Talk:Folklore

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[edit] Ethnicity

I took a university class on Folklore....and we didn't define it as just ETHNIC. Instead, we defined it as any set of words, sayings, etc. endemic to a specific group (or something like that!). For example, "blood bank" language. Or to be more specific, language of traveling blood-bank employees. firepink

[edit] Rewrite?

Just adding a couple of cents: There are several definitions on folklore, and the process of defining folklore is at the heart of scientific folklore studies (folkloristics). The American folklorist Dan Ben-Amos defined folklore as an artistic expression shared by a group of two or more people. I find it to be a very useful start. Folklore is in my opinion the essential building blocks of our world view, it is our commonly excepted beliefs, phrases and even genres. Tabloids, and even more serious reporting, are folkloric. Personally I think the folklore page needs a rewrite, what is there isn't wrong, it's just very outdated and very incomplete. Perhaps I'll do it myself... later

[edit] Categorizing folklore by motif

What is/are the common system(s) for categorizing folklore by motif? I've seen motif numbers such as E.320 and E.423.2.7 and H31416.1 in the book "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" by Alvin Schwartz, but I haven't been able to figure out what catalogue these numbers refer to. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

  • This would refer to the Motif Index of Folk Literature devised by Stith Thompson and expanded and developed by others working in different cultural areas. Antti Aarne is also a relevant figure in this field, who worked on the idea of tale types in folklore. I'm putting up requests for these articles, and hopefully some folklorist with some free time will address them. Bruxism 21:07, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Proposing a portal

On Wikipedia:Portal/Proposals, I've proposed adding a portal for folklore. These articles really need some kind of overarching organisation and clarity as to their scope, to fix a number of problems. The focus on ethnicity and ancient mythological writings is not really consonant with a current understanding on what folklore compasses. Smerdis of Tlön 03:49, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Latvia

Latvian folklore songs total about 1.5 million, roughly one for every full Latvian alive today. Nowhere else in the world exists that sort of ratio, yet they are not mentioned once.

[edit] Are red links evil?

A non-inlogged user has removed all red links from the article (but leaving the terms, as black text). I'd like to hear a motivation for this. (Personally, I see red links as an encouragement to create the articles in question, and hence not as something evil to be removed.) --JoergenB 13:54, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

No one seems to have a deviating opinion (and the anonymous user hasn't answered at User talk:216.68.185.13 either), whence I'll restore the red links now. --JoergenB 13:02, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] of course

of course this article doesn't cite its sources - even the writers of THIS article came from the mythical land of the Archipelago of The Philanthropic & Cloudriding. they were born 700,000 years ago, & came in an egg that a blackhole sent into our orbit & whose cracks bled & speckles cried. from the molten transport came a figurative figure named 216.114.101.149, who appeared on Earth riding a cloud, teleporting from the egg using his special powers, making what we must admit was a commanding appearance on the local scene. the categories were changed, suggested on, & minorly corrected for typos, & all was well in the land of folklore, as well as it could be for being an article that supposedly, accordingly to legend, does not cite it's source. but that is why i am writing now: i say they are part of culture now, the sources, whether they existed or not. (j/k) 24.177.102.71 09:26, 27 March 2007 (UTC)