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Collecting Suggestions

This list suggests areas of folklore for you to consider as topics for your fieldwork:


Legends

Contemporary legends
Supernatural legends
Religious legends
Legends about historical events
Local or place-name legends
Character legends
Etiological legends (origin stories)
Fortunes won/fortunes lost legends

Jokes

Tall tales

Family history passed on in oral tradition

Courtship stories

Folk speech and dialect

Personal experience narratives

Ballads

Folksongs

Riddles

Droodles/reebus

Proverbs

Folk rhymes

Chants

Charms

Curses

Taunts

Tongue-twisters

Beliefs

Popular Beliefs

Remedies/Cures

Ways of predicting events or outcomes

Good luck/bad luck charms or occurrences that influence luck

Games

Pranks

Initiations

Traditional pastimes

Festivals

Customary celebrations

Rites of passage such as customs and beliefs about birth, maturation, marriage, death

Material culture items such as things: stitched, woven, whittled, quilted, braided, sculptured, built by hand, cooked



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For reference questions: randy.williams@usu.edu or phone (435) 797-3493.
© 2000 by Utah State University Libraries
Fife Folklore Archives, Utah State University Libraries, Logan Utah 84322-3000