The Study of Folklore

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A folk or peasant society is but one example of a 'folk' in the folkloristic sense. Any group of people sharing a common linking factor, e.g., an urban group such as a labor union, can and does have folklore. 'Folk' is a flexible concept which can refer to a nation as in American folklore or to a single family. The critical issue in defining 'folk' is: what groups in fact have traditions?" (emphasis in the original, see footnote 34, 13) Bendix, Regina (2005). "Alan Dundes (1934-2005)". The Journal of American Folklore. 118 (470): 485–488. doi: 10.2307/4137668. ISSN 0021-8715. JSTOR 4137668. Alan Dundes, UC Berkeley professor and world expert in folklore studies, dies". American Folklore Society. Archived from the original on August 7, 2008 . Retrieved October 31, 2008. Still, some argue the discipline has gone too far in its eagerness to view lore as performance rather than object. For example, we know the Satanic ritual abuse narratives circulating in the 1990s were expressions of a recurring moral panic rooted in legend transmission. Studying similar legends, like the ones circulated during the sixteenth century European witch hunts, could give us important insights about both sets of narratives and the effect they had on people. That kind of scholarship might be useful during future moral panics. However, the only context we have for the transmission of those earlier legends is historical, and deriving an understanding of performance from documents over five hundred years old is a challenge, to say the least. So we would have to study the texts themselves.

His presidential speech at the American Folklore Society conference in 1980 argued that there was an anal-erotic fixation in the German national character; this generated significant controversy. [3] He introduced the concept "allomotif" (coined in an analogy with " allomorph", to complement the concept of " motifeme" (cf. " morpheme") introduced by Kenneth L. Pike) to be used in the analysis of the structures of folktales in terms of motifs identified in them. [4] [5] Before the term folkloristics can be fully understood, it is necessary to understand that the terms folk and lore are defined in many different ways. While some use the word folk to mean only peasants or remote cultures, Alan Dundes of the University of California at Berkeley calls this definition a "misguided and narrow concept of the folk as the illiterate in a literate society" ( Devolutionary Premise, 13). Ben-Amos, Dan. 1972. ‘Toward a Definition of Folklore in Context’. In Towards New Perspectives in Folklore. Austin: University of Texas Press: 9.He has been described as "widely credited with helping to shape modern folklore scholarship", [1] and as "one of the most admired and influential folklorists in the world" [6] He wrote 12 books, both academic and popular, and edited or co-wrote two dozen more [7] and is credited with authoring over 250 articles. [2] One of his most notable articles was called "Seeing is Believing" in which he indicated that Americans value the sense of sight more than the other senses. Dundes, Alan. 1980. “Who Are the Folk?” In Interpreting Folklore. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Alan Dundes, "From Etic to Emic Units in the Structural Study of Folktales", The Journal of American Folklore; Vol. 75, No. 296 (Apr. - Jun. 1962), pp. 95-105 JSTOR 538171

Bauman, Richard. 1972. ‘Differential Identity and the Social Base of Folklore’. In Towards New Perspectives in Folklore. Austin: University of Texas Press: 38.Strongly opinionated, Dundes was not at all averse to the controversy that his theories often generated. He dealt frequently with folklore as an expression of unconscious desires and anxieties and was of the opinion that if people reacted strongly to what he had to say, he had probably hit a nerve and was probably on to something. Some of his more controversial work involved examining the New Testament and the Qur'an as folklore. [9] Two Tales of Crow and Sparrow: A Freudian Folkloristic Essay on Caste and Untouchability. Rowman & Littlefield. Alan Dundes (September 8, 1934 – March 30, 2005) [1] was an American folklorist. He spent much of his career as a professional academic at the University of California, Berkeley and published his ideas in a wide range of books and articles. The editor begins Volume 1 with a brief general introduction to the compilation as a whole (xxv-xxvi) and an equally concise introduction to the present volume (1-2), after which he allows each of the twenty-four essays in the volume to speak for itself. For all their brevity Alan Dundes’s introductions here and at the head of the three subsequent volumes do manage to summarize nicely the key concerns of the papers. An index to all eighty-six papers appears in the fourth volume (477-506).

Shortly before his death, Dundes was interviewed by filmmaker Brian Flemming for his documentary, The God Who Wasn't There. He prominently recounted Lord Raglan's 22-point scale from his 1936 book The Hero, in which he ranks figures possessing similar divine attributions. [16] An extended interview [17] is on the DVD version of the documentary. Oring. Elliott. 1986. Folk Groups and Folklore Genres: An Introduction. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press. Carl R. Pagter (Co-author) (1987). When You're Up to Your Ass in Alligators...: More Urban Folklore from the Paperwork Empire. Wayne State University Press.

The study of folklore

Carl R. Pagter (Co-author) (2000). Why Don't Sheep Shrink When It Rains?: A Further Collection of Photocopier Folklore. Syracuse University Press.

Dundes was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001 - the first Folklorist to be recognized in this way. [18] With this expanded social definition of folk, a wider view of the material considered to be folklore also emerged that includes, as William Wilson points out, "things people make with words (verbal lore), things they make with their hands (material lore), and things they make with their actions (customary lore)" (2006, 85). a b c d Oliver, Myrna (April 3, 2005). "Alan Dundes, 70; Folklorist Drew Laughs and Hostility". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved October 31, 2008. a b Burress, Charles (April 2, 2005). "UC folklorist Dundes dies while teaching; His scholarship helped to create an academic discipline". San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved October 31, 2008. a b c d Hansen, William (2005). "In Memoriam: Alan Dundes 1934-2005". Journal of Folklore Research. 42 (2): 245–250. doi: 10.2979/JFR.2005.42.2.245. ISSN 0737-7037. JSTOR 3814602. S2CID 144101452.The second volume, The Founders of Folklore, is a selection of essays upon persons who figure notably in the historical development of folkloristics. It begins with the late eighteenth-century romantic nationalist Johann Gottfried Herder (25), continues with the Brothers Grimm (26), and proceeds to others. Among the scholars treated here are the Britons Lawrence Gomme (30) and James George Frazer (33), the Germans Max Müller (31) and Wilhelm Mannhardt (32), the Italian Giuseppe Pitrè (34), the Hungarian Béla Bartók (40), the Frenchman Arnold van Gennep (41), the Dutchman Jan de Vries (42), and the Russian Vladimir Propp (44). Notice is also taken of the prodigious Danish collector Evald Tang Kristensen (38) and the gifted Irish informant Peig Sayers (39).