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Rural life is a significant part of the Bangladeshi landscape, much loved and much ignored. While folklore culture exists in every individual, although differing in depth, society stereotypically perpetuates the dissimilarities between the metropolis and the country. As rural areas in Bangladesh are not homogeneous, it is critical to acknowledge that their mores and patterns vary from village to village, small town to small town, as well from farm to town. In fact, one the rural services provided to the cities is the cultural geography – each area’s particular customs and traditions which are a cherished part of how the habitants from that place think and behave. While the roots of most people in urban Bangladesh are in the country’s villages, some tend to leave behind or rather transform their identity with “modernized” values and adapt themselves to contemporary customs and way of life. In many instances, this change results in higher consumerism, less care for the ecological environment and natural resources as well as less responsibility for fellow citizens.
So, what happens with folklore and its values? Do they play a role for city dwellers? The word “folklore” designates an enormous and elaborately significant aspect of culture. For example, the Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries (2020) defines folklore as “the traditions and stories of a country or community” (very similar to the Cambridge Dictionary, 2020 definition), while in Merriam-Webster (2020) it is explained with further details as “traditional customs, tales, sayings, dances, or art forms preserved among a people”. Considering how intricate and complex this subject is, it is not worthy of speculation that folklorists define and describe folklore in manifold ways. A single definition would not suffice. However, one point noticeable is that, these definitions and descriptions challenge the notion of folklore as something that is simply “ancient”, “old-fashioned”, “antiquated”, “rudimentary”, “peasant”, “illiterate”, “imaginary” or “dying out”. A google Ngram viewer which shows how the word “folklore” occurred in books indicates a gradual and consistent decline since 2000 (Google Books, 2020). Rugg (2014) notes that craft skills which form part of folklore are usually seen as being at a very low level to be included in any academic body of knowledge. Does this mean that folklore is only designated to the past?
Although folklore unites people with their past, it occupies a central part of life in the present and is throughout the world, through words, songs, dance, skills, art and teachings at the core of all cultures. Leach (1996) makes the point that folklore comprises creations by people, be it primitive or civilized. She further gives examples of how and when folklore is alive – through the lullaby of the mother, proverbs and fables told at home, songs and dances at festivities, teaching of craft skills, such as embroidery, carpentry, basket weaving, wood carving, blacksmith techniques or baking, predicting the weather from natural signs, such as the wind or the behaviour of insects and animals (Leach, 1996). All this tends to happen without reference to books and outside of the academic curriculum.
Folklore and folk lifestyle governed by traditional modes of work and leisure, arts, beliefs, adornments and celebrations, are ethnic means of maintaining and transiting ways of life. Age, gender, background, religious beliefs, avocation, profession, socioeconomic forte or any other basis of association can lead to defining such a group identity. Botkin (2001) explained folklore as a body of traditions that binds any group together by shared interests and purposes, rural or urban, illiterate or literate. Many elements – popular, personal or even literary, may have influence but all are accepted and incorporated through continual practice and variation into a valued pattern and permanence for an individual group as a whole. The learning is informal within a one-to-one settings or exchange in a small group, by showing examples or through performance. Folklore is learned and preserved within a group; it is a shared experience, which outlines and gives meaning to “exchange” as a process of transition.