Eastern Mediterranean Foundling Narratives: an Experience-centered Approach

This research investigates the divergent traditions of foundling narratives of the eastern Mediterranean and southwest Asian antiquity. The primary research centers on the question whether divergences in narratives are functions of differential geographic, socioeconomic, and cultural contexts. To answer this query, several well-known foundling narratives were compared with the background from which they emerged and the depth of the relationship between narrative and context determined. Subsequently, the regional variations of narratives and practices in three major culture areas were compared with one another in order to assess how distinctively different each tradition developed. In addition, the research assumes and confirms that traditional narratives can be approached as productive information sources, and that they are not random but, instead, expressions of their socio-cultural, historical, and geographical contexts. This research is not an investigation into the historical accuracies of individual narratives as they relate events attributed to specific actors and places, but an exploration of patterns of attitudes and practices.