When discussing the differences between contemporary urban legends and traditional stories about ghosts, I raised the duplication and replication of urban legends before, which makes it easy for them to spread parasitically. But it’s not just urban legends that spread on the basis ofstructural similarities. This has long existed in human society. It’s just that transportation was not as easy and information did not spread as easily, so dissemination was not as wide.
What are structural similarities? For example, location. I raised the structural similarities between schools. That schools are manmade structures may cause us to overlook something, which is simply shared location.
In stories about ghosts and demons, there’s something about the place where they appear. For example, mountain demons, or the Môo-sîn-á are said to appear on mountains. Water ghosts are said to appear by the water. This can also be said to be a structural similarity.
Thinking about it like that, urban legends are still a variety of folk tale or folklore. They are fundamentally the same. But putting it that way, the spread of these stories begin from humans themselves. Whether this is folklore or urban legends, these are stories of human themselves.