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Folklore is the general term for the verbal, spiritual, and material aspects of any culture that are transmitted orally, by observation, or by imitation. It is the traditional art, literature, knowledge, and practice that is disseminated largely through oral communication and behavioral example. This body of traditional material is passed from generation to generation, with constant variations shaped by memory, immediate need or purpose, and degree of individual talent.
Every group with a sense of its own identity shares, as a central part of that unique identity, folk traditions. They are the things that people traditionally believe (family traditions and world view), do (dance, music, sewing), know (building, medicine, cooking), make (arts, architecture, crafts), and say (riddles, songs, personal experiences).
The word folklore was coined in 1846 by the English antiquary William John Thomas to replace the term popular antiquities.
The academic and ethnographic study of folklore is sometimes called folkloristics. Scholars today distinguish between true folklore and material like contempory songs and comic strips; such things are defined by some folklorists as popular lore. Folk tradition and popular tradition do intermingle; popular forms continually draw on genuine folklore forms for inspiration, and popular lore occasionally becomes so widely known that folk groups adapt it to their own oral tradition.
History
The concept of folklore developed as part of the 19th century ideology of romantic nationalism. It led to the reshaping of oral traditions to serve modern ideological goals. In the 20th century, ethnographers began to record folklore without overt political goals. The Brothers Grimm, of fairy tale fame, published the first book of folklore in 1812, containing German tales.
Types of Folklore
- Describable and Transmissible Entity
- Oral tradition
- Can contain religious or mythic elements
- Often relates mundane traditions of everyday life
- Can be both moral and psychological implications of the tales, along with entertainment value
- Artifacts
- Dolls
- Decorative items used in religious rituals
- Arts and crafts (handmade)
- Figures that depict characters from folklore
- Culture
- Escapism
- Validation of a culture
- Transmission of morals and values
- Asserting or relieving social pressures
- Medical, supernatural, religious, and political belief systems
- Behavior:
- Rituals
- Weddings
- Baptisms
- Harvest Festivals
- Children's games
Areas of Folklore
Folklore materials can be classified into five general areas.
- Ideas and Beliefs: includes folkloristic beliefs (superstitions), magic, divination, witchcraft, and apparitions such as ghosts and fantastic mythological creatures; includes ideas about a range of human concerns
- Traditions: includes material dealing with festival customs, games, dances, cookery, and costumes
- Narratives: includes the ballad, folk tales, folk music, and fairy tales; all may be based in part on real characters or historical events
- Folk Sayings: includes proverbs, nursery rhymes, verbal charms, riddles, along with some fairy tales
- Folk Arts: only non-verbal category; includes any form of art, generally created anonymously among a particular people, shaped by and expressing the character of their community life
Popular Types of Folklore
- Ballads: a poem usually set to music; a story told in a song
- Childlore: folklore or folk culture of children and young people; includes rhymes and games played in the school playground
- Counting Rhymes: a counting out game intended to select a person to be "it"; examples include Rock, Paper, Scissors, Duck, Duck, Goose, and Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe
- Epic Poetry: lengthy narrative poems concerning a serious subject and containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or a nation
- Folk Religion: consists of beliefs, superstitions and rituals transmitted from generation to generation in a specific culture
- Folk Narratives
- Anecdotes: short tale narrating an interesting or amusing biographical incident
- Fairy Tales: fictional story that may feature folkloric characters (fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, witches, giants, princesses, or talking animals) and enchantments (the state of being put under a spell or incantation); often involve a far-fetched sequence of events
- Fables: short story that features animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are given human qualities and that illustrates a moral lesson
- Ghost Stories
- Parables: brief story, in prose or verse, that illustrates a moral or religious lesson; differs from a fable in that parables only use human characters
- Urban Legends: form of modern folklore consisting of stories thought to be factual by those circulating them; are often distorted, exaggerated, or sensationalized over time
- Legendary Narrative: a narrative of human action that is perceived to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale realism and authenticity
- Mythology: legends, myths, and folklore that a certain culture believes to be true and that often use the supernatural to interpret natural events and to explain the nature of the universe and the human condition
- Superstitions: belief not based on reason or knowledge; refers to irrational beliefs of others; commonly applied to beliefs and practices surrounding luck, prophecy, and spiritual beings
Also on TinWiki
External Links
Relevant discussion threads on AboveTopSecret.com
