Constructing the Folk Cultural Sphere: Agency, Media and Authority (original) (raw)
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Folk Culture on the Internet: Use, Context, and Function
What happens if folk tradition is not externalized in books and archives but is uploaded to the World Wide Web? What is the guiding intention of the user who deposits the products of folk culture and local tradition to the Internet? Is this a case of patrimonialization or mere archiving? Should we view the function of the externalization as communicative (informative), performative or depositive (safekeeping)? Does the new medium lead to any change on the level of the habits and functions of use? In other words: is the new medium capable of radically transforming folk tradition and its use in the same way in which mass-media (primarily television) did? This study attempts to explore these questions. It also openly assumes its experimental character. My interest does not primarily lie with the medium and technology but with the people and the society that uses them. Instead of the local culture of Internet use, I will offer here an analysis of the use of local (folk) culture through the medium of the Internet. In other words, my focus is on the way in which we use the Internet " for integrating folk culture in our present. "
Yking Books (Indian Folk Literature: Forms, Perspectives and Appropriations)., 2021
The questions about the possible fields of engagement and future of the discipline of Folklore have been debated many a time and for different reasons: because of its disappearing subjects, the political nuances of colonial authority, and issues with discursive methodologies. In this age of globalization, both institutionally and pragmatically, folk practices and folk literature are producing a new spectrum of knowledge, theoretical implications, and critical academic interests. But what is next? In a critical situation when global pandemic, lockdown, social distancing are becoming familiar terminologies with their social, political, cultural implications, where does the folklorist should look for subjects of folkloristic significance and where does he/she will position himself/herself within the critical relations of practicing, narrating, and writing? Keeping these two old but still relevant questions at the very outset, the paper tries to reconfigure or re-imagine the crucial position of folklorist and ethnographer in the present context. Concerning the impending challenges of global crisis, how propagating a new form of articulation for the diverse folk practices are essential, is being discussed in relation to the rituals of the Hook Swinging festival of Bengal (Gajan). In a dialectical tension with the contemporary world, discipline like folklore needs to redefine its conceptual foundations and methodology in accordance with the present concerns. The paper tries to look for one such possibility by engaging with some concurrent methodological issues.
Traditional Culture: How Does it Work?
Museum Anthropology Review, 2011
As a visiting fellow of the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Cultural Property in August 2010, I found myself in a familiar routine: complaining about the conceptualization of traditional culture embedded in current intergovernmental protection and propertization initiatives, notably UNESCO's Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage and the World Intellectual Property Organization's Intergovernmental Committee on Traditional Knowledge, Genetic Resources [sic!], and Traditional Cultural Expressions/Expressions of Folklore. One afternoon I sat down and wrote out the principal points of irritation, trying to imagine what a general alternative statement might look like so that it could be made available to policymakers and local actors engaged on various sides of cultural propertization initiatives. This is a risky venture, for those of us in the ethnographic fields have grown leery of generalization: we remember the ethnocentric exercises in classification for which folklorists were known before 1968. We know the risks of reducing complex and diverse situations into inflexible formulae. Yet if we refuse to put forward ideal-typical accounts of how vernacular cultural practices operate, we abandon the field to bad theory. Well-meaning actors will continue to construct policy on the basis of a series of outmoded and often dangerous assumptions about community, traditionality, and culture. Here then is a first attempt at a more useful set of rules of thumb. 1
1980
Case studies and seminar reports are providecrthat "were presented at an international geminar to examine field experiences.in usirig a culture-based approach to nonformal education. Part 1, containing an introductory papet and nine case Studies', 'focuses on indigenous institutions and"processes in ilealth, family \planning, agriculture, basic education, and conscientization, The \introductory paper discusses indigenous sociocUltural forms as a basis for nodformal education and development. Seven countries are represented in the caSe studies: Indonesia,' Bolivia, Java ' (fndonesia), Upper Volta, Botswana, India, and Bali (Indonesia). SeCtion II focuses on the performing arts in both mass campaigns and community nonformal education programs.'An introductory paper overviews folk media, popular theater, and conflitting strategies for social,change in the third World-The seven case-studies consider the specific strategies used in Brazil, Sierra Leone, China, India% Mexico,.Jamaica, arid Africa. Section III contains the seminar reports developed from discussions of the four regional working groups: Latin Anerrca, Africa and the Caribbean, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. A summary of plenary .discussions is also provided. (YLB).
Traditional Folk Culture and Ethnology
Ethnology for the 21st Century, 2017
Traditional folk culture was the main research area for Slovak ethnology from its beginnings until approximately the 1990s. It was also the dominant feature of studies in the discipline in university courses. This situation has fundamentally changed in the 21st century, with ethnology now primarily focusing on research into the present day and recent past. This paper is a brief look at the development of interest within ethnology in relation to traditional folk culture and is a contribution to the debate on traditional folk culture’s status in academic teaching in Slovakia.