"A" Milestone is Reached

When I started my subject heading project for Oakland Unified School District on March 19 of this year I had no idea how long it would take to get through the collection one heading at a time. Today I reached a milestone. I finished the subject headings which begin with the letter A. That's page 80 of 946 of the 21st edition of Sears List of Subject Headings. Or approximately through the 8.5% of the List.

It's taken me a little more than 5 months to reach this point so see that the task is capable of being accomplished. At this rate, it will take approximately 4 1/2 years to complete the whole List. Of course, by that time another edition of Sears will have been published but let's not think about that right now!

The last subject heading beginning with the letter A was "Aztlán." It refers to a mythological place mentioned in early Aztec manuscripts which some Mexicans and Mexican Americans believe was the place of origin of native Mexican culture. Once in Mexico I visited one of the areas in Nayarit where Aztlán is supposed to have been located. At any rate, cross-references include: Geographical myths, Aztecs--Origins, Mexican Americans--Ethnic identity, and, Aztec mythology.

That brings me to another interesting issue catalogers face when assigning subject headings: the differences among mythology, legend religion, and folklore. Sears doesn't define Mythology but refers to Legends as "tales coming down from the past, especially those relating to actual events or persons." Dictionary.com defines myth as "a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation, especially one that is concerned with deities or demigods and explains some practice, rite, of phenomenon of nature." (Emphasis added). Folklore is defined by Sears as "stories based on spoken rather than written traditions."

I guess my point in bringing all this up is that there are rather subtle differences among these topics. All are stories, but legends relate to actual events or persons, myths may or may not be based on actual events or persons, and the main distinguishing characteristic of folklore is that it's oral.

Sears also distinguishes these topics in the way they qualify or subdivide them. Folklore and Legends may be subdivided geographically, e.g. Folklore--China and Legends--United States. But Mythology can't be subdivided that way. Instead, it's qualified by the names of ancient peoples, e.g. Celtic mythology, Aztec mythology. You can use particular ethnic or religious groups to qualify Legends, e.g. Jewish legends; Celtic legends. But for Folklore don't use a qualifier, instead subdivide the names of ethnic or occupational groups by Folklore, e.g. Native Americans--Folklore (not Native American folklore) and Firefighters--Folklore (not Firefighter folklore). It can get a little tricky here as you will see if you look in Sears you will find the cross-reference Native American legends USE Native Americans--Folklore. And since the headings under Native Americans apply equally to Native American tribes, there will properly be a cross-reference from non-used Aztec legends to Aztecs--Folklore. This would seem to be in contradiction to the instruction above.

At this point, my head is spinning.

But later today I will hit a brand-new letter (B!) and will soldier on through Sears with all its interesting dilemmas and paradoxes.