Anth 333

1846

when the word Folklore came about.

Myth

believed to be facts from the remote past; sacred stories, set before/after/in a place outside the world, often told to tell people how to behave like a good person, as well as giving individuals a relationship between them and the cosmos. Texts of these become sacred (i.e. The Bible, The Torah, The Qur'an). These try to answer why we're here, how did we come to be, have moral relations, and tell us the meaning in life. They are integrated well with religion. They are creative, adaptive, and compelling to people. They are inherently bizarre when viewed from outside perspective, but make history, culture, and everything seem natural. It shapes psychology and culture. The biggest ones give the relationship between the individual and the cosmos- what was the world like before it came to be.

Legend

believed to be facts from the recent past; possibly true stories that occur in the real world. Often overlap with historical events, as they were an early means of passing on important events in a culture's history, can become real long after they started being told

Tale (Märchen)

Definitely not true, aren't set in the real world, not falsifiable, captures certain times in that time period, travels fairly fast, were made into children's literature but that's not how they were always intended (also age didn't used to be so socially segmented)

Minor Genres

proverbs, riddles, jokes, and proverbial phrases are examples of these

nonverbal

music, dance, architecture, art, medicine are all \_____________ forms of folklore

Characteristics of Folklore

*You can never have a book of folklore because it is live--you can only have recordings because you need to know the circumstances that the folklore was performed, how it was performed, who performed it, if any props were involved, etc.

*We make folklore sound legit by adding things like "that's what they say". (Who's they?!)

*Folklore has a lot to do with identity and shared identity. We perform our identities.
-For example: Children's folklore often reinforces gender identity
-identity can only exist in opposition to something else
-Performs in some regards an important psychological, sociological function for people (including kids).
-There is many kinds of folklore, even folk architecture: log cabins, igloos.
-A lot of our science used to be folklore remedies that was later proven in a lab.
-Folklore is usually oral, but not always. Gestures can be folklore. Graffiti can be folklore, such as "Kilroy was here" drawing in WWII. (Typically written things cannot be Folklore, but not always). Drawings, material objects, all can be folklore. Tommy Trojan is USC Folklore. All families have a family lore.
-Folk aspect of Folklore: anybody in a non-institutional hierarchical setting. Any group that considers themselves a group together. It is the non-elite.

Thompson

Who defines folklore as the following? Stuff we learn from other people. The official study of unofficial discourse. This only works for Western literary societies, as it shows that here we don't think something is official without writing. Not true elsewhere.

Synchronic

looking at folklore at one point in time

Myth-Ritual approach

one type of genre analysis; Jane Harrison classicist, thought rituals mark transitions, connect stories with actual rituals/culture

American Folklore Studies

At first not much folklore because of short history, founded by people from colonial points
mesh pot of various ideals, simply reflections of other cultures because too busy taking over Native Americans

copyright

nations and governments now have ownership of folklore through this, may be a way to prevent folklore from changing

Memorate

a purely personal experience that describes a story about an encounter with a supernatural; a single experience that morphs into a continuing traditional narrative - for example, you're on vacation, you hear creaks and doors slamming and the landlady of the inn tells you it's Colonel So-and-So's ghost. This detail gets added to your experience in such a way that when someone asks you how your hols were, you straight-up tell them "I saw a ghost!" even though no such thing happened. It's just an embellishment for the enjoyment of the listeners, and adds to the experience of the storyteller as well.

Oikotype

version or variant of folklore that shows features of a unique culture

Cognate

closely related in origin, essential nature, or function; linked to some degree / sharing the same origin

Terminus Ante quem

"Time before which" \-- refers to the date before which an artifact or feature must have been deposited.

when we have proof it first existed/the earliest point of time at which we have a recording of said folk story

Terminus post quem

"Time after which" \-- used to give approximate date for a text; a datable object provides only the date on or after which the layer of soil that contains it was deposited

ex: folklore about microwaves couldn't have really existed before microwaves were invented

polygenesis

a piece of folklore that shows up in multiple places but comes from different origins - dragon lore appears both in Asia and in Rome but these flying lizards are not related

Monogenesis

one beginning (origin) and then spreads (diffusion)

Invisible Curriculum

teaching unofficial folklore

Jargon

Terminology specific to a certain line of work or study, thus the folklore of certain jobs.

Nation

A large group of people that view themselves as connected/related.

these without a state examples: Jewish people before Israel; Kurdish people; Roma people; Some Native American groups; Basque people.

State

A recognized political control over a geographical territory.

Ethno-nationalism

nationalism based on ethnicity

Civic Nationalism

You are a part of the nation if you participate in civic discourse

Ethnos

the study of the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences in particular cultural contexts

Ethnohistory

history of non-literates

Fakelore

manufactured folklore (Paul Bunyan, for example, was a manufactured piece of this used by the logging industry to promote deforestation as "a Great American Tradition")

Folklorismus

form of political/cultural utilization of folklore, out of natural context

feedback loop → can become folklore - blinking your headlights in LA is some sort of gang signal: chicken-and-egg situation, either this actually happened, prompting the story, or the story was told, prompting the gang to use this as an initiation ritual of some sort; "Hey, that's not a bad idea..."

emic

approach of studying a culture's behavior from the perspective of an insider

etic

approach of studying a culture's behavior from the perspective of an outsider

tradition

represents the past, is not an exact duplication, a mode of activity that represents the past

Active bearer

those actually telling the folklore

Passive bearer

those who know about/have heard the folklore but do not tell it

allomotifs

two reoccurring symbols or characters in folklore that can fill the same category/ serve the same purpose (ex: devil and bear are examples of these because both can be the villain)

cosmogonic myths

tell how the world came to be

Muthos

narrative truth, conceptualize the world, how we connect our ideas and narratives to the actual world

Alethic truth

logical truth, internal logic

Euhemerism

famous people are deified
(explanation of mythology as growing out of history)

Race

a "bio-cultural" viewpoint

Ethnicity

self-identified (language, place, customs/folklore, religion, ancestry)

Canonized

when myths are written down and it becomes a sacred text, therefore leading people to believe that there is only ONE VERSION of the myth - not true.

Functionalist

A sociological approach that emphasizes the way in which the parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability.

looks at how things function in society, what do they mean in society (myths often serve as the core for a society)

crypto-zoology

legendary creatures (Bigfoot hunters, Loch Ness tourists, etc.)

Practical Jokes

These often occur at weddings because it is a liminal event in people's lives, meanings it is the transition between being "single" and being "married." If something goes wrong during a wedding, therefore, you are permanently stuck in that "almost married, not completely single" stage, and your identity is in limbo within those two phases. These are performed at weddings in order to exploit this fear of loss of identity between the bride and groom while also trivializing it and reassuring the two participants that their collective identity as a married couple is preserved.

epic length tales, Milman Perry

these existed before the printing press. They were recorded by this man who found that stock phrases were sprinkled in when the teller needed more time to think/ remember the plot

Local legend

realistic, told as true and third person narration may contain traditional elements

Migratory legend

stories that moves with its people

Historical legend

Three main categories- origin stories (creation), stories about important historical people such as Ivan the Terrible, stories about common people with extraordinary powers such as witches and malefic neighbors

Creation legends

type of historical legend that tells stories of origin on a much smaller scale such as the founding of villages

contemporary legend

a story, also called an urban legend, spread from one person to another and believed to be true by teller and listener

urban legend

also called a contemporary legend, a story spread from one person to another and believed to be true by teller and listener

ghosts

common type of legendary figure

fairies

common figures seen in tales, used to be like gods, now compressed into small beings (post-colonialism?)

proverb

Type on minor genre, these usually offer advice, indirect or direct, fixed phrase, metaphorical, rhetorical. Non-existent among Native Americans and most used in Africa. There are paradoxes like "early bird gets the worm" but "early worm gets eaten"
Often offer wisdom (wisdom of the ages)

riddle

Type of minor genre, an example: "when is a door not a door? when it's ajar"
These can be either true or neck
"true" means there is enough information in it to solve it, and "neck" means it could be a contest to save your neck (Ex: question asked to a prisoner of war, will be killed if not the right answer)

proverbial phrases

not fixed speech
metaphor, simile, idiom

Alan Dundes

Who defined folklore as the following? Folklore must have: Multiplicity & Variation ...or Folklore must have multiple versions of a piece that vary in content.

Ex. Cooties is folklore. There are many different rules to cooties and different cures depending on where you go.

La Llorona

One story in folklore that has been told in many ways (supports Dundes definition); woman either killed her children to protect them, out of grief, or out of jealousy, etc.

Slenderman

One story in folklore that has been told in many ways (supports Dundes definition); he either eats children or those who know too much about him

Daniel Ben-Amos

Who defined folklore as the following? Artistic communication in small groups. Expressive of culture, unofficial discourse

diachronic

one way to analyze folklore, looking at folklore across time

Historic Geographic Method

one way to analyze folklore, look at folklore by looking at different versions of similar stories that pop up in different times and different places allowing us to examine how specific stories have changed over time. who + when + where was the story told, but not why + not for what, severely limited by availability of historical evidence

ATU

one way to analyze folklore, breaks down tales into plot structures, can be used to compare different oikotypes of a single tale, relied on monogenesis

motif

one way to analyze folklore, smallest indivisible part of a story, can give us an idea of the culture where the myth originated for example cinderella originated in China where small feet were prized

performance theory

one way to analyze folklore, what does the performance mean to the society

Psychological

one way to analyze folklore, we are all born with the same ability to learn/think

paradigmatic structuralism

one way to analyze folklore, looking at binary oppostions (Levi-Strauss)

universal

one way to analyze folklore that is now discredited, Campbell (inspired by Jung) came up with this idea of "collective unconscious," proposing that myths were \_________

Narrative vs. non-narrative

one way to analyze folklore; tales, myths, legends vs. truth

syntagmatic structuralism

one way to analyze folklore; looking at the plot, sequence of events

Grimm Brothers

one of the founders of folklore, credited with making folklore studies into a science, wrote "Kinder und Hause Marchen" to help establish who the German people were. These marchen were recorded right after the Medieval Era, which is why when they were initially written down there were many Knights and Princesses, etc. They were considered celebrities in Europe. Considered founders of Germany because they connected the Germanic peoples (the prussians and the bavarians) through folklore. They also united everyone with first German dictionary. Strong overlap between language and folklore.

Herder

wrote about "Volk"--the poetry of the folk. He started studying them to better rule the state. Father of Nation-State model and Nationalism. Participated in starting folklore studies. He was a huge influence on the Grimms. studied the german language and folklore in order to define German nationalism

Medieval

This era is heavily integrated with folklore - many movies with men, swords, and horses but not many from pre-industrialization, because there was a big shift in that time period (evolution of reading, writing, and printing press)

Changing Ideas of Civilization

early in anthropology, culture was considered additive
savagery (associated with myths)→ barbarism (legends) → Civilization (tales)

1888

The American Folklore Society (AFS) was created in ...

Richard Dorson

influential in American folklore because he commissioned people to collect "oral histories" during the Great Depression - tried to get people to start working again - America had by the 18th C, enough history to have its own folklore

Alan Dundes

established a PhD program in folklore at Indiana University in the 1956, forced folklore into contemporary ways, and stuck with the idea that folklore is still present among the people and it's not only a thing of the past

anthropology

America is more focused on studying this as opposed to folklore due to the colonizing nature of their past.

multiculturalism movement

this took place in the 1960s in America which led to a heightened interest in folklore studies

internet

allowed for folklore to expand in modern times (i.e. comment sections)

WIPO

law firm for intellectual property that is responsible for handling a majority of "folklore lawsuits"

Van Gennup

He wrote "Rites of Passage" and theorized the whole idea of practical jokes during serious points of transition (ex: wedding)

Oral Formulaic Theory

stock phrases sprinkled in to epic length tales when the teller needed more time to think/remember the plot, only the major plot points were memorized

sun mythology

Max Muller in colonial India found the first of these

Dumezil

looked at structure of myth connected to the social structure

Schwartz

looked at "lower mythology" (non-God characters), works well in Europe and India but not anywhere else

onomastics

landscape names, the study of the history and origin of proper names, especially personal names

dites

short sayings

metafolklore

folk etymologies, the process by which the form of an unfamiliar or foreign word is adapted to a more familiar form through popular usage

blaison populaires

type of joke that involves stereotypes like ethnic jokes

non-oral genres

numbers (3 is magic number in western cultures, 4/5 in Native American culture), gestures (middle finger, peace sign), dancing

volkgeist

spirit of the people, attributed to Johann Herder

William Thoms

from England, claims to have coined the term folklore

Mannhardt

created long questionnaire about agricultural rites, interviewed prisoners of Franco Prussian War

Julius Krohn

central academic folklorist from Finland, father of the Finnish Method, analyzed the Kalevala, believed more diffused\=older, founders of International Folklorists, collected oral and written, many versions, alphabetical prefix for language and family, divide into traits, all versions derive from one parent archetype. Folktales are international science, global joint effort. (problems- limited data base, contamination, not a large enough sample to analyze)

Kaarle Krohn

central academic folklorists from Finland, son of the Finnish Method; analyzed the Kalevala, believed more diffused\=older, founders of International Folklorists, collected oral and written, many versions, alphabetical prefix for language and family, divide into traits, all versions derive from one parent archetype. Folktales are international science, global joint effort. (problems- limited data base, contamination, not a large enough sample to analyze)

Kalevala

written by Lonnrot, epic/32 poems of Finland, published in 1835, consists of creation stories, magical healing, spellcasting, seduction. Sampo: a magical talisman/device: many people try to get a hold of it, major plot mover of the collection. Lonnrot collected tales, old poems, stories. It was well received.

New Kalevala

this is much thicker than the older version, presented as a cohesive epic. It seems like one linear story.

Carl Wilhelm von Sydow

from Sweden, introduced oikotype from botany (roots adapt to different climate and soil\= stories change as they travel), maintains that tales, just as plants, adapt to a certain environment through natural selection and thus differ somewhat from other members of the same species, in this case — general tale-types