Throughout history the human population has had one link to one another, in that no matter where you may live story-telling is used as a significant means of entertainment. This fact not only breaks geographic boundaries, but time as well. Now it's not hard to imagine that in this day and age many of the stories that one culture enjoys, may also be enjoyed by several others. Things do tend to get a bit mysterious however when one looks back through time and sees that, while the exact same story might not have been told, there is a distinct similarity between one cultures tales and the next. Even in cultures separated by drastic geographic boundaries.
             There are many reasons for such a phenomena, ranging from the stories sharing a common language, to Freudian views of latent sexual conflict within human beings. Many of the different theories expressed do seem to be likely, while others seem a bit far fetched. In the end though, not one theory can completely describe the similarity of tales within different cultures. But many of the different theories together may shed some light on this enigma.
             The Riverside Anthology of Children's Literature offers many different view points on this subject. The Indo-European theory states that the tale have all come from one
             language. While this makes sense at first, there's still the problem of how was this one common language spread through seemingly isolated cultures? To add strength to the Indo-European claim is the theory that all of the old folk tales have originated from the same place, most likely India. This helps explain why all the tales have come from the same language and that they were spread, most likely , through Indian traders.
             Sociological and linguistic theories are not the only ones to help fuel this debate however. There are also many biological based theories. Anthropologists, for example, insist that the same tales are found throughout the world because at this ti...