100 years of American folklore studies: a conceptual history dj52w504x

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100 YEARS OF AMERICAN FOLKLORE STUDIES

A Centennial Publication

of the |

American Folklore Society published in conjunction with The 1988 Centennial Meeting Cambridge, Massachusetts October 26-30, 1988

BLANK PAGE

100 YEARS OF AMERICAN FOLKLORE STUDIES A CONCEPTUAL HISTORY

edited by

William M. Clements | with production editors

David Stanley Marta Weigle

1988 The American Folklore Society Washington, DC.

Funding for the publication of 100 YEARS OF AMERICAN FOLKLORE STUDIES: A CONCEPTUAL HISTORY

was provided by a grant from

The L. J. Skaggs and Mary C. Skaggs Foundation. Copyright © 1988 by The American Folklore Society. All rights reserved.

Designed by Mary Powell

Printed in the United States of America for Ancient City Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico Library of Congress Catalogue Number: 88-071848

Membership in the American Folklore Society Membership in the Society is open to all persons interested in folklore. Annual dues are: individuals, $30.00; students, $15.00; partner (of member), $15.00; and life membership, $600.00. Members of the Society automatically receive the Journal of American Folklore (published four times per year) and the American Folklore Society Newsletter (published six times per year). Institutional subscriptions to the Journal of American Folklore are $40.00 annually. Members may purchase publications of the American Folklore Society at a special discount. To join the Society, order additional copies of this book, or inquire further about the Society and its work, write:

The American Folklore Society 1703 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009

CONTENTS

Greetings from the President vii

Preface xi

The Centennial Coordinating Council ix

Centennial Publications ix

PART I: Nineteenth Century Backgrounds 1 W. K. McNeil, Pre-Society American Folklorists 2

American Folklore Studies 6

Simon J. Bronner, The Intellectual Climate of Nineteenth- Century

Rosemary Lévy Zumwalt, On the Founding of the American Folklore

Society and the Journal of American Folklore 8

PART II: The Concept of “Folklore” 11 Hugo A. Freund, Cultural Evolution, Survivals and Immersion:

The Implications for Nineteenth-Century Folklore Studies 12

Mac E. Barrick, Folklore and the Verbal Text 16

John Michael Vlach, Folklife and the Tangible Text 18

Jack Santino, Folklore as Performance and Communication 21

. PART III: The Concept of “Folk” 25 | Sylvia Grider, Salvaging the Folklore of “Old English” Folk 26 William H. Wiggins, Jr, Afro-Americans as Folk: From Savage to Civilized 29

Indian Traditions 33

Keith Cunningham, Native Americans as Folk: Collecting and Compiling

United States 36

Eric L. Montenyohl, The Folk Abroad: American Folklorists Outside the

the Shop Floor 40 Susan Kalcik, Womenfolk 44

Robert McCarl, The Folk as Occupational Group: From the Cow Camp to

PART IV: The Concept of “Folklorist” 51 Carl Lindahl, The Folklorist and Literature: Child and Others 52 W. K. McNeil, The Folklorist and Anthropology: The Boasian Influence 55 Claire R. Farrer, The Folklorist and Linguistics: From Boas to Hymes 58

Three Approaches 61

Lynwood Montell and Barbara Allen, The Folklorist and History:

Ronald L. Baker, The Folklorist in the Academy 65

Burt Feintuch, The Folklorist and the Public 70

Officers of the American Folklore Society U7 Fellows of the American Folklore Society 18 Editors of the Journal of American Folklore 19

Publications of the American Folklore Society 80 Annual Meetings of the American Folklore Society 82

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oo fo - } a lished. Then in 1886 George Washington Cable 0 ese ieee color novelist, produced two articles for Century .,rr—“—“‘“C ‘“‘“‘C;RCOC*CO Magazine dealing with Creole Negro folksong and

Frederic Ward Putnam, AFS p resident, 1892. dance. In these essays Cable touched on two topics

Courtesy of National Anthropological Archives, —

4|

a rrrrr— Sr ——C Cr was the dispute over the banjo and its use by black

ee See Po ee a musicians, Cable flatly stating that “it is not the favor-

9 8 ite musical instrument of the negroes of the Southern

Negro songs had originated in Africa, a view of as an authority on folklore, but he was not reticent Cable’s that received little challenge from his Ameri- about offering theories. At least two that he included in can contemporaries but was firmly opposed by some his Uncle Remus volumes were accepted unquestionforeign writers like the Englishman Richard Wal- ingly by most later students of Afro-American lore: that lashek. The most damaging attack on the theory of the folktales of blacks were of remote African origin and African origins, however, came many years later with did not betray European influences, and that Negro the publication of Newman Ivey White’s American folktales had not been influenced by those of the Ameri-

Negro Folksongs (1928). can Indian, as John Wesley Powell and others had sugIn the same decade Cable’s articles appeared, a sec- gested. On this latter point Harris was supported by no ond kind of Negro folklore came into public view, one less an authority than folktale scholar Thomas E Crane which all commentators agreed was of purely African (1844-1927) who, in an 1881 review article, concluded origin. This body of black lore was the animal tales that the idea of blacks’ borrowing narratives from the handed down from generation to generation by word red man was “an hypothesis no one would think of

of mouth. They first gained widespread prominence maintaining” in 1880 through the efforts of Georgia newspaperman Several other American folklorists were active in Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1909). Harris had heard the years before 1888 but exerted little influence in Afro-American folktales much of his life, but his writ- their homeland. For example, Theodor Baker (1851ing on the subject was sparked by a December 1877 1934), who in 1882 produced the first ethnomusicoarticle, “Folklore of the Southern Negroes,’ in Lippin- logical study of North American Indian music, had cott’s Magazine. Taking exception to author William little success because his work was written in a foreign Owens’ efforts, Harris produced his own book, Uncle language and was generally inaccessible. Charles GodRemus: His Songs and His Sayings (1880), which was frey Leland (1824-1903) and Jeremiah Curtin (1835-

received as a literary and folkloristic masterpiece. 1906) were peripatetic scholars who spent so much Although Harris protested that he was both an time in other parts of the globe that they never had accidental author and an unintentional folklorist, time or opportunity to develop strong followings at there can be no doubt that his various books had a home. It was the study of American Indians and black profound effect on the subsequent collecting of Afro- traditions, therefore, that became the foundation for

American folktales. organizing people with similar interests into an Harris was sometimes uncomfortable being regarded American society for collecting and studying folklore.

5

THE INTELLECTUAL CLIMATE OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICAN FOLKLORE STUDIES SIMON J. BRONNER The Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg

The nineteenth century was the century of history, a And twenty-four years later, Lee J. Vance used the time for looking backward to the origins of civilization intellectual backdrop of evolution to present pressing while politicians and industrialists urged the rapid questions for educators in the Chautauquan. “The stuadvance of an industrial society. Natural history dent of folk-lore;’ he wrote, “is constantly asked, what provided the rhetoric for scientific and_ political is this folk-lore of whch we hear so much and know so pronouncements of all kinds. Charles Darwin’s Origins little? Pray tell us, what is the use of folk-lore study? of the Species (1859) had set out evolutionary doctrines Again, has it any educational or scientific value at all? that ultimately pervaded sciences from anatomy to zool- Once more, what is the true place of folk-lore in the hisogy. Lasting terms such as “survival,” “progress,” “origin, tory of mental and social evolution?” “selection,” and “development” came out of this intellec- Folklore studies, the answer typically went, traced the

tual fervor. progress of civilization by collecting, classifying, and When applied to society and culture, popular writers arranging customs, beliefs, and objects into evolutionclaimed, evolution put the rise of the western industrial ary lines. The lines showed the advance of science over nations in perspective. How else explain, they asked, the superstition, civilized manners over exotic rituals, indusprogress of England and America while savage societies tries over primitive crafts. Customs were especially remained stuck in an ancient existence? With progress, stressed, for they emphasized social usage and appeared such societies could rise to a barbaric state before to the Victorians to be especially irrational. The collecadvancing to civilization. But as with biological speci- tion of traditions took on the methods of natural hismens, the lines of development converged as one went tory, with specimens gathered through fieldwork and back in time. These evolutionary ideas suggested a compared with specimens from other locales. rationality of history that appealed to industrialism and By the 1890s, writers on folklore had published popuits handmaid, science. They justified colonization, for lar works on the raging issues of the day. They offered example, for in addition to expanding their own mar- Woman’s Share in Primitive Culture, Primitive Industry, kets, the civilized nations could help the “lower races” The Origins of Invention, and Primitive Travel and Trans-

climb the ladder of culture toward civilization. portation. Yet besides explaining industrial progress, The growth of science and evolution as prescriptions many folklore books provided the sensuality and fantasy for change came at the expense of religion. Theology that Victorians felt missing from the new rationality. had earlier provided formulas for living based on a short, Books on fairy tales, supernatural stories, and exotic and visible past rather than the long, hidden one offered by spiritualistic rites filled shelves. It was this upsurge that evolution. Change, according to theology, was drastic led Fletcher S. Bassett, organizer of the third Internaand cataclysmic; a long, hidden past made change the tional Folklore Congress at the Chicago World’s Fair of

logical culmination of steady growth. 1893, to declare that folklore had become “a subject of It was thus with a twist of irony that a lengthy review the day.” of a spate of folklore books appeared in the popular Two years after that assembly, folklorists rose to promimagazine Littell’s Living Age in 1866. The essay was nence at the Congress of American Scientists in signed by “The Christian Remembrancer,’ but the tone Philadelphia. The meeting was the crowning glory of was baldly evolutionary. “Folk-lore;’ the Remembrancer Victorian folklore study and perhaps its last hurrah said, “is a modern word, telling in its very construction before an age of relativism took hold and opened a cenof the period of its formation. We feel as sure that it tury of ethnography. At the congress, folklorists took belongs to the stratum of the Teutonic Archaism as we their place alongside psychologists, morphologists, and do that ‘Popular Superstition’ is of the Latin Deposit.” mathematicians. Many of these disciplines had formed

6

organizations in the wave of learned societies established PO ee a during the 1880s. Typically, the societies were devoted to ee 2S oo subjects outside the classical university curriculum. — - { — | ~ re a | LC

They were thus not cells of academicians, but loosely a FF... status symbol. The societies attracted writers and oo | 4 ee ment workers, physicians, lawyers, and military officers. Sr —™——

Asa result of their broad base andthe appeal of their, | | Mf under the cloak of scientific advance. oe = oa SU

publications, these societies informed the popular mind oe SS fo ee a —

American Scientists in 1895. “Scientists Make Great OC Progress,’ the Philadelphia Inquirer announced, followed = | = | REE by “Folk-Lore is Discussed.” “Important Papers on Many a 7 : S — a: . . — doings that led the story. The story of folklore, told in Fe ,rr”—“—t—OSO—OC—CSisSCSCisé‘CRCN

evolutionary fashion, confirmed the Victorians’ lofty | Horatio Hale, APS president, 1893. Courtesy of |

opinion of themselves. It predicted a future civilization ee EOE RS SE they called “neurasthenia,’ a brand of nervousness and ee a oo -—

unease caused by the stresses of “overcivilization.” oO aS Se — — oo But this vision of the evolution of society and culture — oe — — : — oe : —

was dimmed by a combination of historic events: the _. : 8 ee - oe - a ——

Intellectuals after the turn of the century searched for 9 | f= @ i and adopted new models, most notably the relativistic a Fe... rr Cr—rs—= metaphors provided by physics and geography | = | Mr WM |

Although folklore’s star fell somewhat in this process, it 3 —__ fe! .

between the humanities and social sciences. o e . : . _ _— - oe

_TuloneUnwernityArchvess

/

ON THE FOUNDING OF THE AMERICAN FOLKLORE SOCIETY

AND THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN FOLKLORE ROSEMARY LEVY ZUMWALT Davidson College

| March 1887 a circular letter containing a proposal quence of my getting the things from Abbotsford, for the founding of “a Folk-lore Society in America” was which upset work which I supposed to be done, and so quietly, perhaps timidly, sent to a faithful few. It garnered coming into embarrassment with my printers.” Child

seventeen signatures. In October of the same year, focused all his energy, he wrote, on “having things in another letter was sent, this time with more success; 104 such shape that, in case of accident, the book might be people signed. Writing in Popular Science Monthly in complete.” The ballad work was a jealous mistress and 1893, AFS charter member Lee J. Vance recalled, “The would allow him no time apart. Thus, he wrote to outcome was that, on the 4th of January, 1888, a goodly Daniel Garrison Brinton, chair of the Committee of number of persons interested in folk-lore study assem- Arrangements for the upcoming Philadelphia meeting, bled in University Hall, Harvard University. Then and his state of health would not allow him to attend the there The American Folk-Lore Society was born and first AFS annual meeting. Child expressed a desire, we baptized?” It was a healthy birth for both the Society and imagine somewhat breathlessly, not to be reelected to the Journal of American Folklore, as we hear from those office. in attendance. Their voices reach across the years. We In his Popular Science Monthly article, Vance singled hear them in the correspondence of the founders, in the out Newell as the leading figure: “The man who is first issues of JAF, and in the minutes of the AFS. responsible for the very existence of such an organizaLet us go back one hundred years to Cambridge, Mas- tion as The American Folk-Lore Society is William sachusetts, to that first organizational meeting. The Wells Newell. He it was who issued the call to arms, who main order of business was the election of officers. In drafted the circular letter. . ., [and] who has generously recognition of “his long and splendid service in the field)’ given his time and services to the cause of folk-lore.” Francis James Child was chosen president. William Wells When AFS was founded, Newell was forty-nine years Newell was elected secretary, and fourteen Councilors old and of independent means. Like other wealthy and were named “to conduct the affairs of the new society.” well-educated men of the time, he chose science as his Franz Boas, T. Frederick Crane, J. Owen Dorsey, and avocation, although his formal education had not preNewell were appointed to the Committee for the Forma- pared him for this field. After graduating second in his tion of the Journal. This 1888 meeting was strictly class at Harvard in 1859, Newell entered Harvard Divinorganizational. It was the 1889 meeting, to be held in ity School, where he took his degree in 1863. He worked Philadelphia, which would be the first annual meeting for a short time as a Unitarian minister in Germantown,

of the new American Folklore Society. Pennsylvania, then as a tutor in philosophy at Harvard At the time of his election to the presidency, Francis from 1868 to 1870. Subsequently, he opened a private James Child was finalizing the seventh volume of The school in New York, where he began collecting chilEnglish and Scottish Popular Ballads. This work, which he dren’s games, which resulted in Games and Songs of referred to as one of his religions, was also his life’s pas- American Children (1883). In the early 1880s, Newell sion. He wrote to a friend on June 13, 1888, “I am now retired from teaching, toured Europe, and then settled kept with very sharp nerves by the necessity of printing in Cambridge to a life of private scholarship. His selfless up my book which ought to be done leisurely. I have the dedication won praise from Franz Boas in a letter writliterature of the past two or three years to run through, ten in 1907: “He always seemed to me in a way like a repbut must print very soon.” The pressure continued dur- resentative of a time of greater devotion to ideals and a ing Child’s second year as president of AFS. Having at greater unselfishness than we are accustomed to find at last succeeded after years of effort in obtaining a crucial the present time.” ballad manuscript, he wrote his friend, “For a good Newell largely shaped the early development of AFS, many days I have not had a breathing-spell in conse- throwing himself wholeheartedly into securing what he 8

called in correspondence with Boas “the scientific future founding until his death in 1907. of the Journal.” It was he who named the prospective It was Newell’s vision that gave shape to the nascent editors of JAF, and who chose Philadelphia for the 1889 JAE In the opening passage of Volume I, “On the annual meeting. He worked closely with the thirty-year- Field and Work of a Journal of American Folk-Lore,” old Boas, who had endless energy for scientific work but Newell designated as a primary concern of AFS the was by no means established in his profession. Boas, publication of a journal “of a scientific character.” This

newly arrived from his native Germany, had become a would provide “(1) For the collection of the fastUnited States citizen in 1887. He was employed as an vanishing remains of Folk-Lore in America. . . [and]

anthropology instructor at Clark University between (2) For the study of the general subject.’ And 1888 and 1892, in what proved to be less than a secure although Newell later expanded, modified, and clari-

position. fied his initial statement, he consistently emphasized Together Newell and Boas were a powerful combina- the collection of material that was threatened by the tion, but it is clear who was dominant. In Newell’s let- forces of the “uniformity of the modern world; and ters, we can hear the tones of leadership and diplomacy. insisted on the scientific orientation needed for such On March 15, 1888, he wrote to Boas, “I agree heartily work. to your proposal in regard to division of the field, and Here the rumblings of disciplinary dispute can be empower you”—then choosing a more egalitarian heard. In an essay published in the 1890 Transactions phrase, scratched out “empower you” and continued— of the New York Academy of Science, Newell was “think you had better arrange with Mr. Dorsey for emphatic that folklore was part of anthropology. But dividing the Indian tribes in any way you see fit’ Newell he assayed to be fair: “the subject has two sides, the settled plans for the Philadelphia meeting “on the day aesthetic or literary aspect, and the scientific aspect.” after Thanksgiving, at the University, by invitation of In correspondence he counseled Boas that this balthe Provost.” But, he wrote to Boas, he was concerned ance should be maintained in JAF: “To carry out the about geographical representation: “The people in publication scheme, | would print two volumes annuPhiladelphia have made very energetic efforts in regard ally: one of Indian Lore, one of English, French, etc., to their meeting, as you can judge by the fact that they as long as the material held out.’ Newell’s weight, have elected about fifty new members. . . .I think I may though, was thrown in full measure to the side of be the only delegate from this part of the world. I don’t anthropology, for as he said to the New York Acalike this at all; and propose to induce members here to demy of Sciences, “In its broader meaning..., folk-

send some one as a delegate.” lore is a part of anthropology and ethnography,

In further correspondence with his younger col- embracing the mental side of primitive life, with espeleague, Newell wrote, “I hope that you will go to cial reference to the narratives in which beliefs and Phila., at any cost of trouble. It is very desirable that habits are related or accounted for” Newell’s slant the Journal should be represented by some editor toward anthropology was also reflected in JAE The other than myself. Being the first meeting, it is impor- articles by “the Indian men”—as the anthropological tant to get things right.” And in the same letter, he folklorists were called—far outnumbered those of the noted that Daniel Garrison Brinton and Washington literary folklorists, sometimes referred to as “the EngMatthews should be added to the editorial commit- lish folklorists.” tee: “If then the Committee wish me to be general Edi- In the first two years of AFS, Newell was careful to tor, I am willing to be such; and as I have done most of balance political forces. He astutely assessed which the work, and must take the responsibility, perhaps developments would have lasting impact and which my name might appear separate as General Editor.’ were of little concern. When Child was unable to Boas did attend the meeting in Philadelphia and put attend the first annual meeting, Newell wrote a postforth just that suggestion, which was recorded in the script in a letter to Boas, which among other things minutes in almost exactly those words. Brinton then mentioned the rotation of the presidential chair on a made a formal motion “that the Journal be directed geographical basis: “As to President, being in Phila., I by an editor, and by an Editorial Committee, who take it Brinton will be elected. I think, possibly, it should be named by the Council.” The outcome was might be well to have it understood that rotation in that Newell served as editor of JAF from 1888 to 1900. office will be encouraged. Prof. Child, who will resign

He was also Permanent Secretary of AFS from its this year, thinks it might be well. I don’t think that the 9

rr presidency matters, if the Washington people are kept 6 |. rCCi(‘(‘ ‘(ROOOOUUOUCUULUUmUmLUCUCUCM some early tensions within AFS. There were

| FF er geographical and institutional groupings, with the — ee CU CS™Ss—OC‘iS__ most powerful forces located in Philadelphia, Wash-

| Ff a et ington, New York, and Cambridge. There was a disae 2 - ciplinary shift from a president who represented the

it 7 lice rr literary side to one who represented the anthropologiox | — cal. Behind-the-scenes negotiating over policy took - ad , “pupae Sl tance of keeping people in “good humor”

=>. a Newell’s report on the founding of AFS in the first i — volume of JAF and the report of the first annual meet-

. — ing in Philadelphia in the third volume conceal well —— the struggles for power and control. Yet in keeping

ltt i lore SocietyAFS did:president, it struggled |wo...) Washington Matthews, 1895.and y Besurvived. | Courtesy of National Anthropological Archives,

. ea xraEase lt

| John Gregory Bourke, AFS president, 1896.

| Courtesy of Museum of New Mexico.

10

Part If

THE CONCEPT OF “FOLKLORE” The four essays that follow show how ways of defining and redefining “folklore”—a word invented in 1846 by an Englishman, William J. Thoms, to replace the term “popular antiquities’”—not only affected how material was studied, but determined what was studied. While current advocates of concepts of “folklife” and “folklore enactment” represent and draw upon the most contemporary theories about expressive culture, their most direct conceptual ancestors are those who studied “folk-lore” in the late nineteenth century. In this section, Hugo A. Freund shows how some of the founders and early members of AFS derived their discipline’s most basic concept from the evolutionary theory of their contemporaries and how the ideology of cultural evolution shaped their work. Mac E. Barrick considers the implications of perceiving folklore as a verbal “text” to be investigated with the tools developed by philologists of the nineteenth century and later refined by twentieth-century students of written and oral literary texts. John Michael Vlach reflects on how and why the museum professionals who comprised much of the early AFS membership were not able to entrench the study of artifacts in American folklore studies, and he demonstrates that nevertheless they have intellectual heirs among current students of “folklife” and “material culture.” Finally, Jack Santino examines the growing influence of those folklorists who see “performance” or “process” as central to the discipline. Occasionally, folklorists may lament the seeming lack of agreement among their fellows on which concept of “folklore” best represents their work, but perhaps one of the strengths of the discipline and of AFS has been the ability to accommodate the diversity suggested by these essays.

I]

CULTURAL EVOLUTION, SURVIVALS, AND IMMERSION: THE IMPLICATIONS FOR NINETEENTH-CENTURY FOLKLORE STUDIES HUGO A. FREUND | University of Pennsylvania

Weiiting in 1890, Daniel Garrison Brinton, second verities, whenever institutions are calculated to foster president of AFS, noted, “Culture and civilization and extend them, that country, those institutions, take are. . .terms not always correctly employed. The former noble precedence over all others whose efforts are is the broader, the generic word. All forms of human directed to lower aims.” Nineteenth-century folklorists society show more or less culture; but civilization is a cer- such as Brinton focused less on the investigation of indi-

tain stage of culture, and a rather high one, when men vidual cultures than on evaluating them in comparison unite under settled governments to form a state or com- to modern western civilization. For instance, Brinton monwealth. . .with acknowledged individual rights.” It viewed “Mohammedans” and “Brahmins” as members

is clear from Brinton’s statement that nineteenth- of “lower” faiths. century enthusiasts who studied “folk-lore” were Although Brinton objected to the theory of cultural imbued with theoretical assumptions that diverged from evolution based upon material development, he subtoday’s understanding of culture. Today, scholars view scribed to a vision of progress in which western civiliza-

culture as a consensual negotiation, a system whereby tion was the pinnacle toward which mankind strove. a group interprets the world in a meaningful fashion. In Influenced by Edward Burnett Tylor and Lewis Henry general, contemporary folklorists are concerned with a Morgan, Brinton in 1885 classified cultures according to particular spectrum of cultural expression, especially general stages of development: savagery, barbarism, those heightened moments of cultural significance semi-civilization, civilization, and enlightenment. Each enacted in meaningful ways. The nineteenth-century stage was distinguished from the others by the appearconcept of “culture” predated AFS, and the individuals ance of a complex set of characteristics. In the case of the

who founded the Society naturally grounded their semi-civilized stage, a system of writing, a caste system, developing view of culture in the larger theoretical milieu and a theocratic government were seen as the salient fea-

of the period. From AFS’s 1888 founding to 1900, its tures. Like the European Middle Ages, contemporary journal was dominated by the notion of culture as elabo- Muslim countries and pre-Columbian cultures in the

rated by Brinton and his colleagues. New World qualified as semi-civilized. The concern for Brinton intertwined his notion of culture with current progress and for identifying the stage to which a culture theories of social development and progress. As an had advanced was less an exercise in social Darwinism active early member of AFS, Brinton read papers at than a way of highlighting the accomplishments of - most of its annual meetings and thus may be seen today modern civilization while bemoaning what is lost when as an important representative of the prevailing opinion a “lesser” culture begins to emulate civilized western among folklorists about the emerging discipline’s basic ways. While establishing a silent hierarchy with their concepts. In an address before the New Jersey Histori- own “civilized” culture ranked at the top, Brinton and cal Society in 1896, he suggested that each culture is others blunted their chauvinism with a romantic admiguided by a set of abstract laws and ideals and that such ration for “lower” groups. institutions as religion, art, and law might not be sub- The principal influence behind such attitudes was the ject to universal principles. But Brinton was no relativist. English anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor, who He was quick to judge a culture in terms of its degree of forcefully argued that culture was a matter of progress “civilization” He noted, “Reason, Truth, Justice and Love and development culminating in civilization. Thus JAF

have been, are, and ever will be the same. Time and editor William Wells Newell lauded Tylor as one who place, race and culture, make no difference. Whenever undertook “to investigate the development of the a country is engaged in the diffusion of these immortal human mind, through its various stages of animal, sav12

simply the unstoppable progress of every culturetoward = |

civilization. He also inspired later scholars to view folk- oo oS sos Pe ——

lore through the lens of what came to be called “sur- t= 7 — vivals.” Mythology, folktales, customs, and other tradi- >= le oo tions were seen as examples of processes from earlier « = q «a ?

stages of cultural development that had persisted alone fs 7 7? : . Rio Grande Valley of southern Texas, for example, John — Ff , j Ales RP. i.

the clothing of the Moorish working classes and then Ff - i Are ES Dl the exact amount of ‘survival’ can at once be deter | A beliefs and customs [as]. . . survivals of the mythologies, — —_ i - + —

the legal usages, and sacred rites of earlier generations.” ll ; -_—

Newell viewed children’s singing games as survivals off

love “ vances from European courts of the thirteenth | Stewart Cu lin, ABS president, 1897. Courtesy of |

i dy | National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian —

The concept of “survivals” never completely ingen

prevented scholarly recognition of contemporary cul- a. |. — tural diversity throughout the world, but that recogni- — r—“‘—“i—O—C—C—C—*ONC

tion was limited to using existent cultures to interpret - —r—“—i—”—C anthropologists and folklorists (the distinction between ff

these disciplines was as complex then asitistoday)thus |

colored their conception of the ethnographic present. | : i “i | Since living cultures were meaningful only as they oo , a 7

reflected the past, ethnographic studies became exercises — 8 1 4 - ~~ ~~

in pursuing traces of history, examining hints of the past 4 _ 1 a

without considering their significance for the present. I . _ | — i Each stage of cultural development was thought to be -- Ft 4 —s a 1 —

layer had no inherent meaning except as an indicator of | a i — researchers writing for JAF with an almost haughty dis- ia SH. . regard, bordering on racism, for such groups as Mexi- - . / at es . ky s & | .

Tyloreans were still limited by their lack ofthat very cul | tural relativism that twentieth-century scholars would ,r——“‘“‘“‘“‘ , 2 Ss eee be 4 . fe ieee io |°y)|°roe-O— @ , oo o SeO ., ee Le ee el Wt i oo |24°a ee Iy. QO i e oO ee logy UJ ourte fe Boe aeee we2 aoe py Jiee oeoe Sea|Be os 2a.EE gee Lee eee fy i es Bg L sa nal fi ye 4 oo L on 7 fe yw ae “a ij Ee aes ae A ee Fay ee ee #ed ve oe dae oF E .eePLE iGee zee cS ye - iafia *ee oo oe Be Bees: sos “age gy w: & oe oo oe LE aes a $ aii & — iy Le ee # ee Le “i ae . Og ee ee se pee aes e fFee rae uvcZ“se ee ee Be ie BE Spee ME ee Cl LA . i Hee a ae fae: eney eee | Po J, ee SLITS Ld Rese ee ge . ge ee

Be hed Re "aes snag plied tH fo ee Lee ee FedSEES ts Be tgp Pe, Loe : eS ge ee Le Loe ope Apaf yeerae: eS ee: a- 6zRea coeOesite

“Ogee re ee ae. eae a cee eS oS “ Pg Pe see tigen oe

SE Beeg Ae i | poe Be ee ee cogs PE eee ooh ae he eg ee sae oe " ee Beat SE re ees eS hee pases a

- a fee ae ‘i ae ae nN Sees 4 fee: co on a ee a sie 2 sss-aRe Beg fen oe tees Lie: oe ee oo Ae Hee ae ik ER 5 ee ee yeefeBe, eee aboy Se Le aiasits Men oSSoa eee yt EE ee La oe LA A ee oo ee net ae ae ee =ete Ce

Fe ee: aes 5pares “he eeafaa oc ,-H-Be ay,eeut —pCPe C° SS 1 aetEg5ee9 a]Frles Peg ge okceeIS -faa| We, Lf Soe ert NE ae

Lo wie.M€‘ A S Ee eee ’ ]iversitS¥

ali USEU resid

Part [fl

THE CONCEPT OF “FOLK” Perhaps as much diversity has surfaced among American folklorists concerning who constitutes the “folk” —the people who enact folklore— as has emerged in their attempts to conceptualize “folklore.” Approaches to identifying who the folk are range from narrow conceptions of isolated peasant groups to the notion current among many contemporary folklorists that everyone is a “folk” —or a member of a “folk group” (or several folk groups). In providing a historical perspective on this question, essayists in this section have taken their cues from William Wells Newell, a driving force in the founding of AFS and its first permanent secretary, treasurer, and journal editor. In the first issue of JAF Newell cited four specific focal points for the collection “of the fast-vanishing remains of Folk-Lore in America.” The first four essays in this section address those early focal points and suggest how American folklorists during the century have build upon Newell’s original assumptions. Thus, Sylvia Grider deals with the treatment of what Newell called “Old English Folk-Lore,” lore that was collected from Scotch-Irish Americans who often seemed to fulfill the stereotype of the folk as rural peasants. William H. Wiggins, Jr., shows what has happened to the study of black folklore, what Newell called “Lore of Negroes in the Southern States of the Union.’ Another ethnically based category of folk proposed by Newell provides the basis for Keith Cunningham’s examination of how American folklorists have studied the “Lore of Indian Tribes of North America.’ Finally, Eric L. Montenyohl demonstrates that American folklorists quickly broadened Newell’s fourth point of focus, “Lore of French Canada, Mexico, etc.;” to go in search of the folk abroad. In the hundred years since Newell’s articulation of where and with whom folklore might be

found, students of American folklore have explored the verbal art and material culture of groups of people defined in various ways, two of which are discussed by Robert McCarl and Susan Kalcik. McCarl provides a survey of work done on the folklore of people who are identified by occupation, and Kalcik discusses the role of gender in determining who the folk are— and in influencing who is to study them. McCarl’s and Kalcik’s essays provide samples of the many approaches to conceptualizing the folk that have emerged since Newell’s time.

25

SALVAGING THE FOLKLORE OF “OLD ENGLISH” FOLK SYLVIA GRIDER Texas A & M University

Because of his emphasis on the urgency of collecting as a major priority of the fledgling AFS. allegedly dying traditions, William Wells Newell’s state- In that first JAF article, Newell explained briefly what ment of purpose in the first issue of the Journal of Ameri- he meant by Old English folklore: can Folklore strikes us a century later as quaint “ nd anti- As to Old English lore, the early settlers, in the colonies peopled from Great Britain, not only brought

quarian. In the very first article of that issue, he . rs

proposed "to form a society for the study of Folk-Lore, with them the oral traditions of the mother counof which the principal object shall be to establish a Jour- try, but clung to those traditions with the usual nal, of a scientific character, designed. . . for the collec- tenacity of emigrants transported to a new land. It

tion of the fast-vanishing remains of Folk-Lore in is certain that up to a certain date, abundant and America.” The first category of these “fast-vanishing interesting collections could everywhere have been remains” was the “relics of Old English Folk-Lore (bal- made. But traditional lore was unprized: the time for lads, tales, superstitions, dialect, etc.).’ That Newell so its preservation, on both sides of the Atlantic, was clearly separated what he called “Old English” traditions suffered to elapse, and what now remains is suffifrom those of other groups requires closer examination. cient to stimulate, rather than satisty, curiosity. Exactly what did Newell mean by his Old English desig- Newell is here referring specifically to those settlers of

nation and why did he place it first on his list? early America and their descendants who came directly Throughout the late nineteenth-century, American from Great Britain—especially Scotland and Northern literary scholarship was clearly Anglophile and folklore Ireland—and settled in the remote, isolated mountain studies were clearly literary. As Richard Dorson points regions of Appalachia and, later, the Ozarks—the out in The British Folklorists (1968), the British Folk-Lore “Southern Highlanders” of so much folklore scholarship Society was founded in 1878, ten years before AFS, and and the negatively stereotyped “hillbillies” of popular served as the Americans’ model for what folklore was culture. Today “Scotch-Irish” is the most common desigand how it was to be studied. The Victorian zeal for col- nation for this regional group and its distinctive culture. lecting, which emphasized text and artifact over the folk, The term is especially useful to differentiate the Protesfueled Newell’s ambitions for collecting traditions in tant Appalachian settlers from the Catholic Irish who America and assembling “a complete bibliography of emigrated to the United States in the mid-nineteenthAmerican folklore, to which already belongs an exten- century and settled primarily in eastern urban centers. sive literature.” His own major work, The Games and Since Newell envisioned the role of AFS as that of a Songs of American Children (1883), is in the same vein as salvage operation rescuing cultural relics before they Lady Alice B. Gomme’s monumental The Traditional became extinct, he saw no possibility for a vital, living, Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1894, 1898). American tradition. He was interested only in fossilized Both of these distinguished nineteenth-century collec- imports, and the imports of British origin had precetors had a sense of urgency that traditions must be col- dence in his mind over those from any other part of lected before they became extinct. Newell, expressing a Europe. Newell divided these Scotch-Irish or “Old Engbelief that was frequently repeated by other scholars, lish” cultural relics into six broad categories, what we stated in his preface that he had focused on American today recognize as rudimentary genres. His categories, children’s lore instead of British because “it appears that, in apparent order of importance (and using modern terin this minor but curious branch of folk-lore, the vein minology), were ballad, folktale, belief, children’s lore, in the United States is both richer and purer than that folk speech, and folklife.

so far worked in Great Britain?” Newell averred that Without question, Newell perceived the collection “Old English” folklore in general could be collected in and preservation of what has become known as “Engthe United States more easily than in its native Britain lish and Scottish Popular Ballads” as the most important and, therefore, assigned the collection of such traditions responsibility of the newly formed American Folk-Lore 26

Society. He somewhat pessimistically stated: cee : DD As respects old ballads. . .the prospect of obtaining , , aa, a — much of value is not In the seventeenth pao(ai ee be century, the time forflattering. the composition of these had almost passed; and they had, in a measure, been ap. La 1 superceded by inferior rhymes of literary origin, a) — ~ . | diffused means of broadsides and songbooks, by popularby doggerels, which may be called ballads, a) a or 2 i et y Fbk —7 , but possess little poetic interest. Still, geniune bal- a ya > lads to bewhich sunghave in the colonies;been a few fw 4fell a have continued been recorded obviously ee gee transmittedMany from generation generation oralballadceil | : »aea ;| atradition. of the besttoScotch andby Irish singers, who have preserved, in their respective Loe. | — dialects, songs which were once the property of the —. ae - - a English-speaking race, have emigrated to this coun- ae i try; and it is possible that something of value may | i... (Begs Yo | oo be obtained from one or other of these sources. ae -. aa et _ The “something of value” that Newell saw in collect- a —. ing ballads from uneducated mountaineers subse- C.-Marius Barbeau, AFS president, 191 8. From

quently directed the research efforts of several genera- Journal of American Folklore. Oo

tions of folklore scholars in America. In fact, the study ee : | | of the ballad remains a standard component of gradu- a 7 oe ate folklore curricula today. Nineteenth- and early 7 ee , rr twentieth-century folklore scholarship was dominated oe ce a by the ballad, practically to the exclusion of all else. So Francis James Child, the compiler of the monumental, : : oe multivolume The English and Scottish Popular Ballads | | rE :/ +o l (1882-1898), was the first AFS president and as such a in ef OA i ~ LL helped set the course of scholarship for the whole soci- . ., ella, pe ety. Working from library and archive sources, Child | AT ee 4 a

sought to define the genre and compile a standard, , — - Tea | in the English language. He was not interested in those ie “ rN, fw ballads then being sung on either side of the Atlantic or Se) 06 te

in the people who sang them. As befitted his literary ea 0 =i , |

training and ideals, Child chose to focus only on those ee y. = ™ 2 yD

in manuscript. His collection established a canon for a | |

ballad scholarship, and folklorists set out to collect every a 7) a | possible variant of the 305 so-called “Child ballads,’ a oS yy

often to the exclusion of other types of folksongs. Such 2 SD collecting was exactly what Newell had in mind in his a +

1887 statement of purpose for AFS. oe A list of American ballad collectors reads like a Elsie Clews P CISONS, AEBS president, 1919-20. E yom

Who's Who of American folklore scholarship, but Journal of American Folklore: | — | paradoxically, the best-known of all ballad collectors

in America was British. Cecil Sharp was an English , : music teacher and scholar who first became interested : in folk music through observing Morris dancing and | 27

listening to native folk singers. In 1907, he published tall tales, legends, family sagas, and so forth—have English Folk Song: Some Conclusions, in which he been widely collected but have not been limited to erroneously predicted the demise of English folksong materials of British origin. American beliefs have in England. Recognizing that the folksong tradition been collected from throughout the country in a was more vital in America than in England, he major research effort begun under the direction of the travelled to the mountains of North Carolina, Ten- late Wayland D. Hand; an encyclopedia is scheduled nessee, Kentucky, and Virginia to document as many for publication. The study of children’s folklore has traditional ballads and folksongs there as possible. For enjoyed periodic popularity in America, but the pubforty-six weeks off and on between 1916 and 1918 he lications of the British husband-and-wife team, Iona and his assistant, Maud Karpeles, collected an exten- and Peter Opie, are still the leading authoritative

sive repertoire of ballad tunes and texts from “Old sources and references in the field. The study of English” informants. Two hundred seventy-four of American folk speech is a major concern of the these texts and 968 tunes were later published in a American Dialect Society, founded in 1889, although two-volume edition of English Folk Songs from the some folklorists maintain an interest in the field. The

Southern Appalachians (1932). publication of the multi-volume Dictionary of AmeriCountless other collectors, most of them Ameri- can Regional English (DARE) under the direction of can, followed in Sharp’s footsteps, expanding the Frederic Cassidy of the University of Wisconsin is scope of their inquiries to include folksongs in oral intended to set a standard of excellence in research tradition derived from broadsides and other printed and collection. Finally, what Newell lumped together sources as well as folksongs originating in America as “scraps of personal information, genealogies, and (such as occupational ballads of cowboys and the like records of buildings” has developed into what folkas well as distinctively Negro songs). Other American lorists today designate as family folklore and aspects of

scholars turned away from simply collecting and “material culture.” annotating and instead focused on theoretical prob- Many contemporary scholars would undoubtedly lems of ballad origin, function, and distribution, thus agree with Newell that this “stock of information moving away from Newell’s goal of simply document- which in the aggregate may be valuable to the histor-

ing the presence of “Old English” folklore before it ian of American life’ and which “once [was] the

became extinct in America. inheritance of every speaker of the English tongue In retrospect, then, we see that Child’s canon estab- ought not to be allowed to perish.” But American lished a definite focus on the ballad as a genre with its folklore scholarship today in all genres extends far

vast international, multilingual connections over beyond the relatively narrow regional and ethnic time, rather than merely as one manifestation of the focus that Newell championed. Instead of merely colsurvival and retention of British folklore among one lecting raw data from specific folk groups, scholars group of immigrants in America. Ballad studies thus and researchers seek to correlate the various bodies of

lost the ethnic focus which was Newell’s primary data through time and space in order to understand

concern. how the traditional performances of the many diverThe collection of the other genres of “Old English” gent folk groups in America have been adapted and folklore that Newell listed in his agenda has followed changed to give richness and meaning to the lives of the same general pattern as the ballad, although their the bearers of those traditions. Above all, the generacollection has been neither as well coordinated nor as tions of folklorists since Newell have learned that folk-

extensive. The existence of traditional Mdrchen in lore is not dying out, but is constantly changing, America, whether in Appalachia or elsewhere in the emerging, and responding to the contemporary needs country, is still debated. Other forms of narrative— and tastes of both bearers and their communities.

28

AFRO-AMERICANS AS FOLK: FROM SAVAGE TO CIVILIZED WILLIAM H. WIGGINS, JR. Indiana University

The body of Afro-American folklore scholarship pro- Americans, “a race who, for good or ill, are henceforth duced during the first century of AFS documents a shift an indissoluble part of the body politic of the United

in the perception of Afro-Americans from African States.” Representative works that presented Afrosavages to civilized Americans. The four major Americans as a culturally inferior group that retained stereotypes— apparent in JAF and other folklore publi- African folkways are Charles C. Jones’s Negro Myths cations as well as in popular culture and mass media— from the Georgia Coast (1888) and A. M. H. Christenalong this continuum are those of African savages, ex- sens Afro-American Folklore (1892). Contemporary American slaves, rural southern peasants, and urban scholarship like John Michael Vlach’s study of shotgun

dwellers. houses (1975) and Mary Arnold Twining’s analysis of William W. Newell, the first General Editor of JAF, Sea Island folk culture (1977) provide much more sensi-

played a major role in defining and promoting Afro- tive analysis of African retentions. Patricia JonesAmerican folklore scholarship. First, he urged “collec- Jackson’s When Roots Die: Endangered Traditions on the tion of the fast-vanishing remains” of the “Lore of Sea Islands (1987) is the most recent published study in Negroes in the Southern States of the Union.” Secondly, this vein.

Newell devised the first collection categories for Afro- The 1920s marked the emergence of the concept of American folklore: (a) animal tales, (b) “negro music and Afro-Americans as ex-slaves. Booker T: Washington, songs,’ and (c) “beliefs and superstitions.’ Newell noted the former slave whose rise from poverty to prominence that “attention has been called to the existence among was chronicled in his autobiography Up from Slavery, is these [Afro-Americans] of a great number of tales relat- an excellent example of this more humane image of

ing to animals.’ Newell also called for “thorough black folk as the bearers of a “fast-vanishing” slave culstudies. . .of negro music and song. . . both in respect of ture. Important collections of “negro music and song” the words and the music.” And he declared that “the made during the 1920s include N. G. J. Ballanta’s Saint great mass of beliefs and superstitions which exist Helena Island Spirituals (1925) and James Weldon Johnamong these people [Afro-Americans] need attention.” son’s The Book of American Negro Spirituals (1925).

Newell’s influence is evident in Richard M. Dorson’s From 1930 through the 1950s, the primary question comment, “The Journal of American Folklore. . . pub- in Afro-American folklore scholarship centered on the lished over a hundred articles and notes dealing with issue of the origins of the spirituals. Folklorists who Negro song, tale, and superstition in its first twenty-five argued that spirituals evolved out of Afro-American cul-

volumes.” ture cited primarily Melville J. Herskovits’ Myth of the Unfortunately, Newell also perpetuated the image of Negro Past (1941). Those folklorists who contended that black Americans as African savages. Kunta Kente, the spirituals were based on white southern antecedents central character in Alex Haley’s novel Roots, is an apt often quoted George Pullen Jackson’s books, one of contemporary example of the way many Americans, which was titled White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands including folklorists, saw Afro-Americans during this (1933). The debate still rages intermittently, but there is time. Newell defended the collecting of the lore of these general agreement that Afro-American spirituals, like culturally inferior folk by contending, “The habits and many other aspects of black culture, show both African ideas of primitive races include much that it might be retentions and Anglo-American influence. thought well to leave unrecorded. But this would be a Folklorists who shared the ex-slave hypothesis also superficial view. What is needed is not an anthology of expanded on Newell’s call for collection of animal tales. customs and beliefs, but a complete representation of Two important studies of Afro-American folk speech the savage mind in its rudeness as well as its intelligence, were made: Thomas W. Talley’s Negro Folk Rhymes (1922) its licentiousness as well as its fidelity.’ Newell did con- and Lorenzo Dow Turner’s Africanisms in Gullah Dialect

cede, however, that these former Africans were now (1949). During the 1930s, slave narratives (ie., the 29

recorded memories of former slaves) came to promi- Bessie Jones, in a series of children’s game workshops nence. In 1934 Lawrence D. Reddick convinced the Fed- out of which evolved their book, Step It Down: eral Emergency Relief Administration to sponsor a folk- Games, Plays, Songs, and Stories from the Afro-

lore project “to study the needs and collect the American Heritage (1972). testimony of ex-slaves” in the Ohio River Valley and the A third focus of collectors and scholars during the lower South. After 1936 similar collecting projects under 1920s was Afro-American beliefs and superstitions. In the Federal Writers’ Project produced The Negro in Vir- 1926 Newbell Niles Puckett published Folk Beliefs of the ginia (1939), Drums and Shadows: Survival Studies Among Southern Negro, the first major folklore study of the sub-

Georgia Coastal Negroes (1940), and Lay My Burden ject. In 1931 Zora Neale Hurston published a JAF article Down: A Folk History of Slavery (1945), the last edited by entitled “Hoodoo in America,’ a subject she returned to B. A. Botkin. Gladys-Marie Fry’s Night Riders in Black in Mules and Men (1935) by actually studying with a traFolk History (1975), Kathryn L. Morgan’s Children of ditional root doctor in New Orleans. In 1970 Harry M. Strangers: The Stories of a Black Family (1980) and William Hyatt published a two-volume study entitled HoodooH. Wiggins, Jr’s O Freedom!: Afro-American Emancipa- Conjuration- Witchcraft-Rootwork. Michael Edward

tion Celebrations (1987) are some later folklore studies Bell’s study of “Afro-American Hoodoo Perforfocusing on the slavery experience and its influence. mance” (1980) and Elon Ali Kulii’s examination of The 1920s also marked the birth of the concept of “Hoodoo in Three Urban Areas of Indiana” (1982) Afro-Americans as rural southern peasants who were are two recent dissertations on the subject. bearers of a Jim Crow culture. Jim Trueblood, the blues- The 1960s ushered in the concept of Afrosinging, black Alabama sharecropper in Ralph Ellison’s Americans as urban dwellers who are bearers of a , novel Invisible Man, exemplifies this concept. Folktale fluid Hip/Jive/Soul/Fly/Funk/Rap tradition. Bigcollections such as Zora Neale Hurston’s Mules and Men ger Thomas, the angry, alienated protagonist of (1935), J. Mason Brewer’s The Word on the Brazos (1953), Richard Wright’s novel Native Son, represents this Richard M. Dorson’s American Negro Folktales (1956), definition of black folk. Roger D. Abrahams was the and Daryl Cumber Dance’s Shuckin’ and Jivin’: Folklore trailblazer in developing this concept. His 1962 JAF from Contemporary Black Americans (1978) include John article on the dozens, the black male game of ritual trickster tales, preacher tales, and protest humor as well insults, was followed by Deep Down in the Jungle: Naras variants of Newell’s animal tales. Exorcising Blackness: rative Folklore from the Streets of Philadelphia (1964), Historical and Literary Lynching and Burning Rituals (1984) the first major study of the toast, another Afro-

by Trudier Harris is one of numerous contemporary American narrative genre that added the Signifying studies of rural southern folklore in Afro-American Monkey to the animal-tale menagerie of Brer Rabbit

literature. and his friends. Abrahams’ field texts also taught his The increasing study of music and song during the fellow folklorists that “mother” was only half a word 1920s saw the emergence of a vibrant interest in the in the black ghetto. Bruce Jackson followed Abrastudy of the blues and of ballads. Dorothy Scar- hams’ work with “Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim borough’s On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs (1925), Like Me”: Narrative Poetry from Black Oral Tradition Howard W. Odum’s and Guy B. Johnson's The Negro (1974). Other scholars studied the urban musical traand His Songs (1925), W. C. Handy’s Blues: An Anthol- ditions of Afro-Americans. Charles Keil’s Urban ogy (1926), and Guy B. Johnson’s John Henry: Tracking Blues (1966) and Phyl Garland’s The Sound of Soul Down a Negro Legend (1929) were important works. (1969) are representative of this era’s studies. Black

John and Alan Lomax, the father-and-son collecting gospel music, the urban offspring of the spirituals, team, discovered balladeer Huddie Ledbetter in 1935 was studied by Tony Heilbut in The Gospel Sound while collecting folksongs at the Angola, Louisiana, (1975) and by Mellonee V. Burnim in her dissertaprison. The public concert/lecture tours that the tion, “The Black Gospel Music Tradition: Symbols of Lomaxes arranged for “Leadbelly” after they assisted Ethnicity” (1980). In 1970 Bruce Rosenberg in securing his parole were a forerunner of such per- introduced the study of the Afro-American folk serformance events as the Smithsonian Institution’s Fes- mon with The Art of the American Folk Preacher. tival of American Folklife. History repeated itself in Rosenberg’s sermon research has been followed by a 1964 when Bess Lomax Hawes, the daughter of John series of articles as well as by Gerald Davis’ awardLomax, presented another Afro-American folksinger, winning study, “I Got the Word in Me and I Can Sing 30

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It, You Know”: A Study of the Performed African- old charge are conducting “comparative research” in

American Sermon (1985). the ever-widening subject of Afro-American folk-

The recent emphasis on Afro-American urban life lore. In 1967 Gladys-Marie Fry became the first has been mirrored by studies of Afro-Americans in Afro-American to earn a Ph.D. in folklore. Since her the popular media and by analysis of black stereo- graduation from Indiana University’s Folklore Institypes. Robert Gireud Cogswell’s “Jokes in Blackface: tute, Afro-American folklorists have earned Ph.D’s A Discographic Folklore Study” (1984) and Adrienne at Indiana University, the University of PennsylvaLanier Seward’s “Early Black Film and Folk Tradi- nia, UCLA, and the University of Texas at Austin as tion: An Interpretive Analysis of the Use of Folklore well as at other American colleges and universities. in Selected All-Black Cast Feature Films” (1985) are This group of scholars has published numerous artitwo recent dissertations that reflect this scholarly cles, notes, and book reviews in JAF and other folktrend. Simultaneously, media specialists have pro- lore journals. They also regularly referee, deliver and duced a fast-growing cache of films and videotapes respond to papers, chair panels, and organize caudocumenting elements of Afro-American culture. cuses at the annual AFS meetings.

William Ferris, who has produced film studies of The state of Afro-American folklore scholarship Afro-American folk art and crafts, folktales, blues, was examined in 1977 at the third annual meeting of and gospel music, is among the most prolific of the the Association of African and African-American filmmakers. Thanks in no small measure to the com- Folklorists at Indiana University. These proceedings puter, folklorists have also been able to answer were published in 1979 as The Role of Afro-American Newell’s call for “a complete bibliography” of Afro- Folklore in the Teaching of the Arts and the Humanities,

American “folk-lore”’ with John E Szwed’s and edited by Adrienne Lanier Seward. And Lance WilRoger D. Abrahams’ two-volume annotated refer- liams produced an hour-long color video documenence work, Afro-American Folk Culture (1978), a Pub- tary of the conference entitled “What Time Is De lication of the AFS, Bibliographical and Special Meetin’?” (1977). Activities such as these will ensure

Series. the continued evolution of the concept of “folk” in As AFS begins its second century, new Afro- Afro-American folklore scholarship during the secAmerican folklorists challenged by Newell’s century- ond century of AFS.

32

NATIVE AMERICANS AS FOLK: COLLECTING AND COMPILING INDIAN TRADITIONS KEITH CUNNINGHAM Northern Arizona University

Wiliam Wells Newell’s prefatory statement in the first The first of these debates, ironically enough, was over issue of JAF specifically calls for the collection of the the evolutionary theory implied in Newell’s call for col“lore of the Indian Tribes of North America (myths, lection. Carrying out that call resulted in a gradual distales, etc.).’ Newell is markedly eloquent on the impor- avowing of his premises. The pioneering work of Henry tance of such collecting, first noting that the collection Rowe Schoolcraft, Alice Fletcher, Washington Matof the folklore of Indian tribes “will be generally regarded thews, and James Owen Dorsey had already shown that as the most promising and important part of the work Indian cultures were diverse and that Indian folklore was to be accomplished” by AFS. He next argues that Indian still vital and meaningful, and later collectors would furfolklore should be collected because “humanity is a ther undercut the evolutionary theory of culture. whole, the study of which is rendered possible only by In Newell’s letter of resignation as editor of JAF in records of every part of the whole,’ and because “their 1910, he still asserted his evolutionary view (“ancient picturesque and wonderful life will soon be absorbed lore,’ he said, “has been passing away with swifter and and lost in the uniformity of the modern world”—a swifter flight”), but he also noted sadly, “from the small clear allusion to the evolutionary theories of culture body of anthropological students in America during the popular at the time. He concludes with an almost evan- past decade have been removed many names. . .and the gelistic call that “measures may be taken for systematiz- places of these laborers have not as yet been filled.” ing and completing collection, by sending competent Those places were filled after Newell, and they were filled persons to reside among the tribes for the express pur- primarily by Franz Boas and his students who did not pose of collecting their lore, and by providing means for share Newell’s evolutionary views but did share his dedi-

the publication of these researches.” cation to collecting Indian folklore. The period approxIn the years after Newell’s statement, the collection of imately from 1900 to 1940 was in retrospect a golden age Indian lore was begun. The work of Anglo-Americans for Native American folklore scholarship. Besides their residing among Native Americans, the support of the dedication to field research with Native Americans, Smithsonian Institution’s Bureau of Ethnology and of many of Boas’ most important students were equally major American museums, the entry of self-supporting dedicated to folklore theory. Folklore and anthropology scholars into the field, the development of graduate pro- went hand in hand, and an incredible number of the grams in anthropology and folklore, and the interest of group served as presidents of AFS during the period. creative writers meant that the job was carried forward This era of anthropological folklore was a natural outmore thoroughly than Newell probably could have growth of Newell’s interests, and it gave birth to a great imagined. Some of the vast body of material that was number of major collections and to some of the most collected is today of limited value, either because items important, widely accepted axioms in folklore research.

of folklore were collected with scant attention to con- Boas, for example, used Native American lore to text, meaning, or function or because context, meaning, demonstrate that traditional narrative was the autobior function were described with inadequate attention to ography of the tribe, and Ruth Benedict used Native item. But the corpus of Native American folklore is American material to demonstrate that traditional narmonumental. Much of the history of the developing rative may often be a mirror of culture. Dozens of “isms” understanding of man and his traditional arts is rooted of great importance to the study of folklore were develin folklore collected from Native Americans, and Native oped, field-tested, and modified or discarded. The AFS American folklore has frequently engendered major Memoirs Series from 1898 through 1940 published no debates over folklore and cultural theory that have had less than thirteen collections and analyses of Indian

far-reaching and lasting influence. folklore by such anthropological folklorists as Elsie 33

Clews Parsons, Franz Boas, and Morris Edward Opler.

ae Ns Se Many more were published elsewhere. g—ili, = The same periodtoofthe time saw the reemergence of FF — | another approach study of folklore which is most

| | od _. 7 | often called “literary” but is perhaps better termed “texCe _ - , tual.” It is perhaps best exemplified by Stith Thompson - «. = a 2 and his monumental indices, textual studies, and biboe 4 4 os ro >D liographies. The difference between the approaches was 2 as q | an a matter of method rather than theory (both Boas and

Poe TE oe, Ce oe

e @ fh Ue Thompson argued eloquently for the diffusionist

BO c. i “4 approach to folklore, claiming that a folktale or other Ss Yr. | item originated in one place rather than arising at seva a eral places independently) but of method. The | , | a j a Phin anthropological folklorists went to the field and cola Fs ae’ lected folklore; the textual folklorists went to the library

| .. gt a a and compiled folklore. There were often differences of — te. d a oe opinion between the two groups, and the anthropologae OS ical folklorists gradually died or withdrew from AFS and Edward Sapir, AFS president, 1929-30. Courtesy of were replaced in anthropology by individuals not inter-

Yale University Archives. ested in folklore.

| Gradually AFS became dominated by faculty and students from new academic programs in folklore. Anthropology had become established as an aca-

| , demic discipline in America primarily because of the : efforts of Boas and his students, and Richard Dorson || ___ and 1940s MacEdward Leach followed Thompson in the in actively seeking the same development and , |’ ) growth for folklore in academe. Dorson deemed _ Thompson’s indices and textual approach essential to >. “YF folklore research but also urged a return to field

| 7 research. The discrediting of evolutionary theory,

— Po. lecting of Native American folklore, and the new folk-

, ss 4 lorists gave little attention to Indians, preferring _ 4 | instead to investigate previously untapped sources — among Anglo-Americans. Yet some studies con| p |) CU | tinued. Tristam P. Coffin’s Indian ‘Tales of North ae 4 - = America (1961) and Alan Dundes’ monograph on the

os yy > structural typology of North American Indian folk7. : \ — | | tales and other articles are important studies of L = , - and Dorson himself did some collecting from Native | American groups. Nevertheless, the tendency of folk-

Martha W. Beckwith, AFS president, 1932-33. lore research to move toward Anglo-American lore

Courtesy of Vassar College Library. and away from Native American lore was general and pervasive after 1950.

In recent years, however, there has occurred a revival of interest in Native American folklore. A

number of major bibliographies such as Rayna Green’s Native American Women (1983) have been 34

published. Barre Toelken has produced an important elm —C=FE ing, Margaret Brady’s long-term study of Navajo chil- ET trs™—B.

or | eel lM errt—™—“OOOCSCSsSCSsS dren's lore has resulted in a number of publications, Oe ee, ———e

and M. Jane Young has written about Native Ameri- a ;,F | —r,.rt—™S

sive fieldwork and interpretation with Native Ameri- ES t—™—s—C'

cans as part of their programs. The recent past, fur- Lm & “ee

thermore, has seen increasing attempts by Anglo CO, OO aa ULL

fieldworkers to conduct. research and present public — >. . s&s =

Also, the anthropological-textual folklore research | ina Ff — now being conducted relies partly on past studies for - p