Lesson 10. Early Theories of the Origins and Nature of Folklore
When folklore first began to be seriously studied, the distinction between it and social anthropology was not very clearly marked. Both dealt with aspects of human culture, and both were affected by the evolutionary theories then in vogue.
Hartland defined folklore as “anthropology dealing with the psychological phenomena of uncivilized man.” Andrew Lang called it the science of survivals, using that term in the specialized sense in which Sir E.B. Tylor had first used it in his Primitive Culture (1871) to denote opinions and customs carried forward “by force of habit into a new state of society different from that in which they had their original home,” and thus remaining “as proof and examples of an older con- dition of culture out of which a need has arisen.” An etymological hypothesis propounded by the philologist Max Müller was that mythology is a “disease of language,” derived from ancient names and personifications of the sun and other natural phenomena and associated with what was then thought of as “Aryan cul- ture.” According to this theory, popular belief and folk tales existing among mod- ern European peasants were vestigial relics of sun and nature worship once prac- ticed by an ancestral race from which all peoples speaking languages belonging to the Indo-European family were believed to be descended. Müller’s ideas won considerable attention and support for a time, but his thesis was later shown to be unsound. It was attacked and demolished by Andrew Lang who, in his Modern Mythology (1897) and other writing, proved that analogies to the supposed sur- vivals of “Aryan” culture could be found among primitive peoples almost every- where, including those totally unconnected by blood or contact with countries us- ing Indo-European speech.
Tylor’s doctrine of “survivals” had a more lasting effect upon the trend of folklore studies. Laurence Gomme, Andrew Lang, Charlotte Burne, E.S. Hartland and other distinguished folklorists were profoundly influenced by it. So also was Sir James Frazer, in whose monumental work The Golden Bough (1890; 3rd, en- larged ed., 12 vol., 1907-15) innumerable examples of parallel beliefs and ritual from all over the world were assembled to show the existence in modern peasant
tradition of survivals of a primitive vegetation cult. In the second half of the 19th century a belief in unilineal social evolution and the passage of all peoples through successive and similar stages of development was generally held by an- thropologists and was not limited to them. For folklorists also, the culture of prim- itive or barbaric societies represented first steps in the evolution of human institu- tions and civilization. Existing folk beliefs, tales and customs were regarded as relics, still surviving among backward races or in the less advanced sections of modern civilized communities, of the life and thought prevailing in these lower levels of culture. The widespread distribution of similar or identical traditions was explained by the theory that all races had passed through the same stages of de- velopment and that human reactions to similar circumstances and environment tend, in similar states of evolution, to be the same everywhere.
This theory sometimes led to the overstressing of resemblances and to the ne- glect of differences that were often fundamental as well as to insufficient study of the effects upon native cultures of contact with other races, whether by invasion, trade or peaceful penetration. Later, this last consideration assumed great im- portance in the controversy between the diffusionists, who believed culture con- tacts to be the main explanation of peasant beliefs and customs, and the survival- ists, who attributed them to the processes of folk memory and to oral tradition handed down through the ages.
Read the text. Divide it into logical parts. Find the topic sentence of each part.
Give Russian equivalents to the following English word combinations: dis- tinction between smth., to be not very clearly marked, to denote opinions and cus- toms, proof, hypothesis [hai´poθisi:z], propounded by smb., disease [di´zi:z], de- rived from smth., Aryan [´εәriәn] culture, popular belief and folk tales, vestigial [ve´stidзiəl] relics, nature worship, to be descended, to win considerable attention and support, thesis [´θi:siis] (pl. theses [´θ:si:z]), to have a lasting effect upon smth., the trend of folklore studies, to be profoundly influenced by smth., monu- mental work, to be assembled, to pass through successive and similar stages of development, primitive or barbaric [ba:´bǽrik] societies [sə´saiəti], existing folk beliefs, tales and customs; to survive among backward [´bǽkwәd] races, resem- blances and the neglect of differences.
Give English equivalents to the following word combinations: иметь дело с чем-либо, быть под влиянием (воздействием) кого-л., быть в моде (попу- лярным), давать определение чему-л., мифология, существовать (бытовать) среди крестьян, языки, принадлежащие к индоевропейской семье; необосно- ванный, опровергать доводы, теория (учение), выдающиеся фольклористы, бесчисленные примеры, пережитки (остатки, следы), сходные обстоятельст- ва и среда, вторжение (нашествие), торговля, мирное проникновение, фольклорная память, устная традиция, передаваться через поколения (века).
Make up a plan of the text in the form of questions.
Retell the text, using expressions given in Task 3.
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