ideology opposite to the hero's ideology) is another form of the fairy's belonging to the "other" and rejected world, which is strange to the self-conscious "I" of the hero. This category is one of the old patterns in the narrative structure of stories based on exogamy in literary works.
