Lowell Edmunds
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691165127
- eISBN:
- 9781400874224
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691165127.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Folk Literature
This chapter discusses the folktales that attest the recurring story-pattern contained in the Helen myth. The comparison between the texts under discussion and the ancient Greek myth of Helen ...
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This chapter discusses the folktales that attest the recurring story-pattern contained in the Helen myth. The comparison between the texts under discussion and the ancient Greek myth of Helen requires that they be described typologically. Hence the chapter first provides an overview of typology in folklore studies and the various concepts and approaches to be taken with the Abduction story. It then embarks on a more detailed analysis of “The Abduction of the Beautiful Wife,” breaking it down piece by piece and discussing recurring motifs, typologies, characters, variations across similar stories or stories which fall under the same type as the Abduction, and other such elements that repeat or break from the pattern.Less
This chapter discusses the folktales that attest the recurring story-pattern contained in the Helen myth. The comparison between the texts under discussion and the ancient Greek myth of Helen requires that they be described typologically. Hence the chapter first provides an overview of typology in folklore studies and the various concepts and approaches to be taken with the Abduction story. It then embarks on a more detailed analysis of “The Abduction of the Beautiful Wife,” breaking it down piece by piece and discussing recurring motifs, typologies, characters, variations across similar stories or stories which fall under the same type as the Abduction, and other such elements that repeat or break from the pattern.
Simon J. Bronner
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780813134062
- eISBN:
- 9780813135885
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813134062.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter addresses the association of folklore with tradition, particularly in the United States. It points out a tension between structural and post-structural approaches in folklore studies, ...
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This chapter addresses the association of folklore with tradition, particularly in the United States. It points out a tension between structural and post-structural approaches in folklore studies, and suggests a methodology focusing on explanation of cultural practices rather than their vague interpretation.Less
This chapter addresses the association of folklore with tradition, particularly in the United States. It points out a tension between structural and post-structural approaches in folklore studies, and suggests a methodology focusing on explanation of cultural practices rather than their vague interpretation.
Shirley Moody-Turner
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617038853
- eISBN:
- 9781621039785
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617038853.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Folk Literature
The introduction details an alternative genealogy through which to approach both African American folklore studies and African American literary engagements with black folklore in the ...
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The introduction details an alternative genealogy through which to approach both African American folklore studies and African American literary engagements with black folklore in the post-reconstruction period, centering African Americans as active participants, rather than merely passive repositories, in the study and representation of black folklore. It proposes a corrective to both the discipline of folklore studies and a new lens through which to read representation of folklore in African American literature. In particular, the introduction shows how developments in folklore studies were inseparable from turn-of-the-century constructions of race.Less
The introduction details an alternative genealogy through which to approach both African American folklore studies and African American literary engagements with black folklore in the post-reconstruction period, centering African Americans as active participants, rather than merely passive repositories, in the study and representation of black folklore. It proposes a corrective to both the discipline of folklore studies and a new lens through which to read representation of folklore in African American literature. In particular, the introduction shows how developments in folklore studies were inseparable from turn-of-the-century constructions of race.
Sadhana Naithani
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781604734553
- eISBN:
- 9781621037699
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781604734553.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Folk Literature
This book examines folklore collections compiled by British colonial administrators, military men, missionaries, and women in the British colonies of Africa, Asia, and Australia between 1860 and ...
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This book examines folklore collections compiled by British colonial administrators, military men, missionaries, and women in the British colonies of Africa, Asia, and Australia between 1860 and 1950. Much of this work was accomplished in the context of colonial relations and done by non-folklorists, yet these oral narratives and poetic expressions of non-Europeans were transcribed, translated, published, and discussed internationally. The book analyzes the role of folklore scholarship in the construction of colonial cultural politics as well as in the conception of international folklore studies. Since most folklore scholarship and cultural history focuses exclusively on specific nations, there is little study of cross-cultural phenomena about empire and/or postcoloniality. The book argues that connecting cultural histories, especially in relation to previously colonized countries, is essential to understanding those countries’ folklore, as these folk traditions result from both internal and European influence. It also makes clear the role folklore and its study played in shaping intercultural perceptions that continue to exist in the academic and popular realms today. The book makes a bold argument for a twenty-first century vision of folklore studies that is international in scope and which understands folklore as a transnational entity.Less
This book examines folklore collections compiled by British colonial administrators, military men, missionaries, and women in the British colonies of Africa, Asia, and Australia between 1860 and 1950. Much of this work was accomplished in the context of colonial relations and done by non-folklorists, yet these oral narratives and poetic expressions of non-Europeans were transcribed, translated, published, and discussed internationally. The book analyzes the role of folklore scholarship in the construction of colonial cultural politics as well as in the conception of international folklore studies. Since most folklore scholarship and cultural history focuses exclusively on specific nations, there is little study of cross-cultural phenomena about empire and/or postcoloniality. The book argues that connecting cultural histories, especially in relation to previously colonized countries, is essential to understanding those countries’ folklore, as these folk traditions result from both internal and European influence. It also makes clear the role folklore and its study played in shaping intercultural perceptions that continue to exist in the academic and popular realms today. The book makes a bold argument for a twenty-first century vision of folklore studies that is international in scope and which understands folklore as a transnational entity.
Shirley Moody-Turner
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617038853
- eISBN:
- 9781621039785
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617038853.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Folk Literature
This chapter reconstructs the national debates taking place around representations of black folklore, starting with the parameters advanced by William Wells Newell (founder of the American Folklore ...
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This chapter reconstructs the national debates taking place around representations of black folklore, starting with the parameters advanced by William Wells Newell (founder of the American Folklore Society) for the study of folklore. The chapter then locates the emergence of folklore studies in relation to the larger interests in folklore that converged during the second half of the nineteenth century, considering how constructions of the black folk in ante- and post-bellum popular culture, as specifically located in the ironic figure of Jim Crow and the subsequent minstrel tradition, fed the national interest in black folklore and fueled white fascination with “authentic” black folks and folklore. Reading at the intersections of “scientific” and popular representations of black folklore, and against the backdrop of the mounting debates over racial identity and segregation, chapter one suggests the complex protocols that influenced representations of black folklore in the mid- to late-nineteenth century.Less
This chapter reconstructs the national debates taking place around representations of black folklore, starting with the parameters advanced by William Wells Newell (founder of the American Folklore Society) for the study of folklore. The chapter then locates the emergence of folklore studies in relation to the larger interests in folklore that converged during the second half of the nineteenth century, considering how constructions of the black folk in ante- and post-bellum popular culture, as specifically located in the ironic figure of Jim Crow and the subsequent minstrel tradition, fed the national interest in black folklore and fueled white fascination with “authentic” black folks and folklore. Reading at the intersections of “scientific” and popular representations of black folklore, and against the backdrop of the mounting debates over racial identity and segregation, chapter one suggests the complex protocols that influenced representations of black folklore in the mid- to late-nineteenth century.
Jonathan P. J. Stock
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195167498
- eISBN:
- 9780199867707
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195167498.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
This chapter reviews approaches to the empirical documentation of music as found in comparative musicology, folklore studies, and through the fifty-year history of ethnomusicology. Means of gathering ...
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This chapter reviews approaches to the empirical documentation of music as found in comparative musicology, folklore studies, and through the fifty-year history of ethnomusicology. Means of gathering and measuring research data are shown to be linked to available technology as well as to prevailing intellectual paradigms. The central part of the chapter focuses on empirical aspects of participant-observation, including the keeping of field notes, interviewing, photography, and audio- and video-recording. Good practice conventions for data preservation are explained and illustrated. The chapter's coda emphasizes the importance of ethics in research that documents the voices of live people.Less
This chapter reviews approaches to the empirical documentation of music as found in comparative musicology, folklore studies, and through the fifty-year history of ethnomusicology. Means of gathering and measuring research data are shown to be linked to available technology as well as to prevailing intellectual paradigms. The central part of the chapter focuses on empirical aspects of participant-observation, including the keeping of field notes, interviewing, photography, and audio- and video-recording. Good practice conventions for data preservation are explained and illustrated. The chapter's coda emphasizes the importance of ethics in research that documents the voices of live people.
Susan G. Davis
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780252042614
- eISBN:
- 9780252051456
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042614.003.0007
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
In 1953, forced out of business by postal authorities, Legman moved to Paris. There he turned his attention to a long-planned series, Advanced Studies in Folklore, which he hoped would eventually ...
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In 1953, forced out of business by postal authorities, Legman moved to Paris. There he turned his attention to a long-planned series, Advanced Studies in Folklore, which he hoped would eventually cover songs, stories, jokes, rhymes, and vocabulary, as well as nonverbal forms like gestures and graffiti. His first volume in the series was anonymous, The Limerick (1954), which garnered him fans in the United States and provided a modest income. Legman moved on to research folk songs in English that had been censored or ignored because of their erotic or obscene content. His “Ballad” project would occupy Legman for decades. As he worked on it, Legman corresponded extensively with folklorists such as Roger Abrahams, Vance Randolph, and Kenneth Goldstein and with archivists at the Library of Congress. His letters reveal his romantic, textual orientation toward folk song and show his efforts to open folklore study to consideration of obscenity and erotica. Legman’s persistent research led to such important discoveries as an unpublished song manuscript by Robert Burns and to a deep understanding of the history of folk song collecting. It also gave him productive friendships with the British folklorists and folk song revival singers Ewan MacColl and Hamish Henderson.Less
In 1953, forced out of business by postal authorities, Legman moved to Paris. There he turned his attention to a long-planned series, Advanced Studies in Folklore, which he hoped would eventually cover songs, stories, jokes, rhymes, and vocabulary, as well as nonverbal forms like gestures and graffiti. His first volume in the series was anonymous, The Limerick (1954), which garnered him fans in the United States and provided a modest income. Legman moved on to research folk songs in English that had been censored or ignored because of their erotic or obscene content. His “Ballad” project would occupy Legman for decades. As he worked on it, Legman corresponded extensively with folklorists such as Roger Abrahams, Vance Randolph, and Kenneth Goldstein and with archivists at the Library of Congress. His letters reveal his romantic, textual orientation toward folk song and show his efforts to open folklore study to consideration of obscenity and erotica. Legman’s persistent research led to such important discoveries as an unpublished song manuscript by Robert Burns and to a deep understanding of the history of folk song collecting. It also gave him productive friendships with the British folklorists and folk song revival singers Ewan MacColl and Hamish Henderson.
Shelley Ingram, Willow G. Mullins, and Todd Richardson
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781496822956
- eISBN:
- 9781496823007
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496822956.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Mythology and Folklore
Implied Nowhere: Absence in Folklore Studies talks about things folklorists don’t usually talk about. It ponders the tacit aspects of folklore and folklore studies, looking into the unarticulated ...
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Implied Nowhere: Absence in Folklore Studies talks about things folklorists don’t usually talk about. It ponders the tacit aspects of folklore and folklore studies, looking into the unarticulated expectations placed upon people whenever they talk about folklore and how those expectations necessarily affect the folklore they are talking about.
The book’s chapters are wide-ranging in subject and style, yet they all orbit the idea that much of folklore, both as a phenomenon and as a field, hinges upon tacit or absent assumptions about who we are and what it is that we do. The authors articulate theories and methodologies for making sense of these absences, and, in the process, they offer critical new insights into discussions of race, authenticity, community, folklore and literature, popular culture, and scholarly authority. Taken as a whole, the book represents a new and challenging way of looking into the ways that groups come together to make meaning.
In addition to the main chapters, the book also includes eight “interstitials,” shorter chapters that consider understudied and under-appreciated aspects of folklore. These discussions, which range from a consideration of knitting in public to the ways that invisibility shapes an internet meme to Bob Dylan, are presented as questions more than answers, encouraging readers to think about what folklore and folklore studies might look like if practitioners only chose to look at the subject from a slightly different angle.Less
Implied Nowhere: Absence in Folklore Studies talks about things folklorists don’t usually talk about. It ponders the tacit aspects of folklore and folklore studies, looking into the unarticulated expectations placed upon people whenever they talk about folklore and how those expectations necessarily affect the folklore they are talking about.
The book’s chapters are wide-ranging in subject and style, yet they all orbit the idea that much of folklore, both as a phenomenon and as a field, hinges upon tacit or absent assumptions about who we are and what it is that we do. The authors articulate theories and methodologies for making sense of these absences, and, in the process, they offer critical new insights into discussions of race, authenticity, community, folklore and literature, popular culture, and scholarly authority. Taken as a whole, the book represents a new and challenging way of looking into the ways that groups come together to make meaning.
In addition to the main chapters, the book also includes eight “interstitials,” shorter chapters that consider understudied and under-appreciated aspects of folklore. These discussions, which range from a consideration of knitting in public to the ways that invisibility shapes an internet meme to Bob Dylan, are presented as questions more than answers, encouraging readers to think about what folklore and folklore studies might look like if practitioners only chose to look at the subject from a slightly different angle.
Sadhana Naithani
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617039935
- eISBN:
- 9781626740266
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617039935.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Folk Literature
This chapter discusses the relevance of Röhrich to the contemporary scholarship on European and American folk and fairy tales and literary fairy tales; and the relevance and significance of his ideas ...
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This chapter discusses the relevance of Röhrich to the contemporary scholarship on European and American folk and fairy tales and literary fairy tales; and the relevance and significance of his ideas for the study of contemporary South Asian folklore studies. It considers recent work by another great scholar of German and European folktale and fairy tale, Jack Zipes, and compares and juxtaposes Zipes’s thesis in Why Fairy Tales Stick (2006) to that of Röhrich’s as articulated in Folktales and Reality (1956). To demonstrate Röhrich’s relevance for the study of South Asian folklore today, the chapter draws on the author’s own research on the history of folkloristics in South Asia and its roots in colonialism, and on an ongoing study of folk performers in contemporary India and the evolution of certain performative genres in the context of freedom from colonialism and division of the subcontinent in 1947.Less
This chapter discusses the relevance of Röhrich to the contemporary scholarship on European and American folk and fairy tales and literary fairy tales; and the relevance and significance of his ideas for the study of contemporary South Asian folklore studies. It considers recent work by another great scholar of German and European folktale and fairy tale, Jack Zipes, and compares and juxtaposes Zipes’s thesis in Why Fairy Tales Stick (2006) to that of Röhrich’s as articulated in Folktales and Reality (1956). To demonstrate Röhrich’s relevance for the study of South Asian folklore today, the chapter draws on the author’s own research on the history of folkloristics in South Asia and its roots in colonialism, and on an ongoing study of folk performers in contemporary India and the evolution of certain performative genres in the context of freedom from colonialism and division of the subcontinent in 1947.
Sadhana Naithani
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781604734553
- eISBN:
- 9781621037699
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781604734553.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Folk Literature
This chapter discusses folklore studies and how the history of folklore research, critical studies on folklore collectors and their ideologies, and the socio-political implications of folklore ...
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This chapter discusses folklore studies and how the history of folklore research, critical studies on folklore collectors and their ideologies, and the socio-political implications of folklore studies have all been seen within national boundaries. The history of folklore as a subject and object of research is traced back to the early nineteenth-century romantic-nationalist movement in Germany. The global history of folklore research, on the other hand, is Eurocentric in its approach, to the extent that it is based on nineteenth-century European folklore collectors within Europe, although it is well known that in the same century a large number of Europeans collected folklore of countries on other continents. Much of this work outside the European continent was accomplished in the context of colonial relations and done by non-folklorists.Less
This chapter discusses folklore studies and how the history of folklore research, critical studies on folklore collectors and their ideologies, and the socio-political implications of folklore studies have all been seen within national boundaries. The history of folklore as a subject and object of research is traced back to the early nineteenth-century romantic-nationalist movement in Germany. The global history of folklore research, on the other hand, is Eurocentric in its approach, to the extent that it is based on nineteenth-century European folklore collectors within Europe, although it is well known that in the same century a large number of Europeans collected folklore of countries on other continents. Much of this work outside the European continent was accomplished in the context of colonial relations and done by non-folklorists.
Stefan Fiol
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780252041204
- eISBN:
- 9780252099786
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252041204.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, indigenous and British colonial elites gathered local knowledge from low-status (Shilpkar) performers and inscribed this knowledge within the ...
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In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, indigenous and British colonial elites gathered local knowledge from low-status (Shilpkar) performers and inscribed this knowledge within the emerging discipline of folklore studies. Depending on the shifting ideological and political positions with respect to local caste hierarchies, Indo-Aryan migration theories, and colonial administrative agendas, scholars utilized folklore to call attention alternately to the exceptional character of central Himalayan society as a whole and to the backward and superstitious character of particular castes and communities. This chapter illuminates the ways in which the folk concept was a critical instrument of colonial domination even as it offered local Indian elites the opportunity to compare Himalayan societies favorably with European societies.
Less
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, indigenous and British colonial elites gathered local knowledge from low-status (Shilpkar) performers and inscribed this knowledge within the emerging discipline of folklore studies. Depending on the shifting ideological and political positions with respect to local caste hierarchies, Indo-Aryan migration theories, and colonial administrative agendas, scholars utilized folklore to call attention alternately to the exceptional character of central Himalayan society as a whole and to the backward and superstitious character of particular castes and communities. This chapter illuminates the ways in which the folk concept was a critical instrument of colonial domination even as it offered local Indian elites the opportunity to compare Himalayan societies favorably with European societies.
Willow G. Mullins
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781496822956
- eISBN:
- 9781496823007
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496822956.003.0014
- Subject:
- Literature, Mythology and Folklore
As folklorists know, one way to gain understanding of a group is through the folklore they produce. In this essay, folklorists are the group, and the hoaxes perpetrated by and on them, or the lack of ...
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As folklorists know, one way to gain understanding of a group is through the folklore they produce. In this essay, folklorists are the group, and the hoaxes perpetrated by and on them, or the lack of such hoaxes, offer some insight into the culture of folklore studies. Looking at a series of alleged hoaxes, including the Tasaday tribe, MacPhearson's Ossian, and Leland's Aradia, the essay probes folklorists' desire to believe and disbelieve. Folklorists have historically proven difficult to hoax, to intentionally deceive, but that disciplinary skepticism may come with a cost.Less
As folklorists know, one way to gain understanding of a group is through the folklore they produce. In this essay, folklorists are the group, and the hoaxes perpetrated by and on them, or the lack of such hoaxes, offer some insight into the culture of folklore studies. Looking at a series of alleged hoaxes, including the Tasaday tribe, MacPhearson's Ossian, and Leland's Aradia, the essay probes folklorists' desire to believe and disbelieve. Folklorists have historically proven difficult to hoax, to intentionally deceive, but that disciplinary skepticism may come with a cost.
Shelley Ingram
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781496822956
- eISBN:
- 9781496823007
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496822956.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Mythology and Folklore
This chapter examines the role of folklore in the life and work of writer Shirley Jackson and her husband, literary critic and folklorist Stanley Edgar Hyman. It focuses particularly on their ...
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This chapter examines the role of folklore in the life and work of writer Shirley Jackson and her husband, literary critic and folklorist Stanley Edgar Hyman. It focuses particularly on their differing relationships with folklore and folklore studies and argues that reading Jackson and Hyman both and together gives us new understandings of her fictions and new insights into his particular brand of myth-ritual criticism.Less
This chapter examines the role of folklore in the life and work of writer Shirley Jackson and her husband, literary critic and folklorist Stanley Edgar Hyman. It focuses particularly on their differing relationships with folklore and folklore studies and argues that reading Jackson and Hyman both and together gives us new understandings of her fictions and new insights into his particular brand of myth-ritual criticism.
Jason Ā. Josephson-Storm
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226403229
- eISBN:
- 9780226403533
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226403533.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
Chapter 5 argues that James Frazer came late to the narrative of magical decline, and that he did so within a context of psychical research and in the face of a folkloric narrative itself about the ...
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Chapter 5 argues that James Frazer came late to the narrative of magical decline, and that he did so within a context of psychical research and in the face of a folkloric narrative itself about the departure of fairies and the decline of magic. It shows how Frazer formulated an influential trinary opposition between religion, magic, and science while encoding this typology within a disenchantment narrative. It also recovers a lot theory, Frazer's notions of "the despiritualization of nature" and demonstrates his subsequent influence on occult thinkers.Less
Chapter 5 argues that James Frazer came late to the narrative of magical decline, and that he did so within a context of psychical research and in the face of a folkloric narrative itself about the departure of fairies and the decline of magic. It shows how Frazer formulated an influential trinary opposition between religion, magic, and science while encoding this typology within a disenchantment narrative. It also recovers a lot theory, Frazer's notions of "the despiritualization of nature" and demonstrates his subsequent influence on occult thinkers.
M. Heather Carver and Elaine J. Lawless
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781604732085
- eISBN:
- 9781604733471
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781604732085.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
This chapter discusses the work of Elaine Lawless and Heather Carver in identifying the intersections of performance studies and folklore studies as they emerged in the twenty-first century. Elaine ...
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This chapter discusses the work of Elaine Lawless and Heather Carver in identifying the intersections of performance studies and folklore studies as they emerged in the twenty-first century. Elaine and Heather argue that ethnography informs performance through a careful focus on the real stories of women’s lives. Performance informs the ethnographic project by turning the traditional theatrical focus of the actor on stage into a multilayered dialogic performance involving performers, stories, and listeners.Less
This chapter discusses the work of Elaine Lawless and Heather Carver in identifying the intersections of performance studies and folklore studies as they emerged in the twenty-first century. Elaine and Heather argue that ethnography informs performance through a careful focus on the real stories of women’s lives. Performance informs the ethnographic project by turning the traditional theatrical focus of the actor on stage into a multilayered dialogic performance involving performers, stories, and listeners.
Corey Gibson
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780748696574
- eISBN:
- 9781474412520
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748696574.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Scottish Studies
This chapter sets out Henderson’s conception of the folk tradition, and its manifestations in his work as a folk revivalist and as a folklore scholar. In collecting songs and redistributing them, ...
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This chapter sets out Henderson’s conception of the folk tradition, and its manifestations in his work as a folk revivalist and as a folklore scholar. In collecting songs and redistributing them, Henderson analysed this tradition whilst also contributing to it. His work can therefore be approached as an interrogation of the limits of the individual’s own cultural ‘mediation’. This dynamic both liberated Henderson’s political imagination and plagued it with doubts over the manipulation and affectations of folk ‘voices’. Henderson’s own contributions to the field of folklore studies are placed in the context of on-going scholarly discourse, but also in relation to his own work as one who sought to operationalize a culture he was convinced belonged to the ages and was immune to interference. Federico García Lorca’s comments on the duende, and the vital folk culture of Scotland’s travelling people helped Henderson to glimpse the unbounded reach of the folk tradition and, consequently, the limited scope of the folklorist-revivalist. Through each of these chapters, Henderson’s struggle with the endless distance between himself – the poet, songwriter, folk revivalist, and folklorist – and the political and cultural lives of ‘the people’, is a constant feature.Less
This chapter sets out Henderson’s conception of the folk tradition, and its manifestations in his work as a folk revivalist and as a folklore scholar. In collecting songs and redistributing them, Henderson analysed this tradition whilst also contributing to it. His work can therefore be approached as an interrogation of the limits of the individual’s own cultural ‘mediation’. This dynamic both liberated Henderson’s political imagination and plagued it with doubts over the manipulation and affectations of folk ‘voices’. Henderson’s own contributions to the field of folklore studies are placed in the context of on-going scholarly discourse, but also in relation to his own work as one who sought to operationalize a culture he was convinced belonged to the ages and was immune to interference. Federico García Lorca’s comments on the duende, and the vital folk culture of Scotland’s travelling people helped Henderson to glimpse the unbounded reach of the folk tradition and, consequently, the limited scope of the folklorist-revivalist. Through each of these chapters, Henderson’s struggle with the endless distance between himself – the poet, songwriter, folk revivalist, and folklorist – and the political and cultural lives of ‘the people’, is a constant feature.
Thomas Baron and Jeff Todd Titon
Timothy J. Cooley (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780252042362
- eISBN:
- 9780252051203
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042362.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
Cultural sustainability as concept and movement is rooted in discourses, practice, and theory drawn from environmental conservation and sustainability. Metaphors from nature and culture are ...
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Cultural sustainability as concept and movement is rooted in discourses, practice, and theory drawn from environmental conservation and sustainability. Metaphors from nature and culture are convergent or divergent across semantic domains. This chapter explores metaphors of vulnerability such as endangerment, invasive and exotic, loss and protection, as well as tropes of restoration and recovery such as resilience and forms of intervention through protest, regulation, or stewardship. It also discusses cases in which cultural traditions and environmental conservation are in conflict, exemplified in disputed indigenous whale hunting. The creative tension in folklore studies engaging extinction, emergence and revitalization is further discussed as a foundational disciplinary issue. Intervention in nature through ecosystem engineering or conservation reliance is compared with cultural intervention and protection.Less
Cultural sustainability as concept and movement is rooted in discourses, practice, and theory drawn from environmental conservation and sustainability. Metaphors from nature and culture are convergent or divergent across semantic domains. This chapter explores metaphors of vulnerability such as endangerment, invasive and exotic, loss and protection, as well as tropes of restoration and recovery such as resilience and forms of intervention through protest, regulation, or stewardship. It also discusses cases in which cultural traditions and environmental conservation are in conflict, exemplified in disputed indigenous whale hunting. The creative tension in folklore studies engaging extinction, emergence and revitalization is further discussed as a foundational disciplinary issue. Intervention in nature through ecosystem engineering or conservation reliance is compared with cultural intervention and protection.
Son Chint’ae
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824838218
- eISBN:
- 9780824871062
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824838218.003.0012
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This concluding chapter discusses the account of Son Chintʻae, a pioneer of Korean folklore history. He published books on folklore studies in Japanese, including Collected Old Folksongs of Korea, ...
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This concluding chapter discusses the account of Son Chintʻae, a pioneer of Korean folklore history. He published books on folklore studies in Japanese, including Collected Old Folksongs of Korea, Extant Shamanist Songs of Korea, and Collected Folk Stories of Korea. The preface to his seminal work, Introduction to the History of the Korean Nation was a manifesto for a new Korean history free from what he repeatedly criticizes as the monarchism and aristocentrism of previous historiography. The work exhorted Korean historians to find a new scientific methodology to enable them to write a new history that placed Korea within the context of world history.Less
This concluding chapter discusses the account of Son Chintʻae, a pioneer of Korean folklore history. He published books on folklore studies in Japanese, including Collected Old Folksongs of Korea, Extant Shamanist Songs of Korea, and Collected Folk Stories of Korea. The preface to his seminal work, Introduction to the History of the Korean Nation was a manifesto for a new Korean history free from what he repeatedly criticizes as the monarchism and aristocentrism of previous historiography. The work exhorted Korean historians to find a new scientific methodology to enable them to write a new history that placed Korea within the context of world history.
Saswati Sengupta
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- December 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190124106
- eISBN:
- 9780190993269
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190124106.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
It is an enduring contradiction that Hindus revere their goddesses but their society is dominated by Brahmanical patriarchy. Although we assume that the worship of goddesses implies the celebration ...
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It is an enduring contradiction that Hindus revere their goddesses but their society is dominated by Brahmanical patriarchy. Although we assume that the worship of goddesses implies the celebration of so-called female power, we overlook how the development of such practices of devotion occurred within a highly patriarchal society that subjugated women in everyday life. Addressing this oversight, Mutating Goddesses traces the shifting fortunes of four goddesses—Manasā, Caṇḍī, Ṣaṣṭhī, and Lakṣmī—and their mutation within the goddess-invested tradition of Bengal’s Hinduism. It uses the vibrant laukika archive comprising religious practices and beliefs that, unlike the ṣāstrik perspective, have not been affected by the emergence and consolidation of the male Brahman and the Sanskrit language. Using narratives such as kathās, laukika bratakathās, and maṅgalkābyas, Sengupta explores the period between the fifteenth and twentieth centuries and investigates the correlation of gender, caste, and class in the sanctioning of female subjectivities through goddess formation. Thus, she excavates the multiple and layered heritage of Bengal to illustrate how tradition is a result of strategic selection by those in power.Less
It is an enduring contradiction that Hindus revere their goddesses but their society is dominated by Brahmanical patriarchy. Although we assume that the worship of goddesses implies the celebration of so-called female power, we overlook how the development of such practices of devotion occurred within a highly patriarchal society that subjugated women in everyday life. Addressing this oversight, Mutating Goddesses traces the shifting fortunes of four goddesses—Manasā, Caṇḍī, Ṣaṣṭhī, and Lakṣmī—and their mutation within the goddess-invested tradition of Bengal’s Hinduism. It uses the vibrant laukika archive comprising religious practices and beliefs that, unlike the ṣāstrik perspective, have not been affected by the emergence and consolidation of the male Brahman and the Sanskrit language. Using narratives such as kathās, laukika bratakathās, and maṅgalkābyas, Sengupta explores the period between the fifteenth and twentieth centuries and investigates the correlation of gender, caste, and class in the sanctioning of female subjectivities through goddess formation. Thus, she excavates the multiple and layered heritage of Bengal to illustrate how tradition is a result of strategic selection by those in power.
Saswati Sengupta
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- December 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190124106
- eISBN:
- 9780190993269
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190124106.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
Mutating Goddesses begins by examining the paradox of goddess worship in patriarchal societies. Hindu goddesses have been dominantly understood from a śāstrik perspective—deriving from Sanskrit ...
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Mutating Goddesses begins by examining the paradox of goddess worship in patriarchal societies. Hindu goddesses have been dominantly understood from a śāstrik perspective—deriving from Sanskrit scriptures authorized by the male Brahman—that exiles women. But there are religious practices under Hinduism that are governed by neither the Brahman nor Sanskrit. These laukika practices are held in a hierarchical relation to the śāstrik. Chapter 1 focuses from within that vibrant realm, the kathās/narratives appended to the propitiation of the goddesses known as bratas which allow direct participation of the women and the Dalit castes unlike the Brahmanical rituals. Briefly the Brahmannization of Bengal is traced and the Bengal caste system is sketched, since caste and gender are held together in the dominant construction and reception of goddesses. This Chapter concludes by showing how caste and gender define genres to categorize the construction and reception of goddesses and votives.Less
Mutating Goddesses begins by examining the paradox of goddess worship in patriarchal societies. Hindu goddesses have been dominantly understood from a śāstrik perspective—deriving from Sanskrit scriptures authorized by the male Brahman—that exiles women. But there are religious practices under Hinduism that are governed by neither the Brahman nor Sanskrit. These laukika practices are held in a hierarchical relation to the śāstrik. Chapter 1 focuses from within that vibrant realm, the kathās/narratives appended to the propitiation of the goddesses known as bratas which allow direct participation of the women and the Dalit castes unlike the Brahmanical rituals. Briefly the Brahmannization of Bengal is traced and the Bengal caste system is sketched, since caste and gender are held together in the dominant construction and reception of goddesses. This Chapter concludes by showing how caste and gender define genres to categorize the construction and reception of goddesses and votives.