Judging from the flood of folklore encyclopedias that have been published of late, publishers have rediscovered our field and are convinced that there is a market for it. With this four-volume work, editor William Clements and Greenwood Press have set a new benchmark for quality and representative coverage.
The Greenwood Encyclopedia was conceived as a complement to the two-volume Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Beliefs, Customs, Tales, Music, and Art edited by Tom Green (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1997), and it is intended to remedy the earlier work’s lack of consideration for the cultural contexts of folklore. In the words of Clements, The Greenwood Encyclopedia’s goal is “to survey the world’s folklore heritages in a way that emphasizes the international nature of folklore in general and of specific folklore materials, while placing folklore within specific cultural milieus” (xiv). With 205 entries by over 200 folklorists, this work has succeeded admirably in reaching this goal.
An outstanding feature of the encyclopedia is that it can claim to be truly representative of world folklore. More often than not, reference works that aim to cover “world folklore” in fact give the lion’s share of attention to the cultures of the West, but Clements does not give us a lineup of the usual suspects. While there are lengthy entries for places that have been prominent in American folkloristics (England, Ireland, and Scotland, for example), the encyclopedia’s coverage extends to places rarely described in English-language sources, such as Kaingang, Bhutan, and the Mascareen Islands. In fact, the West is allotted just one of the four volumes in the set, along with some entries for American regions of Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta.
I say this work is “representative” rather than “comprehensive,” and therein lies a tiny voice of complaint. That is, there are some omissions from the lineup-for example, neither Egypt nor Maori are covered, and neither are mentioned in the index. However, placed next to the sterling coverage of many other less-well known world folklore traditions, this is a minor shortcoming indeed.
Another original feature of this work is that it does not simply divide the world into nation states. There are entries for nations, but also for ethnic groups that cross political borders (for example, Roma, Tuareg), for tiny regions that can claim a folklore heritage of their own (Sibundoy, the Isle of Man), and for ethnic groups that live within larger nation states (Haida, Australian Aboriginals). North America is represented by fifteen American Indian groups and by entries for “African American,” “Appalachia,” and “Mississippi Delta.” India, which could usually expect a single entry in a cross-cultural encyclopedia, is covered by eleven separate entries for different states from Assam to Uttar Pradesh, rendering a much more accurate indication of the subcontinent’s world significance.
In terms of content, the essays are full of both contextual detail and ethnographic richness. Most are between eight and sixteen pages in length, and all follow a similar pattern. Each begins with a sketch of the geographic setting, major sociocultural features, and history of the region or people under discussion. A survey of the major folklore genres follows, and every entry ends with an extensive bibliography and sometimes a brief bibliographic essay as well.
Although the entries follow the same template, it was a guide rather than a straitjacket. The entries vary in emphasis according to the interests of their authors and the different shape that folklore study has taken in different parts of the world. Thus, the entry on Ireland gives most space to the local genres of folk narrative, but the entry on the Mississippi Delta gives more attention to music, while material culture is predominant in the entry for Turkey. Each entry foregrounds the local or emic genre terminology when relevant—thus we can read about Australian yarns, Irish seanchas, or Kamsá antewanos in the Sibundoy Valley. Most entries also include a discussion of the impact of globalization and modernization on the people and traditions covered. There is no ethnographic present in these essays; folklore is firmly set in its historical, social, and geopolitical context.
Volume 1 includes thirty-nine essays on various “topics and theories of world folklore” from “Antiquarianism” to “Worldview.” In particular, I commend to your attention the articles on nationalism (by Simon Bronner), popular culture (S. Elizabeth Bird), race (Patrick Mullen), and text (Elizabeth Fine), but many other entries are also masterfully written. However, I failed to see the necessity for two separate entries, by different people, on both creolization and hybridity (which includes an account of creolization), though both entries are useful.
The encyclopedia is exceptionally well designed. Well-chosen illustrations and maps and plenty of white space on each page make reading a pleasure. Most important for a reference work, the reference apparatus is comprehensive, detailed, and accurate. This is a very usable encyclopedia—something that is not always true of large reference works. The introduction, other front matter, and comprehensive subject index are reprinted in every volume for ease of access. The fourth volume adds a glossary of folkloristic terms (from “Anecdote” to “Worksong”), a geographic guide to enable users to locate individual ethnic groups, and a selective general bibliography that stands in addition to the good bibliographies at the end of every entry. The cumulative index of names and subjects enables users to trace topics and genres cross-culturally with little effort—for example, “drinking songs and rituals” are covered in the entries for China, Ga, Germany, Khasi-Jaintia, Mongol, and Shuar. If you are nonplussed about where some of these peoples are to be found, the Geographical Guide will locate each one geographically.
In short, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of World Folklore and Folklife is a triumph. This is a work to browse in for hours; even a veteran folklorist will discover much that is surprising and new about world folklore in these pages. It is practical to use, a joy to peruse, and a work that all folklorists can be proud of.
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[Review length: 988 words • Review posted on December 13, 2006]