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Appalachian Folklore

Katherine Ledford and Theresa Lloyd (eds)

in Writing Appalachia: An Anthology

The terms “folklore,” “folklife,” and “folkways” refer to cultural practices transmitted orally among members of a group. The literature represented in this anthology is an example of verbal ... More

The terms “folklore,” “folklife,” and “folkways” refer to cultural practices transmitted orally among members of a group. The literature represented in this anthology is an example of verbal folklore, more specifically folk narrative and folk song. These readings demonstrate both the bounty of folklore in Appalachia and the way that the region’s folklore has been deployed to support cultural-political agendas.Less

Forgotten Markets: The Importance of Pawnshops

Marieke Bos, Susan Payne Carter, and Paige Marta Skiba

in Law, Economics, and Conflict

This chapter focuses on pawnshops and the institutions of pawnbroking. Studies show that large numbers of poor people and especially those who are unbanked use pawn loans by leaving collateral. This ... More

This chapter focuses on pawnshops and the institutions of pawnbroking. Studies show that large numbers of poor people and especially those who are unbanked use pawn loans by leaving collateral. This institution has existed for centuries and while attention has shifted away from it, the informal pawn broker remains a source of survival for the very poor. And this is not unconnected to what happens in the larger, formal economy. After the global financial crisis that began in the United States in 2007–2008, quickly engulfed the world, and became the protracted Great Recession, the pawnbroking industry in the United States and Sweden grew by an astonishing 20 percent per year, as poor people were forced to turn to informal credit for their survival. Despite this industry's importance, pawnbroking has characteristically received little attention and also little regulation. The chapter then raises a host of questions regarding the welfare consequences of these informal lending markets in rich countries and how they could be regulated.Less

Notes on a Swindle

Robert Desjarlais

in Counterplay: An Anthropologist at the Chessboard

This chapter shows that the endgame is the third and last stage of a game in its prototypical form. Chess players think of the game as being composed of three phases: opening, middlegame, and ... More

This chapter shows that the endgame is the third and last stage of a game in its prototypical form. Chess players think of the game as being composed of three phases: opening, middlegame, and endgame. If the game is not decided earlier on, then it will come down to an endgame, which is, by definition, when there are only a few pieces left on the board; the other pieces have been exchanged. Since the diminished material makes a direct mating attack less feasible, the play in endgames often revolves around attempts to advance a pawn to the eighth rank, where it can be promoted to a queen or another piece. That additional piece can then help the side possessing it force a win through checkmate.Less

Insiders, Outsiders, and Class Anxiety: Eudora Welty and Bob Dylan on the Medgar Evers Murder

Adrienne Akins Warfield

Harriet Pollack (ed.)

in New Essays on Eudora Welty, Class, and Race

This chapter compares Welty’s “Where Is the Voice Coming From?” with Bob Dylan’s “Only a Pawn in Their Game,” exploring the relationship between class, racist violence, and regional identity through ... More

This chapter compares Welty’s “Where Is the Voice Coming From?” with Bob Dylan’s “Only a Pawn in Their Game,” exploring the relationship between class, racist violence, and regional identity through examining the common assumptions both artists shared about Medgar Evers’ murderer and his motivations. The essay argues that class anxiety manifests itself both in acts of racist violence like Beckwith’s and in artistic conceptualizations of such violence as the exclusive domain of the white Southern underclass. The chapter also analyzes the ways in which the revisions that Welty made to the story after Beckwith’s arrest were connected to the class status, Southern identity, and racial consciousness of the killer. The resemblances between Dylan’s and Welty’s responses to the Evers murder show that the tendency to associate racist violence with the economic resentments of lower-class whites is evidenced among both Northern “outsiders” and Southern “insiders.”Less

Security interests in personal property

M G Bridge

in Personal Property Law

This chapter looks at the use of property concepts to perform a security function. The security function exists to reinforce the performance of a personal obligation, typically the payment of a sum ... More

This chapter looks at the use of property concepts to perform a security function. The security function exists to reinforce the performance of a personal obligation, typically the payment of a sum of money. Security in the case of chattels may take one of four different forms. It may take the possessory from of a lien or a pledge (or pawn). In addition to lien and pledge, there are the non-possessory securities of mortgage and charge, the latter of which may exist in either a fixed or a floating form.Less

Pawnbroking: A Study in Ribbit and of the Halakhah in Exile

Haym Soloveitchik

in Collected Essays: v. 1

This chapter explores an analysis of pawnbroking, which requires parsing simultaneously three areas of Jewish law: debt, pawns, and usury. Any analysis must also incorporate the practices of ... More

This chapter explores an analysis of pawnbroking, which requires parsing simultaneously three areas of Jewish law: debt, pawns, and usury. Any analysis must also incorporate the practices of moneylending in medieval France and Germany and equally the laws governing pawnbroking in these countries. Pawnbroking generated problems. An item might be pawned by a prince, an abbot, a wealthy burgher, a peasant, or even a passing stranger, for people of every rank are occasionally confronted with an urgent need for cash. However, one should emphasize that making loans that are secured by a pawned item and pawnbroking are two different businesses. The chapter then discusses pawnbroking in Ashkenazic halakhic thought, examining ribbit (interest or usury). It also highlights the revolutionary role of Rashi in both halakhic theory and practice. Rashi and his grandson, Rabbenu Tam, dominate the landscape of pawnbroking and usury.Less

On with the Dance 1920

Michael G. Ankerich

in Mae Murray: The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips

In this chapter, focus is give to Mae Murray’s screen image and her determination to shed her frocks for furs and negligees. The Leonards move into the luxurious Hotel Des Artistes and entertain ... More

In this chapter, focus is give to Mae Murray’s screen image and her determination to shed her frocks for furs and negligees. The Leonards move into the luxurious Hotel Des Artistes and entertain lavishly. She works with new directors, Leonce Perret and George Fitzmaurice in such screen hits as The Twin Pawns, The A.B.C. of Love, On with the Dance, and The Right to Love. The Leonards sailed for Europe on a belated honeymoon. In Paris, Murray lunches with Olive Thomas before Thomas’ mysterious death after drinking mercury bichloride. While in the French capital, Murray undergoes a cosmetic procedure that takes years off her appearance.Less

Making a Life: At Home

James L. Huffman

in Down and Out in Late Meiji Japan

Here, the focus is on the nature of daily life at home. Beginning with a “typical” August 1901 day in the “Ueki” household, the chapter shows that the effort to survive was framed by great struggle ... More

Here, the focus is on the nature of daily life at home. Beginning with a “typical” August 1901 day in the “Ueki” household, the chapter shows that the effort to survive was framed by great struggle and even greater ingenuity. A section on the household shows fluidity and variety in family arrangements, with increasing stability as the era passed. Children sometimes roamed freely on the streets but most of the time they worked for pay, to enable the family to survive; few were able to go to school. Food was basic, and families bought from leftover food shops; the hinmin did, however, include alcohol in their budgets and they frequented cheap restaurants, including izakaya or grog shops. When things got especially tight, families took out loans, often at usurious rates, and resorted to the ubiquitous pawnshops (shichiya). Only a few received charity or assistance.Less

Rex Ingram, Director

Ruth Barton

in Rex Ingram: Visionary Director of the Silent Screen

This chapter follows Ingram’s move with the film industry from New York to California and his early films as a director. It covers his first marriage to Doris Pawn, meeting Alice Terry, his training ... More

This chapter follows Ingram’s move with the film industry from New York to California and his early films as a director. It covers his first marriage to Doris Pawn, meeting Alice Terry, his training in the Royal Flying Corps Canada during World War I, and his difficulties reestablishing himself after the war.Less

We Have Had War with the Natives

Susan E. Lindsey

in Liberty Brought Us Here: The True Story of American Slaves Who Migrated to Liberia

Agnes Harlan’s son Lewis is dying of malaria. Despite her fervent prayers and attentive care, she loses her oldest child. On average, 20 percent of every boatload of immigrants to Liberia dies of ... More

Agnes Harlan’s son Lewis is dying of malaria. Despite her fervent prayers and attentive care, she loses her oldest child. On average, 20 percent of every boatload of immigrants to Liberia dies of malaria in the first year. In Tolbert Major’s May 1839 letter to Ben, he includes a short note to another man, James Moore, in which he reveals that Agnes has lost two of her sons since arriving in Liberia. Tolbert asks Moore to contact George Harlan, Agnes’s former owner, to tell him the news. The chapter discusses risks to health in Liberia, similar health risks in America, the Liberian system known as “pawning,” and a recent war with some of the indigenous people.Less

Credit—A Microhistory

Raymond A. Anderson

in Credit Intelligence & Modelling: Many Paths through the Forest of Credit Rating and Scoring

The history of credit from ancient to modern times, parties involved and media used: (1)Ancient world—Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome. Penalties for non-payment were significant, and could result in ... More

The history of credit from ancient to modern times, parties involved and media used: (1)Ancient world—Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome. Penalties for non-payment were significant, and could result in slavery of self/family, or death. (2)Mediaeval world—religious belief caused restrictions. Many modern-day practices had their origins in this era, including the use of bills of exchange, mortgages, pawn shops and merchant banking. (3)Credit evolution—the expansion of trade and personal credit, both unscrupulous {loan sharks, pawn shops} and scrupulous {philanthropic societies, industrial lenders}. Motor vehicle finance drove instalment credit. (4)Credit vendors—credit drapers, tallymen, and travelling salesmen, department stores, mail order—to promote goods’ sales. More recent are mobile-network operators and Internet service providers. (5)Credit media and Assets Financed—tools used to extend extent credit and transact {cheques, credit cards}, and major instalment finance classes {motor vehicle, consumer durables, home loans}.Less

Credit for All?: Issues and Concerns about Credit Availability

Thomas A. Durkin, Gregory Elliehausen, Michael E. Staten, and Todd J. Zywicki

in Consumer Credit and the American Economy

This chapter examines the general issue of credit availability for everyone. It focuses especially on the economics of those kinds of consumer credit sometimes singled out as subprime credit, fringe ... More

This chapter examines the general issue of credit availability for everyone. It focuses especially on the economics of those kinds of consumer credit sometimes singled out as subprime credit, fringe credit, or high-cost credit. These sorts of credit include payday, pawn, and other credit in small amounts or for short times, most often used by credit-constrained consumers seeking additional credit sources. The contention here is that because such products are likely to remain controversial, economic study of their uses and problems can prove beneficial. Economics is hardly determinative in modern society, but it often can shed some light on phenomena that otherwise may appear anomalous. The chapter also looks at credit for younger consumers such as college students and looks at some of the controversy over subprime mortgage credit not otherwise considered extensively in this book.Less

Making Marriage Work: Economic and Emotional Survival Strategies

Jennine Hurl-Eamon

in Marriage and the British Army in the Long Eighteenth Century: 'The Girl I Left Behind Me'

This chapter ignores officers in order to concentrate on the wider range of survival strategies employed by rankers and wives in London. Married men enlisted not—as previous historiography argues—to ... More

This chapter ignores officers in order to concentrate on the wider range of survival strategies employed by rankers and wives in London. Married men enlisted not—as previous historiography argues—to desert their wives, but rather to help the family. Income from odd jobs augmented soldiers’ pay and wives could better access poor relief with soldier husbands than if they were wed to civilians. Serving soldiers married because wives promised emotional and economic support during and after their term of service. They were also valuable agents in pawning goods, and begging or stealing for survival. Though some ranker couples could suffer poverty, alcoholism, and violence caused by military training and post-traumatic stress disorder, others found lucrative economic opportunities from their association with the army.Less

Sacred Stuff

Abigail Brundin, Deborah Howard, and Mary Laven

in The Sacred Home in Renaissance Italy

Inventories have long been used by historians as a source for investigating ‘worldly goods’; here, they are scrutinized anew for evidence of devotional practices in the home. Rosaries, little ... More

Inventories have long been used by historians as a source for investigating ‘worldly goods’; here, they are scrutinized anew for evidence of devotional practices in the home. Rosaries, little crosses, Agnus Dei, and coral are just some of the material objects that served to sacralize the home. These same items, densely recorded in the inventories of workshops and private households also figure in dowry contracts and registers of pawned goods. Such documents, drawn up by notaries, afford us new insights into the significance of material things at key moments in the life-cycle. Often invested with amuletic powers, many of the objects under investigation blur the boundaries between religion and superstition and draw attention to the profoundly protective role of domestic devotion.Less

Mary Todd Lincoln’s Old Clothes

Laura F. Edwards

in Only the Clothes on Her Back: Clothing and the Hidden History of Power in the Nineteenth-Century United States

In 1867, Mary Todd Lincoln’s efforts to sell her wardrobe generated national outrage. Newspapers from coast to coast sneered at a former first lady so vulgar as to think anyone would want to buy her ... More

In 1867, Mary Todd Lincoln’s efforts to sell her wardrobe generated national outrage. Newspapers from coast to coast sneered at a former first lady so vulgar as to think anyone would want to buy her old clothes. As the conclusion shows, the ensuing drama illustrates the legal transformation of textiles and the remaking of the legal order more generally. Postwar legal changes solidified the negative connotations associated with the street trade. Selling secondhand clothing savored of slavery: it seemed like selling the body itself. Legal changes that extended rights to more of the population also made a market based in the legal principles associated with textiles seem outdated and unnecessary. As the case of Mary Todd Lincoln indicates, that form of emancipation had limits. Despite the wider distribution of rights, the economy and much of the law remained inaccessible to the vast majority of the population.Less

Eliza Cauchois’s Shift: Exchange

Laura F. Edwards

in Only the Clothes on Her Back: Clothing and the Hidden History of Power in the Nineteenth-Century United States

This chapter examines the “street trade”—the part of the textile market structured by the legal principles associated with textiles. What distinguished the street was its transitory nature. Such ... More

This chapter examines the “street trade”—the part of the textile market structured by the legal principles associated with textiles. What distinguished the street was its transitory nature. Such markets were the most visible when housed in identifiable locations, such as pawnshops. They also materialized out of thin air and then disappeared just as quickly. People sold out of their homes, on the street, and after church. The street trade was tolerated, but only just, because it altered the rules governing exchange elsewhere in the legal order. That did not make it “extralegal.” Exchange took place out in the open and followed set rules that mirrored those in civil law, the area of the legal system from which those without rights were excluded. The transactions supported within the street trade only seem different because participants used shirts, shifts, and handkerchiefs, not notes and bills of exchange.Less