Living Folklore: An Introduction to the Study of People and Their Traditions (review)

Living Folklore provides a student-oriented entry to the study of folklore. The book does more than provide information found in texts of this kind, such as genres, groups, classifications, the discipline's history, and key terms. For students new to folklore studies, Martha C. Sims and Martine Stephens contextualize foundational concepts in ways that will help them recognize and understand the folklore that they are taught to observe and also the folklore they are living. Rich with examples from the field and the classroom, the text provides exposure to a great variety of lore.

Sims and Stephens have drawn from their own scholarly research and extensive teaching experience to produce an introductory handbook that helps students to see that folklore is really about understanding people, their groups, and their expressed traditional cultures. The chapter titles are simple and descriptive. The first chapter, "Folklore," provides clarifying definitions and classifications that set in place a foundation for what is to follow. In chapter 2, "Groups," the authors discuss different kinds of group identity. The text asks, for example, "How did you learn to be a member of your family?" (p. 31). This question helps lead students to the understanding that "no matter how loosely or informally defined, [membership in a group] requires special knowledge of its language, behavior, and rules—spoken or unspoken" (p. 31).

The third chapter, "Tradition," defines traditional practices as both lore and community identity, and it includes a discussion of invention and authenticity. In chapter 4, "Ritual," Sims and Stephens explore examples drawn from diverse cultural groups and genres, including whirligigs (material lore), the Mexican quinceñera (customary lore), and riddling games (oral folklore).

Chapter 5, "Performance," not only treats performance as artistic expression but also incorporates other elements of folklore to help the reader understand that folklore performance permeates all lived experience. From discussion of proverbs and personal narratives, to recipes, ideas, values, and beliefs, the authors have skillfully contextualized and clarified varied aesthetic forms of performance in an easily understood presentation.

Chapter 6, "Approaches to Interpreting Folklore," presents a concise but illuminating overview of folklore theories, ranging from William Bascom's elements and functions of folklore to Freudian perspectives. Although it is a survey chapter, it delves a little deeper than typical introductory texts in discussing various scholarly lenses and ideas. The last three chapters, "Fieldwork and Ethnography," "Examples of Folklore Projects," and "Suggestions for Activities and Projects," are clear in helping students begin their research and analysis in a professional manner. These chapters lend themselves to classroom discussion and questioning and seem to include the basics.

There are, however, some areas of folklore study that would make the book more useful if they had been included. Though the concept of group is presented in the chapters on group and tradition, the concept of community is not developed or sufficiently stressed. Vernacular lore emerges from community; it does not exist in isolation, and students need to clearly understand the communal practices that result in what we have labeled folklore. Expressive culture emerges from all groups—as Sims and Stephens, drawing on Alan Dundes, assert—and folklorists look for the elements that bind and represent those groups in unique ways. What binds a community of individuals, and why do some practices continue to carry meaning, while others lose meaning, only to be revived later? Ethnic groups, regions, families, religions, and countless other categories establish commonalities and identities, which are defined as community, and community practices help define folklore. The care that researchers must practice when dealing with informants also deserves further development.

The importance of community and the respect for informants are discussed inadequately in the text. These concepts are so important to the authentic, democratic observation and collection of folklore that I would suggest a chapter on each if this valuable introductory text has a second edition. Folklorists are recorders and interpreters of...