Tracing migration routes through mythical variation: a phylogenetic approach to the She people’s Panhu myth variants

Vollständiger Abstract

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Abstract This study aims to investigate the evolutionary patterns of the Panhu myth among the She people in southeastern China and to explore how mythological variation can provide insights into historical migration and cultural transmission. The research adopts a phylogenetic approach informed by digital humanities and cultural computation. A dataset of thirty-six homologous variants of the Panhu myth is analyzed to reconstruct their lineage relationships. Methods of distant reading and narrative data mining are employed to identify structural patterns and evolutionary trajectories across variants. The analysis identifies three major mythological systems centered in southeastern Guangdong, the Fujian–Guangdong corridor, and the Fujian–Zhejiang corridor. The latter two emerged later and exhibit further internal differentiation. Despite this divergence, continuous interaction among the three systems is evident. Combined with historical and ethnological evidence, the findings suggest that since the Song dynasty, the primary migration route of the She people followed a trajectory from Guangdong through Fujian to Zhejiang, accompanied by sustained cultural exchange. This study integrates phylogenetic modeling with mythological analysis, demonstrating the applicability of computational methods to the study of narrative traditions. It moves beyond traditional qualitative approaches by quantitatively reconstructing myth evolution and linking it to population movement. By applying phylogenetic analysis to mythological corpora, this research highlights the potential of digital humanities methods for uncovering large-scale cultural patterns. It provides a methodological framework for using narrative data to infer migration histories, offering new perspectives for the study of early populations.