Folklore documents ‘the full complexity of the human situation’

Historical photo courtesy of the IU Archives

‘What is a faulty memory? Often the way people remember things has more to tell us about who they are, where they come from and what they are about than the tidy facts of historical reality.’

–John McDowell Folklore on the square

By Susan Williams

IU anthropologist Geoff Conrad explores 14th- and 15th-century archaeological sites to create a fuller picture of a people who had no written language with which to leave behind records of history and culture.

Meanwhile, back on the courthouse square in Bloomington, folklorist John McDowell, chair and professor of folklore at IU Bloomington, works to more fully understand and preserve the here and now, collecting the language and memories of local residents. With any luck, because of the work of folklorists like McDowell, future anthropologists like Conrad won’t have to work so hard to understand Bloomington, Indiana, at the turn of this century.

“Folklore is the study of traditional modes of expression and thought as they surface and evolve in the course of social interaction in human communities,” said McDowell, who participated last summer in a project titled “On the Square: Documenting Local Culture” in Bloomington.

“Studying folklore teaches us about creativity in everyday life and how people make use of traditional resources to advance their personal agendas and to contribute to collective efforts. It provides a link, real or imagined, to community and the practices of the past.”

Last summer’s courthouse square project was a collaboration among the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center, Traditional Arts Indiana—associated with the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at IU—and the Evergreen Institute of Bloomington under the auspices of directors Inta Carpenter and Phil Stafford. The collaboration established a field school for 15 adults who had little or no experience in ethnographic field research. “On the Square” was the American Folklife Center’s fourth such program and the first conducted in Bloomington. The intensive three-week seminar was coordinated by the IUB Folklore Institute in cooperation with the Evergreen Institute on Elder Environments.

Project participants, which included graduate students, professors, museum educators and oral historians from all over the country and from British Columbia, explored the history, uses and meaning of Bloomington’s courthouse square.

“We used the courthouse square for this project because it has been a traditional place for local people to gather,” said McDowell, who explained that the academic study of folklore is all about catching people in a more casual aspect of social interaction rather than within the frame of traditional history. “Bloomington’s square is particularly interesting because it is still vibrant and still serves as a focal point in the city.”

The project began in the classroom where participants learned theory and methodology. It then moved on to information gathering. McDowell conducted a roundtable discussion open to the public called “Remembering the Square” that involved a number of long-time Bloomington residents. Project participants then broke up into groups of three and collected further information pertaining to different aspects of the history and culture of the town square. At the end of the project, each group documented and presented their findings. The final results were compiled and donated to the Monroe County Historical Society.

“It was interesting to note how central the square has been in the political, economic and artistic life of the community, from the earliest memories of our consultants to the present day,” said McDowell.

“We learned that there is not just one downtown square, but many of them. In our interviews, we included families that had traditionally owned businesses on the square. But the round table discussion also brought in people from the fringes—people who grew up on farms near Bloomington and remember coming into town on Saturdays. There was the black community of Bloomington that often did not feel welcome on the square but remembered Hoagy Carmichael playing in downtown ‘speakeasies.’ And now there is the new Latino community that is just adjusting to life here. People experienced the square very differently depending on a variety of circumstances.”

And therein lies an interesting fundamental in academic folklore. Much of the record is built upon individual perception and human memory, fragile tools many might consider subject to inaccuracies.

“What is a faulty memory?” asked McDowell. “Often the way people remember things has more to tell us about who they are, where they come from and what they are about than the tidy ‘facts’ of historical reality. Folklorists are intrigued by the way people recall the past and how they re-create for themselves and other past experiences.

“Without the perspective derived through folklore study, we would be less aware of the full complexity of the human situation. In particular, we would be hard pressed to recognize the artful ways people address their daily routines and predicaments, their concerns and pleasures.”

Traditional Arts Indiana and the American Folklife Center will host a second field school this summer, “Disability and Community.” For more information, contact Inta Carpenter, director of special projects in the IUB Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, 812-855-8049.