The Dumézil-Tangherlini Synthesis

I derived Tool 4 — these three defining archetypal identities immanent 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: “Interaction with the Other falls into three broad categories: [1] Sexual contact with the Other… including kidnapping and threats to the fertility of the Inner Realm; [2] The Other’s attempts to disrupt the food of the Inner Realm; [3] Narratives in which the Other attempts to maim, hurt, or kill… In each category, communal integrity and survival is threatened from the Outside…”

Source: Archetypal Disinfolklore

Two scholars, one synthesis. Dumézil’s tripartite Indo-European structure (Sovereignty, Security, Fertility) meets Tangherlini’s three categories of legend interaction with the Other (sexual threats, food disruption, physical harm). Tool 4 fuses them: every item of Disinfolklore threatens the Inner Realm’s sovereignty, security, or fertility from an Outer Realm.

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