"But I am wary of getting into a "What is Tradition" argument."
Sorry Dave, all these arguments come to that in the end.
Folk process, as I understand it, applies to the tradition - if that's alive, so is the process - thirty years of field work has convinced me it isn't any longer, as much as I would like it to be.
WMD
Not familiar with any of the books you refer to, but if they offer alternative definitions, put them up, will be happy to consider them. Sorry, the quote meant nothing to me out of context, and as far as I understand it, we don't get a vote to accept or to reject what goes into the tradition - it's a process.
If I don't know the meaning of something I'll pull a book off the shelf and look it up - habit of a lifetime.
I will not make up a definition because it's convenient to me personally, nor will I accept an opportunist definition (or in this case non-definition - nobody has attempted throughout these arguments to offer an alternative), by somebody with a stake in there not being one. George Orwell called that process 'Newspeak' and we have some wonderful examples at present with 'special rendition', 'collateral damage' and 'friendly fire'.
Jim Carroll