Material Folklore

Material Folklore

The physical objects produced and used by a folk group

Costume

Special dress that enables expression of extraordinary identity in exceptional circumstances.

Three types of context in Material Culture

• Creation

• Communication

• Consumption

Signature

A recurrent motif of artistic excellence identifying a piece with a particular artist

Foodways

A folk group’s means of producing, obtaining, preparing, serving, consuming, and storing sustenance.

Memory Food

An edible item consumed in the past that when eaten in the past that when eaten in the present evokes past encounters, especially those of youth, often tied to longing for the circumstances of those encounters.

Personal Experience Narritive

A first-person account of a factual event from the narrator’s life.

• Form but not content is traditional

• Types of events narrated are traditional

Proverb

Traditional wisdom distilled into a single, figurative sentence of relatively fixed form,.

Vernacular Architecture

Buildings designed and created by those who will us them, relying more heavily on local tradition than on architecture as an art form.

Mudhif

Large guest houses and meeting places for sheiks.

Used by men, with codes of dress and behaviour; calm and solemn.

Raba

Dwelling that may be divided with guest house.

Used by everyone, loud song and dance.

Bayt

Single-Family, one-room dwelling

May be connected to a Sitra - a reed structure for a water buffalo.

Applied Folklore

When modern, western cultures employ of traditional culture to solve current, real-world problems.