AHSS 2030 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Urban Legend, Knitting, Pathos
15 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Tradition
• Habit vs. tradition
➢ Both have repeated behaviour
➢ Both exist over a stretch of time (reoccurring)
➢ Difference is meaning/significance
Community
• Shared identity
• Folk groups
➢ Bigger the group, looser the ties; smaller the group, tighter the ties
Folklore Forms
• Oral folklore
• Customary lore
➢ Behavioural, practice, gestures, games
o Ie. Superstition, flipping someone off, hide and go seek, etc.
• Material folklore
➢ The tangible stuff of folklore
o Ie. Shotgun houses, quilting, knitting (folk arts and crafts), Halloween
costumes, ethnic food, etc.
Robert Georges
• What is a legend
➢ A story
➢ Set in the recent/ historical past
➢ It is purportedly true (believed to be true)
• Not all legends have a plot (beginning, middle, end)
➢ What does it mean by story?
• People have different definitions of time/past
➢ So what is recent/historical past
• How do we know it is true?
➢ How do we know if someone believes the story to be true?
Legend vs Fairy-tale
• Contrast
➢ Fairy-tale: once upon a time/happily ever after, fiction
Legend vs Rumour
• Compare
➢ Rumour: a statement of potential belief
➢ Legend: a story with belief at its core
Terminology (all interchangeable)
• Modern legend
• Urban legend
• Contemporary legend
General Characteristics of Legends
• Localized
➢ Take o flavour of loal ouity
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Both exist over a stretch of time (reoccurring) Bigger the group, looser the ties; smaller the group, tighter the ties. Superstition, flipping someone off, hide and go seek, etc: material folklore. Shotgun houses, quilting, knitting (folk arts and crafts), halloween costumes, ethnic food, etc. It is purportedly true (believed to be true: not all legends have a plot (beginning, middle, end) What does it mean by story: people have different definitions of time/past. Fairy-tale: once upon a time/happily ever after, fiction. Legend: a story with belief at its core. Terminology (all interchangeable: modern legend, urban legend, contemporary legend. Why are some legends necessarily localized: some physical anomaly. The face in the door, the phone in the mausoleum: these are aetiological legends- explain why something is the way it is. Ineradicable bloodstain- (cid:271)loodstai(cid:374) you (cid:272)a(cid:374)(cid:859)t get rid of: the psycho-social environment (pathos)
