Although the word “folklore” is regularly employed in our everyday speech, its precise definition presents a problem. The term is clearly a compound made up of “folk,” implying some group of people, who have something called “lore.” In his prefatory essay toThe Study of Folklore, the eminent folklorist Alan Dundes attempts to simplify the issue for the introductory student: “‘Folk’ can refer toany group of people whatsoeverwho share at least one common factor.”¹ The common factor creates a sense of collective identity, so that any population with such a sense could be regarded as a “folk,” according...

Ethnicity seems an omnipresent force in contemporary American society. When people are hungry, a host of restaurants offer “ethnic cuisines” which compete for their attention and capital. They read in the newspapers of numerous ethnic events, festivals, and other entertainments which vie for their attendance during leisurely weekend afternoons. They decorate their homes and offices with “ethnic” objects and enjoy exchanging ethnic jokes with neighbors and friends. When they apply for jobs, they may be requested to fill out ethnic identification forms which require that they locate themselves in one of several predefined ethnic categories. The pervasiveness of the ethnic...

Religious folklore is folklore that has to do with religion. This definition is direct and simple, but raises several difficult questions. For instance, what distinguishes religious folklore from institutionalized religious practice and belief? What types of behaviors make up this kind of folk tradition? Is religious folklore to be found outside of religious services, in contexts other than worship settings? Can the same folk tradition be religious in one context and nonreligious in another? How do we go about studying the possible meanings of a religious folk tradition for its participants? Can we analyze the folklore of our own religion...

The study of the lore and skills of work has paralleled changes in the ways in which Americans have historically adapted themselves to their environment. The occupational experiences of cowboys, miners, and lumberjacks generated work songs, jargon, and new skills which were collected by folklorists as examples of a uniquely American response to the frontier. As the variety and complexity of the work shifted from rural to urban settings, folklorists began to expand their investigations to include the lore of urban occupations such as mill and factory work. The study of occupational folklore today focuses not only on the verbal...

Although each of us has a unique constellation of folk group affiliations and identities within those groups, the one thing we all share is that we were children once. This fact makes the study of children’s folklore so attractive and, at the same time, so difficult. The white, male folklorist recognizes that he will never really know what it means to be a black woman, but we all think we know what it means to be a child. Studying the child, therefore, has layers of motive and meaning often not present in other folklore inquiry, since we tend to project...

“Narrative” is another word for story. Narrating is a method by which an experience is transformed into a verbal account. Experience is recapitulated by matching a verbal sequence of statements to some sequence of events which is purported to have occurred. For example:

(1) At first he refused the drink that she offered.

(2) She persisted in her demand that he at least taste it.

(3) He finally consented and drained the glass.

(4) Suddenly, he felt a searing pain in his stomach.

(5) He knew that he had been poisoned.

There are, indeed, other ways of communicating this same...

A folksong begins its life like any other song: as a musical and poetic expression of some person’s feelings or ideas. A songbecomesa folksong when it begins to be passed along and rephrased or used by others for whom it also functions as a way of articulating shared attitudes or feelings. Because the song’s ability to trigger a group’s feelings is more important than the practical matter of who the composer was, a folksong usually loses its direct connection with its maker and becomes the ward of those who sing it. It becomes a folksong not simply because...

Readers of J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy novelThe Hobbitmay recall Bilbo Baggins’s dangerous encounter with Gollum in a dark and damp underground cavern where the latter lives. The hobbit, Bilbo, and his companions, the wizard Gandalf and a troop of dwarves, on their way to capture a treasure guarded by a dragon, are being stalked by goblins. The goblins swoop down, Bilbo is knocked unconscious and wakes up alone in the cave, where he soon runs into the sinister, slithery Gollum, who desires to make a meal of Bilbo. The two enter into deadly combat, not physical combat,...

In Utah, two-story houses display their symmetrical faces of stone against a mountainous backdrop. In Indiana, woodcarvers show chains and caged balls amazingly made out of one piece of wood with the aid of only a pocketknife. In Pennsylvania, New Year’s Day is greeted with the making of sauerkraut and pork. These things are folk objects, or more accurately, the material products of folkways.

Folk objects materialize tradition. Typically learned by imitating the work of community or family members and by participating in local customs, folk objects exhibit the repetition and variation common to other forms of folklore such as...

Not long ago I attended an informal dinner party with a number of faculty members and spouses. Midway through dinner the associate dean of my college said, “Bert, tell us some folklore.” I replied that I would rather experience folklore than tell it. He looked at me blankly for a moment and then turned his attention to the obviously more intelligent faculty member seated across the table. They were soon engaged in an animated discussion of Southeast Asians who kill and eat their own dogs as well as those of their unwary neighbors. A few minutes later, as we complimented...