Taking a set of central issues from ancient Greek medicine and biology, this book studies firstly, the interaction between scientific theorising and folklore or popular assumptions; secondly, the ideological character of scientific inquiry. Topics of interest in the philosphy and sociology of science illuminated here include the relationship between primitive thought and early science, the roles of the consensus on the scientific community, tradition and the authority of the written text, in the development of science.

We use Critical Narrative Analysis (CNA) to examine collected apparitional accounts within the geographic region of Western Georgia in the United States. We discuss the extant local folklore on ghosts in the literature while providing a methodological backdrop. The analysis of the data yields four dominant discourses, which are countered in five salient ways: through (1) the extension of consciousness across space and time, (2) lucid perceptual experience, (3) the presence of anomalous phenomena, (4) adjudication to story and hearsay, (...) and (5) consensual or repeated verification. We discuss the implications of these countermoves and recommend further critical research on exceptional experiences. (shrink)

The article characterizes post-folklore as a cultural phenomenon of the network society and defines various aspects of its functioning − sociocommunicative, cultural and psychological. The research methodology consisted of a set of basic approaches, principles and methods of scientific research. To achieve the goal, a set of general scientific and special methods was used, including the methods of logical analysis, problemchronological, generalization, synthesis, induction, and analogy.Research results. It has been proven that post-folkloric creativity is important for the development of (...) social communications, as it promotes the exchange of information between users of social networks, conveys people’s knowledge, moods, feelings, and emotions. In the cultural aspect, the works of post-folklore appear as cultural heritage of modern urbanized society and are represented by various types and genres. From the point of view of psychology, post-folklore has an impact on individual and social consciousness, on the development of cognitive processes, etc. The emergence of post-folklore in the field of education is separately mentioned, which indicates its important importance for the formation of the worldview of school youth.Conclusions. Today post-folklore is the subject of scientific research as a phenomenon of mass culture and network society, as a means of social communication, as a phenomenon that has an impact on public and individual consciousness and is gradually being established in the field of education. In the era of accelerated development of information and communication technologies, everyone has the opportunity to become a collector or author of post-folkloric creativity. Further research is planned to be carried out in the direction of studying the prospects for the development of post-folklore in Ukrainian and foreign cultures. (shrink)

In reflecting on the distinctions between good sense, common sense, and folklore, Gramsci rejects, in his Prison Notebooks, the Fascist regime’s attempt to use folklore as a backward-looking means to idealise the people. At the same time, Gramsci criticises certain Romantic literature for its distorted portrayal of popular life. Just as good sense represents the “healthy core” of common sense – that is, popular ways of acting, feeling, and thinking – might folklore be understood as the unhealthy (...) core of common sense? This redefinition reopens the question of the union between town and country, a key issue for any revolutionary strategy. (shrink)

Popular Traditions, Folklore and Politics The article studies how the "language" of folk traditions and folklore continues to be a tried-and-tested means for the representation and propagation of political concepts and ideas. The author notes transformations in the significance of folklore and folk traditions in historically changing both political and socio-cultural contexts. Attention is drawn to the significance of folklore in the nation-forming thinking of the 19th century, the place of honour accorded to it as an (...) expression of the working people during the period of socialism, and its contradictory perception in the post-socialist context today. (shrink)

Chapter 6 “Western Folklore” was written by Chen Hao and translated by Zhou Jinhua. This chapter first elaborates Western folklore in terms of wedding and funeral customs, food folklore, traditional festivals, beliefs and taboos; then it turns to some details of folklore in specific areas, namely, folk cultures and features of folklore in major European and American countries.

A distinguished wise man, Emil Cioran, with whom I share a country of birth and the thought that follows, said once that the two most interesting things in life are gossip and metaphysics. I can hardly think of a more self evident and enjoyable truth, if wisely construed. This volume combines the two pleasures, for it is an exercise in the metaphysics of wise gossip, of how we make sense of each other, and how, as a result we interpret, explain, (...) rationalize and evaluate our representations and actions. The body of wisdom which allows us to do all this is currently currently called folk or common sense psychology. I will also call it psychofolklore or the folklore of the mind. (shrink)

Only a few decades ago, American folklore research focused primarily on narrative folklore with obvious literary connections, such as the ballad and the folktale. In the past twenty years, however, folklore studies have veered sharply away from literature and even from text-based products to focus largely on oral folkloric process. In this thoughtful work, a distinguished scholar describes key ways in which theories and methodologies developed in such oral folklore studies have benefited literary criticism and analysis. (...) Vladimir Propp devised a theory of structuralism to examine folktales. Popularized versions of Propp's theory were used in literary theory for nearly twenty years. Parry and Lord, using folkloric techniques to study Yugoslavian folksingers as a means of learning how Homeric epics were composed, established principles since employed by thousands of literary critics. Folk narratives persist in contemporary life and literature in such forms as "urban legends." Knowledge of folk custom, ritual, and belief can enhance aesthetic understanding. And analyzing lineality and simultaneity in literature and folklore yields fruitful insights. In addition to summarizing extant ideas and studies, Bruce Rosenberg offers surprising new interpretations and discoveries that expand the boundaries of both folklore and literature. Illustrating his contentions with examples from widely varying periods and cultures, the author affirms the unique potential of interdisciplinary inquiry. Bruce A. Rosenberg was professor of English and American civilization at Brown University. (shrink)

In this article, the aim is to explore Lebanese folklore through proverbs and to demonstrate how the dynamic field of imagination behind concise oral statements influences contemporary society and anchors, in the collective thinking of several generations, the values of a community, whether they are well-founded or not. Although Lebanese society is patriarchal, men are often depicted as beasts, frequently domestic and specifically as draft animals. The parody, satire, and humor that generally characterize proverbs feed into the images that (...) circulate in the collective unconscious. Durand's theriomorphic symbolism and its resulting ramifications, while referring to Bourdieu's “male domination,” highlight customs and traditions that devalue women and represent them as inferior beings or even as the embodiment of evil on earth. As one facet of folklore, these popular expressions sometimes originate from mythical, biblical, or traditional stories that are the result of beliefs and rituals passed down through centuries. (shrink)

Noruz, the new year in the Iranian world, corresponds to the spring equinox. The rites and festivities to which this festival gives rise in Iran are described here. But celebrating the new year on a fixed date according to a solar calendar is opposed to the customs of the Muslim world governed by a lunar calendar. The custom of the festival is all the more called into question when the spring equinox and its joyous manifestations correspond to a ritual of (...) mourning, as was the case in 2006. The celebration of Noruz was also prohibited under the Soviet Union and one of the first steps taken by the new Middle Eastern republics was its re-establishment. In Turkey, this popular festival by the Kurds and Alevis was the subject of a reinterpretation, enhancing the patriotic spirit. (shrink)

El autor discurre sobre la historia y esencia del arte, y su relación con las demás manifestaciones del saber humano.

This article explores how Paul Féval’s work integrates and transforms Breton legends and popular beliefs to shape a distinctive imaginary novel. Féval, born in Rennes in 1816, was influenced by the oral traditions of his native region. He drew on this rich cultural heritage to create works combining fantasy, the marvellous and romanticism, such as La Femme blanche des marais, Les Belles-de-nuit and La Fée des Grèves. These stories illustrate a hybrid between elements of authentic folklore and literary reinterpretations (...) influenced by European Romanticism. Féval is particularly interested in legendary female figures linked to water and the Other World, such as the White Woman of the Marshes, a spectre protecting the Malestroit family, and the Belles-de-nuit, ghosts mourning their tragic fate. These characters do more than simply enrich the poetic background: they play an active part in the plot and crystallise the introduction of the modern marvellous, where the supernatural emerges in a realistic setting, provoking fascination and turmoil. The novelist also explores the figure of the fairy, as in La Fée des Grèves, where this romantic aquatic creature, both protective and ambiguous, crosses symbolic thresholds between life and death, land and sea. The fairy, often associated with natural forces and sometimes Christianised, reflects the Breton imagination in constant transformation. This article also highlights the way in which Féval uses legends to meet the expectations of a wider audience, eager for a marvellous story that is accessible and rooted in geographical and historical reality. This process includes adapting traditional stories to make them compatible with the serial novel, a genre that values intrigue and mystery. Finally, this article highlights the ideological function of these stories: to re-enchant a modern world perceived as disenchanted by industrialisation and the rise of materialism. The reworked legends thus become a narrative and poetic tool enabling Féval to celebrate a past imbued with spirituality and mystery, while at the same time criticising a society in the throes of change. (shrink)

Folklore in Buddhist and Jaina Literatures. An account of the life of the common people as reflected in Pali, Prakrit and Apabhramsa works. Sures Chandra Banerji. Bibliotheca, Indo-Buddhica 37, Delhi 1987. xv, 120 pp. Rs 130.

A narrative collage of ancient and contemporary storytelling, modern theory, and personal reflection. This title examines the nature of oral culture, its embodied nature, its connection to place, and its use of metaphor, laughter, ethnicity, and intergenerational conversation to create unique kinds of interactions and learning.

In pre-Columbian times, the Zenu Indians established drainage systems in the wetlands of the Colombian Caribbean that enabled them to exploit this rich ecosystem in a sustained manner. Modern inhabitants of the region are, however, exposed to a regimen of periodic flooding that limits their productive activities. In addition, they are surrounded by large cattle ranches that occupy almost all the land and are responsible for the disappearance of forests that sustain the wild fauna. These peasants employ a classification system (...) for the fauna that favors the criterion of habitat over that of morphology to distinguish categories of animals. Secondary forest animals inspire carnival dances, folk tales, poetry, and songs, while insects and other invertebrates are barely represented in the oral tradition. Fishing provides the principal source of protein for many families, but there are no mechanisms to control the use of large nets that exhaust the resource. The capture of reptiles such as iguanas, turtles, and crocodilians is intensive and is not based on studies that determine the state of the populations and the impact of hunting activities. The author draws attention to the need to take into account local representations of animals in programs aimed at conserving the wetlands and their fauna. She discusses the popular nomenclature, knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs regarding the fauna of a wetland region of the Colombian Caribbean to assist in the design of programs for the sustainable exploitation of the resources of this ecosystem, vital to the survival of local fishermen and peasants. (shrink)

Examining the establishment of Christianity as a major world religion, Jewish nationalism and the myths and customs of pre-historic Egypt, the volumes in this mini-set, originally published between 1924 and 1929 include work by Winifred Holtby, Edward B Powley and H F Scott Stokes.

The beginnings of modern Romanian culture coincide with the discovery of folk literature. The first to benefit from this true “revelation,” around the middle of the last century, were two of the most authentic representatives of Romanian romanticism: Vasile Alecsandri and Alecu Russo. However, the earliest manifesto of Romanian romanticism was not very explicit in its treatment of the subject, because others who participated in the current—especially Mihail Kogălniceanu and Nicolae Bălcescu— were primarily historians. In 1840 the contensts of Dacia (...) literară, a magazine edited by them, gave literary status to heroic events that had entered into Romanian history; second place was reserved for the beauty of the Romanian countryside; the picturesque and the poetic content of the traditions held by the people who had lived this history and animated this countryside were only third in importance. Now, the term “traditions” could be applied in the same way to different artistic expressions: dance, music or literature. (shrink)

Games, festivals, folklore, a derivation of them, and artistic expression are manifestations of symbolic invention. To compare them is to bring out the differences in the order of the symbolic production and have, as a consequence, a differentiated perception of the way they function. It is also to put them into a perspective of filial relationship. In fact, a genealogy appears with the processes that regulate the passage from one to the other of these means of expression. Through the (...) successive dissipation of structural stabilizations that are in turn play, festival and folklore, a generative order of complexity is established of which art, with its dynamics open to all expressive invention, is the end result. Finally, it is to discover at the end of the process the literary text, conceived as a work of art, surrounded by expression and preceded by it, appearing from then on according to one of the precepts of the theory of the text, as a production “of society and history” and as issuing from the social phenomenon in its entirety. “I am not only undertaking a study of a sociology of games,” wrote Roger Caillois. “My idea is to lay the foundations for a sociology beginning with games.” We would say of a sociology in which we would be permitted to glimpse the achievement of the task of explaining the entire social phenomenon itself. (shrink)