Student Folklore Genre Collection

Index to the Collection

The Utah State Univesity Student Folklore Genre Collection consists of folklore items collected by undergraduate students in USU folklore courses from the early 1960s to the present and by undergraduate students in Brigham Young University folklore and anthropology courses during 1960-1978. The genre items were collected as part of course requirements and deposited in the Fife Folklore Archives by the instructors. The BYU student items are duplicates of items housed at BYU's William A. Wilson Folklore Archives. Most items include informant data, context, text (the folklore item), texture (stylistic notation) and collector data. The items of folklore are in text form in 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of line-free paper. Since 1999, genre items also include release forms. The materials reflect both insider (esoteric) and outsider (exoteric) views of a folk group and may be prejudiced or stereotyped. View content disclaimer. The collection is separated into nine distinctive categories. The materials do not circulate.

• Group 1: Customs (includes foodways)
• Group 2: Belief
• Group 3: Speech
• Group 4: Tales and Jokes
• Group 5: Songs
• Group 6: Games and Pranks
• Group 7: Legends: Character (boxes 15-16), Contemporary (boxes 20-27), Etiological (boxes 17-19), Human Condition (13-14.2, includes personal narratives), Supernatural Non-religious (boxes 7-12, includes St. Anne's Retreat), Supernatural Religious (boxes 1-6)
• Group 8: Material Culture
• Group 9: E-lore: Electronically Transmitted Folklore (Xerox, facsimile and email)
• Group 10: Riddles

Folk Collection 8b - The Fife Folklore Archives Student Media Collection consists of folklore collected by USU folklore students on cassette tape, microcassette, and VCR tape. Most media submissions (2000 forward) accompanied genre collections FOLK COLL 8a); however, as most media submissions are connected to more than one genre item, they are housed separately from the transcript. The collection is organized by date.

Online Collection

Since December 2017, student folklore collecting assignments are submitted online and housed in DigitalCommons: Student Folklore Fieldwork.