The Dumézil-Tangherlini Synthesis

The Dumézil-Tangherlini Synthesis

The framework fuses two scholarly traditions. Georges Dumézil’s tripartite structure of Indo-European society (Sovereignty, Security, Fertility) and Timothy Tangherlini’s three threat categories in Danish legend-telling:

I derived Tool 4 (Inner-Outer Realm Switching) — these three defining archetypal identities immanent (in whole or in part) in items of Disinfolklore — from a fusion of Dumézil’s three socio-religious archetypes that underpin Indo-European language speakers’ cognitive structures (sovereignty, security and/or prosperity/fertility) read in conjunction with Tangherlini’s three archetypal structures in the contemporary Danish legend-telling tradition.

Source: Archetypal Disinfolklore

The three threat categories map onto folklore universals: (1) sexual contact / kidnapping / fertility threats; (2) disruption of the food supply; (3) physical harm to the individual and the social order.

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