Collecting Suggestions

Your instructor may ask you to collect certain genres of folklore or it may be up to you to what kinds of folklore you collect. This list suggests areas of folklore for you to consider as topics for your fieldwork. Feel free to talk to your instructor about collecting genres of folklore not covered in class, as there are many more forms of folklore than can be covered in class in one semester. However, make sure you follow your instructors' guidelines.

• Legends
  • Contemporary (urban) 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
• Foodways
• Internet memes
• 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
• Folk beliefs
• Remedies/cures
• Ways of predicting events or outcomes
• Good luck/bad luck charms
• Games
• Pranks
• Initiations
• Traditional pastimes
• Festivals
• Customary celebrations
• Rites of passage
• Material culture