TENNESSEE FOLKLORE SOCIETY BULLETIN - March 1968

Sep 28, 2026

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Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin, March 1968 issue, presents scholarly discussion of Appalachian folk wisdom and related cultural traditions. The included article examines the vitality and simplicity of Eastern Kentucky place names, connects them to folk imagery, and frames folklore through an operational definition based on shared knowledge transmitted orally. It also considers romanticized regional conditions that encourage folk preservation, using examples from period publications and regional song collecting to illustrate how tradition guides conduct.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages46

Reading Time1 h 11 min

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The Folk Wisdom of Appalachia

Operational definition of folklore

Conditions supporting folk culture preservation

Examples from Kentucky Folklore Record and regional song traditions

TENNESSEE FOLKLORE SOCIETYBULLETIN PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY WITH ASSISTANCE FROM Middle Tennessee State University U.of ILL,LIBRARY MURFREESBORO,TENNESSEE M△R 271968 CHICAGO CIRCLE "CABIN IN COTTON"By Harry Harrison Kroll NUMBERI MARCH 1968 COPYRIGHTED,TENNESSEE FOLKLORE SOCIETY Ecaa p。 foounot.e should read:Profess₀r Kenne+h CLarke read÷his paper, on March 17,1967 p。34 line 1 should read:Inezms of 1i+erary merit.thereis perhaps no choosing bet ween them。。。 The first ifem is correcred÷o make clear a possible obscuairy;the second item is+o state properly a judgmenr:shich the omi.Ssion of between reverses TENNESSEE FOLKLORE SOCIETY BULLETINPublished four times a yearby the Tennessee Folklore SocietyMiddle Tennessee State UniversityMurfreesboro,Tennessee March,1968 VOLUME XXXIV,Number l CONTENTS The Folk Wisdom of Appalachia .···A Brief Tribute to Harry Harrison Kroll .The Treasure of Bobo Springs.·····。·· Folklore of Certain Professions II,The Biologist ·Events and Comments 。····Book Reviews.·····。· Three Negro Folk Tales.·····Index to Volume XXXIII,TFSB.··。··.··.36 Cover photograph: Oil painting of Cabin in Cotton by Harry HarrisonKroll,painted Fall 1966 at.Martin,Tennessee,from image left in hismind after a drive on the rural roads of Weakley County.Photographcourtesy of Mildred Payne and Paul Flowers. THE TENNESSEE FOLKLORE SOCIETY President:Mildred Y.Payne,University of Tennessee at Martin,Martin Vice-President:C.P.Snelgrove,Tennessee Technological Univer-sity,Cookeville Treasurer:William W.Bass,Carson-Newman College,Jefferson CitySecretary-Editor:Ralph w.Hyde,Middle Tennessee State University,Murfreesboro Co-Editor:William H。Holland,Middle Tennessee State University,Murfreesboro The fee for membership in the Society(including subscriptions to theBulletin)is $2.00 for one year. Two-year memberships are acceptedfor $3.00. Copies of most of the issues that make up previous thirty-three volumes of the Bulletin are available for 65 cents each,pluspostage. ADplication for membership and subscriptions to the Bulletin shouldbe^sent to the treasurer of the Society。Orders for back issues,aswell as material submitted for publication in the Bulletin,should beaddressed to the editors。 # THE FOLK WISDOM OF APPALACHIA by Kenneth ClarkeWestern Kentucky University When I recently looked over a list of place names of EasternKentucky compiled by Dr.George Boswell and his students atMorehead State University,I was struck by the vigor and naturalsimplicity of many of the names of places。 Particularly I relished Cow Pile Cliff,a name for which one might_infer eithera visual or olfactory image,as Boswell remarked.Years ago Iwas at first puzzled by the title Leonard Roberts gave one of hisbooks:Up Cutshin and Down Greasy.It seemed almost too good tobe true that such names of towns,creeks,mountains,and othergeographical features actually exist.But they do,plenty of them,in Appalachia,and perhaps this is some kind of index to the amountof folklore in the area. Because I edit the Kentucky Folklore Record,along with mywife,who is Appalachian born and raised,and because I teachfolklore and sometimes write about folklore,I have assumed thatmy topic,"The_Wisdom of Appalachia"should be construed to meanthe traditional or folk wisdom of that area. To begin with,it is probably desirable to develop an oper-ational definition of folklore.For those of us who work withmaterial,it is usually thought of as that body of knowledge,belief,skill,and expression maintained largely by word of mouth,uncritically and unself-consciously by a group of people who sharea significant number of their mindskills and handskills. Appalachia has become a kind of romanticised utopia for someneophyte folklorists because the area has had many of the con-ditions which strike us immediately as reflective of folkways orconducive to the preservation of a folk culture。 These are: 1.Relative physical isol

FAQs

What does the article consider as “folklore” in an operational sense?

Folklore is described as a body of knowledge, belief, skill, and expression maintained largely by word of mouth, uncritically and unself-consciously within a group sharing common mindskills and handskills.

Why does the author link Appalachia to the preservation of folk culture?

The author argues the region has had multiple conducive conditions, including relative physical isolation, community stability, population homogeneity, and comparatively limited intrusion of outside forces.

How do place names and folk song function as examples of Appalachian folk wisdom?

Place names are treated as evidence of the vigor and natural simplicity of local naming practices, while folk song is presented as a prominent tradition that reflects and sustains regional folk heritage.

Sep 28, 2026

Uploaded by Aran