2. Sources and resources

Because the traditional communicative processes and forms which folklorists focus upon are such an integral part of human social existence, opportunities to observe, elicit, and document examples of folklore are literally limitless. Children play familiar games in village squares and on city streets, for example, where their behaviour is subject to scrutiny by the casual observer or the interested passer-by. The telling of jokes and anecdotes which have readily-recognizable structures, themes, and styles occurs regularly in the course of everyday interactions. Musicmaking, singing and dancing frequently evolve spontaneously at family and small-group gatherings. Formulaic greetings, oft-repeated idioms, and proverbial speech recur with surprising regularity in casual conversations and formal addresses. Objects characterized by conventional forms and identifiable decorative motifs are produced, exchanged, and utilized by peoples everywhere. Human groups ranging from hunters and farmers to students and doctors all develop special jargons and create and perpetuate rituals, the existence of which is often known to 'outsiders' as well as to group members. Hence, one need not travel to exotic places, seek out some selected segment of the human population, or wait until some special time to find examples of what we call folklore, for the pervasiveness of traditional communicative processes and forms is everywhere apparent. The word folk in the compound folklore refers not to one kind or class-of people, but to human beings in general; and lore includes activities ranging from housebuilding, furnituremaking, and cooking to storytelling, dancing, and singing; and it encompasses expressive forms ranging from tangible objects such as chairs, pottery, and baskets to such intangible phenomena as songs, stories, tunes and beliefs.

While opportunities to discern examples of traditional communicative processes and forms arise spontaneously and unexpectedly whenever and wherever human beings interact face to face, those examples of processes and forms which we can identify as folklore are often also generated or communicated at predetermined times or in predesignated places. In all societies, for example, the telling of certain kinds of stories is a family or community event, the time and place for which are known or stipulated in advance. Marriages, funerals, and initiation ceremonies are always prearranged, with the kinds of activities marking these major life-cycle transitional stages being based upon well-established models. Dates and sites for such calendar celebrations as harvest rituals, religious ceremonies, and holiday festivals are known in advance, as are the nature and sequence of the activities which distinguish these occasions from all others. Preplanning enables one to witness or to obtain information about such scheduled events and to test hypotheses about the part folklore plays in their unfolding, enactment, and perpetuation.

In addition to being observable or discernible in the course of normal, day-ta-day interactions or as integral aspects of special events which occur only in particular places or at specified times, examples of what we call folklore can also be elicited, described, and discussed through impromptu or formalized interviewing. The expressive nature of the communicative processes and forms which folklorists focus upon makes these phenomena readily segmentable from a human being's experience continuum. Though the precise criteria which enable us to do so are not yet fully known or understood, all human beings seem able to distinguish from everything else, and to conceptualize as unique, such processes as singing, dancing, musicmaking, or playing and such forms as story, song, dance or game. This ability makes it possible, in turn, for individuals to characterize or describe selected examples of the kinds of songs they and others know or sing, stories they and others know or tell, beliefs to which they and others subscribe, objects they and others can or do make, expressions they and others utilize, and so forth. Therefore, an individual functioning as an interviewer can elicit information about traditional communicative processes and examples of traditional communicative forms directly from other human beings; and this information and these examples can serve as data for a folklorist's inquiries, just as can information about, and examples of, traditional communicative processes and forms discerned more casually during daily interactions or noted during participation in scheduled events.