HNRS3011: World Folklore and Traditions
Description
Human culture is composed of the ideas, ideals, and artifacts of a group of people in order to sustain themselves and perpetuate their way of life for generations to follow. And in culture, folklore and traditions play a very large role in how people relate to each other in terms of gender, religion, race, ethnicity, and nationality. The folklore of any group of people is not an anachronism or static, but rather is a dynamic and vital part of how they identify themselves and of how they conduct their lives. Their traditions are a way of interacting with theworld, and, of contributing to our understanding of each other. In this seminar, students will conduct themselves as collaborative scholars in discovering and understanding folklore and traditions. They will be introduced to the genres of tales and legends, foodways and festivals, folkgroups and folk art, and beliefs and folk rituals.Working one-on-one with informants, students will collect, analyze, and archive original research material in folklore. The students' work with their informants will be permanently archived in the Southwest Ohio Folklore Archives at the University of Cincinnati.