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Paper short abstract

This paper analyses the roles of animals in Ukrainian and Estonian folk songs as carriers of ecological knowledge and cultural memory. Using digital corpora and computational methods, we examine how animals mediate human–nonhuman relations and sustain more-than-human worldviews.

Paper long abstract

Animals occupy a central place in the symbolic and narrative structures of folklore, functioning not only as metaphors but also as agents, companions, and moral signifiers. The concept of the “more-than-human,” popularized by eco-philosopher David Abram (1996), challenges hierarchical views that place humans above other beings. It frames animals, plants, and environments as co-actors and knowledge bearers within shared cultural worlds.

This paper investigates the diverse roles of animals in Ukrainian and Estonian folk songs, asking how these presences function as archives of ecological knowledge and cultural memory. Using large datasets and a custom zoo-lexical dictionary, we analyse how references to domestic and wild animals mediate relations between humans and their environments. Methodologically, the paper situates itself within computational folkloristics (Kallio et al. 2023; Sarv & Järv 2022), showing how tools such as lexical clustering, frequency analysis, and network analysis can extend but not replace qualitative interpretation.

Our research sets out to trace recurring patterns of animal imagery across genres and regions, while leaving open the question of whether these presences operate symbolically, pragmatically, or otherwise. We also examine how traditional archives preserve ecological sensibilities, highlighting representations of human–animal relations that resist extractive, anthropocentric models of nature. At the same time, we investigate the role of the digital archive as an active site of re-interpretation, where computational methods make visible long-term continuities as well as transformations in animal imagery.