29. In truth, the “newness” of these forms is only in perception. The use of a colon and closing parenthesis to indicate a happy tone in text was first suggested on September 19, 1978. (Yes, September 19 is also International Talk Like a Pirate Day—two folk holidays in one!) Return to text.
30. One of the reasons that digital culture often becomes a contentious topic in contemporary discourse is because it’s so relatively new that we haven’t yet had enough time to develop widely agreed-upon cultural norms for it. What’s considered rude when it comes to the use of cell phones in public? When is it tacky to solicit help or funding for a personal project on a social networking site? What’s the protocol for dealing politely with accidental or intrusive reply-alls in group e-mails? We haven’t had these technologies long enough for everyone to have simply grown up knowing what’s rude and what’s polite, and so we run into lots of trouble as we figure it out. It’ll be interesting to watch consensus grow over the years. Return to text.
31. In real life. Return to text.
32. Also known as image macros; see http://knowyourmeme.com/ to get an idea of what we’re talking about. Return to text.
33. See hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/. Return to text.
34. Spend just a little time on the Internet and you’ll soon discover that much of it is about cats. The Internet loves cats. Return to text.
Conclusion
What Do I Do Now?
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So, what should you do with your new understanding of folklore now that you’ve (almost) finished this book? Class assignments aside, the knowledge and skills of a folklorist are (perhaps surprisingly) quite useful in the real world, so let’s consider some ways in which you might use them.
One thing that most students discover upon learning the ins and outs of folklore is that they start seeing it everywhere. Stuff that simply never caught your eye before will suddenly jump to the front of your attention and you’ll be going, “Hey—is that folklore?” This provides a great next step: start putting your new understanding of folklore to use identifying things as (or as not) folklore. You know how to go about it now—just remember the basic rules that folklore follows: it’s variable and it’s traditional.
And don’t forget the second goal of a folklorist: not just finding but interpreting the folklore. While you’re out in the world discovering and identifying folklore, make sure you take the time to ponder what makes these kinds of cultural expressions unique and relevant, how they function in their cultural and social contexts, and what they mean to the people sharing them. If your coworker e-mails you an urban legend, take a moment (after the natural reaction of debating with your lunch pals whether or not it’s actually true) to consider what underlying social truth might be reflected in the story. When you hear a political joke at a party, pause in your laughter (or maybe keep laughing, just to maintain appearances) and think about what social function the joke teller intended the joke to have, and what the joke’s reception by the listeners communicated in return. At the next holiday celebration, when someone claims that the Jell-O salad wasn’t made the “right” way, take a moment to reflect on what it means to a family to have mutually agreed-upon “correct” versions of their traditional foods.
In short, remember that thinking like a folklorist involves being both genuinely engaged in and consciously aware of your own cultural contexts—at the same time. You laugh at the joke, gasp at the legend, smile at the custom, and then you think about the meaning of those traditional forms within the group that shared them. It’s kind of like having X-ray vision1—you’re seeing, reacting to, and participating in all the same things as the people around you, but you’re going a bit deeper, too, recognizing that there’s a whole world of shared understandings being symbolically communicated around us at all times. When this double awareness gains you an insight you’d otherwise have missed—when your awareness of the presence and significance of folklore allows you to engage more successfully with and appreciate the world around you—you’ll remember the single most important thing this book has told you: folklore rules.
Note
1. That’s right, being a folklorist is like being a superhero. Return to text.
About the Author
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LYNNE S. MCNEILL, PHD, is an instructor and director of online development for the folklore program at Utah State University and co-founder of and faculty advisor for the USU Folklore Society.
Index
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Active bearers, 36n9
Aldrich, Fredrick, 59
Anthropology, 23, 34
Archive, 22, 23, 25, 31, 34, 87n24
Assemblage, 52
Bartók, 10
Bascom, William, 30
Beethoven, 10
Ben-Amos, Dan, 18
Boston Pops, 11
Brunvand, Jan H., 30, 43–44
Calendar custom, 44–47
Carnivalesque, 48–49, 62n16
Catholicism, 71
Children, 19n18, 48, 52, 78–80, 87n19, 87n24
College (incl. “campus”), 65–66, 75–78, 87n18
Context, 13, 23, 25–29, 32, 41–43, 46, 63, 74, 89, 90
Criminology (incl. “crime”), 21–22
Culture, 2–5
Dickens, Charles, 33
Digital culture, 80–86, 88n27, 88n30
Dundes, Alan, 25, 35
Dvorak, 10
Dynamic variation, 12, 14, 55
Economics, 34
Elite culture, 9–11
Emoticons, 82
Ethnography, 26, 43, 88n28
Facebook, 26, 81, 82
Fieldwork, 23–29
Folk belief, 56–61, 64n28, 64n35, 71–74
Folk group, 4–6, 29, 35, 40, 41, 63, 65–67, 70, 72, 74, 78, 80, 81, 86
Folktale, 38–43, 62n7–9, 82
Foodways, 29, 40, 45, 46, 87nn8–9, 89–90
Function, 30–32, 34, 39, 41, 47, 72, 74, 89
Funeral potatoes, 72–73, 87n10
Genre, 5–6, 37–38
Giant squid, 59
Gilligan’s Island, 10
Goodenough, Ward, 3
Grammar, 18–19n16
Grimm brothers, 32
Hufford, David, 58–59
Hyperbole and a Half (blog), 83
International Folklore Day, 17
Internet, 83, 85–86, 88n34
Interviewing, 25–26
Invented tradition, 63n17
Joke, 8–9, 18n7, 24–25, 31, 62n10, 66, 81, 89–90
Judaism, 71
Latrinalia, 16, 17n3
Legend, 31, 37–44, 56, 62n5, 62n8, 64nn28–29, 67, 71, 73–74, 75–78, 81, 86n5, 87n13, 89
Marketing, 34
Mass culture (incl. “popular culture”), 7–11, 63n24, 85
Material culture, 51–56
McDonald’s, 3, 14, 26
Memes, 83, 85, 88n32
Mormon, 72–74, 87n14
Muslim, 71
Myth, 32–33, 37–44, 82
Newfoundland, 49–50, 58–59
Observation, 26
Occupational folklore, 67–70
Old Hag, 58–59, 61, 64
Omikuji, 71
Organizational folklore, 70
Passive bearers, 36n9
Personal experience narratives, 86n5
Political science, 34
Popular antiquities, 2
Public folklore, 22
Religious folklore, 60, 70–74, 87n8, 87n12
Rites of passage, 47–51
Shinto, 71
Skinner, B. F., 60–61
Sociology, 34
Star Wars, 11
Supernatural, 56–61, 87n13
Sweden, 41
Telephone (game), 7
Texture, 25–27, 32, 43, 74
Thomas, Jeannie, 79–80,
Thoms, William, 2, 17
Toelken, Barre, 13
Tradition, 7, 12–14, 16, 22, 80, 83, 89,
Transmission, 6, 7–10,
13, 29, 30, 44, 56, 62
Triviality barrier, 15–16
Urban legend (incl. “contemporary legend”), 31, 43–44, 62n5, 64n29, 75–77, 81, 89
Variation, 7, 11–14, 30, 31, 42, 51, 53–55, 83
Walmart, 27–29, 32
Folklore Rules Page 12