In 1846, an Englishman named William Thoms published a letter to a journal that would fundamentally alter how humanity understands its own culture. He coined the term folklore to replace the clumsy phrase popular antiquities, creating a single word that captured the living, breathing traditions of ordinary people. Before Thoms, the knowledge of rural peasants was dismissed as the ramblings of the uneducated, mere survivals of a primitive past. Thoms argued that these oral traditions were not dead relics but active, vital expressions of a people's identity. He defined folklore as the lore of the folk, where folk originally meant the rural, poor, and illiterate masses who lived in the countryside. This simple act of naming transformed a scattered collection of customs into a coherent field of study, one that would eventually encompass everything from the songs sung by children to the buildings they lived in. The word itself is a compound of folk and lore, with lore deriving from the Old English lār, meaning instruction. It was a declaration that the wisdom of the common people deserved to be recorded, studied, and respected just as much as the written works of the elite.
From Peasants to Programmers
The definition of who constitutes a folk group has undergone a radical transformation over the last two centuries. When Thoms first introduced the concept, the folk were exclusively the rural peasantry, often poor and illiterate, standing in stark contrast to the urban populace. By the 1960s, however, folklorists realized that social groups were not limited to the countryside or the working class. The concept expanded to include any group of two or more people with common traits who express their shared identity through distinctive traditions. This shift meant that the folk could be a nation, a single family, or even a subculture like surfers, motorcyclists, or computer programmers. The field moved away from viewing folklore as something old and obsolete to recognizing it as a dynamic process that continues to be created and transmitted today. Folklore is no longer the exclusive domain of the past; it is a function of shared identity within any social group. This modern understanding allows folklorists to study the unique traditions of the urban proletariat, occupational groups, and non-traditional families, proving that culture is not a static artifact but a living, evolving force that defines us from birth to death.The Three Pillars of Culture
Folklore manifests in three distinct but interconnected forms: verbal, material, and customary lore. Verbal lore encompasses all words, both written and oral, that show repetitive patterns, including tales, songs, proverbs, and jokes. These are not just random conversations but traditional utterances that conform to a recognized configuration, such as the phrase An elephant walks into a bar, which instantly signals a joke to the listener. Material lore includes all tangible objects that can be touched, held, or lived in, ranging from handcrafted tools to mass-produced decorations like dreidels or Christmas ornaments. These items exist prior to and alongside mechanized industry, carrying the history of their creation and use. Customary lore consists of remembered enactments, the patterns of expected behavior within a group, such as life cycle celebrations, seasonal festivals, and even simple gestures like a handshake. A single event, like a birthday party, often combines all three genres: the verbal song Happy Birthday, the material cake and presents, and the customary act of making a wish while blowing out candles. This tripartite structure allows folklorists to categorize and analyze the vast array of human expression, from the fairy tales told to children to the complex rituals of religious worship.