Folklore as an historical science

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The idea of studying folktales as a career may sound dubious, but in the early 1900s, the study of folklore in England by both professionals and amateurs was at its zenith. In 1908 Gomme, one of the founders of the Folklore Society, published Folklore as an Historical Science as a controlled approach to unearthing man’s cultural development. His system incorporates a synchronized and wide-ranging use of historical sources that includes anthropological data – verbal folklore, written documents, archaeology, ethnological data, and material artifacts – as well as information and methods from sociology and other social sciences.