Wisdom inherent in folk art is considered as one of the forms of knowledge. Unable to record the observations in writing, the people generalized them in the form of fairy tales, proverbs and sayings. The uniqueness of the proverb is that, with a minimum volume, it contains a complete logical thought - the dynamics of development and the result, expressed in an artistic form, which makes it easy to remember and operate with an expression.
Folk wisdom belongs to the category of unscientific knowledge. The need to know the world existed before humanity from the very first steps of Homo sapiens. For centuries, practical experience of human relations with nature has been accumulated, which is reflected in folklore. Through oral folk art, each nation forms the concepts of various categories, from the universe to family relations.
Model of the universe in a fairy tale
First of all, mentality and worldview are present in folk tales in the form of allegories. In an allegorical form, there are attempts to explain the origin of the Earth, peoples, and the relationship between man and nature.
Many fairy tales have reached contemporaries in a greatly truncated form, which distorts their original meaning. Considering fairy tales as a generalization of the popular idea of the world, modern adaptations of fairy tales for children's perception should be distinguished from the original sources, which are partly lost, partly recorded in the collections of Afanasyev and Dahl's fairy tales.
The metaphorical nature of Russian folk tales has taken the listener so far from their true essence that now they are perceived only as entertainment for children.
Although the researchers, even in the tale of the kolobok, trace the allegory of the creation of man by the Higher Powers.
Proverbs as a picture of the knowledge of the world
Most modern listeners regard proverbs as wise sayings that give speech a peculiar flavor. However, if you try to consider the semantic scope of the genre, you will notice that proverbs and sayings represent a generalized and time-tested system of values, passed through the practical experience of the people.
Proverbs contain a code of rules of conduct, a generalization of life experience, elements of psychology, an explanation of natural processes and phenomena. The peculiarity of proverbs is that, typing a phenomenon, they form a concept from the particular to the general.
Proverbs represent the integrity of the world, transferring physical phenomena to the laws of human communication. The law of acoustics - "as it comes around, so it will respond", kinetic motion - "an apple falls not far from an apple tree." Centuries of experience formulates the laws of interpersonal communication - "an old friend is better than two new ones", and even the principles of marketing - "do not have a hundred rubles, but have a hundred friends."
The truth of folk wisdom as a type of knowledge confirms the existence of identical proverbs in different nations. Score twice before you cut once - Count twice before you cut once. "Schmiede das Eisen, solange es glüht" - to forge the iron while it is burning (German). "Al pájaro se le conoce por su vuelo" - the bird is visible in flight (Spanish).
