Mapping
While the original “historic geographic” method focused entirely on texts, and made scant mention of the collectors, the tradition participants, and the local social and economic forces that shaped the collections, a modern “historic geographic” method needs to consider each of these as part of the folkloric process.
It is incumbent on contemporary folklorists to extend the appreciation of historical and environmental forces that influence the development of tradition to include factors that are not considered in the original method. The visual representation of the interconnectedness of each of these relationships through maps as well as through what Franco Moretti labels graphs and trees (Moretti 2005), provides a far more accurate representation of the complex relationships that lead to a folklore recording than the simple maps of the earlier Finnish method. Maps that represent both the endeavors of collectors and the political dimensions of their endeavors—dimensions that are often reflected in the landscape—help us understand of the scope of the collecting and allow us to interrogate the ideology of that collecting. Maps that show where informants lived and how they moved during the course of their lives help us understand networks. Plotting these points onto historical maps from the time of collection can further reveal changes in land use practices that might signal shifts in class affiliation as well as changes in prior networks. Finally, maps that plot story points—places mentioned in stories—provide a visual representation of landscape features, both natural and man-made, that are refigured through the performance of those stories. Other types of maps—ones that chart linguistic relationships, or provide visual representations of relationships between texts, complete this picture.
Bringing all of these maps and charts together into one viewing environment, and allowing for different paths of discovery through this interconnected thicket, results in an ethnographically “thick” representation of folklore (Geertz 1973). Ultimately, this “thick” approach to exploring folklore collections allows for a far more meaningful visualization of the relationships that exist in any folklore collection.