Alan Dundes

I find all folklore challenging, and I never cease to be grateful that I became a professional folklorist.

In the light of our culture, these are not unreasonable questions and tactics, but if once again, we try to see the lens through which we look, we can see that there is far too great an emphasis placed on the future.

Polls are frequently taken to try to tease out or determine likely directions and trends, but once taken, they belong to the past, requiring that new polls be taken.

Americans have a penchant for the future and tend to disregard the past.

I mentioned that one of the tripartite formulas in American worldview involves time: past, present, and future.

Americans often have trouble enjoying the present moment.

There can be no self without other, no identity of group A without a group B.

My academic identity is that of a folklorist, and for many years I have taught only folklore courses.

Life, it seems, is nothing if not a series of initiations, transitions, and incorporations.

Cities all over the world are getting bigger as more and more people move from rural to urban sites, but that has created enormous problems with respect to environmental pollution and the general quality of life.

Ancestor worship, or filial piety so characteristic of Asian cultures, for example, does not really resonate with Americans who favor children, not grandparents.

I have a great advantage over many of my colleagues inasmuch as my students bring with them to class their own personal knowledge of national, regional, religious, ethnic, occupational, and family folklore traditions.