Tenets: Initial Occupancy

A stone and log house west of Ferdinand Township.

"I want to turn now to another topic, namely the concept of initial occupancy and family names. Folklife researchers and cultural geographers are rightly concerned with the concept of initial occupancy. It holds that the first settlers in a region of the United States will establish a number of patterns in such elements of culture as architecture, agriculture, and speech. Later immigrants to the area will tend to conform to the patterns established by the first settlers even though the later comers may have been from an area with rather different patterns. This concept is of great importance in dealing with many aspects of folklife and folklore..."

"Hoosier and Family Names," in Viewpoints, 47.

About Warren E. Roberts

• “Folklorist’s Progress: A Brief Biography of Warren E. Roberts” by Henry Glassie
• “Warren Roberts and the Changing Craft of Folklife Studies” by Gary Stanton
• “Obituary: Warren Everett Roberts (1924-1999)” by Simon J. Bronner
• Interpretive Approaches
• Tenets
• “Ninety-five Percent of the Population
       Has Been Left Out of History Books”
• “Never Trust the Written Record”
• “Old Traditional Way of Life”
• Myth of the Lone Pioneer
• Folklife and Fieldwork
• Communitarian Ideal
• Initial Occupancy
• Research Methods
• Teacher, Mentor, and Colleague
• Historic Preservationist
• Skilled Cabinetmaker
• Yankee Trader
• What Others Wrote
• Awards in Warren’s Memory