Deeply nested structure of mythological traditions worldwide

All human societies present unique narratives that shape their customs and beliefs. Despite cultural differences, some symbolic elements (e.g., heroes and tricksters) are common across many cultures. Here, we reconcile these seemingly contradictory aspects by analyzing mythological themes and traditions at various scales. Our analysis revealed that global mythologies exhibit both geographic and thematic nesting across different scales, manifesting in a layered structure. The largest geographic clusters correspond to the New and Old Worlds, which further divide into smaller bioregions. This hierarchical manifestation closely aligns with historical human migration patterns at a large scale, suggesting that narrative themes were carried through deep history. At smaller scales, the correspondence with bioregions indicates that these themes are locally adapted and diffused into variations across cultures over time. Our approach, which treats myths and traditions as random variables without considering factors like geography, history, or story lineage, suggests that the manifestation of mythology has been well-preserved over time and thus opens exciting research avenues to reconstruct historical patterns and provide insight into human cultural narratives.