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| ANTH 4- Folklore Midterm Study Guide The Mid-Term is composed of two main sections. The first section will comprise multiple-choice, true/false and matching. The second section will focus on Barbara Allen as an example of folklore to be analyzed in an essay. More variants are archived at the following site: <http://www.smsu.edu/folksong/maxhunter/0148/index.html> Sections 1 and 2 will be worth 150 points each, or 300 points total for the exam. Remember, you are allowed ONE 3x5 card which YOU ARE REQUIRED to submit with your exam. Material for the midterm will be taken from the following books as well as lecture materials. Brunvand's The Vanishing Hitchhiker Chapter 1-New Legends for Old urban Legend motifs stable elements variable elements traditional (oral) narrative What is the main point of this chapter? What are the main steps in interpreting urban legends? Who are "The folk"? What are some basic assumptions folklorists make in collecting and interpreting folklore? Chapter 2-The Classic Automobile Legends rumor legend subtype "ghostlore" polygenesis What is the main point of this chapter? How does Brunvand define a "true story"? Chapter 3-"The Hook" and Other Teenage Horrors What is the main point of this chapter? What are the differences, if any, between horror fiction and urban legends? Chapter 4-Dreadful Contaminations exempla literature "Cokelore"—see also www.snopes.com What is the main point of this chapter? How are stories which pertain to contaminations related to horror fiction? Chapter 6-Dalliances, Nudity, and Nightmares What are the main points of this chapter? Chapter 8-Urban Legends in the Making folk group proto-legend What is the main point of this chapter? How do urban legends get their start? Randolph's Ozark Magic and Folklore Chapter 5-Water Witches What types of materials, in general, do water witches in the Ozarks during the time period discussed in the book prefer for their "witch sticks"? What are some other terms for water witches? How are the water-witches different? Similar? Chapter 6-Mountain Medicine There are several terms used to describe unqualified physicians. Does Randolph distinguish between these types? In what ways are the roles of the physicians similar? Dissimilar? Chapter 7-The Power Doctors How do the "power-doctors" differ from both the qualified and unqualified physicians discussed in the previous chapter? Randolph discusses various types of materia medica in this chapter as well as the previous chapter. In what ways are the materials similar? Dissimilar? Chapter 8-Courtship and Marriage According to some, there are two types of magic: contagious magic and sympathetic magic. Contagious magic involves the use of physical ingredients which were once in contact with the object or objects one hopes to influence with a spell, and sympathetic magic involves the use of physical objects which resemble the object or objects one hopes to influence. Many of the examples Randolph uses in this chapter utilize biological substances (urine, menstrual fluid, fingernail clippings, etc.). In general, do these substances seem to be used more frequently as sympathetic magic or contagious magic? Chapter 9-Pregnancy and Childbirth How are granny-women (or midwives) similar to power doctors? To qualified physicians? Unqualified physicians? How do their roles differ? Dundes’ Interpreting Folklore Chapter 1- Who are the Folk? What were the philosophical and historical bases of the discipline of Folklore? What seems to be the definition of culture as given by the various nineteenth century usages? How did they characterize the so-called “classes” of people? How is technology effecting the transmission of folklore? Chapter 2- Texture, Text and Context Is folklore exclusively an “oral tradition”? What three levels of analysis does Dundes propose? What does he mean by “context”? What are motifs? Chapter 3- Projection in Folklore What is “psychoanalytical semiotics”? What does folklore mean to the audience? To the storyteller? How does Dundes define “symbols?” How might the “unconscious nature of symbols and projections …present a serious challenge to those folklorists who are seeking meaning in folklore”? Chapter 5-Thinking Ahead What are dichotomies? Speculate on the meanings of implicit and explicit worldview structure. Is culture holistic? How do Westerners perceive Time? Dundes comments of the perception of time by some indigenous cultures in North America. How might these differences in temporal paradigms affect the structure of folklore? Chapter 6-Seeing is Believing How does Dundes discuss the human senses? How does he rank their importance? Is man truly, as Malinowski argued, a passive creature upon whose mind is a tabula rasa? Or is the nature of mankind outwardly-oriented as evidenced by Redfield? Chapter 8- The Number Three in American culture What is some of the evidence for the preference of triads in Classic history? Is the pervasive preference for trinities evidence for an older Indo-European worldview? What other numbers are assigned cultural meanings? What does “5” mean to you? Dualistic versus trichomic worldviews. What is the “law of three” according to Dundes? How does folkspeech support the argument that trichotomic patterns exist in American Culture? |
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