Folkloristics
lastmod 2014-05-03created 2014-05-031 edits
Folkloristics (Folklore; German: Volkskunde) is the academic discipline that studies folk culture handed down in human societies through oral tradition and other means, such as literature, music, and art, as well as myths, legends, and customs passed down among the common people, with the aim of shedding light on ethnic culture from them. A person who studies this discipline is called a folklorist (Folklorist).
Folklore is a collective term for the ways of life, customs, superstitions, and proverbs uniquely handed down in each group of people living together, oral literature including folktales, legends, and myths, and cultural forms such as music and dance. Folklore is created as a social group adapts to its surrounding natural environment, to other social groups, and further to its relationship with the state to which the group belongs. The discipline that studies folklore is called folkloristics.