நாட்டுப்புறவியலும், கள ஆய்வும்

Folklore and Fieldwork

Abstract

Fieldwork refers to the location chosen by a researcher for their study and the collection of data from that site. Such fieldwork is conducted across disciplines like science, history, folklore, and social sciences. Among these, fieldwork holds a prominent position in the field of folklore.

Here, fieldwork is undertaken to collect folklore genres such as songs, ballads, oral tales, proverbs, riddles, folk deities, worship traditions, festivals, beliefs, rituals, traditional medical practices, performing arts, handicrafts, and the usage of material culture objects.

In literary/textual research, primary source texts already serve as data, so fieldwork presents no challenge there. However, for a researcher who chooses a topic related to folklore, the place where people live serves as the primary source of data. The purpose of this paper is to highlight how folklore-based fieldwork is conducted.