Jews, Englishmen, and Folklorists: The Scholarship of Joseph Jacobs and Moses Gaster

Abstract

Between 1870 and 1910, English interest in folk literature and customs expanded dramatically, and became increasingly organized, scholarly, and influenced by emerging anthropological theories. Building on the foundations created by earlier British collectors and enthusiasts, a small group of private scholars founded the Folk-Lore Society in 1878 (the first of its kind anywhere), which attempted to apply more rigorous and scholarly methods to the study of folklore, and to create what one founder, George Laurence Gomme, called a ‘science of folklore’.1 The new science was based on the application of biological and anthropological evolutionary theories to the study of folklore, and in particular, E. B. Tylor’s doctrine of survivals, which claimed it possible to identify, in the cultures of non-primitive societies, customary survivals from earlier stages of cultural development. Members of the Folk-Lore Society debated amongst themselves whether folklore should be considered a branch of anthropology or independent of it, but they all viewed folklore through the lens of evolutionary theories.