Meaning and Purpose in Southern Italian Folk Traditions

This research project arises from a southern Italian community folklore-preservation project and investigates the adoption, maintenance, propagation, and modification of folkloric texts. It finds that history, environment, and human needs all play different roles in these processes. History supplies the events which trigger a social response from which folklore arises. The environment supplies physical features and phenomena to which folklore makes reference. However, folklore is always driven by fundamental human needs that are common to all irrespective of place and time.