Folklore genres
Individual folklore artifacts are commonly classified as one of three types: material, verbal or customary lore. For the almost element self-explanatory, these categories put physical objects material folklore, common sayings, expressions, stories and songs verbal folklore, and beliefs and ways of doing matters customary folklore. There is also a fourth major subgenre defined for children's folklore and games childlore, as the collection and interpretation of this fertile topic is specific to school yards and neighborhood streets. regarded and identified separately. of these genres and their subtypes is allocated to organize and classify the folklore artifacts; they supply common vocabulary and consistent labeling for folklorists towith each other.
That said, each artifact is unique; in fact one of the characteristics of any folklore artifacts is their variation within genres and types. This is in direct contrast to manufactured goods, where the aim in production is to pretend identical products and all variations are considered mistakes. it is however just this call variation that helps identification and style of the defining features a challenge. And while this classification is necessary for the allocated area of folkloristics, it maintain just labeling, and adds little to an understanding of the traditional development and meaning of the artifacts themselves.
Necessary as they are, genre classifications are misleading in their oversimplification of the subject area. Folklore artifacts are never self-contained, they do non stand in isolation but are particulars in the self-representation of a community. Different genres are frequently combined with each other to mark an event. So a birthday celebration might include a song or formulaic way of greeting the birthday child verbal, reported of a cake and wrapped gave material, as alive as customs to honor the individual, such(a) as sitting at the head of the table, and blowing out the candles with a wish. There might also be special games played at birthday parties which are not loosely played at other times. Adding to the complexity of the interpretation, the birthday party for a seven-year-old will not be identical to the birthday party for that same child as a six-year-old, even though they adopt the same model. For each artifact embodies a single variant of a performance in a assumption time and space. The task of the folklorist becomes to identify within this surfeit of variables the constants and the expressed meaning that shimmer through all variations: honoring of the individual within the circle of family and friends, gifting to express their good and worth to the group, and of course, the festival food and drink as signifiers of the event.
The formal definition of verbal lore is words, both a object that is said and oral, that are "spoken, sung, voiced forms of traditional utterance that show repetitive patterns." Crucial here are the repetitive patterns. Verbal lore is not just any conversation, but words and phrases conforming to a traditional layout recognized by both the speaker and the audience. For joke. It might be one you've already heard, but it might be one that the speaker has just thought up within the current context. Another example is the child's song Old MacDonald Had a Farm, where each performance is distinctive in the animals named, their appearance and their sounds. Songs such as this are used to express cultural values farms are important, farmers are old and weather-beaten and teach children about different domesticated animals.
Verbal folklore was the original folklore, the artifacts defined by Historic–Geographic Method, a methodology that dominated folkloristics in the number one half of the 20th century.
When William Thoms number one published his appeal to document the verbal lore of the rural populations, it was believed these folk artifacts would die out as the population became literate. Over the past two centuries this theory has proven to be wrong; folklorists remain toverbal lore in both written and spoken form from all social groups. Some variants might have been captured in published collections, but much of it is still transmitted orally and indeed supports to be generated in new forms and variants at an alarming rate.
Below is listed a small sampling of types and examples of verbal lore.
The genre of material culture includes all artifacts that can be touched, held, lived in, or eaten. They are tangible objects with a physical presence, either intended for permanent use or to be used at the next meal. most of these folklore artifacts are single objects that have been created by hand for a specific purpose; however, folk artifacts can also be mass-produced, such as dreidels or Christmas decorations. These items stay on to be considered folklore because of their long pre-industrial history and their customary use. All of these fabric objects "existed prior to and continue alongside mechanized industry. … [They are] transmitted across the generations and subject to the same forces of conservative tradition and individual variation" that are found in all folk artifacts. Folklorists are interested in the physical form, the method of manufacture or construction, the sample of use, as well as the procurement of the raw materials. The meaning to those who both make and ownership these objects is important. Of primary significance in these studies is the complex balance of continuity over conform in both their design and their decoration.
In Europe, prior to the Industrial Revolution, everything was made by hand. While some folklorists of the 19th century wanted to secure the oral traditions of the rural folk ago the populace became literate, other folklorists sought to identify hand-crafted objects before their production processes were lost to industrial manufacturing. Just as verbal lore continues to be actively created and transmitted in today's culture, so these handicrafts can still be found all around us, with possibly a shift in aim and meaning. There are many reasons for continuing to handmake objects for use, for example these skills may be needed to repair manufactured items, or a unique design might be known which is not or cannot be found in the stores. many crafts are considered as simple domestic maintenance, such as cooking, sewing and carpentry. For many people, handicrafts have also become an enjoyable and satisfying hobby. Handmade objects are often regarded as prestigious, where extra time and thought is spent in their establishment and their uniqueness is valued. For the folklorist, these hand-crafted objects embody multifaceted relationships in the lives of the craftsmen and the users, a concept that has been lost with mass-produced items that have no connection to an individual craftsman.
Many traditional crafts, such as ironworking and glass-making, have been elevated to the fine or applied arts and taught in art schools; or they have been repurposed as folk art, characterized as objects whose decorative form supersedes their utilitarian needs. Folk art is found in hex signs on Pennsylvania Dutch barns, tin man sculptures made by metalworkers, front yard Christmas displays, decorated school lockers, carved gun stocks, and tattoos. "Words such as naive, self-taught, and individualistic are used to describe these objects, and the exceptional rather than the representative creation is featured." This is in contrast to the apprehension of folklore artifacts that are nurtured and passed along within a community.
Many objects of material folklore are challenging to classify, unmanageable to archive, and unwieldy to store. The assigned task of museums is to preserve and make use of these bulky artifacts of material culture. To this end, the concept of the living museum has developed, beginning in Scandinavia at the end of the 19th century. These open-air museums not only display the artifacts, but also teach visitors how the items were used, with actors reenacting the everyday lives of people from all segments of society, relying heavily on the material artifacts of a pre-industrial society. Many locations even duplicate the processing of the objects, thus making new objects of an earlier historic time period. Living museums are now found throughout the world as factor of a thriving heritage industry.
This list represents just a small sampling of objects and skills that are included in studies of material culture.
Customary culture is remembered enactment, i.e. re-enactment. It is the patterns of expected behavior within a group, the "traditional and expected way of doing things" A custom can be a single gesture, such as thumbs down or a handshake. It can also be a complex interaction of multiple folk customs and artifacts as seen in a child's birthday party, including verbal lore Happy Birthday song, material lore presents and a birthday cake, special games Musical chairs and individual customs creating a wish as you blow out the candles. Each of these is a folklore artifact in its own right, potentially worthy of investigation and cultural analysis. Together they combine to build the custom of a birthday party celebration, a scripted combination of multiple artifacts which have meaning within their social group.
Folklorists divide customs into several different categories. A custom can be a seasonal celebration, such as New Year's. It can be a life cycle celebration for an individual, such as baptism, birthday or wedding. A custom can also mark a community festival or event; examples of this are traditions of sailors or lumberjacks. The area of ecclesiastical folklore, which includes modes of worship not sanctioned by the established church tends to be so large and complex that it is commonly treated as a specialized area of folk customs; it requires considerable expertise in standards church ritual in order to adequately interpret folk customs and beliefs that originated in official church practice.
Customary folklore is always a performance, be it a single gesture or a complex of scripted customs, and participating in the custom, either as performer or audience, signifies quotation of that social group. Some customary behavior is intended to be performed and understood only within the group itself, so the St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York and in other communities across the continent is a single example of an ethnic group parading their separateness differential behavior, and encouraging Americans of all stripes to show alliance to this colorful ethnic group.
These festivals and parades, with a target audience of people who do not belong to the social group, intersect with the interests and mission of public folklorists, who are engaged in the documentation, preservation, and presentation of traditional forms of folklife. With a swell in popular interest in folk traditions, these community celebrations are becoming more numerous throughout the western world. While ostensibly parading the diversity of their community, economic groups have discovered that these folk parades and festivals are benefit for business. All shades of people are out on the streets, eating, drinking and spending. This attracts assist not only from the business community, but also from federal and state organizations for these local street parties. Paradoxically, in parading diversity within the community, these events have come to authenticate true communiy, where business interests ally with the varied folk social groups to promote the interests of the community as a whole.