Lore: the foundation of community
If defining “popular culture” is deceptively tricky, then we might find defining “lore” as deceptively simple.
The central premise behind this concept of “poplore” is the assumption that we can transpose our understanding of “folklore” onto a world where popular culture is the dominant social force.
So what is folklore? Simply speaking, folklore refers to the stories, traditions, and beliefs of a group — “the folk.” There are a wide variety of examples and “genres” of folklore, including but not limited to: myths, legends, tales, material culture, rituals, jokes, architecture, taboos, quits, memes, the list goes on and on…
Now, using “the folk” as the subject of “the lore” creates an interesting dilemma, especially in American contexts. If folklore can only be defined as the traditions of a group, then it demands that group be a static and measurable thing. Which, y’know, isn’t how the history of human civilization works… Especially in a country where immigration and integration are fundamental defining characteristics.
The question: How can there be a folklore of America if America is itself always changing?
Well, there are essentially two answers: the first is to pare down your definition of folk from “all of America” to “part of America.” Whether it’s an ethnicity, a religion, an occupation, or even an age, find a way to create a group and study that group’s lore. Thus you get Mormon Folklore, Children’s Folklore, The Folklore of Waitresses, etc. American society in this perspective is an unknowable metagroup made up of discrete groups.
The second way is a straight-forward innovation: change the noun “folk” to an adjective “folk.” We’re still dealing with the same “lore” — beliefs, traditions, rituals, etc. — but instead of referring to specific groups, “folk” is now a description of the action: the informal processes of learning and informal modes of production.
This shift leads us to, for my money, the best definition of folklore: “artistic communication in small groups.” It’s all there in that simple phrase: folklore is informal knowledge informally transmitted between people. And there’s the rub: once you get into the formal or institutional processes of culture, it’s no longer “folk,” it’s something else. (Believe me, we’ll be coming back to that something else.)
Understanding folklore as a process also allows us to consider why folklore exists, not just how it exists — and the why is the answer to everything. Dissecting the function of folklore is the key to understanding folklore’s power and ultimate role as the arbiter and enforcer of community.
Functionalism, as described by William Bascom, has four main components:
EDUCATION: lore reinforces right and wrong, glorifies etiquette the group values, and ridicules undesirable actions.
ESCAPISM: lore is used as entertainment, highlighting scenarios the group finds impossible or fanciful.
VALIDATION: traditions, beliefs, and institutions are reinforced and justified through lore.
SOCIAL CONTROL: lore illustrates acceptable behavior and punishes unacceptable taboos to promote conformity over time.
These functions form like Voltron into one metafunction:
CULTURAL STABILITY
It is the ultimate goal of folklore to create and maintain the boundaries of its community. What is right, what is wrong, what is funny, what is sad, what is perverse, what is love, what is beauty, what is delicious, what is gross, what is offensive, what is ethical, what is evil, what is rich, what is poor… every social component that defines a community is drawn out by its lore.
And that, friends, is how we get to poplore.
American society is not an unknowable metagroup without a shared culture. For over a century since the advent of radio and mass entertainment and mass consumption, American culture has been defined by this thing we call “popular culture.” The good, the bad, and the ugly of America are all found front and center in popular culture, in the things it produces, in the stories it tells, in the news it promotes, in the trends it manufactures, and in the people it puts on a pedestal. American culture is popular culture, and just as lore has done for folk groups forever, it exists to police society.
That is where this series is headed next, and probably why any of you are still interested (*crickets*). The lore of popular culture not only entertains, it educates; it not only validates, but it enforces. The lore of popular culture is a window into what America actually truly thinks about itself.