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interest and communicate this knowledge to anyone outside the community, must describe
it in science's own lenns. The study and communication of ethnographical phenomena
thus entails a shin from the inside to the outside view. In the process, the analyst faces the
difficulty of translating native concepts which may not exist in his own language. l
Redfield is of the opinion that no worldview is ever totally different from another so to as
make understanding and communication between cultures impossible. While differences
exist and make understanding difficuh, they are not unbridgeable. He denounces the fact
that anthropologists have tended to emphasize cultural differences rather Ihan
resemblances. That lhe concept of "worldview" has largely been tlefined in terms of
characteristics, whether individual or cultural, is to him a manifestation of this bias. He
declares in one of his essays that there may something like a "peasant view of the good
life" among rural societies across space and time,2 but also more generally suggests that
"the outlook on life, or worldview, is one dimension of the common human."3
1.4. Folkloristic Applications
19
Toelken's and Dundes's essential concern in introducing the concept of cultural
worldview and its study to folklore scholarship is to bring forth the privileged relationship
that traditional expressions bear to their culture's entire perception of life. On the grounds
of this close interdependence, both give forceful expression 10 the prime resources of
folklore materials in such an investigation:
... because worldview is communicated traditionally and is expressed
constantly in traditional modes, folklore represents one of the best
approaches for its study.4
One of the very best sources for the study of native categories is folklore.
Folklore, consisting as it does of native documents or autobiographical
ethnography, is prime data for investigations of cognitive patterning. S
That all productions within a culture bear strong relationships to its members' worldview is
now granted. Because folklore is artistic expression sanctioned by the tastes of the group,
its materials yield an image more revealing of cultural worldview than individual
expressions. Toelken explains:
I Redfield. Lillie 81.
2Redfield, Lillie 60-80.
3Redfield, Little 93·94.
4 Toel ken, "Folklore" 268.
5 Dundes, "Number" 404.