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THREAD #FolkloreThursday
Just finished a dissertation about how the history of folklore & folk music is linked to nationalism, fascism and racism and when I logged on to twitter again one of the first things I saw was alt-right folklore stuff, so I thought I'd share some facts
Just finished a dissertation about how the history of folklore & folk music is linked to nationalism, fascism and racism and when I logged on to twitter again one of the first things I saw was alt-right folklore stuff, so I thought I'd share some facts
2/
Disclaimer: for the sake of twitter brevity (lol), I'm mostly talking about dominant trends in Britain, there are obviously exceptions and different schools of thought and models of folkloristics. Ok? Let's go...
Disclaimer: for the sake of twitter brevity (lol), I'm mostly talking about dominant trends in Britain, there are obviously exceptions and different schools of thought and models of folkloristics. Ok? Let's go...
3/
We get most of our traditional folk culture from middle and upper-class collectors who spoke to working-class people in their area and asked them for songs, stories, customs, superstitions etc. which they wrote up in books or magazines for other middle and upper-class people
We get most of our traditional folk culture from middle and upper-class collectors who spoke to working-class people in their area and asked them for songs, stories, customs, superstitions etc. which they wrote up in books or magazines for other middle and upper-class people
4/
In the 18th & 19th centuries the stated goal of this was to recover the fragments of a supposed ancient literary canon to rival classical mythology that had only survived in the oral culture of the rural poor who had avoided the corrupting influence of modern culture
In the 18th & 19th centuries the stated goal of this was to recover the fragments of a supposed ancient literary canon to rival classical mythology that had only survived in the oral culture of the rural poor who had avoided the corrupting influence of modern culture
5/
It was very important to collectors and folklorists that the oral sources of folk culture were uneducated, illiterate and entirely cut off from the dominant music, art and literature of society. These people were undisturbed 'noble savages' right on their doorstep!
It was very important to collectors and folklorists that the oral sources of folk culture were uneducated, illiterate and entirely cut off from the dominant music, art and literature of society. These people were undisturbed 'noble savages' right on their doorstep!
6/
Except, obviously they weren't. They might not be attending the Royal Opera House but they had contact with the world outside their villages and many were literate and consumed the dominant culture of the day in some form. So why did folklorists misrepresent them?
Except, obviously they weren't. They might not be attending the Royal Opera House but they had contact with the world outside their villages and many were literate and consumed the dominant culture of the day in some form. So why did folklorists misrepresent them?
7/
Because what they were trying to find in folk culture was the pure form of the national identity - the spirit of what the people of the nation were when all the influences of education and internationalism were scraped away. What was it to be Scottish/German/Breton etc.?
Because what they were trying to find in folk culture was the pure form of the national identity - the spirit of what the people of the nation were when all the influences of education and internationalism were scraped away. What was it to be Scottish/German/Breton etc.?
8/
The problem was, lots of the poor people that collectors spoke to were a bit too cosmopolitan. So if you can't find proper uncontacted folk what do you do? You lie about it and make a collage out of the stuff you've collected and add some olde worlde vibes for extra flavour.
The problem was, lots of the poor people that collectors spoke to were a bit too cosmopolitan. So if you can't find proper uncontacted folk what do you do? You lie about it and make a collage out of the stuff you've collected and add some olde worlde vibes for extra flavour.
9/
"BEHOLD, FOR I HAVE UNCOVERED THE NATIVE CULTURE OF THE [insert nationality here] RACE!"
"See, we're not a backwards nation - we've got all this buried treasure hidden in our very beings. You can keep your fancy Renaissance because we've got our own epic poetry!"
"BEHOLD, FOR I HAVE UNCOVERED THE NATIVE CULTURE OF THE [insert nationality here] RACE!"
"See, we're not a backwards nation - we've got all this buried treasure hidden in our very beings. You can keep your fancy Renaissance because we've got our own epic poetry!"
10/
For this PR spin to work it's important to push the idea that folk songs or stories don't come from individual people, they come from the group - you have to strip away the individual identity of the person who told you the story and add them to the homogeneous 'folk'.
For this PR spin to work it's important to push the idea that folk songs or stories don't come from individual people, they come from the group - you have to strip away the individual identity of the person who told you the story and add them to the homogeneous 'folk'.
11/
So, if you've got your far-right concepts bingo card handy you can go ahead and check off 'Anti-intellectualism', 'Anti-cosmopolitanism', 'Inherent qualities of the race' and 'Anti-individualism' so far and we're not even in the 20th century yet.
Are we all having fun?
So, if you've got your far-right concepts bingo card handy you can go ahead and check off 'Anti-intellectualism', 'Anti-cosmopolitanism', 'Inherent qualities of the race' and 'Anti-individualism' so far and we're not even in the 20th century yet.
Are we all having fun?
12/
Enter Darwin.
Towards the end of the 19thC some people start thinking that maybe folk culture isn't high quality fragments of an ancient literary culture mixed in with modern trash, maybe it's a process of natural selection...
Enter Darwin.
Towards the end of the 19thC some people start thinking that maybe folk culture isn't high quality fragments of an ancient literary culture mixed in with modern trash, maybe it's a process of natural selection...
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If it's akin to evolution then an individual comes up with a new idea for a story/song etc. and if the community like it they adopt it and it survives, but if the community doesn't like it then it dies with the individual. So folk culture is like genetic code...
If it's akin to evolution then an individual comes up with a new idea for a story/song etc. and if the community like it they adopt it and it survives, but if the community doesn't like it then it dies with the individual. So folk culture is like genetic code...
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...and as folk collectors stick to specific geographic areas & we already had the national culture idea, let's say that it's the cultural genetic code of this specific nation.
The 'folk' are now multiple generations of isolated, uneducated rural people from the same country
...and as folk collectors stick to specific geographic areas & we already had the national culture idea, let's say that it's the cultural genetic code of this specific nation.
The 'folk' are now multiple generations of isolated, uneducated rural people from the same country
15/
What's that over there on the horizon? World War I? So we're all pretty anxious about our national identities and in England we're freaking out about how Germany is so great at everything, especially music? I wish we had our own musical culture to rub in their faces...
What's that over there on the horizon? World War I? So we're all pretty anxious about our national identities and in England we're freaking out about how Germany is so great at everything, especially music? I wish we had our own musical culture to rub in their faces...
16/
"BEHOLD! THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND HAVE A RICH ETHNIC TRADITION OF MUSIC AND DANCES!"
"See, we're not a cultural backwater! You can keep your Brahms and Strauss and Wagner because we've got Greensleeves and Morris Dancing in our genes."
"BEHOLD! THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND HAVE A RICH ETHNIC TRADITION OF MUSIC AND DANCES!"
"See, we're not a cultural backwater! You can keep your Brahms and Strauss and Wagner because we've got Greensleeves and Morris Dancing in our genes."
17/
We are now entering 'blood and soil' territory - folk culture is being discussed as tied to specific races separated along national borders. It's not all that sinister-looking yet to people at the time, but that's because they don't know what's coming.
We are now entering 'blood and soil' territory - folk culture is being discussed as tied to specific races separated along national borders. It's not all that sinister-looking yet to people at the time, but that's because they don't know what's coming.
18/
Folk songs and dances start to be taught in schools as a way to teach English children to be patriotic, and later folk dances are used to rehabilitate wounded soldiers during WWI. These were products of the English race they should be the dominant culture of the race, right?
Folk songs and dances start to be taught in schools as a way to teach English children to be patriotic, and later folk dances are used to rehabilitate wounded soldiers during WWI. These were products of the English race they should be the dominant culture of the race, right?
19/
If you remember what I said 400 tweets ago, the foundational idea that the 'folk' were these homogeneous isolated people from the past who had no interaction with international cultural developments was a lie, so the idea that folk culture was a racial product was dead wrong
If you remember what I said 400 tweets ago, the foundational idea that the 'folk' were these homogeneous isolated people from the past who had no interaction with international cultural developments was a lie, so the idea that folk culture was a racial product was dead wrong
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People at the time also knew that this was wrong and went against the evidence of folk culture that crossed national and racial boundaries, but that made using folk culture as a patriotic tool quite difficult, so sssshhhhh!
Also lots of folklorists were white-supremacists
People at the time also knew that this was wrong and went against the evidence of folk culture that crossed national and racial boundaries, but that made using folk culture as a patriotic tool quite difficult, so sssshhhhh!
Also lots of folklorists were white-supremacists
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I'm sure everyone who paid attention in history class will be aware that the Nazis leaned really heavily on the idea of the 'Volk' as a concept of the idealised native people free from the corrupting influences of the cultural products of other races, i.e. degenerate art
I'm sure everyone who paid attention in history class will be aware that the Nazis leaned really heavily on the idea of the 'Volk' as a concept of the idealised native people free from the corrupting influences of the cultural products of other races, i.e. degenerate art
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Mussolini and Franco were also big into the idea of folk culture as a nationalist tool to tie people to the state through a shared inherited artistic and cultural tradition. They organised big folk exhibitions to show off the racial culture of the nation
Mussolini and Franco were also big into the idea of folk culture as a nationalist tool to tie people to the state through a shared inherited artistic and cultural tradition. They organised big folk exhibitions to show off the racial culture of the nation
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Fast-forward to today - fascists, neo-nazis, white-supremacists, the alt-right etc. frequently use folk culture as a tool to try and demonstrate that white people have an ancient inherent culture that should be promoted over modern culture produced by diverse societies
Fast-forward to today - fascists, neo-nazis, white-supremacists, the alt-right etc. frequently use folk culture as a tool to try and demonstrate that white people have an ancient inherent culture that should be promoted over modern culture produced by diverse societies
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Folk culture is something that is communal and shared - it has a memetic quality to it as people learn songs, stories and customs from each other and add their own flairs when they perform them, but it's not and never has been a racial or national product.
Folk culture is something that is communal and shared - it has a memetic quality to it as people learn songs, stories and customs from each other and add their own flairs when they perform them, but it's not and never has been a racial or national product.
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Folk culture goes wherever people go, and is owned and produced by whoever wants to learn or develop it. It has always crossed racial and national boundaries because the isolated homogeneous 'folk' was invented to boost white egos.
#FolkAgainstFascism
FIN
Folk culture goes wherever people go, and is owned and produced by whoever wants to learn or develop it. It has always crossed racial and national boundaries because the isolated homogeneous 'folk' was invented to boost white egos.
#FolkAgainstFascism
FIN
