Living Folklore: Introduction to the Study of People and their Traditions

Table of Contents

Contents Acknowledgments ix Preface xi 1 Folklore 1 What is folklore? 1 A working definition 1 Scholarly definitions of folklore 8 Genres of folklore 12 Defining folklore beyond genre labels: texts and contexts 19 A brief history of folklore study 21 2 Groups 30 What is a folk group? 31 Definitions 34 How folk groups form 38 Self-identification and group membership 41 Family, school and occupational groups 44 Family 45 School groups 47 Occupational groups 50 Example: folklore in the music store 53 Groups and belief 56 Example: belief and contemporary legends 60 3 Tradition 64 What is tradition? 64 Tradition is both lore and process 65 Tradition helps to create and confirm a sense of identity 66 Identified as a tradition by the community 68 How do people learn and share traditions? 68 Example: tradition in our daily lives 72 Do traditions disappear? 74 Dynamic and conservative elements of tradition 76 Inventing tradition 82 The question of authenticity 84 Example: traditions in folk art 87 4 Ritual 94 What is ritual? 95 Low-context and high-context rituals 98 Invented ritual 99 The question of belief in sacred and secular rituals 102 Liminality and ritual space 105 Types of rituals 110 Rites of passage 111 Coming of age rituals 114 Initiation rituals 119 Naming rituals 120 Example: rituals and private and public identity 121 5 Performance 127 What is performance? 128 Example: a proverbial performance 129 The study of performance 133 Performance texts 134 Texture 136 Context 137 Physical context 138 Social context 139 Recognizing texts in context: performance markers/framing 141 Reflexivity 144 Emergence 146 Folklore that pushes the boundaries 150 Example: performance that transcends roles and rules 152 Aesthetics 155 Critic v. group consensus 157 Traditionality 157 Skill 159 Practicality 161 The nature of aesthetic response 162 Personal narrative in performance 167 Example: A Personal Narrative Emerges 170 6 Approaches to interpreting folklore 174 Functionalism 174 Structuralism 179 Psychoanalytic interpretation 187 Post-structuralist approaches 192 Feminist interpretations 193 Reciprocal ethnography 195 Intersectionality 198 7 Fieldwork and ethnography 202 Collecting data: the nuts and bolts of fieldwork 203 Finding Ideas 203 Getting started on fieldwork 205 Developing and asking good questions 207 Some types of questions 209 Example: using open-ended questions 209 Field notes 211 Example: write-up of field notes 212 Transcribing and transcripts 216 Returning from the field: follow-up research 218 The people factor: interpersonal and ethical concerns 218 Insider and outsider roles 229 Observation and participant-observation roles 220 Rapport: creating and understanding researcher-consultant relationships 221 Example: complex relationships and responsibilities 222 Ethics 223 8 Examples of folklore projects 225 One of the guys (Joe Ringler) 226 Gay rituals: outing, biking, and sewing (Mickey Weems) 240 Roadside memorials: material focus of love, devotion, and remembrance (Gary E. A. Saum) 251 The art of gunsmithing in central Ohio: Heritage Gunsmiths, Inc. (Kevin Eyster) 266 9 Suggestions for activities and projects 273 Group and classroom activities 274 Personal reflection 275 Library research 276 Fieldwork projects 276 Integrated projects—bringing it all together 277 Notes 281 References 286 Index 293 ...