The Coloniality of Folklore: Towards a Multi-Genealogical Practice of Folkloristics

Abstract

This article challenges genealogies that trace the origins of folkloristics to the discovery of shared cultural forms emerging within European populations, thereby relegating colonialism to the status of temporary detours that did not seriously shape the discipline. We reread folklore study in the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, pointing to ways that concepts, texts and methods were shaped by colonialism from the start. Using four cases from the twentieth century, we suggest that the legacy of colonialism—which we refer to as the coloniality of folkloristics—continues to exert intellectually and institutionally problematic effects on the discipline. We propose a multi-genealogical practice of folkloristics as a means of opening up the assumptions that inform and often limit existing concepts and approaches, forging tools more suited to the study of contemporary cultural forms and imagining more robust futures for folkloristics.