Folklore

Folklore is the collection of stories, traditions, and customs that a group of people shares. It includes oral traditions like tales, legends, proverbs, poems, and jokes. It also covers traditional ways of building homes and other material culture.

Folklore includes special customs and beliefs, such as folk religion, and celebrations like festivals, weddings, and folk dances. These traditions are passed down from one person to another, often by speaking or showing. The study of folklore is called folklore studies.

Overview

The word folklore combines folk and lore. It was created in 1846 by an Englishman named William Thoms. Lore means knowledge or traditions that a group shares, often by speaking about them.

Folklore includes stories, sayings, jokes, poems, and other traditions people tell each other. It also includes things people make, like special ways of building houses. Today, folk means any group of people who share traditions, such as a country, like American folklore, or even a single family. These traditions are passed down through words, actions, or objects. Unlike famous artworks that one person owns, folklore belongs to everyone in the group.

Folklore helps groups understand what is important to them. For example, Halloween today looks different from years ago, but it still means something special to many people. Traditions stay alive when they mean something to the group, even if they no longer serve their original purpose. Folklore helps people feel connected and shows what makes a group unique.

Origin and development of folklore studies

Folklore became its own area of study when many people in Europe felt very connected to their local traditions. One important person in this was Johann Gottfried von Herder, who wrote about how stories and traditions grew naturally from a place and its people. After wars in Germany, many people started collecting and organizing these traditions to help build a sense of national identity. Smaller countries like Finland, Estonia, and Hungary also used folklore to support their own identities.

Scholars in the 1800s studied folklore, especially stories and songs from rural areas, to understand the past. The Brothers Grimm are famous for collecting many German folk tales. By the early 1900s, folklore studies grew in both Europe and North America. In Europe, researchers focused on local traditions, while in America, scholars like Franz Boas and Ruth Benedict included the traditions of Native American cultures in their work. This helped connect folklore studies to the study of cultures and societies.

The words "folkloristics" and "folklore studies" became common in the 1950s to describe the academic study of traditional culture. In 1976, the United States passed a law to protect and celebrate the many cultural traditions of its people, recognizing them as a national strength. These traditions are celebrated each year at events like the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

Definition of "folk"

In the 1800s, people called “the folk” were usually poor people who lived in the countryside and could not read or write. They were different from people who lived in cities. By the late 1800s, factory workers in cities also started to be called folk.

By the 1960s, ideas changed. Experts learned that many groups — not just poor countryside people — share traditions. Every group, like families, age groups, or language groups, has its own stories, jokes, and ways of behaving. These traditions help members feel connected to each other and show what makes their group special.

Folklore helps groups express who they are, whether in private events or public shows. Experts study these traditions to learn more about different people and communities. This wider view includes many kinds of groups, such as women, special families, and workers with long traditions.

original term "folklore"
social groups
family folklore
Journal of American Folklore
non-traditional families
Richard Dorson

Folklore genres

Folklore is the shared stories and traditions of a group of people. It includes tales, legends, proverbs, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. It also covers material culture, like traditional building styles.

Folklore artifacts are grouped into three types: material, verbal, and customary lore. Material folklore includes physical objects. Verbal folklore covers common sayings, stories, and songs. Customary folklore involves beliefs and ways of doing things. There is also a special category for children's folklore and games, called childlore.

Each piece of folklore is unique and can vary within its type. Unlike manufactured goods, which aim for identical products, folklore embraces variation. This variation makes it challenging to classify but is essential for understanding its traditional development and meaning.

Folklore artifacts are not isolated; they are part of a community's self-representation. Different genres often combine to mark events, like a birthday party, which might include songs, presents, and special games. Each artifact represents a single moment in time and place, and folklorists work to identify the constants and meanings across these variations.

Verbal tradition

Verbal lore includes words, both written and oral, that follow traditional patterns. These are not just any conversation but words and phrases that fit a recognized traditional form. For example, the phrase "An elephant walks into a bar…" signals that what follows is a joke. Songs like "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" express cultural values and teach children about animals.

Verbal folklore has always been a key part of folk traditions. By the 20th century, collections of verbal lore from around the world had grown, leading to classification systems like the Aarne–Thompson system for folktales. Despite fears that literacy would end these traditions, verbal lore continues to thrive in new forms.

Material culture

Material culture includes all tangible objects people use, from handmade items to mass-produced goods with a long history. These objects are studied for their physical form, method of creation, and cultural meaning. In Europe before the Industrial Revolution, everything was made by hand. Today, handcrafted items remain valued for their uniqueness and skill.

Traditional crafts like ironworking and glass-making are now considered fine or applied arts. Folk art, with its decorative forms, is distinct from folklore, which focuses on community traditions. Museums preserve these objects through living museums, where visitors can see and experience historical crafts.

Customs

Customary culture involves the traditional ways a group behaves. Customs can be simple gestures, like a handshake, or complex events, like a birthday party. They can mark seasons, life cycles, or community festivals. Folklorists categorize customs into seasonal celebrations, life cycle events, community festivals, folk beliefs, and occupational traditions.

Customs are performances that show group membership. Some are private within the group, while others represent the group to outsiders. Public folklorists document and present these traditions, which are increasingly celebrated in community events that benefit both cultural preservation and local economies.

Childlore and games

Childlore is folklore passed among children, independent of adults. It includes verbal, material, and customary traditions shared in a child-to-child network. Children’s folklore is distinct from adult culture and has been studied since the 19th century. Despite fears it would disappear, childlore continues to thrive, serving developmental functions like improving balance, coordination, and social skills.

Folk history

Folk history is a sub-category of folklore that explores the connections between folklore and history. It is studied in journals like The Folklore Historian, which focuses on the history of folklore studies and the links between folklore and history.

Folklore performance in context

Folklore becomes real when it is performed. Stories, legends, and traditions matter most when people share them together. This sharing is how these cultural elements are passed down through generations. Folklorist Roger D. Abrahams said, "Folklore is folklore only when performed." Performance gives folklore its power and meaning.

We learned this about folklore as performance in the second half of the 20th century. Scholars discovered that folklore needs to be part of a cultural setting to truly matter. Whether it is a story, a custom, or an object, its meaning comes from how it is used and shared within a community. Both performance and context help us understand folklore.