Jay Mechling Has to Say Essay

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The university's folklore department explains that folklore is displayed in times "of crisis, celebration, and change"; it is displayed "in hundreds of other forms of expression." And in a similar vein to Wilson's explanation, the Web site reports that folklore is part of the daily lives of people throughout the world.

Folklorists are both humanists and social scientists," the Indiana University site explains. "They examine individual and cultural creativity and tradition throughout the world." Folklorists, when they are on hand and experiencing directly from real life, as Wilson asserts is necessary, "learn how people use traditional knowledge and practices to understand and participate in new, often challenging situations of contemporary life."

Moreover, at the university, budding folklorists record the voices and actions of men and women directly; "these voices are not consilidated into statistical averages, merged into mass poloitical trends, or suborinated to the actions of world leaders or the creativity of literary artists."

The fieldwork conducted by students in the department is aimed at teaching methods in which to learn "how societies function," not just investigate unusual life styles and characters."Through the study of different social groups and cultures, students gain skills in observation, analysis, documentation, reporting, and multicultural understanding."

As Wilson has previously explained, folklorists "reveal the aesthetics and values of people in their everyday lives." And as Wilson's quote on page 226 asserts is a pivotal part of folklorist activities, the students actually go out and observe first hand, and learn to record what they see and hear from a variety of cultures.

How did the Indiana University Folklore Institute get started. There was a "shared interest" in folklore topics among the instructors at Indiana University as far back as 1920, and from there, summer Institutes were produced, and by 1962, the Folklore Institute was established as an academic department within the College of Arts and Sciences. Today, the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology carries out a mission to teach, and to promote research and outreach activities.

Bibliography

Indiana University. "The Department of folklore and Ethnomusicology." Available at http://www.indiana.edu/~folklore/faq.htm.

Wilson, William a. "Documenting Folklore." Folk Groups and Folklore Genres: An….....