Season 2 Bonus Content - Four Functions of Folklore Discussion & Review of 1954 Bascom Article

🎙️ Dive deep into the fascinating world of folklore with host Gina in this episode of "A Tisket-Tasket Podcast." Gina reviews an insightful article by renowned folklorist William Bascom on the functions of folklore, exploring its social context, cultural significance, and educational value. With a passion for nursery rhymes and folklore, Gina provides engaging commentary on Bascom's work, offering valuable insights into how folklore mirrors culture, validates communities, educates individuals, and seeks social approval. Join Gina on her journey as she delves into the intricacies of folklore, shedding light on its timeless relevance and captivating charm. Want to know more? Email Gina at info@atiskettasketpodcast.com or visit her website at atiskettasketpodcast.com. #FolklorePodcast #WilliamBascom #FolkloreFunctions #NurseryRhymes #CulturalHeritage

Transcript

Microphone (2- G733 Gaming Headset): 0:00

Hello, and welcome to another episode A Tisket-Tasket Podcast. I'm your host, Gina. And today we're going to be doing something a little bit different. As you know, I have an interest in folklore. I talk about attending the American folklore conference. And being part of their community. And today I thought I would review an article that I found extraordinarily interesting, that talks about the definition. In the functions of folklore. This is kind of a laid back episode. I'm going to do minimal editing. I just wanted to add some bonus contents because things have been kind of busy lately. So I thought I would record about something. I've been working on because I just haven't had time to look at nursery rhymes. So stay tuned for this episode, we are going to talk about the four functions of folklore, which was a article published by William Bascom and the 19 54. The journal of American folklore. In the fall, October to December edition. If you'd like to know the definition of folklore and its context, stay tuned.

Microphone (2- G733 Gaming Headset)-2: 1:46

It's spring time, which means a lot of call for papers. A lot of call for conference presentations. R out. And so I've been working on my. CFP for the American folklore conference, as well as publications and all sorts of other things. And as I was working on my abstract, I was really struggling with defining folklore. And figuring out its context, because whenever you enter a community, you're learning a whole new language fluency and you alluded. We're doing definitions. In context and things of that nature. So as I write in my abstract that I'm working on, I say, as any other community newbie, I struggle with grasping shared understandings, definitions, and culture. I had spent a year of independent research on nursery rhymes before I even became aware of an academic community of folklore. So as I anoint myself with the various definitions of folklore, such as the wonderful 1959. Bascom quote that I'll talk about here in a minute. I start seeing the study of folklore applicable everywhere. And I'm hoping for the AFS conferences speak on Jimmy Buffett in his life, which is so completely different than nursery rhymes, but it's still very important to me. I'm at the point where. I'm understanding context and understanding definitions and I'm learning this language and definitions. And so folklore. I would, I wanted to make sure that I was using definitions and functions and contexts. Appropriately so that when I go to publish or speak on it in this podcast or elsewhere, I'm speaking from a place of authority. In a 1950. Nine article at the same author Bascom. Has the following quote, which I just love. It's so poetic. It reads like a poem that talks about his definition of folklore and he was renowned folklore scholar especially in bridging the gap between social anthropology and folklore. So here's his quote from a 1959 article. Whenever a little by is sung to a child. Whenever did he a riddle, a tongue twister or accounting outright is used in the nursery or at school. Whenever sayings, Proverbs fables. Noodle stories, folktales reminiscence of the fireside or retold. Wherever out of the habit or inclination the folk indulge and songs and dances. In ancient games in merrymaking to mark the passing of the year or usual festivities. Whenever a mother shows her daughter how to sewed knit, spin, weave, embroider, make a coverlet. Bri the sash bacon old fashioned pie. Whenever a farmer on the ancestral plot, trains his son and the way long familiar or shows them how to read the moon and the winds to forecast the weather at sewing or harvest time. Whenever a village craftsmen, carpenter, Carver Shoemaker Cooper blacksmith, builder of wooden ships. Trains his apprentice in the use of tools shows them how to cut mortise and peg in a tenant. How to raise a frame house or a barn. How to string associates, how to carve a shovel, how to shoe a horse and shear sheep. Whenever in many callings, the knowledge experience, wisdom, skill, the habits and practices of the past are handed by example or spoken word, but the older to the new generations without references to book print or school teacher. Then we have folklore and it's personal domain. At work as ever alive and shifting always apt to grasp and assimilate new elements on its way. That was a article published by Bascom in the journal of folklore research. And again, I just love it. It's so poetic. And absolutely a wonderful. Gorgeous representation of all the things that folklore represents. And it essence, he's saying that folklore is the passing down of culture in contexts. And so. I wanted to talk a little bit more about Bascom, his view folklore and how he defines it. And I found this article so intriguing. The functions of folklore. That I just wanted to spend a podcast episode talking about it. In this article, He. His main purpose is to. Show the most effective way to bridge the gap between the. Anthropological and the humane points of view towards folklore. And he says the way to do that is through the common concern with common problems. Rather than relying as in the past on a common interest. And he says that the three most common concerns to anthropologists and therefore folk Loris. Are as follows. Number one, the social context of focal or number two, the relations of folklore to culture, which might have been phrased as the cultural context of folklore. And three, the functions of folklore. And so he talks about kind of the transitions between the anthropology studies in folklore. To give you a little bit of a background, folklore studies have been around for. Hundreds of years. I talk a lot about early collectors of nursery rhymes. From the 19th century, even the 18th century. And it's my hope to one day, write a book about these early collectors and how People started to recognize nursery rhymes as important to collect and to study from a historical point of view. And anthropology studies have been around forever. Right? As long as we've had a pass, we've wanted to study it. And there seems to have always been sort of a friendly competition or argument between anthropology studies and folklore and how to define the two of them and how to separate them. And. Frankly kind of makes me roll my eyes. Cause it's a bit of a squabble. From a perspective of people looking for funding, right. And academics. We pay attention to that because we want to get paid for what we do. We need a job. And so I feel like folklorist have spent a lot of time in the early days in the early 20th century. Trying to stand on their own merits because at the time anthropology, anthropology studies. We're in Vogue in the late 19th century, early 20th century. And so therefore they got more funding and folklorists are like, Hey, we're important too. We need our own funding. And nowadays, when you look at academics and funding history and humanities are so underfunded. Which is a whole other rants. Don't know if Tom's arguments. Would be as relevant today, just because we don't have this, the same sort of rivalry. But in any case, that's why he wrote this article is basically saying like folklore is its own department, its own field of study. And we need to be clear in our definitions so that we can stand apart and we can clearly define what we're doing. And that's what he does. And he says very clearly the anthropologists fail to use oral narratives in studying, and that's incredibly important. To understand the context of culture. And that's one of the main differences between folklore and anthropology. One of his first point in the article is that he really wants to be clear about the social context of folklore. A, because folklore cannot be understood outside of social context. Like you can't study folklore in a vacuum. And one of the biggest issues that early folklorist had is not considering our modern biases. When studying things the past, because our modern biases, our modern taboos our modern communities. Have completely different social context and social structures. Well, maybe not completely different, but different social structures than people of the past. And if we look through our lens with a modern bias, then we can not only miss important social contextual clues, but also misrepresent them. And so that's one of the first things that Bascom talks about. And so he does. A very good job discussing like what social context in folklore is. And he says there are six ways. Social context is folklore. So the first he says when and where the various forms of folklore are told. To who tells them whether or not their privately owned. And who composes the audience. Which I think is really important, this idea of ownership, because we're passing down things orally and we have to say, okay, who owns them? Who owned them? Who, where did it derive from. Things of that nature. Three dramatic devices employed by the narrator, such as gestures, facial expressions, pantomime, impersonation, or mimicry. So that's definitely different from anthropology because there is that. Acting nature of it. Which is important to folklorist because that says a lot about context, like the idea of gesture. In oral narratives. It's, it's very important to consider in social context to understand social context. So you continue to, we're saying for, is audience participation in the form of laughter ascent or other responses? Running criticism. Or encouragement of the narrator singing or dancing or acting out parts in the tail. Again, that's so unique to oral narratives. Or live performance is audience participation. And so we're not looking at something static. We're looking at something that's moving and changing and we're looking at the dynamics of change, the dynamics of contexts. And so that's what makes folklore much different than the study of just history. He continues to says number five is categories of folklore recognized by the people themselves. So full color can't exist without some sort of social conformity or. Social acceptance. Right? So folklore. Can't be. Disagreed on by a community. Cause then it's not folklore. It's just a tale that someone told that didn't take off. It's like a joke. That's not funny. And that's another convention of, of folklore social context. And finally, number six is the attitudes of the people toward these categories. And then again, that goes back to do the people agree that this is. A performance or a piece of folklore cause otherwise. That's not, and they have to, the audience has. As much as a role as the narrator. In creating folklore because otherwise it won't get passed down. It won't become a part of a social heritage or social culture. And so Bascom, I think. Really hits the nail on the head in the early parts of this article, by saying like, Folklore is unique because it's about performances. And performances can't happen without an audience. And those two things have to be understand, understood in a social context. In a community because if not, then it's not folklore. It's static. And I've definitely talked a lot about this with nursery rhymes. I've talked about like how important nursery rhymes are for family dynamics in teaching children. And so in this case, it's important to note like these nursery rhymes. Had to have there's something to them. To be popular enough to be passed down for hundreds of years. Because if they weren't popular, they wouldn't have been orally passed down to us. So we think about those ancient nursery rhymes, like London bridge is falling down or Hickory Dickory dock that are literally hundreds of years old. So. One of the questions to ask is what makes them so. S so catching to society that they keep being passed down. And I think that's a question that folklore your study is like, For people who study folklore could ask for hundreds of years and continue to ask and continue to write about. And to kind of try to, to define that, and maybe it can't be defined and that's fine as well. But to continue on. He says, you know, text. Is a part of folklore too. But he says the text of course is extremely important, but without the context, it remains lifeless. And I really like the way, the fact that he uses the term lifeless.'cause folklore is life. Folklore is movement. And I love the idea that folklore is alive. Not to say that.'cause I, you know, used to study literature in the past literature isn't alive, but folklore I think is so unique in so much fun. Because of community involvement. And if you understand the word prescriptive ism, You, it has to be from a prescriptive point of view because it can't exist without context. And I think maybe this dynamic of folklore. That's what makes it so fun to study and understand? Because it has to be considered in its context and you have to consider your own context. And in which you're currently living to understand folklore. So you don't accidentally add this biases. And I talk a lot about that too, when I'm talking about. Cecil Sharp's collection of these nursery rhymes on Appalachia. Where he naturally puts his own biases when he doesn't talk about the African-American communities or the German communities. You know, it's a natural biases that hinders his research because he. Is a product of his own time. And he. Misconstrue some social contexts because of it's because of his own social construction. And I think Bascom in the 1950s, really warns scholars about it. And it's unfortunate. When I'm trying to piece together a historical narrative in 2024. When the scholars in the early 19 hundreds don't consider it. But in any case, He also talks a lot about, and Bascom talks like the difference between the fairytale, legends and myths. And that's not really something that I'm super interested, but he says that. Familiar summary should show the importance of the recording of the native categories of folklore. And so he's basically saying like, it's important to understand how that specific a specific culture. Defines categories. And that's not something that I really struggle with because I'm specifically looking at nursery rhymes and nursery tails. But in any case, if you're interested in folklore, he says the times and places they're told the identity of the narrator and the composition of the audience, the factor of private ownership. The style of resuscitation and the participation by the audience, the attitudes of the people, and even the functions are to be. To a considerable extent. Unique or distinctive for the various categories for which they're recognized. So those social contexts that you talked about before are different. When we consider fairytales are different. When we consider legends in our different, when we consider myths, And he says, you know, be careful that if you're defining folklore in categories, you need to consider that all of these social contexts. Might change depending on what category you're looking at. Then he goes on to talk about, as folklore is a mirror to culture. And again, I've talked a lot about this. In my previous episodes. And that's one of the things that made me so interested in nursery rhymes to begin with. If you listen to my Hickory Dickory dock episode, or any of my episodes about sheep. I get really excited to talk about this because one of the things I was really, I was like, why are there so many nursery rhymes about sheep? And it's because I didn't know how important. Wolf farming was to great Britain. In the middle ages to the early modern ages. And because I, because I didn't know that. I didn't understand the nursery rhymes and the social construction and the mirror that they had because of it. And so it was, I thought it was really cool that not only was I was I learning about the history of these nursery rhymes, but in the same time, Because they are a mirror to history. I got to learn about important economical histories. Of England and that's not something I set out to do. So Bascom talks about this. He says, To extend to which folklore like language is a mirror of culture and incorporates descriptions of the details of ceremonies. Institutions and technology as well as the express or beliefs and attitudes. And it could be on that, like focal or talks about any aspect of society or culture that you can think of. It talks about history. It talks about the economic history, talks about political history, talks about food history. And I talked a lot about this in my. AFS conference presentation last year, like nears, your eyes should be studied because they talk about any aspect of life that you can think about. And folklore does the same folklore captures the essence of culture. That cannot be. Understood through static. So like if you go to a museum and you see a cooking pot, Yes. You can understand about the culture through that cooking pot, but you don't understand like the social context behind it or the, the culture behind it. You don't know what they were cooking. You don't know what they're talking about around the campfire when they were cooking. Or the oven when they're cooking. And nursery rhymes and other parts of folklore. When you're studying that, that's what you get. And that's, what's really excited for me. That's, that's what really sparks my interest. And Bascom talks about that through his use of the discussion of. A mirror of culture. And of course he says that folklore is important because it offers clues to defunct practices. Practices is that we don't do any more. That don't happen anymore. So. BAA black sheep talks about these tax brackets, but no longer exist. Right? So we can understand these economics through nursery runs through this folklore that no longer happens. And if we take our biases out, as much as we can, we can understand it. And a more holistic way. The second thing, he says that. Why folklore is important, is it it's. Offers clues to pass events. And so archaic. Costumes. Our K customer is no longer an actual practice.=And it may provide a meeting getting at. The esoteric features of culture, which cannot be approached in any other way. Because we're not part of that culture. So we're understanding culture. From an outsider's perspective and we can do that through folklore. Further, it may provide a means of getting at and revealing. The effect of elements of culture, such as attitudes, values, and cultural goals. And moreover may verbalize those in a form which needs only to be translated and coated is evidence of a consensus of opinion. And this really, he talks a lot about this when he talks about taboos, which we'll get about a minute, but this really like grinds my gears when I'm reading. People like sharp and Holly, well, Because I feel like their own personality sometimes. Overshadow what they're studying because they can't help put their own cultural biases on whatever they're studying. And that almost ruins. The history that they're studying because. If they're putting their own cultural biases and social contexts. On what they're studying. It ruins the essence of, of the original. So if folklore is talking about a cultural taboo in that culture, it may or may not be a taboo in our culture. And then, so if we are putting our feelings on their culture, it's more difficult to understand if that makes sense. And so that's why. Bascom and others talk about why it's so important to understand the full Florida study folklore is because we get. Look at culture through a different perspective in the gleam, what was taboo and what wasn't or what was important and what wasn't. And it's just another unique fact about it. He also talks about like different schools of folklorist, which I'm not really going to get into. One of the things I chuckled about was that. The problem with American anthropological or folklorist is that. We like I'll just read this quote. It says finally, the American anthropological quote-unquote school has been as collected in this respect as usual. Refusing to accept any single explanation for the many different cultures and historical situations without first examining the specific facts bearing upon each case. And when I annotate my article, my annotation says. LOL Americans can't commit and therefore are bad. And so I just kind of had to chuckle because yet again, I talked a lot. I talked about this too. Like when you're reading historians, And I talk about this with reading Opie, you can kind of like see their humor. If you read enough of their workers, see their biases. And so I don't know what if Basscon was American and I haven't looked at this history. But I just, from that reading that paragraph, it was really funny. I feel like he was really judging American schools and I take pride in that. Like I take pride in the fact that I have to look at things at the case by case basis. But in this article, he kind of says that it was. was. bad. And as he continues before he even talks, it starts talking about the functions of folklore. He does say that full-color, shouldn't draw conclusions about the context of different cultures. Especially if they're different from their own. So he says that certainly it can no longer be possible. We regard folklore simply as a true and accurate mirror of culture or to ignore the basic importance of investigating. The actual behavior in any society, the ideal patterns of an, any culture or the attitudes of any people whose folklore. Is to be interpreted. Even if there, if there are societies in which contrast between folklore and culture are completely absent, this fact in itself is important to know an attempt to explain. And I think that's, that's a really important note to make. Is Again, with social biases, with folklore and. Kind of taking folklore with a grain of salt too. So when he talks about like folklore, isn't a true Mir it's because of his functions, I'll get to that. And like one of the things that Florida needs to have. Is the idea of the unusual or impossible. And so like, you have. to understand, okay. Maybe this. Th this. folklore story is apocryphal or Just maybe an over-exaggerated or elements of it are added in for dramatic effect and not necessarily what that culture believes. That really gets into what he's describing as the four functions of full four, finally. Right. I've only been rambling here for. 26 minutes and I'm only getting into the key of the articles, but it was really important for. Bascom to kind of establish all these facts before he gets it to it, because he's just like, look. There have been all these arguments, but we need to take these things into consideration before we can even talk about. These functions of folklore and how fuck. How foreclosure. We've viewed. So in this article has four main functions of folklore that he argues are number one. So number one, folklore may mere culture, but also contains the unusual or impossible. So it's an exaggeration of a true culture. Number two folklore validates. A community or culture. So again, the community must buy into the folklore for it to become folklore. Otherwise it's just. Poorly told story. Number three folklore plays a part in a communities, education or pedagogy. And this is, I think very clearly stated in nursery rhymes or especially fairytales. So if we think of Grimm's fairytales that Aesop's fables their story, we tell children. As maybe to scare them into behaving, we're scared of them away from dangerous things. I always liked the Celtic folk tales. For example you know, don't go into the dark forest or you're going to be eaten by a bear things like, you know, real fears that communities had for their children or the community were told through folklore as. You know to teach tools, to teach her tools, to teach. As we see in tools, culture is a sh pedagological tool. And so this is no folklore for that folks for social approval. For the story, what is society wrong? And this goes back to careful. Not create hell. Our audience.

Microphone (2- G733 Gaming Headset)-3: 27:08

Literally as I was getting to the good part, talking about these four functions, my microphone died and I didn't realize it. So I rambled on for another 15 minutes before I realized I was no longer recording, which is very problematic because I have so much more to say. But looking at my timestamp. I think what I'm going to do is stop here for now and then do a second section where I talk about how nursery rhymes fit these four functions. So. That way I can kind of express my thoughts and use Bascom as a framework to discuss my own studies, which is essentially what I'm doing for this year's American. Folklore conference where I'm talking about how Jimmy buffet and his legacy fits these four functions. But in any case, I really like this article. Again This was published in the journal of the American folklore in the fall edition of 1954. It's called functions of folklore and Between recording this and then finding out my microphone was dead. I actually looked him up and he was an American anthropologist and folklorist and he was actually president of the American folklore. Foundation when he wrote this article. So this is actually was the address at the El Paso meaning. Which makes it, I think even more poignant. Because here was a person with power in the community. Using this as the address was a great way to kind of talk about what the society stands for as a whole. It's actually makes me feel a little bit more comfortable about using it as a framework as well, but that's kind of an aside, but in any case, stay tuned where I talk about how these four functions differently appear in nursery rhymes and how nursery arms are. Excellent. Examples of folklore. But in any case, stay tuned again. I've been very busy. So I'm trying to get to this podcast when I can, and I'm trying to be. Good about. And publication writing as well, just, you know, Been busy that's life. But I would love to hear feedback. I'm not hearing much feedback anymore as to please email me@infoautistictaskatpodcast.com. Lincoln the description. To tell me your thoughts. Let me know what you like about the podcast. What you want to see more of check out my new websites. It is a little bit more design friendly. I'll be adding to the blog. Because I need to change some of the format. So it's easy to read because when I changed the website, of course, all my blog. Structure went away, which is problematic websites, man. But yeah. Let me know what you think and continue to listen, or I'll talk about the weirdness of nursery rhyme and the amazingness to folklore.

29:42

Thank you for listening to a Tisket Tasket podcast. We hope you learned something valuable today. Be sure to subscribe wherever you heard this podcast so you never miss a future episode. If you found value in today's content, please share with others and consider leaving a review. Also, follow Gina on all social media platforms and we'll see you next time.