Legends are told in a believable manner but it is often hard to tell if they are true or false. They get passed around from person to person, often through online communication, and sometimes from generation to generation. Legends can be historical, or spooky or funny. The location and content may change but the concept stays the same — challenging our ability to believe. These legends were told by IU students; it is up to you to believe them or not, but we think you will enjoy them in any case.
Folklore is artistic communication in small groups and is the art of everyday life. Most of what we do contains some artistic element that can be classified as folklore. Humor is one kind of folklore that occurs in many different groups. Jokes can be simple, obnoxious, or even offensive; no matter what the style, however, their goal is always to make someone laugh. Jokes are a way of bringing people together as everyone can enjoy a good laugh, usually at another’s expense, and hence they can also divide.
Rituals are repeated actions that smooth over recurring situations of excitement, tension, or difficulty. They play a major role in the lives of students, even though students may not always realize they are performing a ritual. Whether it’s going out on a date, participating in a drinking game, being part of an ethnic festival, or helping out with the Dance Marathon, IU students are engaged in the repeated actions of rites and rituals.
An important feature of student life at IU is the Greek System of fraternities and sororities. Since the arrival of he first fraternity, Beta Theta Pi in 1845, IU has had a thriving Greek life. Each year some 5,000 students get active in one of 60 chapters on the IU campus. As in any community of this size—roughly 20% of the student population of IU’s Bloomington’s campus participates in Greek life–folklore has gained importance and serves to define the Greek experience at IU. Greek folklore is tied to recruitment, life within the organization, and relations between rival organizations. It can show kindness and generosity just as easily as the coarser side of student life at IU.
The lore of computers is the new kid on the block, now an essential component of student folklore at IU. Since the creation of the computer in the early 1970’s there has been a major increase of the computer presence in the lives of students. Here we present a compilation of folklore involving computers. It is possible to trace the evolution of computing through the lore found in our three categories — archival, ethnographic, and cybernetic. We see, as well, that computers can serve both as medium and object of folklore.
A good deal of student folklore at IU happens in the medium of speech or language, whether it be songs, chants, graffiti, or proverbs. Like all people everywhere, IU students like to do interesting things with words. In this section we present a cross-section of verbal routines making the lives of students more colorful and interesting.
The visual and graphic arts are of central importance in the lives of students at IU. Whether we are talking about hand-drawn posters and banners, artistic graffiti painted on walls, collages placed on dorm-room doors, or customized art displays in online venues, students are actively shaping their visual environments to create beauty and to convey messages.
