Alan Dundes

Folklore provides a socially sanctioned outlet for the discussion of the forbidden and taboo.

— Alan Dundes

The class has become over the years fairly large, running to three hundred or more, but I always insist upon reading all…

— Alan Dundes

Their term project consists of a fieldwork collection of folklore that they create by interviewing family members, friends, or anyone they can…

— Alan Dundes

In the light of our culture, these are not unreasonable questions and tactics, but if once again, we try to see the…

— Alan Dundes

The study of folklore is largely the study of particular folklore genres: myth, folktale, legend, ballad, proverb, riddle, superstition, etc.

— Alan Dundes

Cities all over the world are getting bigger as more and more people move from rural to urban sites, but that has…

— Alan Dundes

I have a great advantage over many of my colleagues inasmuch as my students bring with them to class their own personal…

— Alan Dundes

Americans do believe in progress and there is almost certainly a kernel of truth in the joke.

— Alan Dundes

Americans have a penchant for the future and tend to disregard the past.

— Alan Dundes

I mentioned that one of the tripartite formulas in American worldview involves time: past, present, and future.

— Alan Dundes

My academic identity is that of a folklorist, and for many years I have taught only folklore courses.

— Alan Dundes

In my introductory course, Anthropology 160, the Forms of Folklore, I try to show the students what the major and minor genres…

— Alan Dundes

As a folklorist, I have come to believe that no piece of folklore continues to be transmitted unless it means something -…

— Alan Dundes

Life, it seems, is nothing if not a series of initiations, transitions, and incorporations.

— Alan Dundes

I find all folklore challenging, and I never cease to be grateful that I became a professional folklorist.

— Alan Dundes

Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

— Alan Dundes

Future orientation is combined with a notion and expectation of progress, and nothing is impossible.

— Alan Dundes

There is more to folklore research than fieldwork. This is why in all of my other upper-division courses I require a term…

— Alan Dundes

Polls are frequently taken to try to tease out or determine likely directions and trends, but once taken, they belong to the…

— Alan Dundes

Ancestor worship, or filial piety so characteristic of Asian cultures, for example, does not really resonate with Americans who favor children, not…

— Alan Dundes

They do not merely collect texts; they must also gather data about the context and the informant and, above all, write an…

— Alan Dundes

My own bias in folkloristics is decidedly psychoanalytic. I believe that the vast majority of folklore concerns fantasy, and because of that,…

— Alan Dundes

Americans often have trouble enjoying the present moment.

— Alan Dundes

There can be no self without other, no identity of group A without a group B.

— Alan Dundes

It is important to recognize that folklore is not simply a way of obtaining available date about identity for social scientists; it…

— Alan Dundes