Functions performed by Puppetry

Puppetry imbibes its elements from folk lore. A British antiquarian William Thoms introduced the term “folk lore” in 1846. Folklore means the oral literature that is handed down to people generation after generation through oral tradition. In other words the entire life style of a community is generally termed as folklore and folk life.The four categories of folklore are-

1. Oral literature,
2. Material culture,
3. Social folk custom,
4. Performing folk arts.

Oral literature is called verbal art. Oral literature includes myths, fairy tale, folktale, legend, animal tale, epics, ballads, folk songs, lullabies, proverb, riddles, chants, prayers and so on.

Material Culture is physical folklore.Physical folklore is visible to all. Agriculture tools, house making, food processing, folk costume, folk art and craft, folk ornaments includes under material culture.

Social folk custom includes the rites connected with birth, marriage, death and other rites related to human life.Besides these rites,the rituals and custom associated with festivals observed in society are important part of social folk custom.In India rituals and customs related to festival like Durga Puja,Holi,Dewali are important element of social folk custom.

The last category of folklore and folklife is performing folk art.Traditional music, dance and drama is mainly termed as folk performing art.

Folklore performs different functions. As puppetry is a folk performing art, functions of folklore reflects in Puppetry.

a. Recreation and entertainment is one of the important functions of folklore. Myths, legends, songs, dance, drama provides entertainment to society.Puppetry is one of very popular folk drama, which are using as an element of amusement since in every corner of the world. People after having hard toil of whole day takes help of various items of amusement.Puppetry entertains people with trick acts and skits of it.The Clown or Bohua use in puppetry gives immense pleasure to spectators.Main aim of clown is to make people laugh. Puppetry is source of amusement for all age group people.

b. Folklore imparts education.Different forms of performing art are use in society to imparts education. Besides entertainment, puppets are using as a tool of education in different part of the world.Puppetry has been using as a tool of education since the time of its creation.In ancient India, great grammarian Panini and patanjali used puppetry to describe their formulas of grammer. In modern world also puppetry is use to educate people about different social issues. Puppetry is a very important tool of education for students. Childrens who are not willing to study, puppetry can use to educating them. Education about science can very easily imparts to students.Students enjoys their lessons when it is describe by puppets. Education can make enjoyable for students by using puppetry. Childrens are the future of a country. Puppetry can be use to incresae morality among children through various folk tales and legends and myth endowed with moral values..

c. Validating culture is one of the important functions of folklore. Myth, etilogical tales, legends, proverbs and so on are elements of folk literature. These elements are closely related to religion, rituals, rites,festivals and so on.When people gets confused about sancinity of rituals and festivals, they can took help of myths,legends, proverbs etc. to validate them. Myths are serving as popular theme of Puppetry.Legend,folktales, proverbs are also extensively use in puppetry.Thus it can say that like other folklore elements, puppetry also helps in validating culture.

d. Folk lore reflects culture of a particular place and society.Different forms of Puppetry reflects culture of the place, from where it belongs.The regional difference reflects in costume, music,craft and art reveals the culture of that particular place or society. When puppet groups of Assam performs in stage, the costume of the puppets indicates that the the group belongs to Assam.Faimiliar details of the culture reflects through the plot of the stories.Folk belief of the society also reflects when the society uses puppetry in their socio religious purpose.Folk belief is one of the important part of folklore. The language use in performance also reflects the particular culture. Thus, the function mentioned above is reflects by puppetry. In many countries, puppets are use as therapy for illness.

e. Excercising social pressure and social control, folklore curbs disharmony from society.Many elements of folklore can use to control society.As for example, proverbs can use to warn or advice people indirectly against deviation of social conventions and accepted pattern of behavior. Similarly, puppets through dialogue and music can warn people against social evil and can control disharmony in society. There are many social problems in our society. Unemployment, Gender inequality, Caste discrimination, Domestic violence, Dowry, Female infanticide,Drug abuse, Aids, Child labour, Corruption, illiteracy and so on.Puppet shows can organize in the interior areas and can be use to carry messages for family planning, life insurance,small saving schemes etc. Awareness among people about various communicable diseases can make through puppetry. Unemployment is a provocative question of Assam. Even possessing high education, many youths are jobless.Due to lack of jobs many of them have choose the path of violence. Folk arts can be use to curtail poverty from Assam.Puppetry can be a good source of employment for the educated unemployed of the state. If the traditional techniques are replaced with modern scientific technology to improve the performance of puppetry, then it will help in far extant in solution of the problem of unemployment. In western countries, puppets are use as weapon of common people against influencial political parties to express their thoughts.

f. Folklore can use as a weapon of social ization and integration.Folk performing arts are integral parts of different celebrations and festivals.These festivals creats harmony and integration in society.Puppets are perform in different occasions. The songs and themes use in it inspires the spectators by giving them scope of thinking in a particular topic. When spectator relates themselves to the themes and music of performance, they began to consider themselves as part of the society, which creats environment of social intregration. Puppetry is an art, which is fevoured by every age group and status of people. Rich and poor, old and young, high caste and low caste all can enjoy puppet. Thus puppetry can be use to drive away evil from society and create harmony among people. It has been serving as an influencial form of entertainment since its birth. Folk Puppets have an important place in society and have economic contribution of its upliftment.

g. Folklore is a medium of communication. Traditional mediums are use to conveying messages of different issues. “Even where modern media have penetrated isolated areas, the older forms maintain their validity, particularly when used to influence attitudes, instigate action and promote change. Extensive experience shows that traditional forms of communication can be effective in dispelling the superstition, archaic perceptions and unscientific attitudes that people have inherited as part of tradition, and which are difficult to modify if the benefits of change are hard to demonstrate. Practitioners of the traditional media use a subtle form of persuasion by presenting the required message in locally popular artistic forms.This cannot be rivalled by any other means of communication.”^[1] . Folk or traditional media can extensively use for well being of society.Message about vital social issues can very comfortably use by Puppetry and other folk dramas.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Aggrawal Vir Bala,Gupta V.S:Handbook of Journalism and Mass Communication, 2002,p;70.