Anthropology 160: Forms of Folklore
Folklore shapes social identities and notions of community. Attributing "traditional" forms of communication—such as legends, myths, proverbs, riddles, folksongs, rituals, and festivals—to country people, peasants, the working class, or ethnic others enabled members of dominant social groups to distance themselves from the premodern world for three centuries. But it turns out that folklore is woven into the fabric of our daily lives. This course focuses on how all of us construct notions of difference—racial, ethnic, gender, sexuality, class, and nation—through folklore.
By examining how a wide range of genres are used in both enforcing social boundaries and hierarchies and challenging the "official" discourses and institutions that attempt to shape us, the study of folklore forms and analytic approaches provide tools for understanding our world and attempting to transform it. Thus, the course explores critical multiculturalism in the United States and elsewhere both in terms of content that deals with African American, Asian American, Latino/a, Native American, and various European American communities and by thinking about how understandings and practices of race and racism are produced, patrolled, and resisted.
Course project
The course project turns each student into a contributor to the field of folklore by collecting traditional knowledge from his or her milieu and placing it in the Berkeley Folklore Archive.
Enrollment
Anthropology 160 is offered yearly in the Fall semester. For a current schedule, see the Courses page.