The Folklore of Small Things: Tradition in Group Culture

Author(s): Gary Alan Fine

Source: Western Folklore , Winter 2018, Vol. 77, No. 1 (Winter 2018), pp. 5-27
Published by: Western States Folklore Society

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44791096

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The Folklore of Small Things
Tradition in Group Culture

Gary Alan Fine

ABSTRACT

To understand the intersection of tradition and performan

folklore requires a robust theory of how small group culture sha
the creation and retention of expressive forms. Community depen
on the activity of groups in which participants believe that they
have shared pasts and prospective futures, hold a common identi
engage in joint activities, and are found together. It is through
practices of individuals working together, sharing interpret
frameworks and constructing joint meaning, that community an
collective action is possible. The relations that are establishe
among people and between groups - the existence of a set
interaction orders - allows the continuation of community. In th
participants incorporate stability, innovation, and even conflict,
long as there exists a recognized commitment to the group and i
culture. KEYWORDS : Small Groups, Community, Performan
Folklore Theory, Idioculture

Gary Alan Fine is James E. Johnson Professor of Sociology at Northwester

University. He is the co-author with Bill Ellis of The Global Grapevine
Why Rumors of Terrorism, Immigration, and Trade Matter.
Western Folklore 77.1 (Winter 2018): 5-27. Copyright © 2018. Western States Folklore Soc

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 6 Gary Alan Fine

Folklore is true
the group itself
small groups.
- Dan Ben-Amos, Toward a Definition of
Folklore in Context (1972:13)

Folklore, while linked to societies, political movements, subcul-

tures, networks, and demographic segments - including those
based on age, race, gender, and sexuality - ultimately depends
upon intense and continuing interaction. In this, traditions are not
merely known, but shared. Groups - small congregations of ac-
tors - are the sites in which folklore traditions are held and where

they are performed, even when these traditions often spread be-
yond those borders. To appreciate the power of folklore as the ba-
sis of social engagement on the local level, researchers must focus
on the cultures, traditions, and performances within tiny publics
(Fine 2012): knots of actors that see themselves as bound together
in shared understandings and participating within larger social
institutions. As Dorothy Noyes (2016:17) strenuously (and cor-
rectly) argues in her examination of the concept of group in folk-
loristas, "Our influence as a discipline has often come from argu-
ing for small groups against big groups. . . wary of the dangers of
essentialism at any level, we turn to the face-to-face community."
Noyes' (2016:22) emphasis recalls the influential "New Per-
spectives" approach of the 1970s, emerging out of discussions of
young scholars' in the late 1960s that provided a broad, if diverse,
theoretical charter for folklore studies (Paredes 1972:ix). This per-
spective, seeing folklore as being shared within interactional fields
or in Paredes' (1972:x) words "delimiting folklore in specific situ-
ations," is evident in the related - if distinctive - approaches of
Dan Ben- Amos, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Roger Abrahams,
Richard Bauman, Robert Georges, and Linda Dégh, among others.
The influence of this approach was evident in the special publica-
tion of the American Folklore Society, Toward New Perspectives
in Folklore , presenting a set of essays that asserted that folklore
forms must be understood in their local context in which the style
of presentation mattered.

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The Folklore of Small Things 7

Folkloristics, of all discipli

claim of a Golden Age, but
local, the performative, and
ential. Even if folklore scholars now embrace cultural studies
and the analysis of the traditions of larger populations, diffuse
networks, or institutional pressures, folklore inevitably consti-
tutes a form of action that responds to the context in which it is
performed (Fine 1987; Lawless 1988; Mechling 2001; Noyes
2016). Put another way, folklore properly belongs to an interac-
tion order (Goffman 1983). Reinvigorating the old New Per-
spectives approach directs our attention to the folklore of small
things (Noyes 2016), just as was true nearly half a century ago.
Folklorists must not elide the distinction between face-to-face
gatherings and larger cultural groupings, but these are distinc-
tive levels of analysis. By emphasizing the local conditions of
performance, folklorists have a valuable perspective on the
granular features of culture when they focus on how group con-
text shapes identity.
Examining the contours of interaction scenes as integral to the
communication of tradition requires that scholars theorize those
settings in which folklore is shared and spread, treating group dy-
namics as integral to cultural analysis, even when the boundar-
ies of the group are hazy or contested. I present an argument for
the importance of group cultures - what I have previously labeled
idiocultures (Fine 1979, 1982) - as carriers of local tradition. By
recognizing culture as embedded in interacting groups, folklor-
ists can appreciate the processes through which tradition, perfor-
mance, and belief are diffused in larger and more extensive so-
cieties. Following from the analysis of Dan Ben- Amos, we must
recognize the significance of folklore in context. Culture should
be conceived as actions, material objects, performances, and dis-
cursive forms found in local communities. In this view culture is

a tool that is used by participants to shape the contours of social

life (Fine 2012). Folklore is a form of practice linked to local un-
derstandings and building on personal relations (Bronner 2012;
Buccitelli and Schmitt 2016). Ultimately, cultural domains are
transmitted and displayed through action.

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8 Gary Alan Fine

Every interactio
visional, develop
ute bits of comm
built from the o
analysis of cultur
communities. The
1982; Gibson 201
some group cultu
Descriptions of
Middle Eastern t
lovers (Benzecry
gangs (Sato 1991)
ages, demonstrati
group members
these issues, and
interaction, cultu
social or structur
facing them tog
ward, or respond
ing the group as
Richard Bauman
Art as Performa
tives" orientation
traditions - even
a contextual ver
ily and friends (
that materiality (
group context in
curs (Jones 1975;
occurs, the pathw
describe, develop
cial relations that
will find of inte
through diffuse
related approache
meaning is genera
and customs - cr

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The Folklore of Small Things 9

sion, and collective memory.

context is as salient as text and
ganize and routinize interacti
and Lichterman 2003).
Any adequate understanding o
must recognize the extensive in
that affect the local scene, prov
backgrounds of participants, co
tems of power, channel a group
event occurs - an event that sp
rience, in light of individual an
cultural themes are incorporate
However, once established, s
nism by which members recog
sequently, build cohesion. Every
culture (the known culture of
discourse (the usable culture),
pants (the functional culture),
(the appropriate culture) (Fin
ognized as characterizing group
actional demands (what becom
the previous traditions of the e
Whether one fully embraces
ment, emphasizing the needs of
focus of a group-based approach
are built through processes of
central to any meaning syste
lorists emphasize that the creat
communal perspective. Folk cu
shared interests of social actors nor should it be treated as timeless.
Given that the creation of culture depends on participants' knowl-
edge, understandings, and goals, they create an integrated and the-
matic culture that stems from their history, desires, and shared fate.
Traditions have the power to unite groups, providing a cultural
grounding for trust, affiliation, and cohesion that generates col-
lective identity. We see this emphasis in the current focus on the
salience of collaborative circles in the arts (Farrell 2001), leisure

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 10 Gary Alan Fine

(Corte 2013), and

interactive fields d
which creative gr
resources are mobi
of participants. Tig
ture facilitates the
cultures also can
Perrin (2005) argue
varying content, d
Idiocultures, as I
groups in all dom
lies, gangs, sociom
and fraternal orga
the content of so
ture of the group p
permits members
and their interpr
Couch 1992; Harri
culture, participant
to an awareness of
to external threats. These local traditions can be invoked with the

expectation that others will understand their significance.

This model of idiocultures as structuring devices argues that
social order is generated through shared traditions and folk un-
derstandings. Groups build on each other, creating expansive
structures through their network linkages. As sociologist Randall
Collins (2004:xiii) writes, "The aggregate of situations can be re-
garded as a market for interaction rituals."
Treating the group as central to group affiliation poses the ques-
tion of the nature of a micro-community. Channeling Alan Dundes
(1980:1-19), I ask, "Who are the folk?" The boundaries of knowl-
edge, the role of interpersonal connections, and the overlapping
identities of participants constitute the heart of cultural analysis.
For Dundes, a group depends on a common factor. However, this
only addresses how an outsider might define the group, but does
not explore the problem of action from within. How does tradi-
tion spread, both from individual to individual and from group to

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The Folklore of Small Things 1 1

group? Self-conscious commu

ing, and the links among them
munity through their recogniz
action, social relations, and co
folklore. Small groups are comm
ticipants are aware of the prese
istics of those with whom they
social psychologist Dexter Dun
(or small) group, "a group whi
strong emotional attachments
rudimentary, functionally diff
its own which includes an imag
informal normative system wh
as members." In other words, p
of other group members, the b
existence of traditions, and th
the remainder of the article, I f
of groups as domains of folkl
relations, and shared memory o

Arenas of Action as Folklore Spaces

My title, "The Folklore of Small Things," borrows fro

ing of social theorist Jeffrey Goldfarb (2006), who
analysis of the effects of civic movements in Easte
the late Communist era, The Politics of Small Thin
contends that before we examine what is said, we m
where it is said, and how that placement builds a c
trust through talk, creating an arena of action. Place
tent, not only in the physical features of space - its a
but also in the meanings that space provides about
permitted, the character of local actors, demonstra
tence of community and a politics of trust (Silver and
Goldfarb emphasizes the force of the context of
begins by theorizing the kitchen table as a site of enc
crocultural space, but one with deep resonance for
and friends. His essential point is not simply that sma
cultures must be theorized, but the conditions of the

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12 Gary Alan Fine

under which they

traditions through
tight-knit culture
tain actions. The
As Goldfarb (200
in their kitchens,
a way that they d
frame rather than
stituted a folk com
bureaucratic cultu
meaning is establi
group members to
Communities can
and their place in
ties define groups
the hearth as a cen
authoritarianism,
as meeting points
discourse and tra
cal challenges, a ce
Hearths are widely
provides a remem
of sociologist Ra
tance of "third p
ferentiated from
meet and discuss t
coffee shops and r
political banter a
2003; Erickson 20
Any approach th
the process that p
emphasizing the
ence within local
resists simplificat
fully be transmitt
ments in which it
that formal proce

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The Folklore of Small Things 13

to apply." Scott refers to this a

lenge to the dominance of state-
Both Goldfarb and Scott expand
tial German social theorist Jür
sizes the linkage of communic
asserts that spaces of sociabilit
together constitute an indepen
institutional sources of power.
what we can here describe, fol
vide for embedded meaning thr
the forms of group traditions th
public sphere theorists, these e
in bookstores, salons, clubs, an
third places. In intense places o
that others share an emotional c
a history, producing a recognitio
are locales of likeness.

Tiny publics, small cultures of shared interest and experience,

provide the basis of civil society and allow for the creation of a
shared and dynamic culture. Just as groups may colonize places,
places can come to colonize groups. The affordances of locations
direct which performances are appropriate. Behaviors, thoughts,
and emotions are performed as a consequence of the symbolic
meaning of space. We believe that churches demand quiet atten-
tiveness, that schoolrooms promote ordered participation, and that
taverns encourage sociable involvement (Fine 2012). We are not
wrong to think so.
An ongoing interaction scene requires locales where individu-
als can gather with their expectations intact. By recognizing the
meaning of locations, rules become tacit, accepted without chal-
lenge. Places constitute invitations to a particular definition of the
situation. Having shared experiences in similar domains, partici-
pants develop expectations of what performances are permissible.
We live in a world in which we compare the various contexts
to which we have been exposed, guiding behavior. This was the
understanding of the New Perspectives folklorists. Participants in-
terpret performance sites in relation to other places of belonging

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 14 Gary Alan Fine

(Bauman 1975; G
appear, but arise
Humor is a prim
of the normative
forms of joking t
tion and a recogn
2001; Oring 200
ing refers back to
conversational th
ogy office (Fine 2
social order so th
teasing lower-sta
ment, but as com
bodily endowmen
tions looked like
their male collea
references withou
gathering points,
tavern entrance e
pectations for w
Entering implies
acceptance is not
interaction in par
gests the legitima

Relations in Public as Social Cartography

The small group becomes a nexus point for individu

bridging divergent interests and transforming per
community. As a result, the folklore of groups repres
social cartography (Fine 2012:168), knowing where
in relation to each other and acting given that menta
The salience of performance suggests that this inv
tion in the making, a point made clearly by Barbara
Gimblett (1975) in her account of intimate traditi
not everything that is acted is by that fact alone to
as within the domain of folklore. We must not be
so disciplinarily imperialist - as to insist that everyth

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The Folklore of Small Things 15

becomes traditional. Still, the fa

bered and then referred to by t
indicates that this form of culture can be labeled as folklore. Self-
reference suggests that a folk is present and the fact that it con-
tinues over time indicates that the text is lore. Folklore is found

within a set of recognized relations, often tied to specialized pools

of knowledge. The recognition of shared history and linked fate
(Dawson 1995) is part of communal identity.
Most groups revel in shared experiences; narratives stand at
the heart of collective worlds (Fine and Corte 2017). Communities
have the purpose, in Hayden White's terms, of translating "know-
ing into telling" (White 1987; Ikegami 2000:996). Stories provide
a moral basis of attachment (White 1995:1044; Polletta 2006). In
order to create a collaborative selfhood, the past must be incorpo-
rated into an insistent present, cementing recall by emphasizing
that to know and then to narrate is to be committed to the group.
As a result, a performance scene is established by social ties
as much as by material conditions. Relations that provide for the
interpersonal context of action determine those topics and genres
that participants feel are appropriate to be shared. Webs of rela-
tions establish and protect local standards of what is collectively
memorable and what is traditional. These can include rude jokes,
gossipy stories, grisly legends, or epic sagas.
Following Linda Dégh and Andrew Vazsonyi (1975), the
characteristics of the participants and how they define their social
relations shape the content, legitimacy, and style of performance.
In other words, it is not simply being in a bar that determines
what performances will occur, but who the other participants are,
how are their intentions judged, and what is the basis of their con-
nections. Does the relationship involve an attempted seduction,
is it a group of buddies who are playing drinking games, or is
it a mixed-gendered group of workmates, winding down after a
stressful week?

The content of the relationships determines the contours of

group relations. For instance, at local outposts of the National
Weather Service, the office's work culture depended on those
who were on duty at any given time and the quality of their re-

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 16 Gary Alan Fine

lationships (Fine
joking about "mad
tive, only punctu
dies would tease e
strained or distan
their computer scr
Examining nume
whether Little Le
ate seminars, und
group cultures. Fr
tions, while distan
Some Little Leagu
help adult coaches
or rituals, such as
or which cheers to
al rebels, undercut
and sarcastic comments. Still other teams lack a consensual leader
and, because of uncertain status relations, these boys struggle with
commitment (Fine 1987). In such cases, few traditions persuade
players that they truly belong to the same group; they lack the
perception of common identity and shared goals.
The culture of a group of restaurant workers, busily laboring in
their steamy kitchens, is shaped by whether the chef promotes emo-
tional stability and interpersonal harmony among the crowded clus-
ter of workers and whether workers accept these claims, validating
their teasing or joking (Fine 1 996; Demetry 20 1 3). Joking is present
in all kitchens, but its content and emotional resonance may differ
dramatically. As the relations within a social space affect the con-
tent of performance, they simultaneously shape identity that then
further shapes the content of action and the extent of commitment.
Voluntary scenes in contemporary society are salient in this
regard. For a folk culture to develop, it is not sufficient that people
choose activities that they enjoy, but, in addition, they should en-
joy those who share their interests and their space. Leisure groups
benefit when they emphasize pleasure in each other's presence, a
crucial incentive for collective action in the face of personal costs
(Fine and Corte 2017). As one partisan leader reiterated in my

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The Folklore of Small Things 17

study of political volunteerin

party a "party." Group organ
create affiliation and then iden
validates the behaviors of others
This linkage of satisfaction w
ing what the economist Mancur
problem. The problem of group
eventually reap the benefits of
actively, contributing their r
ceive the benefits if the group
ing. The answer is that interp
costs of participation. The analy
desire to be with others, is int
structures are stabilized, bui
tions provide the conditions fo

Idioculture and Group History

Every ongoing gathering develops an idioculture , a set of

es that permits group members to identify themselves as
ingful micro-community. Communities depend on a re
of their history. Groups as focused interactional domains
collective memories that define the group to participants
ologist Harvey Molotch and his colleagues emphasize
Freudenburg, and Paulsen 2000), communities have th
tions set through an appreciation of local character and tr
that shapes subsequent decisions, a form of path dependen
they label a "rolling inertia."
The common past that a group has experienced or t
new members have been socialized is crucial in that shared mean-
ing establishes the boundaries of the group, separating insiders
from outsiders and defining how members imagine their coupled
futures. Group cultures have what Erving Goffman (1981 :46) has
labeled a referential afterlife, referring to the period that the refer-
ence is meaningful before becoming neglected. For a time, cul-
tural elements are shared, given the belief that others will compre-
hend what is meant, explicitly and implicitly. In this sense, each
reference is set in time, historically embedded in recall. Even

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 18 Gary Alan Fine

when lacking form

and awash in mem
people recall is no
at one moment wi
evaporate. Throu
rant kitchens with
a rising student c
recognizable.
Group culture is also forward-looking in that traditions are
available to confront collective challenges (Swidler 1986). As
culture becomes elaborated, the reach of the group as a meaning-
maker is expanded. Social life is an on-going project, not a mo-
mentary scene. As a result, identity becomes critically important
as groups socialize new members. For example, by participating
in a chess club new members (although not necessarily novice
players) learn expectations for the preferred amount of talk dur-
ing games and the proper public response to victory and defeat.
Adolescents in fantasy gaming groups learn which fantasies to
keep hidden and which to share. Through these performances
and their public acceptance, participants demonstrate that they
belong.
Folklore provides the basis for stable expectations, crucial
to collective comfort. Since ambiguity has a social cost, groups
create routine practices that maximize clarity. Relying on tradi-
tion, most groups privilege continued interaction over systemic
ruptures (Goffman 1961). Members expect that the themes of in-
teraction tomorrow will be similar to themes of interaction today.
In this, they are usually correct.
As social theorist Edward Shils (1981) emphasized, tradition
and ritual - both on the societal level and on the local level - are
essential to social organization, whether in the daily meetings of
restaurant cooks, in gatherings on the pitcher's mound in Little
League baseball, or at the identification table of mushroom hunt-
ers after a foray. Traditions build on each other. The more rituals
in a group, the more new or elaborated rituals will follow. Cul-
ture produces more culture. Idiosyncratic actions become prac-
tices when they are treated as serving group needs. Once novices

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The Folklore of Small Things 19

can read an interactional gramm

members, differentiated from ou
Elliott Oring (1984) has prop
minutest social units, such as c
ditions that encourage that fut
ously established, buffering pa
These practices reify group histo
and creating structure from talk
very smallness and apparent ra
as limitations. In group life, w
that spark continuing memor
in advance, but they are not r
tive life are readily predictable a
but cannot be predicted before t
However, once they are seen as r
scramble to shape their behavi
group culture. Even if we cannot
everyday life, such as jokes, insu
occur participants rapidly incorp
ing system. This commitment to
interrupted flow of action - allo
tacit expectations, even as new
disruptions managed.
Focusing on local cultures add
lenges. This strategy stresses
cialization, and change, reveale
generates affiliation. By unde
tive identities, an emphasis on
caljunction of the individual and
cohesion and distance. If not ex
it responds to the political pro
speakers in ongoing, unscripted
predictable, interpreting it in li
and should operate, keeping inte
or with breaches and disruptio
ior, aligning ongoing interaction
or challenging those assumptio

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20 Gary Alan Fine

interaction, there
harmony as a prim
portant to recogni
ignores the fact th
and these disruptio
new forms of agre
not necessarily de
new and unexpect
ityand continual a
constituting a triu
group engagement
methodological str
analysis - emphasiz
most granular lev
of talk respond to
when action sequen
that they remain m
despite the coordin
also serve valid soc
consider the moral
interaction can bui
passivity and the l
Ephemeral micr
have a particular c
cial actors adhere.
es, self-referential
tion through share
contrasts with the
actions immediate
ing continuous adj
stage - what sociol
as the "invisible el
by reference to lo
in that such activi
such as the kitchen
to situations as p
tutes a grounded

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The Folklore of Small Things 21

within a continuing and self-re

haps imperfectly - of norms, v
the world as filled with tiny
group constitutes an outpost
verberate beyond the interact
nized by participants, consecr
tradition. While the local sce
known from readings of the la
of styles and rules outside of t
knowledge must be incorporate
orders. This process of local acc
which proper behavior is judg
This paper, too, has boundar
ence of face-to-face interactio
However, the forms of outpo
Communication channels have
reach in response to engagem
ment of communities of the air - the extensions of interaction on

the ground - requires new forms of theorizing of group culture:

newly new perspectives. Co-presence can come to have differ-
ent meaning, even if individuals in routine cyber-communication
often wish to bolster those relations with meet-ups or other gath-
erings. Still, the relations that are found online can create power-
ful identity and intensely shared meanings, especially if the par-
ticipants define themselves as part of the same community with a
shared pasts and common futures, just as is true for local, ground-
ed communities. The ethnographic and folkloric examination of
online folk are only beginning, but the exploration of the similari-
ties and differences with more traditional groups surely will pay
dividends, even if groups that share a space never disappear.

Groups and Small Things

As the New Perspectives theorists emphasized, folklore u

depends on small group life. As a result, folklorists shou
from the group culture tradition in social psychology
to contribute to it. Tradition depends upon local socia
Following Alan Dundes, these tiny publics are folk gr

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 22 Gary Alan Fine

following Dan Ben

live in a world fill
culture and social relations.
We feel comfortable in groups because there we can access
shared pasts and can imagine common futures. Of course, larger
communities exist, opening and limiting opportunities of action,
but, as Dorothy Noyes (2016) emphasizes, these worlds are built
from a network of linked groups. Society depends upon connec-
tions among these local communities, as networks are built on re-
lations among groups as much as among individuals. As the soci-
ologist Tamotsu Shibutani (1955:566) once pointed out, "culture
areas are coterminous with communication channels."
Ultimately, folklore as a discipline recognizes that individuals
working together construct joint meaning. The connections among
people and groups - the world of face-to-face interaction - permit
society to be an ongoing enterprise, incorporating both stability
and innovation within an interaction order. The recognition of
the power of local tradition and the power of shared identity is
a disciplinary birthright of folklore studies and, looking forward,
makes the folkloristic study of culture uniquely suited for examin-
ing culture in the contemporary world. Shared pasts and imagined
futures depend on traditions of knowing.
Note, an earlier version of this paper was presented as the
Frances Utley Lecture at the American Folklore Society meetings,
Nashville, TN.

Notes

1 In the gendered formulation of the period, Paredes ( 1 972:x) no

that "the graybeards in North American folklore are not t
found in the essays" in the volume.

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