Folklore is everywhere around us. It inspires the choices we make every day: how we communicate, what foods we eat, what stories we tell, what games we play, how we interpret the world. Folklore reflects our values, our prejudices, our fears, and our desires. The practices, beliefs, and objects that constitute folklore are so intrinsic to our daily lives that they are often overlooked by other disciplines that study human culture, but every culture has folklore and we are all "folk.”

In this class we will take a look at some forms of Indonesian folklore. We will examine a variety of traditional genres, including myth, legend, folktale, joke, ritual, folktales, superstition, foodways, dance and music, and physical folklore (such as painting, statues, and handicraft).

In some earlier meetings of this class, we will talk briefly the history of folklore, and discuss some basic theories of folklore. The most part of this class will be a chance for us to venture into the "field” to collect and analyze items of folklore themselves.