Riddles, Cultural Categories, and World View

Abstract

FOLKLORISTS' TREATMENT OF RIDDLES has concentrated mainly on regional collections, classification,' distributional studies,2 and cross-cultural correlations with other cultural elements,3 but an increasing interest in cultural theory and generative linguistics has led to a change in this trend among folklorists. A major proponent of structural theory in folklore is Elli Kongas Maranda, who has made several important contributions to the study of the riddle.4 Maranda has focused attention on the structural rules by which riddles are generated. More importantly, she has offered us a profound insight into the relationship between the rules that generate the riddle and the world views of the people who manipulate these rules. In other words, Maranda has placed the study of the riddle squarely within the context of cultural rules which generate other cultural forms. While I agree in general with Maranda's generative theory and especially with the necessary connection it makes between the riddle and its cultural context, I disagree with some of the specific assertions in her article on riddling among the Lau of Malaita, Solomon Islands.s The nature of my disagreement carries with it certain implications both for the structure of the riddle form and its relationship to the culture that generates it. Because I think that Maranda's theory of riddle structure is generally