Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/319

311 FOLK-LORE TERMINOLOGY.

HE question raised in the last number of the Journal by Mr. Gomme is one of great importance. It is expedient that a precise and authoritative definition should be forthcoming both of the word folk-lore itself and of the chief terms usually employed by folk-lorists.

According to Rule No. 1 of our Society, our object is "the preservation and publication of popular traditions, legendary ballads, local proverbial sayings, superstitions and old customs, and all subjects relating to them." There would, therefore, be warrant in affirming that folk-lore is the study of popular traditions, &c. &c. But does the term as commonly employed bear such a wide signification? and should it, if strictly employed, bear such a narrow one? Both questions must, I think, be answered in the negative. Such a definition as I have indicated would, we instinctively feel, be wanting both in scope and precision. I would venture to define the term as follows:—"Folk-lore is anthropology dealing with primitive man." I do not include biology in anthropology. Biological phenomena are the same in man as in all other animals; psychological phenomena, on the other hand, are undoubtedly different. Anthropology, the science of man, confines itself legitimately to what is special to man. With this exclusion, however, I use the word anthropology in its widest sense. One other word in my formula requires itself to be defined—the word "primitive"; I use this somewhat loosely, not as designating rigidly and precisely the absolute first stage of culture, but nevertheless an essentially low stage, the dominant characteristic of which is that in it all knowledge is at once empirical and traditional. If we examine ourselves closely, we find that next to