Response to Oring and Wells articles on Folklorists

Leeann Barrett

English 265

Response to Oring and Wells Article on Folklorists

The Elliott Oring article mainly focuses on what a folklorist is. Meaning what they believe in and the ways they go about doing and justifying their research. One way method that is used is that they go about their research through questions starting from more specific questions to open up broader ones
(page 209, Oring). Another way is to embrace the culture you are analyzing and become a part of them. Oring mentions David Kerr who took students to perform plays for the rural people in order for the people to “understand and meditate the socio- economic changes occurring” (208, Oring).

He also expressed that Folklorists cannot simply go into a community and learn a story and say that it has been in this community for years and that this is their folklore. What Folklorists do is look for historical events to justify what is told or shown through their stories or customs. Also they make sure that the same story is told by many and not just by one.

In Patricia Atkinson Wells article “Public Folklore in the Twenty- first Century: New Challenges for the Discipline”, one point that stood out to me out of all the reading is the point made in the Wells article. The point that is made is that Folklorist has a dichotomous decision of whether to disregard all that they stand by so that they can continue and have the resources to practice their profession or they can stand by what they believe in but not be able to practice and have limited access to the “folk” whose culture they are trying to preserve.

Wells defines the folk to be as a “defining or identifying groups of people.” The Elliott Oring continues on this idea and goes further on saying that folk is “a people of a particular, and often marginalized, social class, occupation, religion, or ethnicity.” And folklorists’ main objective is to take the culture of these people and help preserve it being that many of these cultures are oral cultures. They are also meant to serve as a liaison between the community of focus and the larger community (like Kerr was for Zambia to the Chewa people ( 208, Oring). In this they “must put the welfare of traditional practitioners before considerations of sponsorship or dissemination of results.” However where are these folklorist going to get the money. Many sponsors private or from corporations and organizations usually have a second agenda in mind. Wells states that at least 50 percent of folklorists’ are working with the public. But what happened to the other 50 percent. Not all of the organizations are just giving out money just for the furtherance of a certain society. And Wells recognizes this by saying that “Working with organizations that espouse this philosophy can undermine or invalidate tradition cultures or tradition bearers”. The Philosophy she is talking about is the philosopher of marketing where the consumer is most important. These organizations will taint these societies and try to fashion their ways to fit their own. And this is essentially for their profit and not the communities. Wells say that Folklorist must put the wants of the group before these organizations but what if the folklorist is mistaken and then after the group is taken advantage of because of the information that they produced for the larger public?

My question is do these people sue? And who is going to take care of it for them Folklorists’ leave them vulnerable after documenting their ways. Wells states that they are required to tell the people all of their objectives and what they plan to do before they get there (folklorists should be honest about their qualifications, capabilities, and aims, prior to entering into any commitment) but what if that is not enough? Who are they going to sue? The company? But in suing aren’t they taking on the ways of the popular culture which in return causes more damage to their culture than intended. So what is a folklorist to do in this predicament? I assume this is why Wells calls folklorist the “red-headed step child.”

Another question I have is that where do folklorists get the funds to have these exhibits and to teach these k-12 classes with things like budget cuts and second hand knowledge about that rural people that they are portraying in these exhibits and classes. They many times have no funds to go and study people for themselves unless it is their own people.