What Did Folklore Do? : The Social Functions of Tradition

Folklore governed relations between parent and child, husband and wife, and master and man, legitimising rewards for right actions and punishment for wrong ones. Close reading of popular custom and oral literature reveals the underlying pattern of values and obligations which upheld pre-capitalist society.

Belief, tradition and custom all shape and preserve the social order. It was through tradition that communities in rural and small-town England enforced social norms in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, until the reform of manners suppressed this autonomous working class lore. Folklore governed relations between parent and child, husband and wife, and master and man, legitimising rewards for right actions and punishment for wrong ones. It gave people a language and ceremony to celebrate who they were and how they bonded with others in their parish and trade. The traditional moral code of loyalty and generosity softened friction between those who held power and resources and those who depended on them: even riot and unrest aimed not at a new order but at ritual return to the past. Close reading of popular custom and oral literature reveals the underlying pattern of values and obligations which upheld pre-capitalist society.