Folklore 2.2

Sir James George Frazer (1843-1937)

-Did not do any fieldwork; always did in research in the library, but did talked to people.
-Trinity college in Cambridge.
-Wrote 300 books and pamphlets, etc.
-Consulted library over 30,000 books.

-Looked at what other people who did fieldworks had collected, analyzed those materials, and put them in some contextual order.

-comparison at a distance
-Sir James Frazer
-Scholar stayed in the space of scholarship (i.e. library)
-Collected from strangers during "brief and pleasurable encounters)
-Sought out information from others (merchants, missionaries, colonial officials, etc.)
-Developed modes of comparing and analyzing folklore from a wide range of sites.

Alan Lomax (1915-2002)

-Field collecting of folklore items
-Went to the folks directly
-Learn: did not learn about the community as a whole: Only extracted the folk songs' texts, not the texture. but did record the texture (tape recording).
-Knew little about context. Did not record the contex.t

-scholar traveled to places inhabited by performers
-collected from strangers during "brief and pleasurable encounters"

-*focused on the texts, and very little on context (Alan Lomax)--but growing use of new communicative technologies (tape recorders) helped with recording the context.

Henry Glassie (1941- )

-scholars travel to places inhabited by performers--AND stay there for extended periods.
-Use local language(s).
-Focus on FULL RANGE of folklore found there: get the ENTIRE SOCIAL life in the community
-(Contrast with Field collecting that only focuses on the text and texture--not context--Alan Lomax)
-Full Social life: (see Henry Glassie)
-Analysis often centered on COMPETENCE and PERFORMANCE (refer also to Dell Hymes and Richard Bauman)--what counts as knowing the song and ability to perform the song.
-Focus on the social significance of the folklore in people's everyday lives

Ethnography of Speaking type of folklore fieldwork
-Stayed in the community for an extended period.
-Immersed himself in the culture.
-Focused on collecting a full social life in that community;
-architecture, material culture, food, songs, stories, proverbs, festivals, world views, etc.

-community members often seek out the folklorists and request that they collaborate with them.
-the subject is chosen by the community
-the research agenda is established collectively.
-the subject and goal of the research often centered on crisis, social problems, and other issues of immediate interest to community members;

-Members of community: participate actively in the doing of the research
-Research: oral history, interviews, etc.

-Results written collectively--including different kinds of texts oriented toward different audience and serving distinct goals.

Robert Glenn Howard

-scholars travel to the internet or social media
-may have face-to-face meetings
-engage in new forms of documentation (emails)
-Context is variable: emails, chatting, different scenario, specific website, tweet, tumblr, practice, etc.
-Methodologies are still being devised.
-Hard to generalize: create distinct possibilities and raise different issues.
-New frontier of folklore research!