Introduction To Folklore Online Name ______________________________ Summer 2014 Student # ___________________________ Midterm Exam Short answer/essay Answer only 5 of the following 12 questions. (16 points each, 80 points total) Important Note – This is an open book, open note, home midterm exam. You have plenty of time to construct your answers. I expect full and complete answers without a lot of filler. Just answer all parts of the question. Do not be afraid to use detail, but do not feel that you have to write extensively. I just want to be sure you have a full understanding of the topics we are engaging. Use spell-check, edit your work, make sure it makes sense. Deadline for submission is Saturday, August 2, at midnight PST. 1. What are the differences between elite/high culture, popular/normative culture, and folk culture? Give an example of each. 2. What does the contemporary legend of “The Hook” reveal about modern American values concerning gender and sexuality? 3. What are the three stages that define a Rite of Passage? Name a rite of passage that occurred in your life. Discuss the impact on your own identity and your community. 4. Describe four functions of spirituals/slave songs for slaves. 5. Brunvand writes that urban legends can survive if they have three basic elements. Describe these three elements, and show how they work in one urban legend of your choice. 6. What is “communitas?” Where does one find it? Describe, with detail, one example of communitas from your reading. 7. In Carr’s article on Grateful Dead music, what is his primary argument? Name three reasons Carr gives to support his argument. 8. What were the reasons for the German efforts to collect folklore or popular antiquities? Give at least two reasons with short explanations. 9. Define the term vernacular folklore as a geographic context. Give three examples, using Eugene or the Pacific Northwest in at least one of the examples. 10. From Living Folklore, identify three categories of folklore including examples of each. Which of the three categories interests you the most, and why? 11. Barre Toelken describes the “twin laws of folklore,” two elements of folklore that complement each other. What are these twin laws, and how do they interact? 12. Provide four diverse examples of “text” in folklore study. Describe why each is “text.” Multiple Choice Answer any 20 of the following 30 questions. (1 point each, 20 points total) Please clearly indicate your answers. Provide the best answer. Only the first 20 answers will be counted, so don’t answer more than that. 1. Blues and spirituals evolved from earlier songs called A. ballads B. work songs or slave songs C. stanzas D. ragas 2. A memorate is a descriptive term for A. a device to help one remember information B. an idea that gets stuck in your head C. a narrative describing an encounter with a supernatural being or an experience with a paranormal event D. a f.

1. Introduction To Folklore Online Name
______________________________
Summer 2014 Student #
___________________________
Midterm Exam
Short answer/essay
Answer only 5 of the following 12 questions. (16 points each,
80 points total)
Important Note – This is an open book, open note, home
midterm exam. You have plenty of time to construct your
answers. I expect full and complete answers without a lot of
filler. Just answer all parts of the question. Do not be afraid to
use detail, but do not feel that you have to write extensively. I
just want to be sure you have a full understanding of the topics
we are engaging. Use spell-check, edit your work, make sure it
makes sense.
Deadline for submission is Saturday, August 2, at midnight
PST.
1. What are the differences between elite/high culture,
popular/normative culture, and folk culture? Give an example
of each.
2. What does the contemporary legend of “The Hook” reveal
about modern American values concerning gender and
sexuality?
3. What are the three stages that define a Rite of Passage? Name
a rite of passage that occurred in your life. Discuss the impact
on your own identity and your community.

2. 4. Describe four functions of spirituals/slave songs for slaves.
5. Brunvand writes that urban legends can survive if they have
three basic elements. Describe these three elements, and show
how they work in one urban legend of your choice.
6. What is “communitas?” Where does one find it? Describe,
with detail, one example of communitas from your reading.
7. In Carr’s article on Grateful Dead music, what is his primary
argument? Name three reasons Carr gives to support his
argument.
8. What were the reasons for the German efforts to collect
folklore or popular antiquities? Give at least two reasons with
short explanations.
9. Define the term vernacular folklore as a geographic context.
Give three examples, using Eugene or the Pacific Northwest in
at least one of the examples.
10. From Living Folklore, identify three categories of folklore
including examples of each. Which of the three categories
interests you the most, and why?
11. Barre Toelken describes the “twin laws of folklore,” two
elements of folklore that complement each other. What are
these twin laws, and how do they interact?
12. Provide four diverse examples of “text” in folklore study.
Describe why each is “text.”
Multiple Choice
Answer any 20 of the following 30 questions. (1 point each, 20

3. points total)
Please clearly indicate your answers. Provide the best answer.
Only the first 20 answers will be counted, so don’t answer more
than that.
1. Blues and spirituals evolved from earlier songs called
A. ballads
B. work songs or slave songs
C. stanzas
D. ragas
2. A memorate is a descriptive term for
A. a device to help one remember information
B. an idea that gets stuck in your head
C. a narrative describing an encounter with a supernatural being
or an
experience with a paranormal event
D. a folktale recovered from an informant through the telling of
a remembered story
3. Supernatural beliefs are
A. always true
B. only associated with specific locations
C. cross-cultural and widespread
D. always false
4. In the urban legend, “The Babysitter and The Man Upstairs,”
which of
these is the conservative element?
A. What the operator says
B. Where it occurs
C. the presence of a telephone
D. the number of children in the house

4. 5. What was one of the few things that was eventually shared
by white
slaveowners and slaves?
A. The main house
B. the recognition of mutual humanity
C. an appreciation of European classical music
D. Christian religion
6. When studying stories or other texts, what does the term
“structuralism”
imply?
A. a study of the parts of a text, and their relationship to the
whole text
B. strictly a study of the text as a whole artifact
C. the building or buildings that arise from vernacular
architecture
D. the function of a text
7. What was the great triumph of African-American
Christianity, from the
slaveowners’ perspective?
A. the slaveowners came to be considered as gods by the slaves
B. the focus on a Promised Land after death kept the slaves
from thinking
about freedom, a return to Africa, and the terrible conditions
they lived in
C. slaves began to learn how to play good music, unlike the
barbaric
“music” they brought with them from Africa
D. the slaves immediately found that slavery was much better
than their
previous life in Africa
8. Why did German scholars like the Grimm Brothers want to

5. collect what
we now call folklore?
A. History books had been destroyed by numerous wars and
scholars were
anxious to rebuild the history of the nation as a global
country
B. Scholars were trying to become relevant in a culture that,
much like today
in the U.S., publicly attacked science and knowledge as “the
realm of the
intellectual elite.”
C. Scholars believed the ancient past was still alive among rural
peoples and they believed
that this “alternative” history of Germany would revive the
glory of the ancient past.
D. All scholars were actively engaged in trying to prove the
Solar Mythology Theory postulated by German linguist Max
Müller.
9. Which of the following motifs is present in many European
folktales and
legends?
A. The Rule of 1
B. The Rule of 2
C. The Rule of 3
D. The Rule of 4
E. all of the above
10. A barn and a quilt have been made. Where is the folklore?
A. strictly in the form of a barn or quilt
B. strictly in the idea of the barn or quilt
C. in the creative process of making the barn or quilt
D. in the publishing of “how-to” books with directions for
building a barn or
quilt

6. 11. The process of folklore is
A. local
B. communal
C. informal
D. All of the above
E. only A
12. Folklore scholarship is based largely on the study of
A. variation
B. strict categories
C. politics
D. folktales
13. A rite of passage is usually a feature of small groups and
A. is used only in religious settings
B. is never practiced by women
C. marks a change in status
D. has 4 distinct stages
14. Building a house with a slate roof in an area where slate is
an abundant resource is an example of
A. vernacular architecture
B. dynamic folklore
C. Social Construction Theory
D. a wonderful coincidence
15. According to the text Living Folklore, which of these is not
one of three broad categories of folklore?
A. Supernatural
B. Verbal
C. Material
D. Customary
16. The word “text” always refers to the written word, and is

7. unique to literate cultures.
A. True
B. False
17. What is considered, by most folklorists, the first folk group
that people are a part of?
A. first job/place of employment
B. first school
C. wedding party
D. one’s family
18. When studying folk groups, the folklore scholar typically
looks most intently at
A. how many people are in the group
B. the dynamic and creative relationships between individuals
in the group
C. the average age of group members
D. where the group meets
19. Folklore is necessarily untrue and from the past
A. True
B. False
20. Folklorists are most concerned with
A. Histories of the elites
B. Accounts of wars and empires
C. orchestrated state funerals
D. popular culture
E. performance in informal settings
21. Which of the following is an example of popular culture?
A. An art exhibit featuring the works of Picasso
B. A chamber music concert in Eugene
C. South Park
D. A quilting circle

8. 22. Some folklorists would describe as “vernacular” which
following example?
A. global holidays
B. an annual local fundraising parade
C. the Super Bowl
D. a presidential state of the union speech
23. Which of the following is the best example of folklore?
A. a concert featuring the Grateful Dead
B. a cd of the Grateful Dead’s music
C. the dancing of the Spinners at a Grateful Dead concert
D. the recording of the concert by members of the audience
E. all of the above
F. both C and D
24. The study of the context of a performance necessarily
includes
A. the interplay between, for example, a speaker and the
audience
B. silence on the part of the observer
C. a willingness by the researcher to join the group he/she is
studying
D. none of the above
25. Tradition
A. is shared among members of a group, often across time
B. creates and maintains group and individual identity
C. has continuity, is repeated
D. all of the above
E. none of the above

9. 26. An Easter egg hunt at a local church is an example of
A. vernacular folklore
B. urban legend
C. superstition
D. official religious practice
27. A “performance” approach to folklore study implies a focus
on
A. the static elements of culture
B. the current, dynamic, expressive aspects of culture
C. only proverbs
D. only folktales
28. What was the most significant change over time concerning
how the study of folklore was conducted by scholars?
A. a shift from studying ancient scriptures to opening churches
B. a change from studying urban populations to studying
suburban
communities
C. studying folktales in terms of their lunar themes instead of
solar themes
D. change from collecting relics of the past to studying dynamic
aspects of
peoples’ lives
29. Franz Boas, German anthropologist, wrote about the concept
of
“diffusion,” the study of
A. how texts move from culture to culture
B. two different types of fusion
C. what a text means to a group
D. how texts are performed
30. What are the “twin laws” of the folklore process?
A. tension and release
B. dynamic and conservative

10. C. living and dying
D. ancient and future
E. all of the above
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