folklore

Oral traditions and culture of a people, expressed in legends, riddles, songs, tales, and proverbs.

The term was coined in 1846 by W J Thoms (1803-1885), but the founder of the systematic study of the subject was Jacob Grimm; see also oral literature.

The approach to folklore has varied greatly; the early alternative term ‘Popular Antiquities’ suggests that high value was originally placed on elements showing continuity with archaic traditions, giving knowledge of past events ignored by official or academic history, and providing evidence of legal and religious observances otherwise forgotten. The German scholar Max Müller (1823-1900) interpreted folklore as evidence of nature myths; James Frazer was the exponent of the comparative study of early and popular folklore as mutually explanatory; Laurence Gomme (1853-1916) adopted a historical analysis; and Bronislaw Malinowski and Alfred Radcliffe-Brown (1881-1955) examined the material as an integral element of a given living culture. Folklore overlaps with ethnography, cultural anthropology, and sociology, but their roots and theoretical concerns are not the same.

The study of folklore was traditionally concerned with peasant and local elements in modern culture, but has now been extended to cover all classes of popular lore among both rural and urban populations (as in urban legend), and among children (such as nursery rhyme).

The beliefs, traditions, and customs constituting the folklore of a group, social stratum, or nation are represented in a multitude of forms, including popular games and associated rhymes, such as counting-out chants; songs, dances, and costumes; jokes and practical jokes; humorous and tall stories; riddles, proverbs, and fables; superstitions and ritual observances marking events and seasons, or the stages of a person's life; popular medicine; magical practices and witchcraft; and houses and their furnishing.