In addition to the
somewhat
limited listing which follows, there are
a number of other sources that should be pursued by the dedicated scholar.
a number of other sources that should be pursued by the dedicated scholar.
Childens - Folklore
4) Contextual attributes most often attended
to in folkloristic and anthropological scholarship include: a) setting ("i. e. ,
the social and spatial framework within which encounters are situated"); b)
behavorial environment ("i. e. , the way that participants use their bodies and
behavior as a resource for framing and organizing their talk"); c) language
as context (the "way in which talk itself both invokes context and provides
context for other talk"); and d) extrasituational context (that is, the partici-
pants' "background knowledge") (pages 6-8).
cultural category: form of classification generated by members of a
cultural group to describe themselves (see analytical category).
descriptive routine: a madeup (that is, nontraditional) riddlelike rou-
tine depending solely or primarily on the technique of description. For an
alternate definition, see McDowell 1979.
dialogue riddle: a type of riddle in which the proposition contains a
quotation from characters in a fictitious interactional encounter. The riddle
answer identifies the speakers. See Abrahams and Dundes 1972, 135. For
an example, see riddle no. 14 in Roemer's chapter in this volume.
disorder and anarchy: a category in McMahon and Sutton-Smith's ty-
pology for children's subversive folklore that represents expressive behav-
iors as types of appropriation that demystify the structure of the dominant
culture by demonstrating its ephemeral nature.
distraction: a category in Radner and Lanser's typology for women's
strategic coding, adapted by McMahon and Sutton-Smith to indicate the
forms of children's folklore that subvert authority by drowning out a mes-
sage.
double dutch: a style of children's jump rope utilizing two ropes or
one long rope doubled, turned egg beater fashion. Typically, two people turn,
one at each end, with a jumper performing specific rhythmic motions in the
310 GLOSSARY
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? ? middle while stepping over the cascading ropes.
emergence: the process whereby expressive forms take shape in the
crucible of social interaction.
ethnomethodology: a research perspective that studies the organiza-
tion and achievement of everyday life, including that of everyday talk. See
Sudnow 1972 and R. Turner 1974.
experiment: a research method for investigating cause and effect un-
der controlled conditions.
failure: a category in McMahon and Sutton-Smith's typology for sub-
versive forms of staged incompetent behaviors that resist dominant group
expectations.
folktale: a form of folk narrative told primarily for entertainment,
with an emphasis on action and adventure within a fictional framework.
While the folktale as delineated in Aarne and Thompson's Types of the
Folktale (1961) has both simple and complex forms, the folktales discussed
in Tucker's chapter in this volume are all Miirchen, or fairytales in which a
single hero encounters supernatural influences and tries to succeed at a quest.
Generally, in magic tales, the hero and other deserving characters live "hap-
pily ever after" while villains are severely punished.
function: that which folklore "does" for the people who employ it.
funny-scary story: a folktale with a "catch" or humorous ending.
Children use this term to indicate that, while a story of this kind may seem
frightening, its climax has no truly fearful elements.
gesunkenes Kulturgut: the theory that folklore is directed downward
in social hierarchies.
imitative objects: things made by children that resemble larger arti-
facts in the adult world. An example is a model hydroplane abstractly made
from clip-type clothespins.
in-depth interview: a series of questions administered personally by
a researcher to respondents, allowing the respondent to reply in detail.
indirection: a category from Radner's and Lanser's typology for
women's strategic coding used to indicate expressive behaviors such as hedg-
ing or leaving out key words; similar to the genre of children's folklore that
Dundes identified as the "evasive answer" (1967). Indirection is another
category adapted by McMahon and Sutton-Smith in their refashioned ty-
pology for children's subversive folklore.
induced performances: folklore performances set up and encouraged
by a researcher in a not fully natural situation.
informed consent: describing to a research subject the nature and goals
of the research in which she or he is involved.
3''
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? ? interreference: the dynamic process that operates between two or
more cultures: central to the idea of "ethnicity," which Fischer (1986) views
as "a deeply rooted component of identity. "
interrogative ludic routine: small-scale verbal exchanges making play-
ful use of the interrogative system in a language.
intraconversational narrative: a narrative embedded in the natural
flow of conversation. Folklorists usually give careful consideration to the
entire conversation when considering the meanings of this kind of narrative.
inventive or manipulative object: things made from natural resources
into a new, more technical shape. An example is sand sculpture made by
children on a beach.
joking riddle: a type of riddle in which the proposition serves prima-
rily as a setup for the punch-line answer. For examples, see Roemer's riddle
examples nos. 36-37 in this volume.
kinesics: the study of body movement and human communication,
as pioneered by Ray L. Birdwhistell.
legend: less formally structured than the folktale, the legend features
realistic characters and may be told as a true story. Two popular subtypes
of this genre are the supernatural legend or "ghost story" and the horror
legend in which monsters, maniacs, and other nonsupernatural forces pre-
dominate.
Miirchen: the traditional European tale of wonder and magic; syn-
onymous with "fairy tale" and "conte des f6es. "
material folk culture: interconnection of mental concept and tradi-
tional design shared within a social group. Includes objects and environments
that characterize traditions of the group made by its members.
media narraform: a term coined by Sylvia Grider to classify the
children's stories based on movies or TV shows (see Grider 1981). These
stories, often diffuse and imprecise, may be told collaboratively in an effort
to create the best possible synopsis of the original show.
move: sociologist Erving Goffman has written of "the move": "Now
when an individual is engaged in talk, some of his utterances and
nonlinguistic behavior will be taken to have a special temporal relevance,
being directed to others present as something he wants assessed, appreciated,
understood, now. I have spoken here of a move. Now it seems that some-
times the speaker and his hearers will understand this move to be primarily
a comment on what has just been said, in that degree allowing us to speak
of a response; at other times the move will be primarily seen as something
to which a response is called for, in which degree it can be called a state-
ment" (1981, 71-71).
31i2 GLOSSARY
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? ? mutation: an expressive item that has been altered through perfor-
mance.
narrative: prose utterances with a sequential plot that may be fictional
or nonfictional. Folktales, legends, and media narraforms are among the
most popular narrative told by children.
oicotypification: the adaptation of an expressive item to fit a specific
social and cultural environment.
open (or complex) society: heterogeneous social group marked by high
degree of individuation. Usually associated with urban, industrialized na-
tions.
parodic riddle: a type of joking riddle that extends the humor of the
answer to the realm of the fantastic or the absurd. What the riddle as a whole
proposes is nonsensical, given a conventional understanding of the "real"
world. See examples in this volume by Roemer, nos. 38-44.
participant observation: a method in which researchers systematically
observe people while participating in their routine activities.
psychoanalytic method: analysis of folk narratives that relies upon the
precepts of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, and others. Sexual
symbolism that comes from the unconscious is a major focus in this school
of interpretation.
riddle act: a unit of social interaction that consists of all the interac-
tional moves involved in posing and responding to a single riddle proposi-
tion. The riddle act is the basic interactional unit of riddling. See Burns 1976,
142.
riddle session: a unit of social interaction during which a series of
riddle acts is produced. The riddles may be interspersed with other perfor-
mance material or with conversation. See Burns 1976, 142.
routine: a set of sequentially produced discourse acts (utterances, ges-
tures, strategic use of silence) that is organized beyond the level of the indi-
vidual sentence. A riddle act is a routine that is characteristically produced
by more than one participant. See Hymes 1971.
semantic field: in discourse study, a domain of content or meaning.
solicitation: a type of speech act whose function is to elicit a verbal
or physical response. See Bauman 1977b, 24.
story: synonym for narrative, defined above.
structuralism: analysis of the sequence of plot elements, called "func-
tions" in Propp's Morphology of the Folktale (1958). Propp attempted to
explain the structure of all Russian folktales, while Dundes further devel-
oped Propp's approach using the term "motifeme" in lieu of "function" in
his Morphology of North American Indian Folktales (1964a).
313
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? ? subversive folklore: mulifaceted expressions of a group that under-
mine the authority of the dominant culture; also, any folklore involving vic-
timization of others in the same group-such as children by more powerful
children-which in effect also subverts adult authority because it involves
taboo behavior.
survey research: a research method in which subjects respond to a
series of questions in a questionnaire or structured interview.
syndesis: term used by anthropologist Robert Plant Armstrong to
describe an object that grows from repetition of smaller units. Two examples
are an ordinary spot in the woods converted to a child's shrine and one's
fingers used to make a steeple (whose reverse is the people).
synthetic objects: things that are combined or built up from existing
objects. An example is a Halloween effigy.
taunt: a malicious verbal expressive activity involving a victim.
tease: a verbal expressive activity involving a minimal degree of vic-
timization, usually with "fun" rather than hurt as the motivation.
tenor: in a metaphoric construction, the subject word to which a meta-
phoric word (that is, the vehicle) is applied (M. Abrams 1957, 61).
transcription: the act of writing down verbatim actual interaction or
dialogue, usually recorded first on audio or videotape; can refer to the text,
conversation, or nonverbal communication or the written record of such
translation.
transformational objects: commercial or adult things altered to suit
children's needs and images. An example is a "half-ball" used for alley
stickball and made by slicing a whole rubber ball.
triangulation: a methodology for collecting folklore that does not rely
on any single method but instead is a combination of several techniques.
trick: a deceptive expressive activity with minimal victimization or
harm intended, with "fun" as the motivating force.
trivialization: a category in Radner's and Lanser's typology for
women's strategic coding, adapted here to indicate children's subversive ex-
pressions that play off dominant culture expectations about what is trivial.
true riddle: a type of riddle that involves "a comparison between the
unstated answer and something else that is described in the question"
(Brunvand 1986, 90). The answer to a true riddle can be reasoned out based
on information supplied in the riddle proposition and the respondent's ad-
equate experience with and recall of tropes, symbols, and other relevant con-
ventions shared within the particular culture. See Taylor 1951 and examples
by Roemer in this volume (riddle nos. 1, 2, 4-8, 32-35).
vehicle: in a metaphoric construction, the metaphoric word itself. In
314 GLOSSARY
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? ? the sentence "John, the pawnshop owner is a shark," the word shark func-
tions as the metaphoric vehicle.
video ethnography: the use of video in ethnographic or qualitative re-
search, where the examination of video records serves as the main documen-
tation for a specific social phenomenon.
visual descriptive riddle: a type of riddle in which the proposition
consists of a sketch and some version of the question "What is it? " The an-
swer consists of a sketch in representational terms, for example "a popcorn
lid seen from the inside. " For examples in this volume, see nos. 28-31 by
Roemer.
Wellerism: a type of proverb "in the form of a quotation followed
by a phrase ascribing the quotation to someone who has done something
humorous and appropriate" (Brunvand 1986, 77).
word charade: a type of riddle in which the proposition divides the
answer word into syllables and provides a description of each. The riddle
answer supplies a referent word (or morpheme) for each of the descriptions
in the proposition in the order in which those descriptions were given. The
resulting series of referent words forms the answer word. See Abrahams and
Dundes 1972, 135. In this volume, see Roemer's example, riddle no. 5.
315
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? ?
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? ? BIBLIOGRAPHY OF
CHILDREN'S FOLKLORE
Thomas W. Johnson
(supplemental entries by Felicia R. McMahon)
A comprehensive bibliography of works on folklore of and for children has
yet to be compiled. It would certainly consist of a book far thicker than this
entire Source Book. What follows here is a combined bibliography for all
of the articles in this volume, plus a number of important additional works
on children's folklore that did not happen to be cited by any of the authors
included here. For these additional items, I have tried to select those I deemed
to be most important to the field and likely to be readily available in any
medium-size college library or through interlibrary loan. Each citation lists
the most recent reprint I could find, rather than a possibly obscure first print-
ing. Recent scholarship has been emphasized, and early works are listed only
when they are especially significant or are excellent examples of a type of
approach. There is also an emphasis on the folklore of American children,
although a few works on children's folklore from other regions are included
where there were especially good collections. The emphasis, as in this en-
tire work, is on the folklore of children, rather than folklore for children,
although a few significant works for children have also been included.
In addition to the somewhat limited listing which follows, there are
a number of other sources that should be pursued by the dedicated scholar.
Several bibliographies of children's folklore appear in this listing, all of them
as well as a large number of additional sources that could not be added here
for reasons of space. The reader is referred especially to Grider (1980b),
whose excellent bibliography has been so thoroughly incorporated into my
personal listing that it is impossible for me to separate it from items I dis-
covered through other sources. It forms a significant part of the base of all
that follows, although it also contains many items that were omitted here.
Halpert (1982) has provided a supplement to Grider that is especially use-
ful for European materials. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (1976a), Mergen (1982),
and Schwartzman (1976 and 1978) have compiled excellent bibliographies
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? ? on children's toys, games, play, and speech play. Dundes (1976b) provides
access to the many M. A. theses and Ph. D. dissertations on children's folk-
lore. Though generally difficult to access, these are an important and an of-
ten neglected resource in the field.
The Journal of American Folklore and Western Folklore seem to de-
vote the greatest space to children's folklore of any of the many journals in
the field, although other journals in folklore and in many related disciplines
(such as anthropology, education, psychology, and sociology) frequently pub-
lish interesting articles as well. The Newsletter of the Children's Folklore Sec-
tion of the American Folklore Society (which is the organizational sponsor
of this volume) carries news of recent developments, as well as some brief
articles and commentary. This has become the Children's Folklore Review
since 1990, under the editorship of C. W. Sullivan III. The Australian
Children's Folklore Newsletter and the Newsletter of the Association for the
Anthropological Study of Play (TAASP) are also excellent resources, con-
taining useful articles as well as news of the associations. TASP (formerly
TAASP) has also produced a series of volumes of papers presented at their
annual meetings (beginning in 1975), many of the articles being about
children's play (see Lancy and Tindall 1976; Stevens 1977; Salter 1978;
Schwartzman 1978; Cheska 1981; Loy 1982; Manning 1983; Sutton-Smith
and Kelly-Byrne 1984; Blanchard 1986; Mergen 1986; and Fine 1987. )
Thereafter the articles of this society appeared in the journal Play and Cul-
ture, 1988-92; and in the journal Play Theory and Research, 1993. Volumes
on the folklore of a place often contain a chapter on children's folklore and
are another resource to be checked. Welsch (1966b) is included in this bib-
liography, not only because it has significant data on children's folklore but
also to serve as an excellent example of this type of work and a reminder of
its importance.
In the listing that follows, I have placed an asterisk (*) before items I
consider not only the most interesting but the most basic to the study of
children's folklore. This is a purely idiosyncratic listing, and one that I am
certain each of the authors in this volume would dispute. It is included to
provide a starting point for beginners in the field. The square brackets [ ]
enclose brief annotations of some of the works, providing some indication
of their content and significance beyond what their titles convey.
This bibliography, like any, should be viewed as a work in progress.
While I was on sabbatical leave in Japan in 1993-95, Felicia McMahon con-
tinued to keep the bibliography up to date. In spite of our efforts, it is hope-
lessly incomplete, although a good beginning for research in a fascinating
but understudied field.
318 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHILDREN'S FOLKLORE
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? ? Aarne, Antti, and Stith Thompson
1961 The Types of the Folktale: A Classification and Bibliography. Helsinki, Fin-
land: EE Communications #184, Scientific Finnish Academy.
Aaron, David
1965 Child's Play: A Creative Appeal to Play Spaces for Today's Children. New
York: Harper and Row.
Abernethy, Francis Edward (ed. )
1989 Texas Toys and Games. Publications of the Texas Folklore Society, no. 48.
Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press.
Abrahams, Roger D.
1963 "Some Jump-Rope Rimes from South Philadelphia. " Journal of American
Folklore 8 (January): 3-5.
1969 Jump-Rope Rhymes: A Dictionary. Austin: University of Texas Press.
1980 Counting-Out Rhymes: A Dictionary. Austin: University of Texas Press.
1981 "Shouting Match at the Border: The Folklore of Display Events. " In And
Other Neighborly Names, edited by R. Bauman and R. Abrahams, 303-21.
Austin: University of Texas Press.
Abrahams, Roger D. , and Alan Dundes
1972 "Riddles. " In Richard Dorson (ed. ), Folklore and Folklife: An Introduction.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Abrahams, Roger D. , and Lois Rankin
1980 Counting Out Rhymes: A Dictionary. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Abrams, David M. , and Brian Sutton-Smith
1977 "The Development of the Trickster in Children's Narratives. " Journal of
American Folklore 90:29-47.
Abrams, M. H.
1957 A Glossary of Literary Terms. 3d ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Win-
ston.
Adams, G. B.
1965 "Counting Rhymes and Systems of Numerations. " Ulster Folklife 2:87-97.
Adams, Henry
1918 The Education of Henry Adams. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society.
Adams, M. A.
1976 "Hospital Play Programs: Helping Children with Serious Illness. " Ameri-
can Journal of Orthopsychiatry 46:416-24.
Addams, Jane
1907 "Public Recreation and Social Morality. " Charities and the Commons. Au-
gust 22-24.
Adler, Elizabeth Mosby
1981 "Creative Eating: The Oreo Syndrome. " Western Folklore 40:4-10.
Ager, Lynn P.
1975 "Storyknifing: An Alaskan Eskimo Girl's Game. " Journal of the Folklore
Institute 11:187-98.
Ainsworth, Catherine Harris
1961 "Jump Rope Verses Around the United States. " Western Folklore 20:179-
99. [Results of a mail questionnaire to seventh-grade teachers; 152 verses from
nine schools in as many states. ]
1962 "Black and White and Said All Over. " Southern Folklore Quarterly 26:263-
95. [Collection of 535 riddles from ninth-grade students in six states. ]
1973 "Hallowe'en. " New York Folklore Quarterly 29:163-93.
Alcott, Louisa May
1963 Little Men. New York: Macmillan.
Allen, Patricia R. Boyd
1969 An Annotated Bibliography of Play Environments: Planning, Design
and Evaluation. Chicago: Council of Planning Librarians, Exchange.
319
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? ? Bibliography no. 1184.
Altman, Terry
1978 "Folklore and Education: A Selected Annotated Bibliography of Periodical
Literature. " Keystone Folklore Quarterly 22:53-85.
American Playground Device Company
1974 Catalog. Anderson, Indiana.
Ames, Kenneth L.
1980 "Folk Art: The Challenge and the Promise. " In Perspectives on American
Folk Art, edited by I. M. G. Quimby and S. T. Swank, 293-324. New York: W. W.
Norton.
Ames, Louise B.
1966 "Children's Stories. " Genetic Psychological Monographs 73:337-96.
Anderson, Walter
1951 Ein Volkskundliches Experiment. Folklore Fellows Communication.
Helsinki: Scientific Finnish Academy.
Anderson, Wanni Wibulswasdi
1980 Children's Play and Games in Rural Thailand: A Study in Enculturation and
Socialization. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Social Research Institute.
[Results of a field study of a single village of 160 people. Originally her 1973
Ph. D. dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania. ]
Appleton, Lilla Estelle
1910 A Comparative Study of Play Activities of Adult Savages and Civilized Chil-
dren: An Investigation of the Scientific Basis of Education. Reprinted 1976.
New York: Arno.
Apte, Mahadev L.
1985 Humor and Laughter, an Anthropological Approach. Ithaca, New York:
Cornell University Press.
Aries, Philippe
1962 Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life. New York: Alfred
A. Knopf. [Original French edition, 1960. Immediately became a classic with
its description of changes in adult European attitudes toward children and their
play. For other views, see the work of De Mause (1974) and Wilson (1980)].
Armstrong, Robert Plant
1981 The Powers of Presence: Consciousness, Myth, and Affecting Presence.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Armstrong, William Howard
1969 Sounder. New York: Harper and Row.
Ashley, Leonard R. N.
1968 "Scoff Lore: An Introduction to British Words for Food and Drink. " Names
6:238-72.
Asimov, Isaac
1979 In Memory Yet Green: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1920-1954.
Garden City, N. Y. : Doubleday.
Association for the Anthropological Study of Play
1974 TAASP Newsletter. Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro.
Atkinson, Robert M.
1967 "Songs Little Girls Sing: An Orderly Invitation to Violence. " Northwest
Folklore 2:2-8. [A field collection. ]
Aufenanger, Heinrich
1958 "Children's Games and Entertainments among the Kumngo Tribe in Cen-
tral New Guinea. " Anthropos 53:575-84. [Field collection of materials with
a brief description of their functions from an area little studied by folklorists.
Reprinted in Sutton-Smith 1976c. ]
Austin, John Langshaw
1962 How to Do Things with Words. Oxford: Clarendon.
320 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHILDREN'S FOLKLORE
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?
to in folkloristic and anthropological scholarship include: a) setting ("i. e. ,
the social and spatial framework within which encounters are situated"); b)
behavorial environment ("i. e. , the way that participants use their bodies and
behavior as a resource for framing and organizing their talk"); c) language
as context (the "way in which talk itself both invokes context and provides
context for other talk"); and d) extrasituational context (that is, the partici-
pants' "background knowledge") (pages 6-8).
cultural category: form of classification generated by members of a
cultural group to describe themselves (see analytical category).
descriptive routine: a madeup (that is, nontraditional) riddlelike rou-
tine depending solely or primarily on the technique of description. For an
alternate definition, see McDowell 1979.
dialogue riddle: a type of riddle in which the proposition contains a
quotation from characters in a fictitious interactional encounter. The riddle
answer identifies the speakers. See Abrahams and Dundes 1972, 135. For
an example, see riddle no. 14 in Roemer's chapter in this volume.
disorder and anarchy: a category in McMahon and Sutton-Smith's ty-
pology for children's subversive folklore that represents expressive behav-
iors as types of appropriation that demystify the structure of the dominant
culture by demonstrating its ephemeral nature.
distraction: a category in Radner and Lanser's typology for women's
strategic coding, adapted by McMahon and Sutton-Smith to indicate the
forms of children's folklore that subvert authority by drowning out a mes-
sage.
double dutch: a style of children's jump rope utilizing two ropes or
one long rope doubled, turned egg beater fashion. Typically, two people turn,
one at each end, with a jumper performing specific rhythmic motions in the
310 GLOSSARY
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? ? middle while stepping over the cascading ropes.
emergence: the process whereby expressive forms take shape in the
crucible of social interaction.
ethnomethodology: a research perspective that studies the organiza-
tion and achievement of everyday life, including that of everyday talk. See
Sudnow 1972 and R. Turner 1974.
experiment: a research method for investigating cause and effect un-
der controlled conditions.
failure: a category in McMahon and Sutton-Smith's typology for sub-
versive forms of staged incompetent behaviors that resist dominant group
expectations.
folktale: a form of folk narrative told primarily for entertainment,
with an emphasis on action and adventure within a fictional framework.
While the folktale as delineated in Aarne and Thompson's Types of the
Folktale (1961) has both simple and complex forms, the folktales discussed
in Tucker's chapter in this volume are all Miirchen, or fairytales in which a
single hero encounters supernatural influences and tries to succeed at a quest.
Generally, in magic tales, the hero and other deserving characters live "hap-
pily ever after" while villains are severely punished.
function: that which folklore "does" for the people who employ it.
funny-scary story: a folktale with a "catch" or humorous ending.
Children use this term to indicate that, while a story of this kind may seem
frightening, its climax has no truly fearful elements.
gesunkenes Kulturgut: the theory that folklore is directed downward
in social hierarchies.
imitative objects: things made by children that resemble larger arti-
facts in the adult world. An example is a model hydroplane abstractly made
from clip-type clothespins.
in-depth interview: a series of questions administered personally by
a researcher to respondents, allowing the respondent to reply in detail.
indirection: a category from Radner's and Lanser's typology for
women's strategic coding used to indicate expressive behaviors such as hedg-
ing or leaving out key words; similar to the genre of children's folklore that
Dundes identified as the "evasive answer" (1967). Indirection is another
category adapted by McMahon and Sutton-Smith in their refashioned ty-
pology for children's subversive folklore.
induced performances: folklore performances set up and encouraged
by a researcher in a not fully natural situation.
informed consent: describing to a research subject the nature and goals
of the research in which she or he is involved.
3''
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? ? interreference: the dynamic process that operates between two or
more cultures: central to the idea of "ethnicity," which Fischer (1986) views
as "a deeply rooted component of identity. "
interrogative ludic routine: small-scale verbal exchanges making play-
ful use of the interrogative system in a language.
intraconversational narrative: a narrative embedded in the natural
flow of conversation. Folklorists usually give careful consideration to the
entire conversation when considering the meanings of this kind of narrative.
inventive or manipulative object: things made from natural resources
into a new, more technical shape. An example is sand sculpture made by
children on a beach.
joking riddle: a type of riddle in which the proposition serves prima-
rily as a setup for the punch-line answer. For examples, see Roemer's riddle
examples nos. 36-37 in this volume.
kinesics: the study of body movement and human communication,
as pioneered by Ray L. Birdwhistell.
legend: less formally structured than the folktale, the legend features
realistic characters and may be told as a true story. Two popular subtypes
of this genre are the supernatural legend or "ghost story" and the horror
legend in which monsters, maniacs, and other nonsupernatural forces pre-
dominate.
Miirchen: the traditional European tale of wonder and magic; syn-
onymous with "fairy tale" and "conte des f6es. "
material folk culture: interconnection of mental concept and tradi-
tional design shared within a social group. Includes objects and environments
that characterize traditions of the group made by its members.
media narraform: a term coined by Sylvia Grider to classify the
children's stories based on movies or TV shows (see Grider 1981). These
stories, often diffuse and imprecise, may be told collaboratively in an effort
to create the best possible synopsis of the original show.
move: sociologist Erving Goffman has written of "the move": "Now
when an individual is engaged in talk, some of his utterances and
nonlinguistic behavior will be taken to have a special temporal relevance,
being directed to others present as something he wants assessed, appreciated,
understood, now. I have spoken here of a move. Now it seems that some-
times the speaker and his hearers will understand this move to be primarily
a comment on what has just been said, in that degree allowing us to speak
of a response; at other times the move will be primarily seen as something
to which a response is called for, in which degree it can be called a state-
ment" (1981, 71-71).
31i2 GLOSSARY
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? ? mutation: an expressive item that has been altered through perfor-
mance.
narrative: prose utterances with a sequential plot that may be fictional
or nonfictional. Folktales, legends, and media narraforms are among the
most popular narrative told by children.
oicotypification: the adaptation of an expressive item to fit a specific
social and cultural environment.
open (or complex) society: heterogeneous social group marked by high
degree of individuation. Usually associated with urban, industrialized na-
tions.
parodic riddle: a type of joking riddle that extends the humor of the
answer to the realm of the fantastic or the absurd. What the riddle as a whole
proposes is nonsensical, given a conventional understanding of the "real"
world. See examples in this volume by Roemer, nos. 38-44.
participant observation: a method in which researchers systematically
observe people while participating in their routine activities.
psychoanalytic method: analysis of folk narratives that relies upon the
precepts of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, and others. Sexual
symbolism that comes from the unconscious is a major focus in this school
of interpretation.
riddle act: a unit of social interaction that consists of all the interac-
tional moves involved in posing and responding to a single riddle proposi-
tion. The riddle act is the basic interactional unit of riddling. See Burns 1976,
142.
riddle session: a unit of social interaction during which a series of
riddle acts is produced. The riddles may be interspersed with other perfor-
mance material or with conversation. See Burns 1976, 142.
routine: a set of sequentially produced discourse acts (utterances, ges-
tures, strategic use of silence) that is organized beyond the level of the indi-
vidual sentence. A riddle act is a routine that is characteristically produced
by more than one participant. See Hymes 1971.
semantic field: in discourse study, a domain of content or meaning.
solicitation: a type of speech act whose function is to elicit a verbal
or physical response. See Bauman 1977b, 24.
story: synonym for narrative, defined above.
structuralism: analysis of the sequence of plot elements, called "func-
tions" in Propp's Morphology of the Folktale (1958). Propp attempted to
explain the structure of all Russian folktales, while Dundes further devel-
oped Propp's approach using the term "motifeme" in lieu of "function" in
his Morphology of North American Indian Folktales (1964a).
313
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? ? subversive folklore: mulifaceted expressions of a group that under-
mine the authority of the dominant culture; also, any folklore involving vic-
timization of others in the same group-such as children by more powerful
children-which in effect also subverts adult authority because it involves
taboo behavior.
survey research: a research method in which subjects respond to a
series of questions in a questionnaire or structured interview.
syndesis: term used by anthropologist Robert Plant Armstrong to
describe an object that grows from repetition of smaller units. Two examples
are an ordinary spot in the woods converted to a child's shrine and one's
fingers used to make a steeple (whose reverse is the people).
synthetic objects: things that are combined or built up from existing
objects. An example is a Halloween effigy.
taunt: a malicious verbal expressive activity involving a victim.
tease: a verbal expressive activity involving a minimal degree of vic-
timization, usually with "fun" rather than hurt as the motivation.
tenor: in a metaphoric construction, the subject word to which a meta-
phoric word (that is, the vehicle) is applied (M. Abrams 1957, 61).
transcription: the act of writing down verbatim actual interaction or
dialogue, usually recorded first on audio or videotape; can refer to the text,
conversation, or nonverbal communication or the written record of such
translation.
transformational objects: commercial or adult things altered to suit
children's needs and images. An example is a "half-ball" used for alley
stickball and made by slicing a whole rubber ball.
triangulation: a methodology for collecting folklore that does not rely
on any single method but instead is a combination of several techniques.
trick: a deceptive expressive activity with minimal victimization or
harm intended, with "fun" as the motivating force.
trivialization: a category in Radner's and Lanser's typology for
women's strategic coding, adapted here to indicate children's subversive ex-
pressions that play off dominant culture expectations about what is trivial.
true riddle: a type of riddle that involves "a comparison between the
unstated answer and something else that is described in the question"
(Brunvand 1986, 90). The answer to a true riddle can be reasoned out based
on information supplied in the riddle proposition and the respondent's ad-
equate experience with and recall of tropes, symbols, and other relevant con-
ventions shared within the particular culture. See Taylor 1951 and examples
by Roemer in this volume (riddle nos. 1, 2, 4-8, 32-35).
vehicle: in a metaphoric construction, the metaphoric word itself. In
314 GLOSSARY
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? ? the sentence "John, the pawnshop owner is a shark," the word shark func-
tions as the metaphoric vehicle.
video ethnography: the use of video in ethnographic or qualitative re-
search, where the examination of video records serves as the main documen-
tation for a specific social phenomenon.
visual descriptive riddle: a type of riddle in which the proposition
consists of a sketch and some version of the question "What is it? " The an-
swer consists of a sketch in representational terms, for example "a popcorn
lid seen from the inside. " For examples in this volume, see nos. 28-31 by
Roemer.
Wellerism: a type of proverb "in the form of a quotation followed
by a phrase ascribing the quotation to someone who has done something
humorous and appropriate" (Brunvand 1986, 77).
word charade: a type of riddle in which the proposition divides the
answer word into syllables and provides a description of each. The riddle
answer supplies a referent word (or morpheme) for each of the descriptions
in the proposition in the order in which those descriptions were given. The
resulting series of referent words forms the answer word. See Abrahams and
Dundes 1972, 135. In this volume, see Roemer's example, riddle no. 5.
315
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? ?
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? ? BIBLIOGRAPHY OF
CHILDREN'S FOLKLORE
Thomas W. Johnson
(supplemental entries by Felicia R. McMahon)
A comprehensive bibliography of works on folklore of and for children has
yet to be compiled. It would certainly consist of a book far thicker than this
entire Source Book. What follows here is a combined bibliography for all
of the articles in this volume, plus a number of important additional works
on children's folklore that did not happen to be cited by any of the authors
included here. For these additional items, I have tried to select those I deemed
to be most important to the field and likely to be readily available in any
medium-size college library or through interlibrary loan. Each citation lists
the most recent reprint I could find, rather than a possibly obscure first print-
ing. Recent scholarship has been emphasized, and early works are listed only
when they are especially significant or are excellent examples of a type of
approach. There is also an emphasis on the folklore of American children,
although a few works on children's folklore from other regions are included
where there were especially good collections. The emphasis, as in this en-
tire work, is on the folklore of children, rather than folklore for children,
although a few significant works for children have also been included.
In addition to the somewhat limited listing which follows, there are
a number of other sources that should be pursued by the dedicated scholar.
Several bibliographies of children's folklore appear in this listing, all of them
as well as a large number of additional sources that could not be added here
for reasons of space. The reader is referred especially to Grider (1980b),
whose excellent bibliography has been so thoroughly incorporated into my
personal listing that it is impossible for me to separate it from items I dis-
covered through other sources. It forms a significant part of the base of all
that follows, although it also contains many items that were omitted here.
Halpert (1982) has provided a supplement to Grider that is especially use-
ful for European materials. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (1976a), Mergen (1982),
and Schwartzman (1976 and 1978) have compiled excellent bibliographies
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? ? on children's toys, games, play, and speech play. Dundes (1976b) provides
access to the many M. A. theses and Ph. D. dissertations on children's folk-
lore. Though generally difficult to access, these are an important and an of-
ten neglected resource in the field.
The Journal of American Folklore and Western Folklore seem to de-
vote the greatest space to children's folklore of any of the many journals in
the field, although other journals in folklore and in many related disciplines
(such as anthropology, education, psychology, and sociology) frequently pub-
lish interesting articles as well. The Newsletter of the Children's Folklore Sec-
tion of the American Folklore Society (which is the organizational sponsor
of this volume) carries news of recent developments, as well as some brief
articles and commentary. This has become the Children's Folklore Review
since 1990, under the editorship of C. W. Sullivan III. The Australian
Children's Folklore Newsletter and the Newsletter of the Association for the
Anthropological Study of Play (TAASP) are also excellent resources, con-
taining useful articles as well as news of the associations. TASP (formerly
TAASP) has also produced a series of volumes of papers presented at their
annual meetings (beginning in 1975), many of the articles being about
children's play (see Lancy and Tindall 1976; Stevens 1977; Salter 1978;
Schwartzman 1978; Cheska 1981; Loy 1982; Manning 1983; Sutton-Smith
and Kelly-Byrne 1984; Blanchard 1986; Mergen 1986; and Fine 1987. )
Thereafter the articles of this society appeared in the journal Play and Cul-
ture, 1988-92; and in the journal Play Theory and Research, 1993. Volumes
on the folklore of a place often contain a chapter on children's folklore and
are another resource to be checked. Welsch (1966b) is included in this bib-
liography, not only because it has significant data on children's folklore but
also to serve as an excellent example of this type of work and a reminder of
its importance.
In the listing that follows, I have placed an asterisk (*) before items I
consider not only the most interesting but the most basic to the study of
children's folklore. This is a purely idiosyncratic listing, and one that I am
certain each of the authors in this volume would dispute. It is included to
provide a starting point for beginners in the field. The square brackets [ ]
enclose brief annotations of some of the works, providing some indication
of their content and significance beyond what their titles convey.
This bibliography, like any, should be viewed as a work in progress.
While I was on sabbatical leave in Japan in 1993-95, Felicia McMahon con-
tinued to keep the bibliography up to date. In spite of our efforts, it is hope-
lessly incomplete, although a good beginning for research in a fascinating
but understudied field.
318 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHILDREN'S FOLKLORE
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? ? Aarne, Antti, and Stith Thompson
1961 The Types of the Folktale: A Classification and Bibliography. Helsinki, Fin-
land: EE Communications #184, Scientific Finnish Academy.
Aaron, David
1965 Child's Play: A Creative Appeal to Play Spaces for Today's Children. New
York: Harper and Row.
Abernethy, Francis Edward (ed. )
1989 Texas Toys and Games. Publications of the Texas Folklore Society, no. 48.
Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press.
Abrahams, Roger D.
1963 "Some Jump-Rope Rimes from South Philadelphia. " Journal of American
Folklore 8 (January): 3-5.
1969 Jump-Rope Rhymes: A Dictionary. Austin: University of Texas Press.
1980 Counting-Out Rhymes: A Dictionary. Austin: University of Texas Press.
1981 "Shouting Match at the Border: The Folklore of Display Events. " In And
Other Neighborly Names, edited by R. Bauman and R. Abrahams, 303-21.
Austin: University of Texas Press.
Abrahams, Roger D. , and Alan Dundes
1972 "Riddles. " In Richard Dorson (ed. ), Folklore and Folklife: An Introduction.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Abrahams, Roger D. , and Lois Rankin
1980 Counting Out Rhymes: A Dictionary. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Abrams, David M. , and Brian Sutton-Smith
1977 "The Development of the Trickster in Children's Narratives. " Journal of
American Folklore 90:29-47.
Abrams, M. H.
1957 A Glossary of Literary Terms. 3d ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Win-
ston.
Adams, G. B.
1965 "Counting Rhymes and Systems of Numerations. " Ulster Folklife 2:87-97.
Adams, Henry
1918 The Education of Henry Adams. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society.
Adams, M. A.
1976 "Hospital Play Programs: Helping Children with Serious Illness. " Ameri-
can Journal of Orthopsychiatry 46:416-24.
Addams, Jane
1907 "Public Recreation and Social Morality. " Charities and the Commons. Au-
gust 22-24.
Adler, Elizabeth Mosby
1981 "Creative Eating: The Oreo Syndrome. " Western Folklore 40:4-10.
Ager, Lynn P.
1975 "Storyknifing: An Alaskan Eskimo Girl's Game. " Journal of the Folklore
Institute 11:187-98.
Ainsworth, Catherine Harris
1961 "Jump Rope Verses Around the United States. " Western Folklore 20:179-
99. [Results of a mail questionnaire to seventh-grade teachers; 152 verses from
nine schools in as many states. ]
1962 "Black and White and Said All Over. " Southern Folklore Quarterly 26:263-
95. [Collection of 535 riddles from ninth-grade students in six states. ]
1973 "Hallowe'en. " New York Folklore Quarterly 29:163-93.
Alcott, Louisa May
1963 Little Men. New York: Macmillan.
Allen, Patricia R. Boyd
1969 An Annotated Bibliography of Play Environments: Planning, Design
and Evaluation. Chicago: Council of Planning Librarians, Exchange.
319
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? ? Bibliography no. 1184.
Altman, Terry
1978 "Folklore and Education: A Selected Annotated Bibliography of Periodical
Literature. " Keystone Folklore Quarterly 22:53-85.
American Playground Device Company
1974 Catalog. Anderson, Indiana.
Ames, Kenneth L.
1980 "Folk Art: The Challenge and the Promise. " In Perspectives on American
Folk Art, edited by I. M. G. Quimby and S. T. Swank, 293-324. New York: W. W.
Norton.
Ames, Louise B.
1966 "Children's Stories. " Genetic Psychological Monographs 73:337-96.
Anderson, Walter
1951 Ein Volkskundliches Experiment. Folklore Fellows Communication.
Helsinki: Scientific Finnish Academy.
Anderson, Wanni Wibulswasdi
1980 Children's Play and Games in Rural Thailand: A Study in Enculturation and
Socialization. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Social Research Institute.
[Results of a field study of a single village of 160 people. Originally her 1973
Ph. D. dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania. ]
Appleton, Lilla Estelle
1910 A Comparative Study of Play Activities of Adult Savages and Civilized Chil-
dren: An Investigation of the Scientific Basis of Education. Reprinted 1976.
New York: Arno.
Apte, Mahadev L.
1985 Humor and Laughter, an Anthropological Approach. Ithaca, New York:
Cornell University Press.
Aries, Philippe
1962 Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life. New York: Alfred
A. Knopf. [Original French edition, 1960. Immediately became a classic with
its description of changes in adult European attitudes toward children and their
play. For other views, see the work of De Mause (1974) and Wilson (1980)].
Armstrong, Robert Plant
1981 The Powers of Presence: Consciousness, Myth, and Affecting Presence.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Armstrong, William Howard
1969 Sounder. New York: Harper and Row.
Ashley, Leonard R. N.
1968 "Scoff Lore: An Introduction to British Words for Food and Drink. " Names
6:238-72.
Asimov, Isaac
1979 In Memory Yet Green: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1920-1954.
Garden City, N. Y. : Doubleday.
Association for the Anthropological Study of Play
1974 TAASP Newsletter. Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro.
Atkinson, Robert M.
1967 "Songs Little Girls Sing: An Orderly Invitation to Violence. " Northwest
Folklore 2:2-8. [A field collection. ]
Aufenanger, Heinrich
1958 "Children's Games and Entertainments among the Kumngo Tribe in Cen-
tral New Guinea. " Anthropos 53:575-84. [Field collection of materials with
a brief description of their functions from an area little studied by folklorists.
Reprinted in Sutton-Smith 1976c. ]
Austin, John Langshaw
1962 How to Do Things with Words. Oxford: Clarendon.
320 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHILDREN'S FOLKLORE
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