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The classification of jumping spiders (Salticidae) is revised to bring it into accord with recent phylogenetic work. Of the 610 recognized extant and fossil genera, 588 are placed at least to subfamily, most to tribe, based on both molecular and morphological information. The new subfamilies Onomastinae, Asemoneinae, and Eupoinae, and the new tribes Lapsiini, Tisanibini, Neonini, Mopsini, and Nannenini, are described. A new unranked clade, the Simonida, is recognized. Most other family-group taxa formerly ranked as subfamilies are given new status as tribes or subtribes. The large long-recognized clade recently called the Salticoida is ranked as a subfamily, the Salticinae, with the name Salticoida reassigned to its major subgroup (the sister group to the Amycoida). Heliophaninae Petrunkevitch and Pelleninae Petrunkevitch are considered junior synonyms of Chrysillini Simon and Harmochirina Simon respectively. Spartaeinae Wanless and Euophryini Simon are preserved despite older synonyms. The genus Meata Żabka is synonymized with Gedea Simon, and Diagondas Simon with Carrhotus Thorell. The proposed relationships indicate that a strongly ant-like body has evolved at least 12 times in salticids, and a strongly beetle-like body at least 8 times. Photographs of living specimens of all 7 subfamilies, 30 tribes, and 13 subtribes are presented.

At present, natural language processing has become one of the research hotspots of machine learning, and text categorization is an important branch of natural language processing technology. In this paper, for folktales from different cultures, based on natural language processing technology, the text is preprocessed using N-gram language model and SGM model. The word frequency of folktales from different cultures is counted using word frequency statistical analysis to characterize and classify them. Based on data-driven, compare the differences of key text features in different folktales. Using complex network characterization, it is concluded that the linguistic rhythm complex network aggregation coefficients of famous works are all above 0.35, the average distances are all below 2.5, and the aggregation coefficients average distance products are all kept around 1.

Background/purpose. Folklore has been simplified in the official elementary school textbooks in Indonesia. The simplification of folklore could alter its narrative structure and diminish its cultural significance. Simplification can become an educational paradox: teaching character but eliminating local identity. This study identifies the pattern of simplification of folklore texts and their implications for culture and education. Materials/methods. Three folktales in two versions (complete and simplified) were analyzed qualitatively and descriptively using a narrative method. Folklore sourced from elementary school textbooks is analyzed using Vladimir Propp's theory, with simplification analysis rubrics, instruments, and narrative structure tables. Results. Simplification causes folklore to lose its narrative structure: complications, climaxes, and resolutions. The characters' roles are reduced, the plot is streamlined, and the dominant elements of local culture are eliminated. Eliminating local terms, distinctive geographical settings, and cultural symbols makes folklore more universal, but it loses cultural substance. Conclusion. The simplification of folklore texts in elementary school books leads to deculturation. Without strong pedagogical mentoring, students do not fully understand cultural values. This research emphasizes a simplification strategy that maintains a balance between educational goals and the authenticity of Indonesian culture. This research recommends developing simplification strategies that preserve essential cultural elements while enhancing students' narrative comprehension.

The rainbow makes for strong imagery: throughout world history, the rainbow has functioned in many ways as a tool to think with. This is no different in African contexts. Our aim in this paper is to explore the changing meanings given to relations between rainbows and snakes in narratives from the Gikuyu language in Central Kenya. We thereby remain open to the wider East African context, indicating the multiple meaning-making of rainbows in ecological terms. This diachronic approach to narratives allows us to show how rainbow imagery formed a model that interpreted human/nonhuman relations long before the current global ecological crisis was recognised in developmental circles. In our narrative analysis, we argue that connections were drawn between rainbows and snakes, and in turn between humans and entities like rainbows and snakes. The moral evaluation of rainbow-snakes was ambivalent: they could be dangerous, and they could be good; they could be destructive, and they could be enabling. Analysing the narratives left us with a new perspective on the evaluation of human characters and the rainbow-snake: it could treat humans badly, but humans could also treat the rainbow-snake badly. We furthermore show that in the course of the colonial era, this symbolism changed, and the rainbow-snake as an ecocritical model disappeared in the process: the connection between snake and rainbow disappeared, and the ambivalence of the imagery got lost. Good and bad became clearly distinguishable and inherent: it no longer depended on the way of interacting with the entity. Our diachronic interpretation does not form a call to do away with current images and go back to an assumed romantic, pristine African past. Yet it may be wise to reflect on what imaginative history can teach us, and to learn from narratives in history as a way to overcome the exclusive focus on logical-scientific thinking, arriving at a less anthropocentric interpretative model through narrative thinking. Our analysis points out that these East African oral narratives may be instructive in the context of the current global ecological crisis.  L’arc-en-ciel est une image forte : tout au long de l’histoire mondiale, il a servi à bien des égards d’outil de réflexion. Il en va de même dans le contexte africain. Notre objectif dans cet article est d’examiner l’évolution des significations attribuées aux relations entre les arcs-en-ciel et les serpents dans les récits en langue gikuyu du centre du Kenya. Nous restons ainsi ouverts au contexte plus large de l’Afrique de l’Est, en indiquant les multiples significations des arcs-en-ciel en termes écologiques. Cette approche diachronique des récits nous permet de montrer comment l’imagerie de l’arc-en-ciel a formé un modèle qui interprétait les relations entre les humains et les non-humains bien avant que la crise écologique mondiale actuelle ne soit reconnue dans les cercles du développement. Dans notre analyse narrative, nous soutenons que des liens ont été établis entre les arcs-en-ciel et les serpents, et par conséquent entre les humains et des entités telles que les arcs-en-ciel et les serpents. L’évaluation morale des serpents arc-en-ciel était ambivalente : ils pouvaient être dangereux, mais aussi bénéfiques ; ils pouvaient être destructeurs, mais aussi facilitateurs. L’analyse des récits nous a permis d’acquérir une nouvelle perspective sur l’évaluation des personnages humains et du serpent arc-en-ciel : celui-ci pouvait maltraiter les humains, mais les humains pouvaient également maltraiter le serpent arc-en-ciel. Nous montrons en outre qu’au cours de l’ère coloniale, ce symbolisme a changé et que le serpent arc-en-ciel en tant que modèle écocritique a disparu dans le processus : le lien entre le serpent et l’arc-en-ciel a disparu, et l’ambivalence de l’imagerie s’est perdue. Le bien et le mal sont devenus clairement distincts et inhérents : ils ne dépendaient plus de la manière d’interagir avec l’entité. Notre interprétation diachronique ne constitue pas un appel à abandonner les images actuelles et à revenir à un passé africain supposé romantique et immaculé. Il peut toutefois être judicieux de réfléchir à ce que l’histoire imaginative peut nous enseigner et de tirer les leçons des récits historiques afin de dépasser l’approche exclusivement logique et scientifique et d’aboutir à un modèle d’interprétation moins anthropocentrique grâce à la pensée narrative. Notre analyse souligne que ces récits oraux d’Afrique de l’Est peuvent être instructifs dans le contexte de la crise écologique mondiale actuelle. 

Observable patterns of cultural variation are consistently intertwined with demic movements, cultural diffusion, and adaptation to different ecological contexts [Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman (1981) Cultural Transmission and Evolution: A Quantitative Approach; Boyd and Richerson (1985) Culture and the Evolutionary Process]. The quantitative study of gene–culture coevolution has focused in particular on the mechanisms responsible for change in frequency and attributes of cultural traits, the spread of cultural information through demic and cultural diffusion, and detecting relationships between genetic and cultural lineages. Here, we make use of worldwide whole-genome sequences [Pagani et al. (2016) Nature 538:238–242] to assess the impact of processes involving population movement and replacement on cultural diversity, focusing on the variability observed in folktale traditions (n = 596) [Uther (2004) The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography. Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson] in Eurasia. We find that a model of cultural diffusion predicted by isolation-by-distance alone is not sufficient to explain the observed patterns, especially at small spatial scales (up to ∼4,000 km). We also provide an empirical approach to infer presence and impact of ethnolinguistic barriers preventing the unbiased transmission of both genetic and cultural information. After correcting for the effect of ethnolinguistic boundaries, we show that, of the alternative models that we propose, the one entailing cultural diffusion biased by linguistic differences is the most plausible. Additionally, we identify 15 tales that are more likely to be predominantly transmitted through population movement and replacement and locate putative focal areas for a set of tales that are spread worldwide.

A new, definitive English translation of the celebrated story collection regarded as a landmark of Norwegian literature and culture The extraordinary folktales collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe began appearing in Norway in 1841. Over the next two decades the publication of subsequent editions under the titleNorske folkeeventyr made the names Asbjørnsen and Moe synonymous with Norwegian storytelling traditions. Tiina Nunnally's vivid translation of their monumental collection is the first new English translation in more than 150 years-and the first ever to include all sixty original tales. Magic and myth inhabit these pages in figures both familiar and strange. Giant trolls and talking animals are everywhere. The winds take human form. A one-eyed old woman might seem reminiscent of the Norse god Odin. We meet sly aunts, resourceful princesses, and devious robbers. The clever and fearless boy Ash Lad often takes center stage as he ingeniously breaks spells and defeats enemies to win half the kingdom. These stories, set in Norway's majestic landscape of towering mountains and dense forests, are filled with humor, mischief, and sometimes surprisingly cruel twists of fate. All are rendered in the deceptively simple narrative style perfected by Asbjørnsen and Moe-now translated into an English that is as finely tuned to the modern ear as it is true to the original Norwegian. Included here-for the very first time in English-are Asbjørnsen and Moe's Forewords and Introductions to the early Norwegian editions of the tales. Asbjørnsen gives us an intriguing glimpse into the actual collection process and describes how the stories were initially received, both in Norway and abroad. Equally fascinating are Moe's views on how central characters might be interpreted and his notes on the regions where each story was originally collected. Nunnally's informative Translator's Note places the tales in a biographical, historical, and literary context for the twenty-first century. The Norwegian folktales of Asbjørnsen and Moe are timeless stories that will entertain, startle, and enthrall readers of all ages.

İlhan Başgöz belongs to the second generation of the Turkish folklore studies. Though the supervisor Pertev Naili Boratav didn’t read the final version and couldn’t attend the jury by reason of his classes were suspended indefinitely, the dissertation, finished in 1949, was the second doctoral thesis completed in Turkey. For the reasons that it was one of the first dissertation and was about a topic not studied previously, it has a significant place in the history of Turkish folklore studies. Nevertheless, the work has not been published. Başgöz composed his dissertation in four parts. Totally, fifty-three texts were studied, twenty-two of which had never been published in any way. He considered the melodious folk tales as an international genre, and thought that Turkish folktales might shed light on some of the issues of world folklore. Thus, as early as his dissertation work, it is understood that his approach was not just to untangle the issues in the field of Turcology. In his study, it was assumed that the basic processes seen in the lives of minstrels were also present in the minstrels that who were not known much about, and then the connections between the lives of old minstrels and biographic folktales were examined using comparison method. In this regard, it is clear that Başgöz noticed the initial data about how the audience and the setting cause changes in story texts. Also, digression was another topic that called his attention during his doctoral studies. In this article, Başgöz’s thesis, preserved in the Library of Ankara University, Faculty of Languages, History and Geography, and the material contained in his thesis were introduced to today’s researchers and then was analyzed with a “hermeneutic” approach in terms of the story texts he used, his approach, his application of ethical rules and their effects. As a result, Başgöz’s thesis preserves its value today in respect of the oral sources he used. However, it doesn’t seem possible today that the applicability of “historical construction” approach, which constitutes the general point of view of his thesis and generalizability of particular examples. İlhan Başgöz, Turkish biographic folktales, minstrel, minstrel literature, story teller

Stenophagy (narrow diet breadth) represents an extreme of trophic specialization in carnivores, but little is known about the forces driving its evolution. We used spiders, the most diversified group of terrestrial predators, to investigate whether stenophagy (1) promoted diversification; (2) was phylogenetically conserved and evolutionarily derived state; and (3) was determined either by geographical distribution and foraging guild. We used published data on the prey of almost 600 species. Six categories of stenophagy were found: myrmecophagy, araneophagy, lepidopterophagy, termitophagy, dipterophagy, and crustaceophagy. We found that the species diversity of euryphagous genera and families was similar to stenophagous genera and families. At the family level, stenophagy evolved repeatedly and independently. Within families, the basal condition was oligophagy or euryphagy. Most types of stenophagy were clearly derived: myrmecophagy in Zodariidae; lepidopterophagy in Araneidae; dipterophagy in Theridiidae. In contrast, araneophagy was confined to basal and intermediate lineages, suggesting its ancestral condition. The diet breadth of species from the tropics and subtropics was less diverse than species from the temperate zone. Diet breadth was lower in cursorial spiders compared to web-building species. Thus, the evolution of stenophagy in spiders appears to be complex and governed by phylogeny as well as by ecological determinants.

This article illuminates the cosmology of Raa Haqi (often called Dersim Alevism or Kurdish Alevism), a rarely examined strand within Alevi Studies. Existing scholarship’s emphasis on identity politics and sparse ethnography has left Raa Haqi’s mythological and cosmological dimensions underexplored. This paper approaches Raa Haqi through a dual authority framework: (1) Ocak lineages and Ocak–talip relations—sustained by kinship institutions like kirvelik, musahiplik, and communal rites such as the cem—and (2) jiares, non-human agents from the Batın realm that manifest in Zahir as sacred places, objects, and animals. Methodologically, I conduct a close, motif-based reading of folktales compiled by Caner Canerik (2019, Dersim Masalları I), treating them as ethnographic windows into living theology. The analysis shows that tales encode core principles—rızalık (mutual consent), ikrar (vow), sır (the secret knowledge), fasting and calendrical rites, ritual kinship, and moral economies involving humans, animals, and Batın beings. Dreams, metamorphosis, and jiare-centered orientations structure time–space, ethics, and authority beyond the Ocak, including in individual re-sacralizations of objects and sites. I conclude that these narratives do not merely reflect belief; they actively transmit, test, and renew Raa Haqi’s cosmological order, offering Alevi Studies a theory-grounded, source-proximate account of Kurdish Alevi mythic thought.