folklorestudies

Folklore studies is an interdisciplinary field that examines traditional beliefs, practices, stories, and material culture of communities. It seeks to document, analyze, and interpret how people express shared values and identities through everyday life, performance, and creative expression, past and present.

The field covers oral literature such as folktales, myths, legends, proverbs, songs, and chants; rituals, festive events, religious and secular customs; material culture including crafts, costumes, culinary traditions; and the ways communities transmit knowledge across generations, including through digital media and contemporary urban legends.

Methodology combines fieldwork with ethnography, interviews, and participant observation; textual and comparative analysis; archive and library research; and the cataloging and classification of tales and motifs. Theoretical frameworks range from structuralism and functionalism to performance theory, historicism, globalization, and postcolonial perspectives.

The discipline emerged in the 19th century with Romantic nationalism in Europe and later took shape in North American and other universities. Professional organizations include the American Folklore Society and the Folklore Society, with journals such as Journal of American Folklore, Journal of Folklore Research, and Fabula.

Folklore studies intersects with anthropology, literature, ethnomusicology, and cultural studies. It engages with issues of intangible cultural heritage, ethics in fieldwork, and the impact of digital technologies on tradition and transmission, including UNESCO's programs and debates about preservation and modernization.