View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to youCORE by provided by IUScholarWorks FOLKLORIC BEHAVIOR: A THEORY FOR THE STUDY OF THE DYNAMICS OF TRADITIONAL CULTURE [With Case Analysis of the Egyptian Community in Brooklyn, New York] by Hasan M. El-Shamy Submitted to the faculty of the Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy in the Department of Folklore, Indiana University September, 1967 COMMITTEE Dorson, Richard M. (Chair) Folklore, History Messenger, John C. Anthropology, Folklore Berger, Seymour M. Psychology Abraham, Roger D. Visiting Professor TO THE PEOPLE OF EGYPT, WHO HAVE SPONSORED MY STAY AND STUDIES AT INDIANA UNIVERSITY FOR SIX OF THEIR LONG AND HARD YEARS, THIS WORK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. H. El-Shamy August,1967 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A variety of people and institutions have been exceedingly helpful in seeing this dissertation to completion. I am indebted to professor Richard M. Dorson for his valuable assistance in supervising this thesis, as well as my academic program. His dedication to the folk and their lore has made the folklore program at Indiana University the international center that it is. I am also indebted to Dr. David Bidney whose lectures have contributed generously to my knowledge of anthropological theories of folklore. It was my friend Dr. Richard T. Antoun who introduced me to theories of social anthropology and social structure, particularly those concerning the Arab World, and together with Dr. Bidney read my proposal for this dissertation and offered constructive suggestions for improvement. To the staff of the Folklore Institute whose classes made available to me their vast knowledge of folklore, I am most grateful. To Dr. Richard M. Dorson, Dr. W. Edson Richmond, Dr. Warren E. Roberts, and Dr. Linda Dégh, no thanks can be sufficient. To Dr. Wolfram Eberhard of the University of California at Berkeley, who read the manuscript at an early stage and provided me with much needed encouragement, I am most grateful. I am also indebted to Dr. Seymour M. Berger of the Indiana University Psychology Department who read the final manuscript and offered valuable suggestions which added much to the improvement of this work. Likewise, much gratitude is due Dr. John C. Messenger who read the manuscript and offered constructive criticism and suggestions. To my friend Dr. Frank Banta of the Indiana University German Department who made it possible for me to gain access to the German Library, I am most grateful. I am also indebted to my friend Mr. A. Fikry Elerian of the Indiana University School of Education for numerous helpful hints and references to learning theory, [and Miss Dana D'Sopo who assisted with editing the manuscript]. Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to Dr. Roger D. Abrahams of the University of Texas at Houston for serving as a member of my doctoral committee. In addition, I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to all those who made this work possible: Indiana University, the U.A.R. Ministry of Culture and Mr. Rushdi Saleh--a pioneer of the folklore movement in the Arab World, the U.A.R. Cultural and Educational Bureau in Washington, and my many friends in the Egyptian community in Brooklyn. For my wife, as doubtless with the wives of most scholars, no complete thanks are possible. [PREFACE] [2010 Edition] The proposal for this work was submitted to the Folklore Department, Indiana University in 1964- 65. The dissertation--in its present state--was defended in August 1967. Regrettably, agreements for publishing it in book form in a medium dedicated exclusively to FOLKLORE did not materialize. This work is made available here through Indiana Universities IUScholar Works for students of folklore and related disciplines to evaluate and assess its contributions to subsequent folklore theories. There are few wholly stylistic differences between the original (1967) and the present format. No ideas or sources were altered or added to PART I except for correcting typographical errors: 1. Original pagination is indicated within curled brackets: {}: {9} = p. 9 in the original. 2. German and French texts in the original are given here in English. 3. Endnotes in the original were converted to footnotes. 4. All notes in the fieldwork materials (PART II) are added for clarity and meaningfulness. 4.1. The APPENDIX (List of Tale-types and Motifs pp. 219-220) is added. 5. The transliteration of Arabic into Latin letters has been changed so as to be more comprehensible to the contemporary reader. For technical considerations, under-dotted Arabic letters--depicted as upper case (e.g., H, S, Z, X) in the 1967 system--are given here as underlined letters (i.e., H/h, S/s, Z/z, Kh/kh) respectively. Hasan El-Shamy (June 2010) TABLE OF CONTENTS COMMITTEE ....................................................................................................................................... i DEDICATION ..................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................................. iii INTRODUCTION/[ABSTRACT] ..................................................................................................... iv [PREFACE: THIS Edition] .................................................................................................................. v J.B. WATSON ON OBSERVING BEHAVIOR ................................................................................ x P A R T I CHAPTER ................................................................................................................. Page 1967 / 2010 I: HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY IN FOLKLORE SCHOLARSHIP AND ANTHROPOLOGY ............................................................................................................ 1 Theories of Analytical Psychology and Folklore ......................................................................... 1 Psychological Theories of Learning and Culture .................................................................{7} 9 Folklore and the Superorganic Process (Olrik & Joless) .................................................. {14} 11 Concepts of Memory and Learning Theory in Folklore Scholarship ............................... {17} 13 Antti Aarne ................................................................................................................. {18} 14 F.C. Bartlett ................................................................................................................ {20} 15 Walter Anderson and Albert Wesselski ..................................................................... {21} 16 The Complex Process of Transmission ............................................................................. {29} 22 1. The Capacity to Formulate ..................................................................................... {29} 23 2. The Capacity to Teach ............................................................................................ {32} 25 3. The Capacity to Learn ............................................................................................ {34} 26 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... {34} 26 II: LEARNING .......................................................................................................................... {36} 28 Independent and Dependent Variables .............................................................................. {36} 28 Variables in Experimental Folklore Scholarship ............................................................... {38} 30 1. Structure .................................................................................................................. {38} 30 2. Length ..................................................................................................................... {38} 30 3. Impressiveness ........................................................................................................ {38} 30 4. Subjects ................................................................................................................... {39} 30 5. Age .......................................................................................................................... {39} 30 6. Span of time ............................................................................................................ {39} 31 7. Media ...................................................................................................................... {40} 31 Definition of Learning ........................................................................................................ {41} 32 Causes of Behavior ............................................................................................................ {43} 33 Stimulus, Drive, Motivation ....................................................................................... {43} 34 Social and Biological Motivation ............................................................................... {44} 35 Social Motivation in Marxist Psychology ........................................................... {47} 37 Malinowski's Need, Drive, and Function ................................................................... {49} 38 Motivation and Folkloric Behavior ...........................................................................