Elliott Oring's Definition of Folklore

Oring begins his book Folk Groups and Folklore Genres by saying this:

"Although the word 'folklore' is regularly employed in our everday speech, it's precise definition presents a problem. The term is clearly a compound made up of 'folk,' implying some group of people, who have something called 'lore'... the eminent folklorist Alan Dundes attempts to simplify the issue for the introductory student: '"Folk" can refer to any group of people whatsoever who share at least one common factor'"(Oring 1)

Oring goes on to devote an entire chapter to his definition. One can definitely see how presenting a definition poses a problem.

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