ABSTRACT
Folklore encompasses both "spiritual" traditions which are communicated orally and/or by use of the body, and material folk culture Which is embodied in artifacts, so long as such lore is learned through interpersonal contact outside the spheres of popular and academic culture. Folklore exists in an urban-industrial environment as well as in more out-of-the-way agrarian or occupational communities, although the kinds of folklore emphasized and the functions they serve will differ. Since folklore is by nature an essentially conservative mechanism which stresses cultural continuity, progressive change and other radical external disturbances have posed the most serious threats to its existence. In our change-directed society it is thus inevitable that many folkways are deemed to extinction. With growing public appreciation and governmental support for folklore the missing pieces can be partially reconstructed, for while many traditions are no longer being practiced there are those who remember and can recreate then.
