UC Berkeley Folklore

If you missed Dr. Solimar Ortero's Alan Dundes Lecture live, you can still watch the recording on-line.

2021 Alan Dundes Lecture with Professor Solimar Otero

The 2021 Alan Dundes Lecture is today!

This fall, Charles Briggs redesigned his graduate seminar at UC Berkeley in such a way as to augment its engagement with decolonial approaches by including a series of five Conversations on Racism and the Politics of Culture. You can check out the Conversations here: http://folklore.berkeley.edu/conversations

Conversations — Berkeley Folklore In the Fall Semester of 2020, Charles Briggs redesigned his graduate seminar at the University of California, Berkeley (entitled “Theories of Traditionality and Modernity”) in such a way as to augment its engagement with decolonial approaches by including a series of five Conversations on Racism...

A nice overview by James Deutsch of George Washington University on some of the more common forms of folklore that have emerged with the coronavirus pandemic.

The Values—and Dangers—of Folklore during a Global Pandemic Like all examples of folklore, rumors seek to inform and to build solidarity.

Cancelled: Folklore Roundtable 3/5/20

In solidarity with the planned Statewide Day of Action on Thursday, March 5, 2020 in support of fired UCSC Graduate Students and their ongoing struggle for a Cost of Living Adjustment, speaker Jon Cho-Polizzi has asked us to postpone his Folklore Roundtable lecture scheduled for Thursday, 3/5/20. It will be rescheduled on a date TBA. We apologize for any scheduling inconveniences.

2020 Alan Dundes Lecture is today at 5PM in the Gifford Room!

The 2020 Alan Dundes Lecture will be on February 27th at 5PM. Join us in the Gifford Room!

We are very, very proud to share a documentary produced by Dr. Raju Nayak during his time at UC Berkeley. Raju was an affiliate of the Department of South Asian Studies, but worked closely with the Folklore Program during his time at Berkeley. Raju's doctoral work focused on history, caste, and criminality in the historical songs of his community—Ādivāsī speakers of the Lambāḍi language in Telaṅgāna State, India. While at Cal, he used footage he'd recorded for his dissertation to produce this beautiful documentary. The first screening was here in Berkeley in 2017. We're very excited that it's now available for all of you to watch on-line. It's half an hour of your time well spent.

Indigenous Culture and Singing Resistance A Documentary Film Title: Indigenous Culture: Singing Resistance Deconstructing Criminal tribe Identity through Lambada Bhat Narratives The objective of this...

Want to learn more about the history of our program? Check out this article written by our distinguished chair!

http://www.folklorefellows.fi/a-brief-history-of-the-university-of-california-berkeleys-folklore-graduate-program/

A Brief History of the University of California, Berkeley’s... Charles L. Briggs.   Please join me on a whirlwind tour of the University of California’s Folklore Graduate Program. In 1957 William Bascom came to the Department of Anthropology. A specialist on African art, Bascom served as president of the American Folklore Society in 1953–1954. Trained at.....

Hello Prospective Applicants! Join us for our open house on December 4th, 2019 to meet faculty and students and learn more about your fit within our program.

It's tomorrow! Prof. Gabrielle A. Berlinger from UNC will be giving a talk on November 12 at 5:15PM in the Gifford Room on "Remembering the Ephemeral: the Ritual Architecture of Sukkot in Contemporary Life".

Check out our event page for more details!

http://folklore.berkeley.edu/calendar/2019/11/12/remembering-the-ephemeral-the-ritual-architecture-of-sukkot-in-contemporary-life

Remembering the Ephemeral: the Ritual Architecture of Sukkot in Contemporary Life — Berkeley Folklore 5:15 PM-7:00PM 221 Kroeber Hall, Gifford Room UC Berkeley How can an ancient religious ritual convey current social and political needs? This question emerged from eight years (2007-2015) of documentation of Sukkot, the Jewish festival that annually commemorates the Israelites’ Biblical journey th...

Prof. Gabrielle A. Berlinger from UNC will be giving a talk on November 12 at 5:15PM in the Gifford Room on "Remembering the Ephemeral: the Ritual Architecture of Sukkot in Contemporary Life".

Check out our event page for more details!

http://folklore.berkeley.edu/calendar/2019/11/12/remembering-the-ephemeral-the-ritual-architecture-of-sukkot-in-contemporary-life

Remembering the Ephemeral: the Ritual Architecture of Sukkot in Contemporary Life — Berkeley Folklore 5:15 PM-7:00PM 221 Kroeber Hall, Gifford Room UC Berkeley How can an ancient religious ritual convey current social and political needs? This question emerged from eight years (2007-2015) of documentation of Sukkot, the Jewish festival that annually commemorates the Israelites’ Biblical journey th...

Interested in being a part of our upcoming Fall 2020 M.A. Cohort? Check out our website (http://folklore.berkeley.edu/program) to learn more about the requirements to apply!

Programs — Berkeley Folklore

Internet legend Grumpy Cat dies Hers was the feline face that launched a thousand memes, but Grumpy Cat is no more.

G̵r̵at̵t̵i̵s̵ ̵p̵å̵ ̵f̵ö̵d̵e̵l̵s̵e̵d̵a̵g̵e̵n̵Hyvää syntymäpäivää, Julius Krohn!

Today is the birthday of Julius Krohn (1835–1888), one of the early theoretical luminaries of European folkloristics. Krohn's work in looking at the language of the Kalevala launched the Historic-Geographic School of folkloristics—a line of thinking that would be very influential in the early 20th century. We usually think of the Historic-Geographic School as an antiquarian curiosity—we tend to be less interested in questions of ultimate origins, and often consider such questions either meaningless or unanswerable. Nonetheless, the school's influence lives on: Krohn's work was carried on by his son Kaarle, and then Kaarle's student Antti Aarne. Julius Krohn's work set in motion the intellectual trajectory that produce the Aarne-Thompson classification system for folktales, which in the version updated by Hans-Jörg Uther remains a touchstone in folk narrative studies today.

One of Krohn's less well-known achievements in the world of folkloristics is the translation into Finnish of the lyrics of the song that would become Finland's national anthem, "Maamme." As Krohn was especially interested in ethnic-national origins, it's perhaps à propos to note that Maamme's music was written by the German Fredrik Pacius, and its lyrics in Swedish by Johan Ludvig Runeberg.

Finland National Anthem - Maamme laulu Live version in Turku Maamme Laulu: Oi maamme, Suomi, synnyinmaa, soi, sana kultainen! Ei laaksoa, ei kukkulaa, ei vettä, rantaa rakkaampaa kuin kotimaa tää ...

One of the great cultural thinkers of 20th century Ghana and especially Asante, one of the lights of African comparative musicology, has passed on. J.H. Kwabena Nketia was one of Ghana's foremost musicologists for more than sixty years. Among his early publications was an account of Akan funeral dirges—a book which sits particularly heavily with us today. Damirifa due, Nana. Rest in Peace.

J.H. Kwabena Nketia, 97, Pre-eminent Scholar of African Music, Dies Dr. Nketia, who had an international presence, documented, analyzed and championed traditional music of the continent until his final days.

Today is the birthday of the famous railroad engineer "Casey" Jones (1863–1900). Jones' death in an accident while trying to save his passengers captured the US popular imagination, and a memorial song written by Jones' friend Wallace Saunders became a part of the country's musical canon. Here's Mississippi John Hurt's rendition at the Newport Folk Festival in 1963.

RARE FILM OF Mississippi John Hurt at NEWPORT 1963 FOR LICENSING INQUIRIES PLEASE CONTACT HISTORIC FILMS ARCHIVE ([email protected] / http://www.historicfilms.com / 800-249-1940)

In celebration of Richard Dorson's 103rd birthday, the 1958 Disney classic "Paul Bunyan."

Walt Disney's ''Paul Bunyan'' (1958) GO TO Movies Capital: Great Money Making Opportunity! ''The Turbo PayPal System'' for only a one time payment of $2.99 Click here now . Walt Disney French. P...

Today is Stith Thompson's birthday. Thompson (1885–1976) developed an originally Finnish model of comparative folklore research, drawing on the work of Antti Aarne to publish a numbered catalogue of basic folk narrative plots, and later a catalogue of motifs (smaller, recurring narrative elements).

The AT (Aarne-Thompson) got revamped this century through the work of Hans-Jörg Uther, and you may see work that refers either to older AT numbers or newer ATU numbers. As an example: The famous tale "Cinderella" is categorized as type 510: It falls under the broader category "Tales of Magic" and deals specifically with a persecuted heroine. The Russian story "Baba-Jaga" (story #102 in Aljeksandr Afanas′jev's collection of Russian folktales) gets the same coding.

Yesterday was the birthday of Wilhelm Grimm. Had it not been for his untimely death, he'd be 233 today.

Bill, though never an attendee at WSFS or AFS annual meetings, was almost universally known within our field. He remains among the few popularizers to have gained real fame outside academia.

In Bill's memory, we offer one of the delightful and innocent children's stories that made him and his brother Jake so justly famous: "The Juniper Tree" (ATU 720: „Mein Mutter, der mich schlacht' // mein Vater, der mich aß…‟).

Grimm 047: The Juniper Tree Long ago, at least two thousand years, there was a rich man who had a beautiful and pious wife, and they loved each other dearly. However, they had no children, though they wished very much to have some, and the woman prayed for them day and night, but they didn't get any, and they didn't get any.

Today is Francis Child's birthday. Child, a Bostonian, started out as a literary scholar and antiquarian. His contribution to folkloristics comes in the form of his hefty collection of English and Scottish folk ballads, published over ten volumes. Here's Fleet Foxes' version of 'The False Knight on the Road'—Child's Ballad #3.

The False Knight On the Road - Fleet Foxes Cracking revising of a traditional folk ballad. No. 3 of the Child Collection.

Today is Alan Lomax's birthday! Son of John Lomax, Alan was one of the most prolific folklorists in US—and world—history. For decades, he traveled the world recording and writing about musical performance. Here's a recording of trallaleri from Genoa.

La Partenza (The Parting) — Alan Lomax recording From the smithsonian album The Trallaleri of Genoa

Who's been missing ? Well good news, a new episode on myth is coming next ! Don't miss our epic return!

Fairy Tales: Rapunzel Join the graduate students of UC Berkeley Folklore for a lively reading and discussion of Rapunzel. Joining us in this episode is renowned s*x folklorist Dr. Jeana Jorgensen to talk about the role of female s*xuality in fairytales. Contributors this week:Luke, the ArchivistElizabeth, the Undergradua...