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Four Functions of Fotlklore

The document discusses four functions of folklore according to William R. Bascom. It begins by discussing how anthropologists and humanists can bridge differences in perspectives on folklore by focusing on common problems rather than subject matter alone. It then expands on three common problems of interest to anthropologists - the social context of folklore, the relationship between folklore and culture, and the functions of folklore. The document quotes Hallowell saying that while anthropologists often collect folklore from studied cultures, they rarely make subsequent use of this material and it remains on the margins of anthropological studies due to traditional focuses on literary-historical problems rather than other types of analysis.

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620 views2 pages

Four Functions of Fotlklore

The document discusses four functions of folklore according to William R. Bascom. It begins by discussing how anthropologists and humanists can bridge differences in perspectives on folklore by focusing on common problems rather than subject matter alone. It then expands on three common problems of interest to anthropologists - the social context of folklore, the relationship between folklore and culture, and the functions of folklore. The document quotes Hallowell saying that while anthropologists often collect folklore from studied cultures, they rarely make subsequent use of this material and it remains on the margins of anthropological studies due to traditional focuses on literary-historical problems rather than other types of analysis.

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yarid taye
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© © All Rights Reserved
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FOUR FUNCTIONS OF FOLKLORE

BY WILLIAM R. BASCOM

IN a paper given at the El Paso meetings last year I expressed the opinion that the
most effective way to bridge the gap between the anthropological and the humanist
points of view towards folklore is through a common concern with common
problems, rather than relying as in the past on a common interest in a common
body of subject matter. I also attempted to explain the anthropological approach to
folklore, and extended the invitation for someone to present in a similar manner the
viewpoint of the humanities.' I do not propose tonight2 to reverse my role
completely and take up my own challenge. I believe that this job can be done far
more competently by a non-anthropologist, although I am still convinced that if this
underlying disagreement can be brought out into the open and discussed
moderately and rationally, in the same spirit in which I attempted to do it, it will be
for the ultimate good of our Society.

This year, when we are meeting with the American Anthropological Association, I
propose rather to expand on three of these common problems which are of especial
concern to anthropologists, but which could only be mentioned in passing last year.
These are: (i) the social context of folklore, (2) the relations of folklore to culture,
which might be phrased as the cultural context of folklore, and (3) the functions of
folklore. The most appropriate transition between what I said last year and what I
have to say tonight is a quotation from Hallowell: So far as the anthropologists are
concerned I believe it is fair to say that while it has been customary over a long
period to collect a representative sample of the oral narratives of the people they
happen to be studying, it is an open secret that, once recorded, very little
subsequent use may be made of such material. Indeed, these archival collections,
once published, often moulder on our shelves waiting for the professional folklorist,
or someone else, to make use of them in a dim and uncertain future.... The
consequence has been that, for many anthropologists, folklore becomes a floating
segment of culture and the close study of the oral narratives of a people they
investigate may remain of marginal interest to them, except for the obvious
connections such as those between myth and religion. This marginal position which
oral narratives have occupied in anthropological studies is not due to the inherent
nature of the material but to a failure to exploit fully the potentialities of such data.
Perhaps the major barrier has been the traditional emphasis upon problems of a
literary-historical nature, almost to the exclusion of the investigation of other types
of problems. Scholars, like the rest of folks, may become tradition- bound. Over a
long period of time, at least, the major contributions to the study of oral narratives,
both inside and outside of anthropology, seem to have remained within the 1 W.
Bascom, "Folklore and Anthropology," JAF, 66 (1953), 283-290. 2 Presidential
address delivered at the Sixty-fifth Annual Meeting of the American Folk- lore
Society, Tucson, 27 December I953.

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