As human beings interact on a daily basis, they express themselves through a finite number of readily familiar and easily distinguishable communicative processes and forms. Singing, musicmaking, dancing, playing and storytelling, for example, are processes by means of which men and women characterize their perceptions, reveal their aspirations and fears, transmit to others their conceptions and interpretations of memorable events, teach and reinforce social norms and values, and occupy the leisure hours of the day. The deeds of historical and idealized heroes are portrayed in story and song; life-cycle events are celebrated through ritual and dance; and natural and supernatural phenomena are depicted visually on material objects and symbolically through the roles and movements of people at play. Human beings' abilities to express their thoughts and feelings through readily familiar and easily distinguishable communicative processes and forms differentiate their species from all others and justify their claim to uniqueness.

Because they have been in existence continuously through recorded time and universally through space, communicative processes such as storytelling, singing, playing, dancing, and musicmaking can be viewed as traditions deserving of documentation and study because of the fundamental roles they play in the lives of all human beings. Similarly, specific songs, stories, tunes, dances, rituals, proverbs, riddles, games, and objects, once created, often become models which others imitate or emulate. A well-constructed narrative plot, for example, may not only be remembered, but it may also serve as a foundation for multiple storytellings, in each of which the same basic character types and series of integrated actions are discernible. A proverb, once created, may be spoken on a variety of social occasions because of its aptness to the behaviour of the participants or to an event which is the topic of their discourse. A set of realistic figures or geometric designs, once painted on pottery or woven into cloth by one person, may be reproduced or transformed by others because of its beauty or its relevance to their relative status, position or worldview. Like communicative processes, expressive forms and specific examples or aspects of them which seem, because of the similarities they exhibit, to be frequently imitated or emulated, repeated or reproduced, modified or transformed can also be viewed as traditional phenomena or simply as traditions; and they are worthy of documentation and study because they constitute evidence of continuities or consistencies in human thought or behaviour through time or space respectively. It is those communicative processes, forms, and examples or aspects of them which human beings view as traditional or simply as traditions that can be identified either collectively or individually as folklore; and it is those communicative processes, forms, and examples or aspects of them which appear to be traditional for the whole human species, for members of specific societies or social sub-groups, or for particular individuals that serve as the phenomena upon which folklorists focus in their investigations and that constitute the data-base for their field of inquiry, a field that can be identified as either folklore studies or folkloristics.

Because the traditional communicative processes and forms which folklorists focus upon are such an integral part of human social existence, opportunities to observe, elicit, and document examples of folklore are literally limitless. Children play familiar games in village squares and on city streets, for example, where their behaviour is subject to scrutiny by the casual observer or the interested passer-by. The telling of jokes and anecdotes which have readily-recognizable structures, themes, and styles occurs regularly in the course of everyday interactions. Musicmaking, singing and dancing frequently evolve spontaneously at family and small-group gatherings. Formulaic greetings, oft-repeated idioms, and proverbial speech recur with surprising regularity in casual conversations and formal addresses. Objects characterized by conventional forms and identifiable decorative motifs are produced, exchanged, and utilized by peoples everywhere. Human groups ranging from hunters and farmers to students and doctors all develop special jargons and create and perpetuate rituals, the existence of which is often known to 'outsiders' as well as to group members. Hence, one need not travel to exotic places, seek out some selected segment of the human population, or wait until some special time to find examples of what we call folklore, for the pervasiveness of traditional communicative processes and forms is everywhere apparent. The word folk in the compound folklore refers not to one kind or class-of people, but to human beings in general; and lore includes activities ranging from housebuilding, furnituremaking, and cooking to storytelling, dancing, and singing; and it encompasses expressive forms ranging from tangible objects such as chairs, pottery, and baskets to such intangible phenomena as songs, stories, tunes and beliefs.

While opportunities to discern examples of traditional communicative processes and forms arise spontaneously and unexpectedly whenever and wherever human beings interact face to face, those examples of processes and forms which we can identify as folklore are often also generated or communicated at predetermined times or in predesignated places. In all societies, for example, the telling of certain kinds of stories is a family or community event, the time and place for which are known or stipulated in advance. Marriages, funerals, and initiation ceremonies are always prearranged, with the kinds of activities marking these major life-cycle transitional stages being based upon well-established models. Dates and sites for such calendar celebrations as harvest rituals, religious ceremonies, and holiday festivals are known in advance, as are the nature and sequence of the activities which distinguish these occasions from all others. Preplanning enables one to witness or to obtain information about such scheduled events and to test hypotheses about the part folklore plays in their unfolding, enactment, and perpetuation.

In addition to being observable or discernible in the course of normal, day-ta-day interactions or as integral aspects of special events which occur only in particular places or at specified times, examples of what we call folklore can also be elicited, described, and discussed through impromptu or formalized interviewing. The expressive nature of the communicative processes and forms which folklorists focus upon makes these phenomena readily segmentable from a human being's experience continuum. Though the precise criteria which enable us to do so are not yet fully known or understood, all human beings seem able to distinguish from everything else, and to conceptualize as unique, such processes as singing, dancing, musicmaking, or playing and such forms as story, song, dance or game. This ability makes it possible, in turn, for individuals to characterize or describe selected examples of the kinds of songs they and others know or sing, stories they and others know or tell, beliefs to which they and others subscribe, objects they and others can or do make, expressions they and others utilize, and so forth. Therefore, an individual functioning as an interviewer can elicit information about traditional communicative processes and examples of traditional communicative forms directly from other human beings; and this information and these examples can serve as data for a folklorist's inquiries, just as can information about, and examples of, traditional communicative processes and forms discerned more casually during daily interactions or noted during participation in scheduled events.

As is the case with all human behaviours and phenomena, examples of folklore can be documented in a variety of ways. The oldest and most fundamental documentation technique, of course, is simply remembering what one perceives. Aware that proverbial expressions may be employed during virtually any first-hand interaction, for instance, folklorists can condition themselves to make 'mental note' of examples of proverbial speech and of specific occasions on which they are utilized as integral aspects of ordinary discourse. Traditional jokes, riddles, jargon terms, gestures, rhymes, and simple songs or melodies can be readily committed to memory; and when later recollected, these examples of folklore can be characterized and analyzed, either orally or in writing.

A second documentation technique entails making written records. The words a singer sings or a storyteller speaks can be represented fairly accurately in writing, and drawings or written descriptions can characterize adequately such tangible objects as buildings or cooking utensils. Whether they are verbatim transcriptions of riddles or myths, summaries of stories communicated by epics or ballads, or graphic depictions of house floorplans or body decorations, written records have a greater permanence than do human recollections; and they have served as folklorists' primary documents since the inception of their field.

Mechanical recording devices have been employed increasingly in recent years as substitutes for, or supplements to, the more conventional documentation techniques mentioned above. Still pictures and photographic slides can record the shape, colour, and design of such tangible objects as traditional items of clothing or pieces of pottery; and they can freeze for all time a moment in a dance or a movement pattern of people at play. Motion picture and videotape cameras enable one to document the dynamic nature of narrator-audience interactions, the finger, hand, and body movements of musicians, and the actions and reactions of participants in rituals. Whether presented alone or in conjunction with oral or written descriptions, photographic records of examples of folklore capture on film visual images which could otherwise only be documented by the human eye.

Of all the available mechanical recording devices, the tape recorder is the one that folklorists have used most extensively and the one that has had the greatest impact on their work. There are several reasons why this is so. First, among the traditional communicative processes and forms which have received the greatest amount of scholarly attention are storytelling and stories, singing and songs, musicmaking and tunes, riddling and riddles, healing and curing chants and incantations, and speaking and such speech forms as proverbs and statements which express beliefs, the aural aspects of all of which can be easily and accurately recorded on magnetic tape. Second, while folklorists gather their data by participating, observing, and interviewing, it is the last of these three that always has been, and continues to be, the principal means of eliciting information about, and examples of, traditional communicative processes and forms. Since interviewing entails questioning and answering and hence relies heavily upon speech or sound as the medium of communication, tape recording is a particularly efficient and effective way of documenting interviews. Finally, while the act of recording mechanically what people say, do, or make is often distracting, if not threatening, to those whose words, actions, or possessions are the phenomena being documented, the tape recorder has proved to be the least intrusive and the least objectionable mechanical recording device available. Most modern-day tape recorders are small, battery powered, and technologically reliable and efficient, making it possible for the folklorist to use a tape recorder with a minimum amount of time required for equipment set-up and operation and a lesser likelihood that the individuals recording or being recorded will be inconvenienced, distracted, or intimidated. For the above reasons, folklorists have come to regard the tape recorder as a very useful, if not essential, piece of equipment for their work; and sound recordings have taken their place alongside written records as primary documents in folkloristic research.

The documentation techniques which the folklorist chooses to utilize will depend, of course, upon a number of factors. First, and most obviously, the choice will be determined by the nature and number of options available. Individuals who do not possess mechanical recording devices such as tape recorders or cameras will have to rely upon memory and notetaking, while those who do have access to such devices will be able to select from an optimal number of alternatives. But availability alone does not necessarily make any preferred documentation technique employable or acceptable. A folklorist who is permitted to observe an esoteric ritual, for example, might be forbidden or judge it unwise to tape record the proceedings or to take notes, even though he or she feels that a taped or written documentation of the event might be more comprehensive or reliable than a mere memorytrace record of what he or she perceives. Similarly, photographing might be taboo to some individuals or groups, making it impossible or socially reprehensible for a folklorist to document on film a phenomenon which is the focus of study. Conversely, a researcher might be reluctant to use a camera or tape recorder while interviewing a particular individual, only to discover in the course of the interview that the informant would actually prefer or find it flattering to be tape recorded or filmed. Hence, availability, appropriateness, local custom or belief, and personal preference must all be considered as the folklorist attempts to determine which documentation techniques he or she can or should employ.

In addition to the above, the choice of documentation techniques also depends upon the kinds of information the folklorist seeks in order to test some specific hypothesis or to illustrate some particular phenomenon. An investigator interested in opening and closing formulas or modes of character portrayal in folktales, for instance, could document these phenomena in memory, in writing, or on magnetic tape; but it would be both inappropriate and unnecessarily cumbersome and expensive for him or her to film multiple storytellings in order to obtain the data needed to pursue these research interests. On the other hand, the folklorist wishing to document and analyze the nonverbal aspects of narrators' performances or of listeners' responses could not capture such information on tape and would miss much of it while trying to take notes; but his or her task would be greatly facilitated if he or she could film the narrators in performance or the narrator-listener interactions. Though some might recommend that folklorists record as much information as possible from or about the individuals who serve as their research subjects, it is neither practical nor necessary for them always to utilize the most comprehensive documentation techniques (such as motion picture or videotape cameras with sound) or to make multiple kinds of records (such as memory-trace, written, taped and filmed records) simply because the opportunity or equipment exists to enable one to do so. Inquiry is, by definition, always selective and focused; and there is nothing particularly commendable about gathering as much information as is humanly possible simply because it is available or about making multiple kinds of records merely because the means to do so are at one's disposal.

While the various kinds of documentation techniques described above facilitate the folklorist's work in particular ways, each also has obvious limitations. Human perception and memory are, by their very nature, selective, for human beings are neither aware of, nor can they remember, all the audible and visual stimuli that are generated during a given interaction or event. Therefore, we not only cannot remember everything we experience, but we also cannot experience all the sensory phenomena present in our environments. Making written records is a selective process, too, for we can only document in writing what we experience and what we can represent satisfactorily in that medium. Since writing is word oriented, we tend, in making written records, to record speech or that which can be characterized best through language; but many aspects of human behaviour -such as the tempo, stress patterns, and junctures integral to speech, grimaces, gestures, and other bodily movements, and emotional states and reactions - are either unrepresentable or poorly approximated on paper. Mechanical recording devices seem, on first thought, to be more all-encompassing and less selective means of making records than are mental or written notes; but they, too, have built-in and user limitations. Tape recorders document all sounds indiscriminately, not just those that are most relevant to an inquiry; they can pick up only audible, and not visual, stimuli; they must be used in preselected places to document sounds from predetermined sources; and they must be turned on and off at particular times by individual human beings. Cameras can record visible phenomena and sometimes a combination of the visible and audible, but they transform three-dimensional objects to two dimensions; and they must be focused and operated by human beings, acts which require their users to make prior judgments as to what will, and what will not, be recorded on film. These limitations of documentation techniques must be taken into consideration and compensated for in any description or analysis of the human phenomena of which they are merely partial and selective records.
 

Historically, the task of documenting examples of folklore has been undertaken for one of two reasons: first, to enable a researcher to test hypotheses or to answer questions integral to a specific inquiry or particular research project or, secondly, to develop data-banks or archives as repositories of information about, and examples of, traditional communicative processes and forms. Examples of folklore recorded to enable investigators to accomplish the objectives of their own individual inquiries or research projects are usually described or analyzed in presentations which have as their principal purposes to characterize the nature and to present the results of the inquiry or project. These presentations may be performance or product-oriented, with the former being exemplified by lecture-demonstrations or papers delivered orally at scholarly or popular meetings and with the latter being illustrated by phonograph recordings, photographic exhibitions, ethnographic films, or, most commonly, published essays, monographs, and books. Data presented during such performances or through such products are always 'processed' in advance, since their gatherers, describers, or analysts always select for presentation the information and examples which are most relevant to the objectives of, and conclusions drawn from, their inquiries or research projects. The actual documents from which the data are abstracted are seldom available for examination by anyone other than the investigator who conducted the inquiry or research project, unless, of course, that individual contributes those documents to a folklore archive, in which case they may be made available to other researchers for their perusal and possible use.

Examples of folklore gathered specifically to develop databanks are usually contributed to folklore archives in whatever form or format the archivist specifies or requests. Most folklore archives throughout the world are housed in colleges, universities, or headquarters of such organizations as national, state, or local historical societies; and most archives accept written, tape recorded, and filmed records which contain information about, or examples of, traditional communicative processes and forms. The folklore data contained in such documents are usually 'unprocessed', in that those who contribute them to archives seldom abstract the data from the resource documents or order or analyze these data in any particular way, leaving such tasks to archive personnel and users.

Data ordering and storage vary considerably from archive to archive, making it difficult to describe any 'typical' organizational plan or to prescribe anyone set of archiving procedures. Since the inception of folkloristics, most archives have ordered data according to process and form, with all information about storytelling or singing and all examples of stories or songs being kept together, for instance. Such an arrangement can be said to be 'genre-oriented', and archives so organized can facilitate best the research of those interested in obtaining information about some specific traditional communicative process (such as riddling or dancing) and examples of some particular traditional communicative form (such as proverbs or music). Genre-oriented archives tend to favour verbally-dominated processes and forms (such as singing and songs or storytelling and tales) over object-oriented processes and forms (such as basket-making and baskets or housebuilding and housetypes) and to prefer written records or representations of the information or examples they store. Hence, archive contributors or personnel usually transcribe from tape recordings information about, or examples of, the process or form in question or describe in writing the kinds of phenomena documented in photographs, slides, and motion picture films. The transcribed segments of magnetic tapes or written descriptions of filmed phenomena then become the principal archival research documents and are ordered according to process or form headings and subheadings, with the written records constituting the main data-bank for the archive and with the audible and visual documents being stored in less accessible parts of the archive, but being made available to any investigator who wishes to hear a tape of which a written record is a partial transcription or to see the filmed record of which the written description is a characterization.

Though genre-oriented archives remain the most popular and prevalent, there are other alternative organizational schemes. Some archives order data according to geographical or political divisions, with examples of folklore of all kinds being filed under national, regional, provincial, state, county, village, town, and city designations. These 'locale-oriented' archives enable users to determine the full range of traditional processes and forms reported from particular places and provide bases for researchers to compare and contrast such things as the traditional tale repertoires or ways of celebrating specific holidays in different locales.

Another mode of archival organization is 'group-oriented', with ethnicity, religious preference, occupation, native language, or other sub-group affiliation constituting the identifying 'labels' for categorization. Folklore examples of all kinds reported from members of such collectivities are stored together, facilitating investigations of archive users interested in obtaining information about the selected group's traditions and in determining such things as frequency of occurrence of particular customs or musical selections, correlations between or among examples of expressive forms, and implications of the group's traditional behaviours and their manifestations for comprehending its members' shared values or biases.

A fourth and final means of organizing folklore archives makes the names of the individuals who are the sources of information about, and examples of, folklore the basis for data storage and retrieval. Such 'informant oriented' archives keep together data of all kinds obtained from individual research subjects, enabling users to determine the nature and extent of selected subjects' knowledge of traditional processes and forms, to conduct studies which explore correlations among examples of either the same or different expressive forms known to particular informants, or to compare and contrast the folklore repertoires of different persons.

All of these ways of ordering data in folklore archives as well as others that might be described or proposed are arbitrarily determined; and each has advantages as well as limitations. Their advantages can be exploited and their limitations overcome in one of two ways.

First, an archive might order data according to a combination of principles - primarily by locale and secondarily by form, for example, or principally by group, with subdivisions based on informant or form. Second, the archive can organize data on the basis of a single criterion, such as form or informant, but provide in addition cross-indices that would enable users to locate data recorded in particular locales or from members of specific social subgroups. The larger the number of criteria employed and the greater the amount of cross-indexing provided in an archive, the greater the likelihood that the needs of different researchers can be satisfied.

Just as there is no typical or best means of organizing a folklore archive, so is there no one set of instructions that can be prescribed for selecting, storing, caring for, and making available archival documents. What kinds of records an archive includes and how it is maintained and operated are decisions which must ultimately be made on the basis of practical considerations rather than in terms of some ideal model. Ideally, every folklore archive should accept all kinds of records - written, tape recorded, and photographic or filmed - together with selected samples of traditional material objects; practically, the kinds and numbers of records or objects an archive can accept will have to be determined by such matters as funding, space and personnel availability, donor contributions, and user interests. Ideally, every folklore archive should have climate-controlled quarters in which to store magnetic tapes and photographic records, technical equipment to play, view, and reproduce taped and filmed records, and a full-time technician to operate and maintain the sound and photographic equipment; practically, few archives have the resources to provide such facilities, equipment, or personnel. Ideally, every folklore archive should have a full-time archivist and several assistants to process and index incoming records and to help archive users locate data they need to carry out their investigations; practically, most archives are single-person staffed, with that sole individual having to assume the responsibilities of ordering and indexing the data-bank. Ideally, every folklore archive should have specific long-range goals and a systematic plan to insure comprehensive data gathering and a constantly growing data-base; practically, most archives are mere repositories for whatever kinds and quantities of data researchers are willing or able to contribute.

Anyone who wishes to establish, or who is currently operating, a folklore archive should, of course, attempt to obtain a maximum amount of space and budgetary support to create an archive with diverse kinds of record storage facilities, a large and well-trained staff, the most sophisticated technical equipment, ample work and user space, and optimal indexing and data-retrieval capabilities. Aspiring to such ends is the first step toward achieving them; Yet even an archive which is operated with minimal space and financial support can be potentially usable and useful as long as the extent and limitations of its holdings are known, the documents and data are stored and ordered in some systematic way, and the holdings are sufficiently indexed to enable both operator and user to know what information is available and how it can be located.

The objectives of this essay have been to explain what folklore is; to characterize the kinds of occasions on which one can observe, elicit, or document information about and examples of traditional communicative processes and forms; to describe and assess various kinds of documentation techniques; and to discuss the nature of folklore archives and modes of archival organization. This essay differs from other chapters of this book in that it does not focus solely or principally upon sound documentation, but instead illustrates that sound recording is but one of several record-making techniques available to the contemporary folklorist. This emphasis is not intended to minimize the importance of sound documentation, but rather to indicate that the multiple kinds of communicative processes and forms which folklorists study and the ways they can and do go about gathering data require them to select among documentation techniques, with the choice being determined by such factors as availability, appropriateness, research objectives, local custom and belief, and personal preferences.

As noted above, sound recordings have taken their place alongside written documents as the primary research records in contemporary folkloristics. The tape recorder will continue to be important, if not indispensable, to the folklorist, just as it is to those investigators who study other human phenomena; and the availability of greater numbers of sound recordings will no doubt enable folklorists to better understand, and to gain new insights into, the role that audible stimuli play in traditional expressive processes and forms. But records made on magnetic tape will also continue to supplement, and to be supplemented by, memory-trace, written, and photographic records, all of which are needed as folklorists pose and attempt to answer new questions and propose better solutions to age-old problems.