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Living Folklore

Utah State University Press

Contents

Acknowledgments.............................................................................................ixPreface.....................................................................................................xi1 Folklore..................................................................................................1What is folklore?...........................................................................................1Genres of folklore..........................................................................................12Defining folklore beyond genre labels: texts and contexts...................................................19A brief history of folklore study...........................................................................212 Groups....................................................................................................30What is a folk group?.......................................................................................31Definitions.................................................................................................34How folk groups form........................................................................................38Self-identification and group membership....................................................................41Family, school and occupational groups......................................................................44Groups and belief...........................................................................................563 Tradition.................................................................................................64What is tradition?..........................................................................................64How do people learn and share traditions?...................................................................68Do traditions disappear?....................................................................................74Dynamic and conservative elements of tradition..............................................................76Inventing tradition.........................................................................................82The question of authenticity................................................................................84Example: traditions in folk art.............................................................................874 Ritual....................................................................................................94What is ritual?.............................................................................................95The question of belief in sacred and secular rituals........................................................102Liminality and ritual space.................................................................................105Types of rituals............................................................................................110Example: rituals and private and public identity............................................................1215 Performance...............................................................................................127What is performance?........................................................................................128The study of performance....................................................................................133Performance texts...........................................................................................134Texture.....................................................................................................136Context.....................................................................................................137Emergence...................................................................................................146Aesthetics..................................................................................................1556 Approaches to interpreting folklore.......................................................................174Functionalism...............................................................................................174Structuralism...............................................................................................179Psychoanalytic interpretation...............................................................................187Post-structuralist approaches...............................................................................1927 Fieldwork and ethnography.................................................................................202Collecting data: the nuts and bolts of fieldwork............................................................203The people factor: interpersonal and ethical concerns.......................................................2188 Examples of folklore projects.............................................................................225One of the guys (Joe Ringler)...............................................................................226Gay rituals: outing, biking, and sewing (Mickey Weems)......................................................240Roadside memorials: material focus of love, devotion, and remembrance (Gary E. A. Saum).....................251The art of gunsmithing in central Ohio: Heritage Gunsmiths, Inc. (Kevin Eyster).............................2669 Suggestions for activities and projects...................................................................273Group and classroom activities..............................................................................274Personal reflection.........................................................................................275Library research............................................................................................276Fieldwork projects..........................................................................................276Integrated projects-bringing it all together................................................................277Notes.......................................................................................................281References..................................................................................................286Index.......................................................................................................293

Chapter One

We know you have heard it before: "It's just folklore." We hear it when newscasters are announcing the report of a popular home remedy that does not really cure people (and may actually harm them). We hear it-or might even say it-when a friend is telling a story about the haunted house on the winding street in our neighborhood. People often call something "folklore" to dismiss the validity of the subject they have been discussing.

To some people, the term "folklore" commonly suggests something is untrue, not real-it's just a story or an old-fashioned belief. But that is a misconception. Some people come to folklore study expecting to learn only about quaint cultures from the past or contemporary cultures of those less educated, less fortunate, and less sophisticated than they are-primitive or simpler groups. That, too, is a misconception.

In the following sections we will clear up misconceptions about folklore by considering what folklore is and isn't....