Folklor

Folklor is the body of traditional beliefs, customs, narratives, and material culture shared by a community. It is transmitted mainly through oral tradition, informal practice, and everyday behavior, rather than through formal institutions or published texts. The term covers a wide range of material, including folktales, myths, legends, fairy tales, proverbs, songs, dances, rituals, and crafts.

Folklore varies across places and over time, making it dynamic rather than fixed. Communities adapt stories and practices in response to social change, contact with other cultures, and new technologies. Contemporary folklore also includes urban legends, Internet memes, and fan rituals, which can blur lines with popular culture.

Folkloristics (often called folklorology) is the scholarly study of folklore. Methods include fieldwork, interviewing informants, participant observation, and archival collection. Analysts examine motifs, narrative structures, performance contexts, and social functions. While there are many approaches, the study generally seeks to understand how folklore reflects and shapes identity, memory, values, and social life.

Functions of folklore include entertainment, socialization of members, transmission of norms and history, and the creation of community cohesion. Folklore also serves as a resource for aesthetic expression and cultural interpretation.

Cross-cultural research highlights both universal forms—such as origin myths and rites of passage—and local variation rooted in language, history, and power relations. Modern developments raise questions about ownership, access, and the rights of communities to preserve and share traditional knowledge.