SOC260 – Folklore
LECTURE 3 – DEFINING FOLKLORE
DR. MAXIME JAFFRÉ, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY
E-MAIL: MJAFFRE@UAEU.AC.AE
THIS LECTURE COVERS…
The definition of folklore
The differences between folklore,
official culture and popular culture
1 - WHAT IS FOLKLORE? THE ORIGIN OF THE
WORD
• Folklore is the study of expressive, informal or popular culture
• Folklore is also related to oral history that is preserved by the people of the culture,
consisting of traditions belonging to a specific culture. These traditions usually include
music, stories, history, legends, and myths. Folklore is passed down from generation to
generation and is kept active by the people in the culture.
• Nowadays, Folklore is embeding a new cultural meaning and scope since the mass media
are connecting the global to the local
WILLIAM JOHN THOMS
(1803-1885)
• The term “folklore” was created by
William John Thoms in 1846.
• He invented this compound word to
replace the various other terms used at
the time to define the culture of the
people, such as "popular antiquities" or
"popular literature” (cultural
production coming from rural areas).
• During the XIX century,
anthropologists also used the term
“primitive cultures” to talk about non-
European cultures (i.e. people from
Africa, Asia, and Middle East).
FOLK / LORE
• Folklore contains two words:
• Folk = people
• Lore = science
• The term “Folklore”, then, refers to:
• 1 - peoples’ folk heritage and,
• 2 - the science that studies peoples’ folk heritage
AL-TURATH: ARABIC CONCEPTS
ØThe Arabic word “Turath” is very significant. It implies different meanings
related to culture:
Ø1-It means heritage or tradition
Ø2-The tradition might be “Islamic Tradition”
Ø3-Or “Arab tradition”
Ø4-Or “National of local tradition”
Ø5-Local tradition also means FOLK TRADITION or “al-Turath al-Sha‘by”
AL-TURATH AL-SHA‘BY
• The Arabic word, “al-Turath al-Sha‘by” indicates traditional beliefs, practices, customs,
folk literature (myths, epics, stories, jokes, songs among others) and material culture of a
people, handed down orally or behaviorally from generation to generation or from
individual to individual.
• The difference between the term “Folklore” and “al-turath al-sha‘by” is that the first term
includes the word “lore” which means “science”.
DEFINITIONS OF FOLKLORE
Folklore is the traditional art, literature, knowledge, and practice that is disseminated largely through
oral communication and behavioural example. Every group with a sense of its own identity shares, as a
central part of that identity, folk traditions…
- American Folklore Society
Folklore is the traditional, unofficial, non-institutional part of culture. It encompasses all knowledge,
understandings, values, attitudes, assumptions, feelings, and beliefs transmitted in traditional forms by
word of mouth or by customary examples.
- Jan Brunvand. The Study of American Folklore: An Introduction, 2nd edition. New
York: W.W.Norton, 1978.
• …folklore is artistic communication in small groups
• - Dan Ben-Amos. Toward a Definition of Folklore in Context, in Américo Paredes and Richard
Bauman, eds. Toward New Perspectives in Folklore. Austin: University of Texas Press for the
American Folklore Society, 1972.
DEFINITIONS OF FOLKLORE
Folklore is informally learned,
unofficial knowledge about the world,
ourselves, our communities, our
beliefs, our cultures and our
traditions, that is expressed
‘
creatively through words, music,
customs, actions, behaviours and
materials. It is also the interactive,
dynamic process of creating,
communicating and performing as
we share that knowledge with other
people
- Sims & Stephens, 2005
CHARACTERISTICS OF FOLKORE
1. Folklore is traditional (but not static – it continues to develop and change in modern
society)
2. It is usually passed on person-to-person
3. It is associated with relatively small-scale groups (though it can also form part of the
identity of larger social groups like a nation, ethnic group or religious community)
4. It is vernacular – i.e., locally or regionally defined, produced, or expressed
5. It embraces every aspect of life: art, buildings, food, dress, sports, customs, rituals,
beliefs, ways of looking at the world
6. Folklore has artistic, creative, or expressive dimensions (it is not purely practical or
instrumental behaviour)
7. Folklore is distinct from official culture
8. Folklore is distinct from mass popular culture, although they share some
characteristics
OFFICIAL
CULTURE
• Studied in schools, museums,
universities or professional
academies
• Taught by professionals
• Created and performed by
professionally trained artists
• Part of a formally recognised
canon of works by individual
‘great artists’
EXHIBITING CULTURES FROM
DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
LOUVRE ABU-DHABI
FOLKLORE
• Folk culture is different to official culture because it is:
• Learned informally from people in the community, rather
than through schools and text books
• Performed by ordinary people as part of their everyday
life
• Shared freely with others
• Has no set canon of ‘great works’
• Often anonymous
• Not part of the canon of works or ideas taught
formally in schools or other institutions
• Produced in large quantities for large audiences
• Shared or transmitted through mass media (TV, radio,
magazines, internet)
POPULAR
• Highly commercialised
CULTURE
• Relies on well-known presenters and performers
(celebrities)
• Usually ‘in demand’ for a short period of time (heavily
subject to fashion and ‘trends’)
FOLK CULTURE
• Folk culture is different from popular culture
because it is:
• Usually shared person-to-person in small
groups
• Shared freely between members of the group
(non-commercial)
• Members of the group participate directly to
its creation and sharing
• Often anonymous
• Traditional (so it does not go ‘out of date’)
• Even though they are distinct, folklore and
official or popular culture can blend into each
other
• E.g. a rural fiddler who incorporates
measures from the score of The Magic Flute
into a folk tune
• In particular, folklore and popular culture
tend to influence each other because both
are outside the formal, institutional context
of official culture
• E.g. the legend of Elvis Presley
CONTEXTS OF CULTURE
• A large part of the difference between folk culture and both official and popular culture
has to do with the contexts in which they are created and shared
• Official culture – institutional, organised settings
• Popular culture – commercial mass media
• Folk culture – informal social groups
• ‘Folklore is informally learned and unofficial, part of everyday experience…folklore comes to us
through our experiences with others around us’(Sims & Stephens, 2005)
FOLKLORE AND GROUP IDENTITY
• Because folklore is passed on from one person to another in informal settings, it is
closely connected to group life and identity
• ‘Folklore reaches groups of people who share personal connections, values, traditions, belief –
and other forms of lore – that in part define them as a group’ (Sims & Stephens, 2005)
• Folklore tends to localise culture by associating it with particular face-to-face groups of
people and the places they inhabit
Make a list of groups
whose identity is
shaped by their folklore
– i.e. knowledge and
customs shared person-
to-person within a
social group
‘Every group bound together by common interests and purposes, whether educated or uneducated, rural or
urban, possess a body of traditions which may be called its folklore’ (Benjamin Botkin, 1938)
• Ethnic/national groups
• Italian food
• Al ayyala
• Patrick’s Day (Ireland)
• Religious groups
• Professional/occupational groups
• Lawyers and judges
• Actors – ‘break a leg’
• Sporting/recreational groups
• Horse racing
• Local towns and neighbourhoods
• Families
LECTURE 3 – KEY TAKEAWAYS
Folklore can be defined a body of traditional knowledge and
customs passed on person-to-person in small-scale and
localised social groups
It is distinct from official culture, which is taught in formal
institutions and created and performed by professional
artists
It is distinct from popular culture, which is transmitted to
large audiences through the commercial mass media
Folklore is central to the identity of the social groups within
which it is created and shared
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION 🙏
