Folklore studies
Front cover of Folklore: "He loses his hat: Judith Philips riding a man", from: The Brideling, Sadling, and Ryding, of a rich Churle in Hampshire (1595) | |
| Field | Cultural anthropology, Anthropology, Ethnology, Cultural studies, Literary studies, Musicology, Sociology |
|---|---|
| Origin | Early 19th century Europe |
| Key people | Brothers Grimm, Franz Boas, Alan Dundes, Richard Dorson, Alan Lomax |
| Purpose | Study and preservation of Folklore, Oral tradition, Folk culture, Cultural heritage, and Traditional knowledge through Ethnography, Field research, and Archival research. Development of concepts like Folk process, Public folklore, and Folklife |
Folklore studies (also known as folkloristics and, in the United Kingdom, as tradition studies or folk life studies) is the interdisciplinary field within cultural anthropology that examines the creation, performance, and preservation of folklore.
The term folkloristics entered academic discourse in nineteenth-century Europe and, along with its English-language counterparts, gained currency in the 1950s as scholars differentiated the study of traditional culture from the artifacts themselves. In contemporary scholarship, the word Folkloristics is favored by Alan Dundes, and used in the title of his publication. Simon Bronner uses the term folklore studies to describe the discipline's intellectual history.
By the late twentieth century the field supported international and national institutions, including UNESCO's safeguarding initiatives and the American Folklife Center, which align folkloristic research with cultural heritage policy. Contemporary folklorists investigate how folk groups create, transmit, and adapt beliefs and practices using ethnographic and comparative methods to trace cultural continuity and change.