Applied folklore

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Applied folklore is the branch of

folklorist Benjamin A. Botkin who, along with Alan Lomax, became the foremost proponent of this approach over the next thirty years. Applied folklore is similar in its rationale and approach to applied anthropology and other applied social sciences
, and like these other applied approaches often distinguishes itself from "pure" research, that which has no explicit problem-solving aims.

Botkin's development of the approach emerged from his work on the collecting by the

civil rights activists, such as Rosa Parks and John Lewis
.

In the 1960s, other American folklorists began to apply knowledge gained from folkloric sources to address social issues, most notably drawing on

, and other fields.

References

Sources

  • Botkin, B.A., Lay My Burden Down. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1945.
  • Jones, Michael Owen, ed., Putting Folklore to Use. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1994.
  • Goldstein, Diane, Once Upon a Virus: AIDS Legends and Vernacular Risk Perception. Logan: Utah State University Press: 2004.