Four Field Approach to
Anthropology
Physical Anthropology
Cultural Anthropology
Linguistic Anthropology
Archaeology
Culture
Ethnocentrism
Cultural Relativism
Diversity
Culture as way of life
Culture as human trait
Eurocentrism
Afrocentrism
Culture Shock
Elements of culture:
Symbols
Language
Values
Beliefs
Culture is shaped by technology
Hunter/gatherer
Pastoralism
Horticulture
Agricultural
Industrial
Post industrial
Cultural Changes
Invention
Discovery
Diffusion
Subculture
Counterculture
Multicultural
Participant
Observation
Armchair
Anthropology
Folklore
Unofficial
vs. Official History
Oral
Traditions
Folkways:
a mode of thinking, feeling, or acting common to a given group of people
Legends/Folktales
Artifacts
Rituals
Urban
Legends
Key
People:
Bronislaw
Malinowski
Franz
Boas
Ruth
Benedict
Margaret
Mead
Bounded Theory
Unbounded Theory
Scientific Theory: An
observable, testable and correctable explanation for an observable phenomenon.
Religious Belief: unbounded,
not testable, do not uncover new knowledge
Lamark: Inheritance of
acquired characteristics
Darwin
Evolution
Natural
Selection
Struggle
for existence: Competition for scarce resources
Survival of the Fittest
Sexual selection: traits
exist to attract a species to the opposite sex
Group selection/Altruism:
sacrificing oneself for the good of the group
Adaptation
Bipedalism
Out of Africa Theory
Childhood Development in humans
Importance of cataclysmic events
Definition
of Folklore:
Folklore
is an integral part of being human. The discipline of folklore studies the
unofficial, the spoken, and the traditional forms of expressed culture, such as
legends (including urban ones), myths, folk music, jokes, festivals, and more.
It
is often contrasted with the printed word, yet the recent growth of the
internet and digital communications has brought the realms of popular culture
increasingly closer to folklore as well. Thus the field of folklore and popular
culture encompasses more than two hundred different genres such as folktales,
myths, legends, proverbs, jokes, games, folk medicine, and ethnomusicology.
Folklore, everyday
cultural forms of expression, are communicated, enjoyed, replicated, passed on,
modified, deployed and interpreted by all of us. We weave folklore effortlessly
into our daily lives, using folklore to shape and understand our world and our
place in it. We are all experts. So much so that most of the time our use and
reception of folklore goes unnoticed. Folklore operates in the realm of the obvious, taken for granted, self-evident, and thus is not designated as being open to interpretation. Thus, Folklore has been described as “quotidian” – the stuff that makes up everyday life, ordinary. But in the potential to convey meaning, create boundaries, constitute identity, and create sense out of nonsense, Folklore is anything but ordinary. Folklore, that stock of knowledge brought into specific situations, “…substantiates our belief in the connectedness and orderliness of the larger context of the everyday lifeworld.” (S. Stewart, Nonsense, pg. 11)
At the same time, as a construct, when we self consciously address the concept of folklore, it is laden with the historical legacy of 19th century European Romanticism, and much of what is recognized as “legitimate folklore” is derived from such concepts, which ultimately relegate folklore to “old wives’ tales” – falsehoods and superstitions that are grounded in anti-modern premises. Thus the term Folklore has come to encompass both subject and object, “theory” and data, “folk-wisdom” and disciplinary construct. Because Folklore is at once seen as both marginal and central to our daily endeavors, it is the object of “heritage preservation” and the salvage work of archives as well as being derided as old-fashioned, irrational, nonsense.
