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All for one and one for all: proverbs, prosociality, and the evolution of cultural norms [dataset] Open Access

Proverbs have a deep history and wide cultural use. The simplicity and metaphorical nature of proverbs obfuscates the importance of these pithy statements of wisdom in cultural evolution. This systematic and exploratory study looks at the part that proverbs play within the context of evolutionary group behaviours across cultures. The data for the exploration came from the most well-known proverbs in six countries and an International Database of Proverb Types, the Matti Kuusi database. These data were systematically collected and analysed, mapping each candidate proverb against one or more of nine evolutionary behaviours. The chosen proverbs formed the data for analysis in the three study streams. Stream one used the Matti Kussi database of proverbs as the data feed to explore the cultural overlap of proverbs that reflect evolutionary behaviour across six world regions. Stream two performed a similar task but used proverb data from the most commonly known proverbs (paremiological minimum) of six countries. A third stream was temporal, using the proverb data from the first two streams to explore if proverb frequency changes during times of conflict, specifically World War Two. The results of stream two showed compelling evidence of cross-cultural use of proverbs that map to evolutionary behaviours. The results from stream one were less compelling; however, this may be due to the unverified data from the Matti Kuusi database, as opposed to the more systematically verified data from the paremiological minimum. Stream three needs to be explored further as the analysis is highly qualitative, with results that open more questions than answers. Future, more quantitative work that explores the temporal aspects of proverbs within a cultural evolution frame, would provide another dimension to the work. As the proverbs tell us: “The truth will out.” “Many hands make light work.”

Descriptions

Resource type

Dataset

Contributors

Creator: Morrow, Susan ¹

¹ Durham University, UK

Funder

Research methods

Proverbs were collected using two data sources: 1. Paremiological minimum from six countries 2. The Matti Kuusi database The data sources were analysed using classification methods and research into evolutionary behaviours to isolate a series of proverbs that reflected known evolutionary behaviours. These isolated proverbs were then rated by three individuals to assign one or more of nine evolutionary behaviours to each proverb. These data were used to output graphical representations of the frequency of use across geographic regions. squared test of independence was used to assess the null hypothesis that the data was country dependent.

Other description

Keyword

Behavioural ecology
Proverbs
Evolution
Evolutionary behaviours
Cultural evolution
Linguistics
Anthropology

Subject

Proverbs

Location

Somalia
Spain, , Spain
United States
Czechoslovakia, ,
Slovenia, , Slovenia
Korea

Language

English

Cited in

Identifier

ark:/32150/r1c534fn998
doi:10.15128/r1c534fn998

Rights

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY)

Publisher

Durham University

Date Created

File Details

Depositor

S. Morrow

Date Uploaded

20 November 2023, 13:11:01

Date Modified

21 November 2023, 10:11:01

Audit Status

Audits have not yet been run on this file.

Characterization

File format: zip (ZIP Format)

Mime type: application/zip

File size: 249163

Last modified: 2023:11:20 13:13:12+00:00

Filename: Proverb data for evo anth thesis Morrow, Susan All for one and one for all.zip

Original checksum: e0f661cf03bd3e53934bafbcb0104273