mkmishra Redefining Folklore

Redefining Folklore:
From Academic Domain to Public Sphere

Mahendra Kumar Mishra

“ In 1989, we conducted a seminar on Gond folklore in a Gondi village. Eighty Gond

traditional leaders attended the meeting. Government sanctioned three thousand
rupees to our organisation to conduct the seminar. But while attending the seminar,
eighty Gond leaders contributed their share in form of rice, money and labour. Their
contention was that the meeting is on us and for us. So we can’t sit with out
contribution.

In the seminar ten scholars, who had studied the papers on Gond folklore and had the
discussion with the audience had the scope to rethink about their authenticity of
studying of Gond folklore. The senior Gond leaders experienced with their ethnic
knowledge explained the purpose and meaning of folklore items interpreted by the
scholars. It was found that the scholars were more fascinated with their preconceived
ideas of viewing folklore from their scholastic point of view.

The scholars were from the discipline of literature, sociology, economics and history.
They collected the stories, songs, and proverbs. They also studied Gond religion and
performance. Their collection and interpretation of data were mainly based on the
theories and concepts they had acquired from their discipline. But the Gond leaders
were not so. They were rich in their traditional knowledge.

When they interpreted the items, the Gond leaders did not accept the findings and
while the discourse was going on, the scholars felt that they are still to learn from the
Gond culture.

Interestingly, this was a major breakthrough in the mindset of the scholars who were
limited in their understanding of Gond culture.

In stead it was found that many items of folklore the Gonds use have different
meaning and purpose than the scholastic purpose.”

Parghania Lambodar Majhi, the Gond singers expressed that their patron or clan
masters do even not know their esoteric knowledge. So the scholars meeting will also
not serve the purpose of getting all esoteric knowledge. Another threat to the Gond
genealogists that if their knowledge is transferred to the scholars who will respect
them as the borrower of esoteric Gond knowledge.”

(Seminar on Tribal Culture, 1989,ASGP)

Folklore is defined as the body of knowledge, mode of thought and kind of art (Amos:
1975:5). Its existence is validated in its social context. It is termed as verbal art or
expression. Collective representation, collective creation and sharing in a group of
people with common interest and common identity signify the importance of folklore.

In the history of folklore study, there have been a lot of efforts to establish folklore as
an independent discipline. Of course folklore study was initiated and shaped by
scholars of many disciplines like history, anthropology, linguistics, literature and many
others. Since last thirty years, folklore in India has attracted many a scholars to define
folklore as they see and observe.

The distance between the definition “lore of the folk” to public space and civil society
is a long way to define folklore. It has stretched out from folklore to folk life ranging
from academic domain to public sphere.

Folklore in academic domain:

Folklore, during these days, is appeared with many a new theoretical models.
Universities/ Institutions promoting folklore as a discipline have their objective of
establishing folklore as a curriculum followed by teaching, research and publication.
But this effort is one-dimensional.

The folk them selves do not study folklore. The people who need folklore as an object
of their study have institutionalised folklore as a subject. This has created a
demarcation of folk and non-folk. The non-folk have many interest and objectives to
study it.
· The reasons may be to understand the culture of the people to bring cultural
harmony.
· It may be also possible to compare one culture with the other, or to understand the
social dynamics and role of folklore in retaining the social rules, customs, and
tradition.
· Some study folklore to create a national identity and utilise them for political gain
· Some to revise their social protest against the ruling class,
· Some to rule them,
· Or some to promote them in their development.

When an object of folklore is studied it is studied with many a dimensions.

Understanding the use of an item of folklore by the group or a community with definite
purpose and meaning in their socio-cultural context is the basic interest of a folklorist.
But besides it, the current theories and methods fascinate the scholars to see folklore
from theoretical point of view. And we know no theory or method is complete to
understand the completeness of folklore.
Instead the scholar’s option and purpose of adopting certain theory or method to use
the data for some experiment lead to some theoretical limitations. The gap is two fold.

One is the gap of folk and non-folk. In verbal art the gap is very low and have direct
communication. But in static art, there is a gap between the creator and the
consumer.
Another gap is the folklore data and the understanding of the data by the folklorist.
The language and its meaning in a given context is more meaningful in understanding
the data and if the folklorist is unknown of their language and culture, folklore may
loose meaning while interpreting the data. The scholar perceives the data from his
own point of view. The training and orientation of the scholar regulate the study.

Educated scholars armed with current theories and methods of folklore research are
fascinated to put their analytical model taking the item of folklore. According to
Amos,” ethnic genres are cultural modes of communication and analytical categories
are model for the organisation of texts”(Amos; 1980:3 This dichotomy is
predominant, due to the gap of the folk and folklorist.
In Indian context, scholars like us are very much tempted to write paper on folklore
using the models like structural analysis, performance context, discourse of oral and
written, deconstruction, and post modernism. The scope and limitations of using the
theories are always a debatable and one dimensional in terms of analysing the data.
The reason is the dichotomy of purpose and meaning.

Learning from the folk:

In addition to using the theories, it may be more authentic to learn from the
performers/ respondent why and how the data is used in particular society. Role of
folklorist is also not a one-way communication that the respondent will narrate and
the scholar will record it. In stead the folklorist should learn to analyse the data from
the respondents criticism that create it.

It means the interpretation of folklore by the folk and his objective of using an item of
folklore in the community or the group is more important and in this interpretation,
the folk and the folklorists should share the knowledge. Even the perception of the
folklorist in understanding the data from his theoretical point of view also should be
open to the respondent, so that the creator of folklore can get a new meaning of
folklore.

Unfortunately in rural Indian and tribal India, some item of folklore is no more
available. Educated and semi- literate people consider folklore as the forgotten matter
of their past generation, may be individual or community based. For instance in
Orissa, 70 % Saora people have converted and their folklore is no more available with
the younger generations. The old Saora people recollect the memory when asked by
some body that is interested in folklore.

Unfortunately, the academic domain of folklore is yet to share their valuable findings
with the people who created it. Now there is a trend to give back the knowledge of the
people, which have been collected, of course with a new meaning, that is to interpret
with the creator of folklore.

Non- author folk and author folklorist:

Then comes the question of authorship. In fact the folk is non-author and the folklorist
is interpreter of the item to take the local knowledge to a wider scholarship. This
combines the local with global and the role of a folklorist is more important to offer the
unheard voices of the unknown or undiscovered many.
Folklore as the intellectual property created by the folk has non-authorship when the
folklorists own it. How much we really understand the totality of folklore in comparison
to the creators of folklore? When we collect folklore, edit it, and publish it the
authorship of the folk is neglected, and the folklorist becomes important. Again the
publisher becomes another authority by writing on the body of the book that no part
of this book is photocopied or translated etc.

Thus folklore in universities and colleges have become a discipline since last 30 years
and have witnessed a considerable changes. People writing modern poetry or modern
literary criticism is now taking much interest in post modernism or deconstruction
theories. It is not understood why at all we would immediately adopt a new model to
understand our own culture. It appears to us that scholars are more conscious about
looking the subject through the theory lens, and not the data. At least, the data itself
has its own function for which it is created.

The shift of folklore from oral to written, from performance to the textualisation,
somewhere, loose its originality. It also looses its context. Folklore data, like the birds
and animals in the zoo, becomes the object of study in the library than to share in the
community in which it is originated. Therefore the division of folk and nonfolk and
folklorist needs redefinition.
.
The best of folklore is to understand the best with in the people. African people say,
when an old man in our village is passed away, a rich library is lost in our village. How
much have we been able to enrich ourselves with the people’s knowledge? This needs
re-examination.

Another area of ethics in academic domain is that, we, as the academicians, isolated
from the folk themselves, and creates a world of hierarchy in the study in which either
it is confined to some folklorists or the folk have nothing to do with it.

Folklore in public sphere

First of all folklore is a social and cultural necessity used by the people, then it became
a subject of study in the institutions and universities. Folklore is dynamic, both verbal
and static. The social group and the performers/ interest groups reshape the static
and performing arts according to the needs of the people.

From tradition to modernity:

For instance, the rural girls of Western Orissa used to play and sing Dalkhai (leaf eater
dance) associated with rituals. It was a sacred dance during Aswina (October). But
now a days, the dance, music and song form is adopted by the educated women and
this has become a popular medium of self-exposure to the wider world. Unfortunately,
the creator of Dalkhai dance staying in the villages have deprived of this opportunity.

Ghumra a war dance of Goddess Durga is now performed to invite the Ministers and
VIPs. The changing role of performing arts, and static arts have no doubt popularised
the folklore irrespective of rural and urban.

Love for traditional art and its consumerism:

The Saora wall painting “Id -tal “ is widespread in many parts of the State, and its
marketability has amazingly attracted the textiles and the businessmen to prepare
sharees and T-shirts adopting the Saora “Id tal” motifs.

This aspect has created a consumerism and the Ur art form is moulded. No matter
how a folklorist is worried about its ‘Ur’form either to retain its originality in
documentation, but in public sphere, folk art , craft and folk textile has become more
demanding.

Therefore while redefining the folklore from public sphere, it is necessary to

understand the manifold aspects of collective creativity, both ideological and material,
and to know why and how the art forms are transformed from one model to the other
and to understand the changing shape of the art.

Scope for Public sphere acceptance:

In social sphere, folklore as the vehicle of protest, identity, group solidarity, and as
the agent of other development schemes like environmental education, primary
education, rural handicrafts, textile, recipe, eco-tourism, sustainable development of
natural and cultural resources invites the academicians to rethink and redefine folklore
from a wider dimension.
Ethnography of the Artists:
The folklorists are of opinion to safeguard the folk arts by making it useful producing
in form of household materials both for aesthetics and durable. Further the
ethnography of the folk artists, their sustenance in life and creativity are also some of
the concern of folklore research. So it is a shift from the folk art and craft to the
ethnography of artists and their involvement in perpetuating the art creatively. This
again affirms the creator’s identity, recognition, and intelectual property rights. This
questions the traditional definition of folk arts and craft and to redefine it.

Ethnic Folklore as the vehicle of politics:

Use of folklore in respective castes is another areas of concern in Indian situation.

Each and every caste / tribe have their own caste genealogies or origin myth/ legend/
heroic epics. People maintain their ethnic identity through using creation myth and
caste genealogies. This leads to caste unity and the knowledge of the past helps the
present. Caste group uses the caste glory for their political gain. Culture unites the
caste group in recapturing the political power and caste hierarchy. The caste symbol is
the culture hero of the past. In present context, modern political leaders also play a
prominent role in unifying the caste identity through which they achieve political
power. The Yadav Samaj in Bihar and Orissa, Gond mahasabha in Chhatishgarh and
kalahandi, Kondh Samaj in Kondhmal in Orissa, Munda and Santali samaj in Jharkhand
have tried to revitalise their group identity through caste myths. They also revise their
religious belief. The rituals and festivals play a political role than cultural at times.
Kaivarta Geeta - of the fisher folk written by poet Achyutananda Das in 16th century
regained its relevance since last 30 years. When some castes in British India were
demanding their caste hierarchy, demanded to redefine their caste hierarchy in the
fold of scheduled caste or scheduled tribe referring their caste myths and narratives.

Varna and Jati form the foundation of ethnic folklore. Family and clan, kinship and
society are regulated through Jati system. Each Jati try to identify oneself with some
Aryan God, sage, or kings belong to solar and lunar dynasty.

Each caste tries to establish their ancient origin from remote past. Indian village is
designed with the distribution of space associated with caste settlement. Diversities of
Kulachar- clan based customs, and then lokachar- the customs obeyed by the group of
people with co-existence in the village or locality signifies the cultural pluralism and
commonality. The existence of friend caste and enemy caste is also another aspect of
caste folklore.

Maintaining ones own racial purity, living in togetherness, sharing common beliefs and
culture by many castes, diversities of customs, practices, beliefs and practices are
some of the unique aspects in defining the nature of folklore. To understand the
independent development of folklore in each caste and tribe in Indian social context,
we have to see the four pillar of culture that is: Kulachara, lokachara, Deshachara and
Sistachara, representing the cultural foundation of Indian society.

Folklore in changing context: Globalisation verses local culture

When UN and WIPO advocates for intellectual property rights and to safeguard folklore
considering it as the intangible heritage, World Bank advocates for cultural and
sustainable development, and propagate the marketing of cultural artefacts available
in the society so that the real creators of the folk art can get better market price for
his production.
Thus when the academicians see folklore as the foundation of cultural expression of
human creativity, world bank see folklore and material culture from business point of
view and it neglects the aesthetic value of the art form. When local culture and
traditional knowledge is in terrible threat of vanishing from the society, consumerism
of art and craft creating a market for the society isolate the heritage of the art from
the cultural context and makes a market of cultural materials. This dichotomy of
culture with socio- cultural roots in one hand and de-linking the cultural entity for
market economy raises many questions.

Lets consider the following:

Kikri - Fiddle is considered as the abode of supreme Gond God Budha Deo.
Whether production of 1000 fiddles is necessary by killing 1000 iguana and covering
the iguana skin over the fiddle for cultural marketing in stead of some money is
justified in terms of violating the animal rights or value the heritage of fiddle
associated with the caste genealogies of the Gonds.

Similarly many art forms are de-linked from the heritage.

Future Shock:

Globalisation and mono-cultural invasion from far west has grabbed the local culture
and language, and wish to create a melting pot in the developing countries. But the
economists like Joseph Stiglitza noble prize winner in economics in 2000, question
this. He considers that, Globalisation has undermined traditional rural society” which is
a “threat to cultural identity and values.” The price replaced the values, and market
replaced the community. It is not only in developing countries, but also even in Europe
the democracy is undermined and cultures eroded.

Relevance of written literature:

Ancient written literature is loosing ground from the modern societies. Except the
sacred texts, the kavya, Shastras, and many more scriptures have no relevance in
present time. Disciplines like language and literature is lacking student enrolment in
Universities.
Local language and culture is at the crossroad for the wave of free market and a neo-
consumerism has taken place where the human values, culture, heritage is
challenged. The humanities study in the Universities is gradually loosing its utility in
the modern academic and social context, and lots of management schools are
sprouted in the universities. A class distinction is visible in the Universities where this
feeling is crop up. The shift is a challenge to the present day academicians. Is it true
that regional language and literature has no relevance among the forthcoming
generations?

But with the changing time, the possibility of safeguarding the folklore has become
more methodical, wider, and more demanding. The post-modern (?) era is fascinated
with the tribal art, indigenous culture and taking interest in the interest of creator. The
gap of folk, non-folk is reducing through sharing of folklore item in aesthetics and
consumerism in the public sphere. Similarly the folklorist, reconsider scholarship and
authorship from ethical point of view.

To us Indian culture lies in its mainstream traditional society, and unfortunately the
modern/ western culture is dominant over both urban and rural societies of India.
Cultural invasion and cultural consumerism is a concept to see culture as an object for
sale and purchase putting price of it, than value it. The present challenge is to
maintain a harmony between the academic domain and public sphere for the survival
of cultural studies.

Relations of folk with the folklorists need revision:

Our relation ship with the folk as a folklorist is very limited. Instead of what our Gurus
offer us to become a scholar is the vision and insight to delve in to the subject. But as
told earlier, who is enriched with traditional knowledge and for what purpose?

When a Guru is enriched with many a weapons of theories and methods with a
scholastic purpose to operate and concretise folklore data in to a knowledge base,
institutionalising the discipline in universities and institutions, the creator and
consumers of folklore sense folklore differently, may be more intensively. Folklore is a
necessity of life, consciously or unconsciously engrained in the experience, rules, and
practices in the community with a definite purpose and meaning. The gap of these
understanding determines the gap of a folklorist with the folk.

Question of Ethics:
`The relation of a folk with the folklorist is not permanent. A folklorist is not invited by
the folk for his scholarship. The limited relation of folklorist with the folk cannot help
him to understand them. How to reduce the gap and disparity is a major question to
day.

In Modern context it is the individual and the group, which create folklore and
influence the mass. The forms of folklore are represented with many purposes
carrying many meaning than its earlier one.

Folklore in India as an object of collective creation, with its constant transformation

and its use in the society has given a new challenge and new opportunity to the
folklorists to rethink and redefine folklore.
==========
Reference:
Amos Dan Ben: Towords a definition of folklore in Context

AK Ramanujan: Another Harmony

Complete works of AK Ramanujan

Joseph Stiglitz: Globalisation and its Discontent