Cultural Processes in Action Worksheet

Unit I Defining Terms

Cultural Processes in Action Worksheet

Name:___________________________________________Date:____________________________

This exercise will help you discover your ideas about folklore and explore the complexity of folk, popular, and elite cultural processes.

Directions:

Read the items below and decide which are studied by contemporary folklorists, then answer yes or no in Column 1.
Indicate whether you think each is a product of folk, popular, or elite cultural processes by placing an X in the correct columns on the right. You may think that some belong in more than one category. If so, place an X in all appropriate columns.
How difficult is it to determine what cultural processes are at work?

Do Folklorists Study? Put Yes or No on Left
Y/N
Folk Popular Elite

Y 1. Animal tales told by the Koasati Indians X

2. Jokes such as "dumb blonde" jokes told by college students

3. Graffiti in restrooms

4. Initiation rituals on oil rigs

5. Building Mardi Gras floats

6. River baptism in the Baptist Church

7. Attending a Louisiana Philharmonic Symphony concert

8. Your grandmother's stories about her childhood

9. Your uncle's songs about the Vietnam War

10. Catching and cooking crawfish or making hot water cornbread

11. Building oyster boats

12. Tai chi

13. Auctioning livestock

14. Debutante balls

15. Gospel music

16. "Double Wedding Ring" quilt

17. Vietnamese food

18. Listening to Louisiana folklorist Nick Spitzer's "American Routes" show on public radio

19. Jump rope rhymes chanted by children

20. Teenagers' scary stories such as "The Hook"

21. Wooden toys made by patterns from Popular Mechanics magazine

22. Clementine Hunter's painting "Cotton Pickin' Time"

23. Garth Brook's "Friends in Low Places"

24. An architect-designed log house built by a construction firm in 1990

25. Historical accounts of the Civil War written in personal diaries

26. St. Joseph's Day altars

27. Email computer virus warnings

28. Exhibit of Sarah Albritton's paintings at an LSU gallery

29. Students' locker decorations

30. Rap music

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*Do Folklorists Study? Put Yes* or No on Left Y/N**		Folk	Popular	Elite
Y	1. Animal tales told by the Koasati Indians	X
	2. Jokes such as "dumb blonde" jokes told by college students
	3. Graffiti in restrooms
	4. Initiation rituals on oil rigs
	5. Building Mardi Gras floats
	6. River baptism in the Baptist Church
	7. Attending a Louisiana Philharmonic Symphony concert
	8. Your grandmother's stories about her childhood
	9. Your uncle's songs about the Vietnam War
	10. Catching and cooking crawfish or making hot water cornbread
	11. Building oyster boats
	12. Tai chi
	13. Auctioning livestock
	14. Debutante balls
	15. Gospel music
	16. "Double Wedding Ring" quilt
	17. Vietnamese food
	18. Listening to Louisiana folklorist Nick Spitzer's "American Routes" show on public radio
	19. Jump rope rhymes chanted by children
	20. Teenagers' scary stories such as "The Hook"
	21. Wooden toys made by patterns from Popular Mechanics magazine
	22. Clementine Hunter's painting "Cotton Pickin' Time"
	23. Garth Brook's "Friends in Low Places"
	24. An architect-designed log house built by a construction firm in 1990
	25. Historical accounts of the Civil War written in personal diaries
	26. St. Joseph's Day altars
	27. Email computer virus warnings
	28. Exhibit of Sarah Albritton's paintings at an LSU gallery
	29. Students' locker decorations
	30. Rap music