A Critical Study of the Qualitative and Developmental Attitudes in Lori Folklore Proverbs

Development has been one of the major concerns in transitional societies undergoing change. In order to understand different factors in their underdevelopment, there are different reasons that should properly studied. Language and folklore literature especially proverbs show the deep layers of people’s personalities and through studying these two we can estimate the attitudes of the local people towards such development. The study of developmental attitude of the Lors could give us a precise basis for such an investigation. The theoretical model is based on the ideas of developmental thinkers. The proverbs have been analyzed by qualitative content analysis and we focused on the frequencies of proverbs as well as the meaning of positive and negative orientations. Findings show that rationalism, work-related values, collectivism, conservatism and fatalism were the most frequently used themes among the proverbs. The proverbs were grouped under two headings: 1- positive attitude, including rationalism and collectivism 2- negative attitude, including conservatism, fatalism, ascribed position, universalism, need to achievement, gender belief and individualism. To sum it up, it was concluded that a majority of Lori proverbs were concerned with a lack of or improbability of development and improvement in people’s lives.