I hope to dem-
onstrate that conducting folklore research with children is difficult, but that
these difficulties can be surmounted.
onstrate that conducting folklore research with children is difficult, but that
these difficulties can be surmounted.
Childens - Folklore
0
? ? thorities); (2) make his or her contacts believe these intentions; and (3) prove
that these acts are consistent with relevant beliefs. In the case of children,
the issues are similar. The participant observer may be tested, as I was. This
testing appears to be a precondition for acceptance in private settings. One
key area in which this testing occurred was in determining my reaction to
rowdiness, including shouting, shoving, fighting, insulting, and arguing (see
also Glassner 1976). Repressing my adult desire to intervene at the slight-
est provocation led to my being allowed to observe on other occasions, as
an adult who knew how to behave around children.
Once I was in a park with a group of preadolescent boys who, over
five weeks, had begun to trust me. Suddenly, these boys spotted a group of
girls they did not know, seated around a park bench near a thermos of wa-
ter. One boy decided that it would be great fun to bother them (and simul-
taneously pay attention to them). He and his friends plotted to rush them,
steal their thermos, and pour out the contents, disrupting their gathering.
After a short period of insults between boys and girls (mostly about physi-
cal attractiveness), the plan was put into effect-with the expected scream-
ing and squealing by the girls. At one point, several of the girls turned to
me (busily taking notes and appearing, I assume, furtively guilty) and asked
me, as the adult presumably in charge, why I didn't stop them. This reason-
able question placed me in a difficult situation. Since no serious harm seemed
to be occurring, and since I felt that the behavior was not being done for
my benefit, I didn't intervene and said only that I had no control over their
behavior. The boys were gleeful at hearing this and soon left the scene of
battle. In retrospect, this occasion was a major step in my acceptance. I in-
dicated to the boys that I would not excessively restrain them and that I knew
"my place. " After that episode the boys told me more about the aggressive
and sexual dimensions of their traditions.
The Key Informant
Often crucial to a researcher's acceptance in a field setting is a "key infor-
mant. " This individual gives time, energy, and prestige to help the researcher
understand what is going on and to get others to reveal sensitive matters.
Within a group, several potential key informants may be found. One crite-
rion for this position is that the individual have a central position in the so-
cial structure of the group, with access to persons or knowledge. I differen-
tiate two components of the key informant's role: that of sponsor and source.
These two components need not necessarily be embodied in the same per-
son. Other adults may help in acting as sponsors in making introductions
to children, and low-status children may be the source of much valuable in-
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? ? formation, although they provide little aid in gaining entry into their group.
The convergence of ability and willingness to supply the researcher with in-
formation and entry is the mark of the key informant. This willingness is
connected to security in one's social position; those boys who became my
key informants were socially self-confident, leaders in their group, and gre-
garious. They were preadolescent teachers willing to suggest how I should
act or react; they were willing and able to invert the normal adult-child re-
lationship. Of course, the relationship is not entirely one-sided. These chil-
dren reap status and material rewards from their association with the adult
researcher. One develops exchange relationships that are essentially balanced,
even though different sets of commodities are exchanged.
ETHICAL ISSUES OF OBSERVING CHILDREN
Ethnographic observation poses an array of challenging ethical issues. In
most ethnographic investigations research depends on relationships among
peers-actual or theoretical equals. One cannot, however, pretend that
either adults or children would be comfortable in a situation in which
equality was expected. The age-based power differential can never be
eliminated, and adult researchers must recognize the immaturity of their
subjects. Although issues of direct harm or overt deception do not occur
frequently, ethical issues do arise, and one must also consider how to achieve
"informed consent. " I consider three substantive ethical issues in this sec-
tion: (1) the responsibility of the adult in managing potentially harmful situ-
ations; (2) the implications of the adult "policing" or disciplinary role; and
(3) problems of explaining the research in a clear and comprehensible fash-
ion. In considering ethical issues, programmatic rules are not possible.
Adult responsibility
When one deals with children in situations without a clear authority struc-
ture, difficulties may arise. Children are mischievous, sometimes aggressive,
and on occasion cruel. What is the responsibility of the researcher in such
situations? Clearly, researchers have an ethical requirement to protect their
subjects from harm, particularly since on some occasions the observer's pres-
ence increases aggression (Polsky 1962; Glassner 1976). The researcher
should remember that other adults, who might intervene if the adult re-
searcher were not present, will refrain, feeling that the children are already
under adult supervision. The adult cannot be entirely passive, even though
he or she alters the behavior of the group.
Fortunately few situations are clearly dangerous. Boys get into fights,
and on occasion girls do as well. Many children's groups contain members
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? ? whose roles include breaking up fights and minimizing physical danger. In
one group one child acted as a sort of medic, providing paper tissues for
bloody noses, counseling for hurt feelings, and companionship during emer-
gencies (Glassner 1976).
If a fight is sufficiently serious, however, intervention is necessary, and
steps must be taken to end the dispute. If the fight caused permanent dam-
age to one or more participants, the observer would properly have been held
morally responsible, and had the observer been in a position of responsibil-
ity, legally responsible as well.
Other situations develop that, although not physically dangerous,
involve behaviors generally condemned by adult society, such as racism or
theft. I vividly recall the day I escorted some preadolescent friends for ice
cream, and discovered to my acute discomfort that they were stealing candy.
My first reaction was to stop them and insist that they return what they took.
This emotion was partly attributable to ethical concerns and partly to the
fear that I might be blamed or held responsible. I also realized that if I made
a public display I would likely not alter their behavior, but only ensure that
I was never privy to such behaviors again. Also, since I had by this time de-
veloped attachments to many of these children, I was afraid that I might
cause them embarrassment or legal trouble. I decided to do nothing-a de-
cision as much from indecision as from ethical concern, although in retro-
spect the decision was probably theoretically sound. As we were driving
home, the boys discussed what had occurred, and by nonevaluative prob-
ing I was able to learn of stealing in other situations. This episode indicates
the difficulty of making moral decisions in the fast-moving events of the real
world.
Adult policing role
Should adult researchers allow themselves to police children? Authorities
often hope that researchers will perform their job for them (see, for example,
Geer 1970). No difficulty, however, is more serious than for the researcher
not to be considered an "honest broker. " The adult must prove him/herself
worthy of trust. Most researchers working with children will not be accorded
trust at first; only after a series of "tests" does trust develop (see Fine and
Glassner 1979; Glassner 1976). In attempting to pass these "tests," how-
ever, adult researchers can sometimes get in trouble with adult authorities
(Birksted 1976).
The conflict over the policing role is most clearly evident when the
researcher desires positive relations with his/her subjects and also avoids
authority-the "friend" role. The "observer," because of role distance from
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? ? the subjects, is rarely asked to police-the "leader" and "supervisor" are
supposed to be in charge. Yet, it is essential in all cases that the precise na-
ture of what this policing entails be made clear to all parties. Elizabeth Tucker
(personal communication, 1976), for instance, found herself called before
a local Girl Scout council for not adequately disciplining her troop (in the
council's view), while researching the informal behavior of preadolescent
girls. Although Tucker was eventually cleared, the period was difficult for
her and the parents were involved. The solution for the researcher who
wishes to avoid responsibility seems to be to emphasize to both adults and
children that one will not be a disciplinarian, and to back this up with con-
sistent behavior. Whenever the adult feels it imperative to intervene, it should
be made clear that the intervention is being done as an individual and not
as an agent for society or the institution.
Informed Consent
When the participant observer is not in a formal position of authority (and
even in some cases when he or she is) the observer must inform the subjects
of the research intent. The need for informed consent has perhaps not been
sufficiently recognized in ethnographic research. When the adult has little
authority, an honest explanation of the research is important (Konopka
1966). Yet, even a well-meaning explanation will not adequately convey to
children what the research entails. When I studied Little League baseball
teams I was asked if I were a reporter, writing a movie like The Bad News
Bears, working with Little League headquarters, or selling drugs. During the
time I was in graduate school I could convey the purpose of the research by
saying I was a student and this was homework; later I explained that I was
writing a book. These did not answer every question, but they seemed to
work reasonably well (Fine 1987).
Although explanation is important, actions are the main way in which
children learn the intentions of the researcher. The questions asked, and the
situations during which the observer scribbles furiously or fiddles with the
tape recorder, provide clues to the observer's true interests. Informed con-
sent, while a goal toward which we must always strive, will frequently be
only partially achieved.
EXPERIMENTS
A common methodology in several branches of the social sciences, most
particularly in psychology, is the experiment. Although this approach is not
common in folklore, some suggest that experimentation is an appropriate
methodology for folklorists (Goldstein 1967a). Most experiments that have
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? ? been conducted using folkloric materials have been attempts to understand
the processes of diffusion (Bartlett 1932; Anderson 1951; Wesselski 1931).
Some of this research, such as that of Wesselski, used children-in his case
elementary school girls. The girls were told a version of Sleeping Beauty, and
in their retellings changes were noted, confirming Wesselski's view that oral
tradition was unreliable and that the Mairchen were transmitted primarily
in printed form. This experiment, and others similar, do not directly address
children's folklore content, but they do indicate the processes of change of
children's lore.
More directly relevant to the use of experimentation for researching
children's traditions is Paul Gump and Brian Sutton-Smith's examination of
differences between "high-power" "it" roles and "low-power" "it" roles-
the games black Tom and dodge the skunk respectively (Gump and Sutton-
Smith 1955). Applying folklore to social work, these researchers discovered
that when children played high-power "it" roles they were more successful
and, further, that the high-power "it" roles led to fewer negative reactions
of the playing group to "it," and more positive feelings by the "it" toward
himself. This was particularly significant for those less skilled boys who were
able to exploit the power edge inherent in the high-power "it" role. Gump
and Sutton-Smith could make these claims because they had each child play
every role and could compare reactions across conditions. This suggests the
greatest value of experiments: They permit the systematic comparison of
groups under controlled conditions. One observes what happens in a speci-
fied situation, and compares this to a second situation with other constraints.
Experimentation also permits a random or systematic selection of subjects,
often permitting statistical analysis.
An experiment is a technique in which the researcher manipulates
some aspect of a subject's experience in order to determine its effect on be-
havior or attitudes. Typically this involves comparing groups that each have
been manipulated, or comparing a manipulated group with a
nonmanipulated group-a "control group. " The major weakness of this
approach stems from the experimenter's control-it is an artificial situation,
since it is controlled or created by the researcher. Before we become too criti-
cal, however, remember that the same is true of surveys and interviews. For
some research problems, such as comparative analysis, and for confidence
based on statistical evidence, the experiment may be the research method
of choice.
Much has been written about the ethical problems faced by experi-
mental researchers. Since experimentation has not become a major meth-
odology in folklore, it is not necessary to discuss the ethical issues in the same
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? ? detail as discussed for interviews and observation (see Diegner and Crandall
1978). I have previously discussed how one obtains informed consent with
children and their guardians, and this problem remains in experimentation.
Although potential harm may exist in experiments (particularly in the medi-
cal domain), it is unlikely that any experiment on children's folklore is likely
to cause irreparable damage. Of more significance is the legitimacy of de-
ception. I refer to the situation in which the experimenter tells his/her sub-
jects that the experiment is testing something that it is "really" not testing,
or simply (as in the Gump and Sutton-Smith study) not informing subjects
that they are being studied.
Even when harm is not done directly by the experimental deception,
some researchers (for example, Kelman 1968, 211-21) argue that deception
by its nature raises serious ethical problems. Is it justified to deceive a per-
son, even though during the experiment that deception will not cause harm?
Doesn't deception, once uncovered, undermine the confidence that subjects
have in social science and decrease the confidence that individuals have in
one another? Do we wish to reside in a world in which deception is legiti-
mate behavior? Are we willing to do to our friends that which we willingly
do to our subjects: lie, make promises we don't intend to keep, deceive them
about the purposes of the interaction, or withhold relevant information? The
experimenter-subject relationship is, after all, a real relationship. Some an-
swer these fears by pointing to the value of the information which is gath-
ered. Further, some of the information might not have been collected if the
subjects knew what the experimenter wanted. If the children tested by Gump
and Sutton-Smith knew that the researchers were interested in influencing
their self-esteem through the games they played, they might have responded
quite differently. Further, some might question whether deception is uncom-
mon or harmful. Might deception not be viewed as similar to the "little white
lies" that are common elsewhere in life? Children, in particular, are deceived
constantly for their own good. A child who is told not to go out at night
because "the goblins" may get him or through similar threats (see
Widdowson 1977) is being deceived and may not be disabused of these ideas
for years. No fiat can be given, but it is essential that the researcher con-
sider the special responsibilities that derive from the choice to work with
children.
CHILDREN AS COLLECTORS
Although most childlore has been, and will continue to be, collected by
adults, children can serve as folklore collectors in certain circumstances. The
most publicized example of this phenomenon is the books, edited by Eliot
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? ? Wigginton, in which high-school students collected lore from neighbors of
their North Georgia school. There has been debate as to the proper role of
these books and their imitators in folklore (Dorson 1973a; Wigginton 1974),
but there is no doubt that they teach adolescents (as later projects taught
preadolescents) the value of traditional beliefs. Although Dorson and Car-
penter (1978, 7) refer to these works as "journalism projects," and a schol-
arly reader must admit that the quality of the material collected varies, some
of what is collected is valuable material for even the serious scholar. Chil-
dren can also be used to collect material from themselves and from their peers
and near-peers. This collection, when the young collectors are properly
trained, can be useful in obtaining information that might be very difficult
for adults to collect. While I didn't use preadolescents as miniature ethnog-
raphers, I did loan several of them my tape recorder, and was rewarded by
tapes about fartlore and a recording of a mutual masturbation session.
One must insure that preadolescents do not become exploited in this
process. They should not substitute for paid workers as a means of cost sav-
ing. Second, they should be properly trained, and their research tasks should
be limited to the extent of their training-limits that vary with age. Third,
children should not be placed in situations in which they could be in dan-
ger or in which they might be condemned by others. This means that the
collection of obscene lore by children is ethically sensitive. If the child is be-
ing instructed to collect obscene material, or material which the investiga-
tor has reason to expect to be obscene, then relevant adults should be ap-
prised of this fact. Some adults, including some researchers, feel that chil-
dren should not be involved in collecting-or performing-obscene mate-
rial, while others are more open. Both positions should be respected. De-
spite these problems, children can collect folklore, with educational benefits
to themselves and to the discipline.
THE CHALLENGE OF COLLECTING CHILDREN'S FOLKLORE
The other chapters in this volume demonstrate that the study of childlore is
an intellectually important pursuit. My purpose is different.
I hope to dem-
onstrate that conducting folklore research with children is difficult, but that
these difficulties can be surmounted. Whether the issue is the development
of trust, the linguistic or intellectual barriers between children and adults,
or the special ethical concerns that come from working with minors, unique
problems affect this scholarly domain.
Childlore can be collected in several ways. No one methodology has
the monopoly on success or failure (see Table 1). The best research is often
research that does not rely on a single methodology, but blends several tech-
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? ? niques, a process of "triangulation. " While there is much more to be said-
about the subtleties of working with children of particular ages, for in-
stance-texts can only get us so far as methodological tools. Ultimately no
piece of writing can ever substitute for the personal experience.
TABLE 1. Selected Advantages and Disadvantages of C
Methodologies
Advantages Disadvantages
Reminiscences
1. easy to collect
2. historical or
comparative
Interviews 1. sense of what
(induced respondent feels
performances) 2. ability to ask
follow-up questions
Surveys
random sample
2. statistical or
comparative
analysis
Observation
1. large or
1. inexpensive
2. natural context
Experiments
variables
2. statistical or
comparative
analysis
1. not current,
based on recall
2. words, not
behavior
1. time-consuming
1. control of
2. talk, not natural
behavior
1. surface answers
2. no follow-up
3. talk, not
natural behavior
1. lack of control
2. often unsystematic
3. labor-intensive
1. artificiality
2. ethical issues
of deception
hildlore
Examples
Knapp and Knapp
1976
Gomme 1894.
Piaget 1932
Tucker 1980a
Fine 1979a
Virtanen 1978
Knapp and Knapp
1976
Fine 1979b
Goldstein 1967b
Gump and Sutton-
Smith 1955
NOTES TO CHAPTER Six
1. I exclude historical or library research, not because it isn't valuable for learn-
ing about childlore but because the methodological and ethical issues are substantially
different from those discussed here.
2. Participants in surveys are typically called respondents rather than informants.
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? ?
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? ? SECTION III
OVERVIEW
CHILDREN'S FOLKLORE CONCERNS
Brian Sutton-Smith
Children's folklore concerns are much more extensive than have been dealt
with in folklore research. Indeed most of the chapters that follow in this cen-
tral section of the Sourcebook are about some form of speech play, whether
rhymes, songs, riddles, teases, or tales. This focus on speech play has its
source in the predominant influence of the "ethnography of speaking" in
folklore research during the past twenty years. Increasingly in those years
folklorists have become interested in the social basis of human communica-
tion in how individuals actually communicate at particular times and places
and in particular groups. Within folklore the leading scholars who have had
the greatest influence, direct or indirect, upon the chapters that follow are
Dell Hymes (1969), Richard Bauman and Joel Sherzer (1974) and Barbara
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett. In particular, Speech Play by Barbara Kirshenblatt-
Gimblett, (1976b) with its bibliographic survey of children's play, word play,
nursery lore, nonsense and limericks, play languages, numbers, letters, mne-
monics and counting-out rhymes, names, humor, joking relationships and
interaction, verbal contests, obscenity, proverbs and speech metaphor, riddles,
and narrative and audio-visual resources, is the essential forerunner and
complement to the present volume. A central position must be given also to
John McDowell's Children's Riddling (1979), which is unique in establish-
ing the viability of research on a particular genre of a particular children's
group. With only recent exceptions (L. Hughes 1983; Beresin 1993), most
researchers of childhood consider the notion of dissertation work on, say,
the jump rope of one group of players, or hopscotch, or jacks of a specific
group too trivial to be worth considering. McDowell's Children's Riddling,
and Hughes's and Beresin's work in the present volume, exposes the schol-
arly shallowness of that adultcentric attitude.
A comparison of the chapters in this section with the list of topics in
the introduction imparts some idea of what is missing here, and probably
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? ? as well what has been little researched. In approaching play and games in
this work only by two highly specialized studies, we ignore the many differ-
ent ways of playing and games that children get into, though this omission
is in part remedied in the writing of Mergen, Bronner, and Mechling in the
next section. Still, we lament the lack here, for example, of material on folk
games, pregame ceremonies, rule making in different kinds of games, cheat-
ing, or performances in singing games, or play and games on traditional
occasions. In the meantime the reader might find some solace in the very
useful popular accounts of Mary and Herbert Knapp in One Potato, Two
Potato: The Secret Education of American Children (1976), Children's
Games in Street and Playground by lona and Peter Opie (1969), and
Bronner's American Children's Folklore (1988).
Although the chapters that follow give us many examples of language
play, as well as useful categorizations and accurate knowledge of different
kinds of playful discourse, what we miss here is any real certainty about the
underlying relationships between play and language. This is not, of course,
the authors' fault, because there is very little research on these relationships.
What the literature does seem to support is the finding that in the earlier
stages of childhood the phonological elements of language are played with
much more than are the semantic, syntactic or discourse elements. As chil-
dren develop, however, these later elements increasingly become the center
of attention. Thus younger children will enjoy the nonsense of sounds, but
by seven or so years, children in their riddling are showing increasing inter-
est in word meanings and their proper categorization, as well as using words
in a social way as in teasing rhymes and pranks. Barbara Kirshenblatt-
Gimblett has suggested, following Jacobsen, that much of the younger
children's verbal play with sounds, although different from adult poetry, may
well be its precursor. The fine ear for the sounds of the language that such
play may exercise, prepares one for poetry and literature, she says.
What stands out in the chapters that follow with respect to all kinds
of verbal play, sounding or otherwise, however, is the strong association that
it has with the children's own peer socialization pressures (dominance,
scapegoating, legislation, judgments, teasing, pranks, parodies). The record
of these chapters is that the usage of the children's verbal play is largely an-
tithetical to the normative intentions of adult socialization in behavior or
words. It is an example of the paradoxical way in which the children ex-
press their hostilities, wishes, and resentments with minor danger to them-
selves.
What is generally overlooked in much theorizing about language and
play relationships, is that play language has a semiotic character quite differ-
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? ? ent from that of language as used in everyday communication. Put briefly, the
more players play together, the more elliptic and esoteric their dialogue tends
to become. They develop their own peculiar argot, which would certainly not
score very well on standard measures. In short, the important connection be-
tween play and language may have to do with the peculiar uses of language
in play, rather than between play and language ordinarily considered. Play is
itself a caricatural or schematic activity ("galumphing" as some have called
it), and when it moves verbally it breeds analogous and elliptic usages of lan-
guage perhaps familiar only to those who are a part of the "secret" commu-
nity. Thus the ellipsis may serve to mask what is going on from those who
are not members of the play group. Perhaps more important, the ellipsis helps
to establish the players as a play community (McMahon 1993).
In the chapters that follow, Sullivan introduces us to children's songs
and rhymes, the latter of which he prefers to think of as poems, because they
resemble the poetic character of the ancient oral traditions of the world. He
distinguishes here also the tradition of parental nursery lore (lullabies) from
the traditions of children themselves (game lore), which in adolescence in-
cludes parodies of nursery lore. He categorizes children's rhymes in terms
of the functions they fulfill in children's groups for legislating outcomes, as
an expression of power relationships between children, for making judgments
about each other, and for humor's sake. In all of this material the formative
role of the verse is the establishment and maintenance of the peer group in
its antithetical relationship to adult conventions; in particular, the use of
phonology for the political purposes of childhood subversion rings out loud
and clear. It is intriguing to think of the subculture of childhood moving
against its adult overlords with a phonological armamentarium.
Roemer's work on riddles benefits from the sociolinguistic tradition
to which we have referred above. Those who work within this tradition in
this Sourcebook are generally at an advantage from a systematic and schol-
arly perspective in the interpretation of verbal folklore. In addition, works
on riddling are themselves a well-established tradition of study within folk-
lore and anthropology yielding a rich and suggestive array of cross-cultural
as well as modern examples. What is even more important is that Roemer
supplements the work of Hughes in showing riddling sessions to be an on-
going achievement at any moment and not merely a reflex of tradition. In-
deed tradition is the historical context of the semantic field from which the
social construction of the riddling occasion begins. As Denzin argues,
children's worlds of play are "not just given or handed down; rather they
are constructed worlds that are interpreted, negotiated, argued over, debated
about, compromised" (1977, 173). It is a contrast between papers presented
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? ? throughout this sourcebook that those who deal only with recorded folk-
lore necessarily make folklore appear to be a matter of tradition, while those
who have gotten their material directly from children's behaviors see folk-
lore very much as a matter of life construction. Newell's paradox may owe
some of its power to the difference between these approaches to scholarship.
Tucker deals with children's narratives and legends and in doing so
clearly indicates some of the enthusiasm that adult collectors borrow from
their child informants. Indeed her chapter is in some ways most valuable for
her own "contagious" involvement with her subject matter. She also man-
ages to blend an interdisciplinary tolerance for psychological studies of
children's stories with a more folkloristic analysis of the traditional tales and
legends that she and others have collected. That "psychological" explana-
tions should serve mainly for the stories of younger children and folkloris-
tic explanations for the tales and legends of older children seems largely to
be an accident of scholarly history. What Tucker's essay does demonstrate
is that although oral storytelling does not compare in its strength among chil-
dren with the transmission of games, jokes, and so forth, it is nevertheless
still more alive than one would expect from what goes on in schools. Lit-
eracy has diminished but not entirely quelled the traditions of child-trans-
mitted stories even in the urban middle class.
With Jorgensen's essay on pranks, the verbal subculture of the first three
chapters in this section begins to take on a more physically antithetical char-
acter and with it a cultural seriousness perhaps lacking in the others. Unlike
rhymes, riddles, and tales, pranks overflow into adult culture in an intention-
ally disruptive fashion. This is partly due to their practical rather than their
verbal character, and partly to the older age of the perpetrators. Jorgensen's
central thesis is that pranks, tricks, teases, and taunts are about victimization,
some of which are malevolent and deceptive and some of which is straight-
forward and benevolent. More important, however, she describes their roles
as kinds of communication. Her article brings into the forefront some of the
less pleasant aspects of the culture of childhood. In thinking of children's folk-
lore as the material for the politics of childhood we need to accept that there
is often nothing very romantic about these politics.
In sum, in these four chapters we have a sample of the concerns of
children. Here are some of the phenomena that are part and parcel of the
way in which they establish relationships among themselves and in so do-
ing differentiate themselves from other age groups in modern society. As with
any subculture, some of their effort goes into building their own culture and
some of it into distancing their culture from the conventional adult culture
around them.
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? ? 7 SONGS, POEMS, AND RHYMES'
C. W. Sullivan III
Poetry and song came early in the development of Western civilization. Much
of what we have left to us of the earliest literary works-Beowulf or Homer's
Iliad and Odyssey-were probably recited in chanted or sung versions long
before they were written down, their forms and places fixed forever in liter-
ary history. Moreover, many of the narratives that came later, whether they
appeared first in oral or written form, were poetic rather than prose. So, too,
poetry and song come early in the lives of children. Before they begin to at-
tend school and even before they begin to associate with others of their own
age, they encounter poetry and song. Although much folklore is passed on
from older to younger members within a generation, whether it is a genera-
tion of college students or a generation of "neighborhood kids," the first
traditional poetry and song a child hears comes from another generation.
The child's mother, usually, but more often these days the father, too, talk,
chant, and sing to the child almost from the moment he or she makes an
appearance in the world. Much of that chanting and singing is functional;
that is, it is used by the parent to soothe a restless child, to help the child
drift off to sleep, or to interest the active or fussy child. One parent that I
know sang the alphabet to her older child when he was small so that he
would hold still while she changed his diapers.
Much of what is sung to these infants is not traditional in the truest
sense of the word. For example, because it is most often associated with
school-day school, kindergarten, or first grade-few will argue that the al-
phabet song is a traditional folk song. And many of the other poems or songs
recited or sung to children have known, often literary, sources. Folklorists,
at least, know that "Mary Had A Little Lamb" was composed by Mrs. Sa-
rah Josepha Hale of Boston in 1830, and many of the other popular rhymes
recited to young children-"Little Miss Muffett," "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin
Eater," "Little Jack Horner," and the rest-can all be found, with some small
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? ? variation from text to text, in any Mother Goose collection. But there are
two other considerations here. First, this material, even though its sources
are known, is often passed on in the same dynamic way that all folklore is
passed on. Parents often recite poems or sing songs to their children that were
recited or sung to them a generation back by their own parents; all of the
parents busily passing on "Mary Had A Little Lamb" are transmitting it in
a traditional way to their children and, perhaps indirectly, to future genera-
tions. And if there is a Mother Goose collection of nursery rhymes in the
house, it is probably consulted by the parents for additional material or it
is available for the pictures that will amuse children when they are being read
to or when they are looking at the book themselves. 2 A second, and more
indirect, consideration here is that the material the child learns is not for-
gotten as soon as the infant or tot stage is past. Children will remember this
material and use it, for example, as the basis for parodies in future child-
hood years. And the rather innocent Mary and her lamb becomes
Mary had a little lamb,
She also had a bear;
I've often seen her little lamb,
But I've never seen her bear. 3
In oral tradition, of course, the "bear" of the last line of the parody is heard
and understood as the homonymous "bare. " Thus, there is a great body of
material which, if not originally of the folk, is certainly passed on in the same
manner as any other traditional materials and which does, shortly, become
intertwined (as in the parodying of "Mary Had A Little Lamb") with mate-
rials (in this case, the parody) that are generated within and transmitted from
older to younger members of the folk group-children.
It is also important to note here that the parents are teaching by ex-
ample.
? ? thorities); (2) make his or her contacts believe these intentions; and (3) prove
that these acts are consistent with relevant beliefs. In the case of children,
the issues are similar. The participant observer may be tested, as I was. This
testing appears to be a precondition for acceptance in private settings. One
key area in which this testing occurred was in determining my reaction to
rowdiness, including shouting, shoving, fighting, insulting, and arguing (see
also Glassner 1976). Repressing my adult desire to intervene at the slight-
est provocation led to my being allowed to observe on other occasions, as
an adult who knew how to behave around children.
Once I was in a park with a group of preadolescent boys who, over
five weeks, had begun to trust me. Suddenly, these boys spotted a group of
girls they did not know, seated around a park bench near a thermos of wa-
ter. One boy decided that it would be great fun to bother them (and simul-
taneously pay attention to them). He and his friends plotted to rush them,
steal their thermos, and pour out the contents, disrupting their gathering.
After a short period of insults between boys and girls (mostly about physi-
cal attractiveness), the plan was put into effect-with the expected scream-
ing and squealing by the girls. At one point, several of the girls turned to
me (busily taking notes and appearing, I assume, furtively guilty) and asked
me, as the adult presumably in charge, why I didn't stop them. This reason-
able question placed me in a difficult situation. Since no serious harm seemed
to be occurring, and since I felt that the behavior was not being done for
my benefit, I didn't intervene and said only that I had no control over their
behavior. The boys were gleeful at hearing this and soon left the scene of
battle. In retrospect, this occasion was a major step in my acceptance. I in-
dicated to the boys that I would not excessively restrain them and that I knew
"my place. " After that episode the boys told me more about the aggressive
and sexual dimensions of their traditions.
The Key Informant
Often crucial to a researcher's acceptance in a field setting is a "key infor-
mant. " This individual gives time, energy, and prestige to help the researcher
understand what is going on and to get others to reveal sensitive matters.
Within a group, several potential key informants may be found. One crite-
rion for this position is that the individual have a central position in the so-
cial structure of the group, with access to persons or knowledge. I differen-
tiate two components of the key informant's role: that of sponsor and source.
These two components need not necessarily be embodied in the same per-
son. Other adults may help in acting as sponsors in making introductions
to children, and low-status children may be the source of much valuable in-
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? ? formation, although they provide little aid in gaining entry into their group.
The convergence of ability and willingness to supply the researcher with in-
formation and entry is the mark of the key informant. This willingness is
connected to security in one's social position; those boys who became my
key informants were socially self-confident, leaders in their group, and gre-
garious. They were preadolescent teachers willing to suggest how I should
act or react; they were willing and able to invert the normal adult-child re-
lationship. Of course, the relationship is not entirely one-sided. These chil-
dren reap status and material rewards from their association with the adult
researcher. One develops exchange relationships that are essentially balanced,
even though different sets of commodities are exchanged.
ETHICAL ISSUES OF OBSERVING CHILDREN
Ethnographic observation poses an array of challenging ethical issues. In
most ethnographic investigations research depends on relationships among
peers-actual or theoretical equals. One cannot, however, pretend that
either adults or children would be comfortable in a situation in which
equality was expected. The age-based power differential can never be
eliminated, and adult researchers must recognize the immaturity of their
subjects. Although issues of direct harm or overt deception do not occur
frequently, ethical issues do arise, and one must also consider how to achieve
"informed consent. " I consider three substantive ethical issues in this sec-
tion: (1) the responsibility of the adult in managing potentially harmful situ-
ations; (2) the implications of the adult "policing" or disciplinary role; and
(3) problems of explaining the research in a clear and comprehensible fash-
ion. In considering ethical issues, programmatic rules are not possible.
Adult responsibility
When one deals with children in situations without a clear authority struc-
ture, difficulties may arise. Children are mischievous, sometimes aggressive,
and on occasion cruel. What is the responsibility of the researcher in such
situations? Clearly, researchers have an ethical requirement to protect their
subjects from harm, particularly since on some occasions the observer's pres-
ence increases aggression (Polsky 1962; Glassner 1976). The researcher
should remember that other adults, who might intervene if the adult re-
searcher were not present, will refrain, feeling that the children are already
under adult supervision. The adult cannot be entirely passive, even though
he or she alters the behavior of the group.
Fortunately few situations are clearly dangerous. Boys get into fights,
and on occasion girls do as well. Many children's groups contain members
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? ? whose roles include breaking up fights and minimizing physical danger. In
one group one child acted as a sort of medic, providing paper tissues for
bloody noses, counseling for hurt feelings, and companionship during emer-
gencies (Glassner 1976).
If a fight is sufficiently serious, however, intervention is necessary, and
steps must be taken to end the dispute. If the fight caused permanent dam-
age to one or more participants, the observer would properly have been held
morally responsible, and had the observer been in a position of responsibil-
ity, legally responsible as well.
Other situations develop that, although not physically dangerous,
involve behaviors generally condemned by adult society, such as racism or
theft. I vividly recall the day I escorted some preadolescent friends for ice
cream, and discovered to my acute discomfort that they were stealing candy.
My first reaction was to stop them and insist that they return what they took.
This emotion was partly attributable to ethical concerns and partly to the
fear that I might be blamed or held responsible. I also realized that if I made
a public display I would likely not alter their behavior, but only ensure that
I was never privy to such behaviors again. Also, since I had by this time de-
veloped attachments to many of these children, I was afraid that I might
cause them embarrassment or legal trouble. I decided to do nothing-a de-
cision as much from indecision as from ethical concern, although in retro-
spect the decision was probably theoretically sound. As we were driving
home, the boys discussed what had occurred, and by nonevaluative prob-
ing I was able to learn of stealing in other situations. This episode indicates
the difficulty of making moral decisions in the fast-moving events of the real
world.
Adult policing role
Should adult researchers allow themselves to police children? Authorities
often hope that researchers will perform their job for them (see, for example,
Geer 1970). No difficulty, however, is more serious than for the researcher
not to be considered an "honest broker. " The adult must prove him/herself
worthy of trust. Most researchers working with children will not be accorded
trust at first; only after a series of "tests" does trust develop (see Fine and
Glassner 1979; Glassner 1976). In attempting to pass these "tests," how-
ever, adult researchers can sometimes get in trouble with adult authorities
(Birksted 1976).
The conflict over the policing role is most clearly evident when the
researcher desires positive relations with his/her subjects and also avoids
authority-the "friend" role. The "observer," because of role distance from
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? ? the subjects, is rarely asked to police-the "leader" and "supervisor" are
supposed to be in charge. Yet, it is essential in all cases that the precise na-
ture of what this policing entails be made clear to all parties. Elizabeth Tucker
(personal communication, 1976), for instance, found herself called before
a local Girl Scout council for not adequately disciplining her troop (in the
council's view), while researching the informal behavior of preadolescent
girls. Although Tucker was eventually cleared, the period was difficult for
her and the parents were involved. The solution for the researcher who
wishes to avoid responsibility seems to be to emphasize to both adults and
children that one will not be a disciplinarian, and to back this up with con-
sistent behavior. Whenever the adult feels it imperative to intervene, it should
be made clear that the intervention is being done as an individual and not
as an agent for society or the institution.
Informed Consent
When the participant observer is not in a formal position of authority (and
even in some cases when he or she is) the observer must inform the subjects
of the research intent. The need for informed consent has perhaps not been
sufficiently recognized in ethnographic research. When the adult has little
authority, an honest explanation of the research is important (Konopka
1966). Yet, even a well-meaning explanation will not adequately convey to
children what the research entails. When I studied Little League baseball
teams I was asked if I were a reporter, writing a movie like The Bad News
Bears, working with Little League headquarters, or selling drugs. During the
time I was in graduate school I could convey the purpose of the research by
saying I was a student and this was homework; later I explained that I was
writing a book. These did not answer every question, but they seemed to
work reasonably well (Fine 1987).
Although explanation is important, actions are the main way in which
children learn the intentions of the researcher. The questions asked, and the
situations during which the observer scribbles furiously or fiddles with the
tape recorder, provide clues to the observer's true interests. Informed con-
sent, while a goal toward which we must always strive, will frequently be
only partially achieved.
EXPERIMENTS
A common methodology in several branches of the social sciences, most
particularly in psychology, is the experiment. Although this approach is not
common in folklore, some suggest that experimentation is an appropriate
methodology for folklorists (Goldstein 1967a). Most experiments that have
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? ? been conducted using folkloric materials have been attempts to understand
the processes of diffusion (Bartlett 1932; Anderson 1951; Wesselski 1931).
Some of this research, such as that of Wesselski, used children-in his case
elementary school girls. The girls were told a version of Sleeping Beauty, and
in their retellings changes were noted, confirming Wesselski's view that oral
tradition was unreliable and that the Mairchen were transmitted primarily
in printed form. This experiment, and others similar, do not directly address
children's folklore content, but they do indicate the processes of change of
children's lore.
More directly relevant to the use of experimentation for researching
children's traditions is Paul Gump and Brian Sutton-Smith's examination of
differences between "high-power" "it" roles and "low-power" "it" roles-
the games black Tom and dodge the skunk respectively (Gump and Sutton-
Smith 1955). Applying folklore to social work, these researchers discovered
that when children played high-power "it" roles they were more successful
and, further, that the high-power "it" roles led to fewer negative reactions
of the playing group to "it," and more positive feelings by the "it" toward
himself. This was particularly significant for those less skilled boys who were
able to exploit the power edge inherent in the high-power "it" role. Gump
and Sutton-Smith could make these claims because they had each child play
every role and could compare reactions across conditions. This suggests the
greatest value of experiments: They permit the systematic comparison of
groups under controlled conditions. One observes what happens in a speci-
fied situation, and compares this to a second situation with other constraints.
Experimentation also permits a random or systematic selection of subjects,
often permitting statistical analysis.
An experiment is a technique in which the researcher manipulates
some aspect of a subject's experience in order to determine its effect on be-
havior or attitudes. Typically this involves comparing groups that each have
been manipulated, or comparing a manipulated group with a
nonmanipulated group-a "control group. " The major weakness of this
approach stems from the experimenter's control-it is an artificial situation,
since it is controlled or created by the researcher. Before we become too criti-
cal, however, remember that the same is true of surveys and interviews. For
some research problems, such as comparative analysis, and for confidence
based on statistical evidence, the experiment may be the research method
of choice.
Much has been written about the ethical problems faced by experi-
mental researchers. Since experimentation has not become a major meth-
odology in folklore, it is not necessary to discuss the ethical issues in the same
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? ? detail as discussed for interviews and observation (see Diegner and Crandall
1978). I have previously discussed how one obtains informed consent with
children and their guardians, and this problem remains in experimentation.
Although potential harm may exist in experiments (particularly in the medi-
cal domain), it is unlikely that any experiment on children's folklore is likely
to cause irreparable damage. Of more significance is the legitimacy of de-
ception. I refer to the situation in which the experimenter tells his/her sub-
jects that the experiment is testing something that it is "really" not testing,
or simply (as in the Gump and Sutton-Smith study) not informing subjects
that they are being studied.
Even when harm is not done directly by the experimental deception,
some researchers (for example, Kelman 1968, 211-21) argue that deception
by its nature raises serious ethical problems. Is it justified to deceive a per-
son, even though during the experiment that deception will not cause harm?
Doesn't deception, once uncovered, undermine the confidence that subjects
have in social science and decrease the confidence that individuals have in
one another? Do we wish to reside in a world in which deception is legiti-
mate behavior? Are we willing to do to our friends that which we willingly
do to our subjects: lie, make promises we don't intend to keep, deceive them
about the purposes of the interaction, or withhold relevant information? The
experimenter-subject relationship is, after all, a real relationship. Some an-
swer these fears by pointing to the value of the information which is gath-
ered. Further, some of the information might not have been collected if the
subjects knew what the experimenter wanted. If the children tested by Gump
and Sutton-Smith knew that the researchers were interested in influencing
their self-esteem through the games they played, they might have responded
quite differently. Further, some might question whether deception is uncom-
mon or harmful. Might deception not be viewed as similar to the "little white
lies" that are common elsewhere in life? Children, in particular, are deceived
constantly for their own good. A child who is told not to go out at night
because "the goblins" may get him or through similar threats (see
Widdowson 1977) is being deceived and may not be disabused of these ideas
for years. No fiat can be given, but it is essential that the researcher con-
sider the special responsibilities that derive from the choice to work with
children.
CHILDREN AS COLLECTORS
Although most childlore has been, and will continue to be, collected by
adults, children can serve as folklore collectors in certain circumstances. The
most publicized example of this phenomenon is the books, edited by Eliot
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? ? Wigginton, in which high-school students collected lore from neighbors of
their North Georgia school. There has been debate as to the proper role of
these books and their imitators in folklore (Dorson 1973a; Wigginton 1974),
but there is no doubt that they teach adolescents (as later projects taught
preadolescents) the value of traditional beliefs. Although Dorson and Car-
penter (1978, 7) refer to these works as "journalism projects," and a schol-
arly reader must admit that the quality of the material collected varies, some
of what is collected is valuable material for even the serious scholar. Chil-
dren can also be used to collect material from themselves and from their peers
and near-peers. This collection, when the young collectors are properly
trained, can be useful in obtaining information that might be very difficult
for adults to collect. While I didn't use preadolescents as miniature ethnog-
raphers, I did loan several of them my tape recorder, and was rewarded by
tapes about fartlore and a recording of a mutual masturbation session.
One must insure that preadolescents do not become exploited in this
process. They should not substitute for paid workers as a means of cost sav-
ing. Second, they should be properly trained, and their research tasks should
be limited to the extent of their training-limits that vary with age. Third,
children should not be placed in situations in which they could be in dan-
ger or in which they might be condemned by others. This means that the
collection of obscene lore by children is ethically sensitive. If the child is be-
ing instructed to collect obscene material, or material which the investiga-
tor has reason to expect to be obscene, then relevant adults should be ap-
prised of this fact. Some adults, including some researchers, feel that chil-
dren should not be involved in collecting-or performing-obscene mate-
rial, while others are more open. Both positions should be respected. De-
spite these problems, children can collect folklore, with educational benefits
to themselves and to the discipline.
THE CHALLENGE OF COLLECTING CHILDREN'S FOLKLORE
The other chapters in this volume demonstrate that the study of childlore is
an intellectually important pursuit. My purpose is different.
I hope to dem-
onstrate that conducting folklore research with children is difficult, but that
these difficulties can be surmounted. Whether the issue is the development
of trust, the linguistic or intellectual barriers between children and adults,
or the special ethical concerns that come from working with minors, unique
problems affect this scholarly domain.
Childlore can be collected in several ways. No one methodology has
the monopoly on success or failure (see Table 1). The best research is often
research that does not rely on a single methodology, but blends several tech-
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? ? niques, a process of "triangulation. " While there is much more to be said-
about the subtleties of working with children of particular ages, for in-
stance-texts can only get us so far as methodological tools. Ultimately no
piece of writing can ever substitute for the personal experience.
TABLE 1. Selected Advantages and Disadvantages of C
Methodologies
Advantages Disadvantages
Reminiscences
1. easy to collect
2. historical or
comparative
Interviews 1. sense of what
(induced respondent feels
performances) 2. ability to ask
follow-up questions
Surveys
random sample
2. statistical or
comparative
analysis
Observation
1. large or
1. inexpensive
2. natural context
Experiments
variables
2. statistical or
comparative
analysis
1. not current,
based on recall
2. words, not
behavior
1. time-consuming
1. control of
2. talk, not natural
behavior
1. surface answers
2. no follow-up
3. talk, not
natural behavior
1. lack of control
2. often unsystematic
3. labor-intensive
1. artificiality
2. ethical issues
of deception
hildlore
Examples
Knapp and Knapp
1976
Gomme 1894.
Piaget 1932
Tucker 1980a
Fine 1979a
Virtanen 1978
Knapp and Knapp
1976
Fine 1979b
Goldstein 1967b
Gump and Sutton-
Smith 1955
NOTES TO CHAPTER Six
1. I exclude historical or library research, not because it isn't valuable for learn-
ing about childlore but because the methodological and ethical issues are substantially
different from those discussed here.
2. Participants in surveys are typically called respondents rather than informants.
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? ?
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? ? SECTION III
OVERVIEW
CHILDREN'S FOLKLORE CONCERNS
Brian Sutton-Smith
Children's folklore concerns are much more extensive than have been dealt
with in folklore research. Indeed most of the chapters that follow in this cen-
tral section of the Sourcebook are about some form of speech play, whether
rhymes, songs, riddles, teases, or tales. This focus on speech play has its
source in the predominant influence of the "ethnography of speaking" in
folklore research during the past twenty years. Increasingly in those years
folklorists have become interested in the social basis of human communica-
tion in how individuals actually communicate at particular times and places
and in particular groups. Within folklore the leading scholars who have had
the greatest influence, direct or indirect, upon the chapters that follow are
Dell Hymes (1969), Richard Bauman and Joel Sherzer (1974) and Barbara
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett. In particular, Speech Play by Barbara Kirshenblatt-
Gimblett, (1976b) with its bibliographic survey of children's play, word play,
nursery lore, nonsense and limericks, play languages, numbers, letters, mne-
monics and counting-out rhymes, names, humor, joking relationships and
interaction, verbal contests, obscenity, proverbs and speech metaphor, riddles,
and narrative and audio-visual resources, is the essential forerunner and
complement to the present volume. A central position must be given also to
John McDowell's Children's Riddling (1979), which is unique in establish-
ing the viability of research on a particular genre of a particular children's
group. With only recent exceptions (L. Hughes 1983; Beresin 1993), most
researchers of childhood consider the notion of dissertation work on, say,
the jump rope of one group of players, or hopscotch, or jacks of a specific
group too trivial to be worth considering. McDowell's Children's Riddling,
and Hughes's and Beresin's work in the present volume, exposes the schol-
arly shallowness of that adultcentric attitude.
A comparison of the chapters in this section with the list of topics in
the introduction imparts some idea of what is missing here, and probably
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? ? as well what has been little researched. In approaching play and games in
this work only by two highly specialized studies, we ignore the many differ-
ent ways of playing and games that children get into, though this omission
is in part remedied in the writing of Mergen, Bronner, and Mechling in the
next section. Still, we lament the lack here, for example, of material on folk
games, pregame ceremonies, rule making in different kinds of games, cheat-
ing, or performances in singing games, or play and games on traditional
occasions. In the meantime the reader might find some solace in the very
useful popular accounts of Mary and Herbert Knapp in One Potato, Two
Potato: The Secret Education of American Children (1976), Children's
Games in Street and Playground by lona and Peter Opie (1969), and
Bronner's American Children's Folklore (1988).
Although the chapters that follow give us many examples of language
play, as well as useful categorizations and accurate knowledge of different
kinds of playful discourse, what we miss here is any real certainty about the
underlying relationships between play and language. This is not, of course,
the authors' fault, because there is very little research on these relationships.
What the literature does seem to support is the finding that in the earlier
stages of childhood the phonological elements of language are played with
much more than are the semantic, syntactic or discourse elements. As chil-
dren develop, however, these later elements increasingly become the center
of attention. Thus younger children will enjoy the nonsense of sounds, but
by seven or so years, children in their riddling are showing increasing inter-
est in word meanings and their proper categorization, as well as using words
in a social way as in teasing rhymes and pranks. Barbara Kirshenblatt-
Gimblett has suggested, following Jacobsen, that much of the younger
children's verbal play with sounds, although different from adult poetry, may
well be its precursor. The fine ear for the sounds of the language that such
play may exercise, prepares one for poetry and literature, she says.
What stands out in the chapters that follow with respect to all kinds
of verbal play, sounding or otherwise, however, is the strong association that
it has with the children's own peer socialization pressures (dominance,
scapegoating, legislation, judgments, teasing, pranks, parodies). The record
of these chapters is that the usage of the children's verbal play is largely an-
tithetical to the normative intentions of adult socialization in behavior or
words. It is an example of the paradoxical way in which the children ex-
press their hostilities, wishes, and resentments with minor danger to them-
selves.
What is generally overlooked in much theorizing about language and
play relationships, is that play language has a semiotic character quite differ-
142 OVERVIEW: CHILDREN'S FOLKLORE CONCERNS
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? ? ent from that of language as used in everyday communication. Put briefly, the
more players play together, the more elliptic and esoteric their dialogue tends
to become. They develop their own peculiar argot, which would certainly not
score very well on standard measures. In short, the important connection be-
tween play and language may have to do with the peculiar uses of language
in play, rather than between play and language ordinarily considered. Play is
itself a caricatural or schematic activity ("galumphing" as some have called
it), and when it moves verbally it breeds analogous and elliptic usages of lan-
guage perhaps familiar only to those who are a part of the "secret" commu-
nity. Thus the ellipsis may serve to mask what is going on from those who
are not members of the play group. Perhaps more important, the ellipsis helps
to establish the players as a play community (McMahon 1993).
In the chapters that follow, Sullivan introduces us to children's songs
and rhymes, the latter of which he prefers to think of as poems, because they
resemble the poetic character of the ancient oral traditions of the world. He
distinguishes here also the tradition of parental nursery lore (lullabies) from
the traditions of children themselves (game lore), which in adolescence in-
cludes parodies of nursery lore. He categorizes children's rhymes in terms
of the functions they fulfill in children's groups for legislating outcomes, as
an expression of power relationships between children, for making judgments
about each other, and for humor's sake. In all of this material the formative
role of the verse is the establishment and maintenance of the peer group in
its antithetical relationship to adult conventions; in particular, the use of
phonology for the political purposes of childhood subversion rings out loud
and clear. It is intriguing to think of the subculture of childhood moving
against its adult overlords with a phonological armamentarium.
Roemer's work on riddles benefits from the sociolinguistic tradition
to which we have referred above. Those who work within this tradition in
this Sourcebook are generally at an advantage from a systematic and schol-
arly perspective in the interpretation of verbal folklore. In addition, works
on riddling are themselves a well-established tradition of study within folk-
lore and anthropology yielding a rich and suggestive array of cross-cultural
as well as modern examples. What is even more important is that Roemer
supplements the work of Hughes in showing riddling sessions to be an on-
going achievement at any moment and not merely a reflex of tradition. In-
deed tradition is the historical context of the semantic field from which the
social construction of the riddling occasion begins. As Denzin argues,
children's worlds of play are "not just given or handed down; rather they
are constructed worlds that are interpreted, negotiated, argued over, debated
about, compromised" (1977, 173). It is a contrast between papers presented
143
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? ? throughout this sourcebook that those who deal only with recorded folk-
lore necessarily make folklore appear to be a matter of tradition, while those
who have gotten their material directly from children's behaviors see folk-
lore very much as a matter of life construction. Newell's paradox may owe
some of its power to the difference between these approaches to scholarship.
Tucker deals with children's narratives and legends and in doing so
clearly indicates some of the enthusiasm that adult collectors borrow from
their child informants. Indeed her chapter is in some ways most valuable for
her own "contagious" involvement with her subject matter. She also man-
ages to blend an interdisciplinary tolerance for psychological studies of
children's stories with a more folkloristic analysis of the traditional tales and
legends that she and others have collected. That "psychological" explana-
tions should serve mainly for the stories of younger children and folkloris-
tic explanations for the tales and legends of older children seems largely to
be an accident of scholarly history. What Tucker's essay does demonstrate
is that although oral storytelling does not compare in its strength among chil-
dren with the transmission of games, jokes, and so forth, it is nevertheless
still more alive than one would expect from what goes on in schools. Lit-
eracy has diminished but not entirely quelled the traditions of child-trans-
mitted stories even in the urban middle class.
With Jorgensen's essay on pranks, the verbal subculture of the first three
chapters in this section begins to take on a more physically antithetical char-
acter and with it a cultural seriousness perhaps lacking in the others. Unlike
rhymes, riddles, and tales, pranks overflow into adult culture in an intention-
ally disruptive fashion. This is partly due to their practical rather than their
verbal character, and partly to the older age of the perpetrators. Jorgensen's
central thesis is that pranks, tricks, teases, and taunts are about victimization,
some of which are malevolent and deceptive and some of which is straight-
forward and benevolent. More important, however, she describes their roles
as kinds of communication. Her article brings into the forefront some of the
less pleasant aspects of the culture of childhood. In thinking of children's folk-
lore as the material for the politics of childhood we need to accept that there
is often nothing very romantic about these politics.
In sum, in these four chapters we have a sample of the concerns of
children. Here are some of the phenomena that are part and parcel of the
way in which they establish relationships among themselves and in so do-
ing differentiate themselves from other age groups in modern society. As with
any subculture, some of their effort goes into building their own culture and
some of it into distancing their culture from the conventional adult culture
around them.
144 OVERVIEW: CHILDREN'S FOLKLORE CONCERNS
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? ? 7 SONGS, POEMS, AND RHYMES'
C. W. Sullivan III
Poetry and song came early in the development of Western civilization. Much
of what we have left to us of the earliest literary works-Beowulf or Homer's
Iliad and Odyssey-were probably recited in chanted or sung versions long
before they were written down, their forms and places fixed forever in liter-
ary history. Moreover, many of the narratives that came later, whether they
appeared first in oral or written form, were poetic rather than prose. So, too,
poetry and song come early in the lives of children. Before they begin to at-
tend school and even before they begin to associate with others of their own
age, they encounter poetry and song. Although much folklore is passed on
from older to younger members within a generation, whether it is a genera-
tion of college students or a generation of "neighborhood kids," the first
traditional poetry and song a child hears comes from another generation.
The child's mother, usually, but more often these days the father, too, talk,
chant, and sing to the child almost from the moment he or she makes an
appearance in the world. Much of that chanting and singing is functional;
that is, it is used by the parent to soothe a restless child, to help the child
drift off to sleep, or to interest the active or fussy child. One parent that I
know sang the alphabet to her older child when he was small so that he
would hold still while she changed his diapers.
Much of what is sung to these infants is not traditional in the truest
sense of the word. For example, because it is most often associated with
school-day school, kindergarten, or first grade-few will argue that the al-
phabet song is a traditional folk song. And many of the other poems or songs
recited or sung to children have known, often literary, sources. Folklorists,
at least, know that "Mary Had A Little Lamb" was composed by Mrs. Sa-
rah Josepha Hale of Boston in 1830, and many of the other popular rhymes
recited to young children-"Little Miss Muffett," "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin
Eater," "Little Jack Horner," and the rest-can all be found, with some small
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? ? variation from text to text, in any Mother Goose collection. But there are
two other considerations here. First, this material, even though its sources
are known, is often passed on in the same dynamic way that all folklore is
passed on. Parents often recite poems or sing songs to their children that were
recited or sung to them a generation back by their own parents; all of the
parents busily passing on "Mary Had A Little Lamb" are transmitting it in
a traditional way to their children and, perhaps indirectly, to future genera-
tions. And if there is a Mother Goose collection of nursery rhymes in the
house, it is probably consulted by the parents for additional material or it
is available for the pictures that will amuse children when they are being read
to or when they are looking at the book themselves. 2 A second, and more
indirect, consideration here is that the material the child learns is not for-
gotten as soon as the infant or tot stage is past. Children will remember this
material and use it, for example, as the basis for parodies in future child-
hood years. And the rather innocent Mary and her lamb becomes
Mary had a little lamb,
She also had a bear;
I've often seen her little lamb,
But I've never seen her bear. 3
In oral tradition, of course, the "bear" of the last line of the parody is heard
and understood as the homonymous "bare. " Thus, there is a great body of
material which, if not originally of the folk, is certainly passed on in the same
manner as any other traditional materials and which does, shortly, become
intertwined (as in the parodying of "Mary Had A Little Lamb") with mate-
rials (in this case, the parody) that are generated within and transmitted from
older to younger members of the folk group-children.
It is also important to note here that the parents are teaching by ex-
ample.
