Digital Commons Network^™

Elrod, Scott (Fa 309), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 309. Paper: "[Ten Examples of Folklore and Media Project Items on Proverbs in Print Advertising]" written by Scott Elrod for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Fritz, Craig (Fa 287), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 287. Paper: "Proverbial Statements in Mountain Bike Magazines" written by Craig Fritz for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Anna, Cara (Fa 266), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 266. Paper: “Full-Court Press: March Madness and the Print Media” written by Anna for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Schroeder, Rachel L. (Fa 257), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 257. Paper: "Ads, Ads, Ads: A Look at the Number Three in Magazine Advertisements" written by Rachel L. Schroeder for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Kilburn, Amy A. (Fa 286), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 286. Paper: "Folklore with 'Dennis the Menace' and 'Beetle Bailey'" written by Amy A. Kilburn for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Nealy, Sterling Lance (Fa 279), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 279. Paper: "Proverbs in the Funny Papers" written by Sterling Lance Nealy for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Sorrentino, Patricia M. (Fa 240), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 240. Paper: "The Use of the Number Three in Advertising" written by Patricia M. Sorrentino for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Proctor, Becky (Fa 241), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 241. Paper: "The # [Number] 3 Motif in Advertising" written by Becky Proctor for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Norman, Dee (Fa 243), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 243. Paper: "The Presence of the Number Three on Paperback Book Covers" written by Dee Norman for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Boarman, Dawn M. (Fa 217), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 217. Paper: "Halloween: Monsters and Myths" written by Dawn M. Boarman for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

American Shamans: Journeys With Traditional Healers, Jack G. Montgomery Jr.

University Libraries Faculty & Staff Book Gallery

Magical healings, ghostly encounters, and alternate realities have been a part of American society since the first colonial settlements. Author Jack Montgomery provides ample historical and personal material to reveal a largely hidden world, primarily influenced by African, Celtic and German roots, that still exists today. It is a spiritual journey into the depths of American folk religion, shamanism and applied mysticism that spans over three decades of research.

Ohio General Assembly H.R. No. 137, Ohio State General Assembly

Indian Head Rock Project

Bill passed by the Ohio State Assembly declaring that the Indian Head Rock was historically associated with the City of Portsmouth, Ohio.

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 83, No. 17, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news.

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 83, No. 8, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news.

Never Alone: A "Look" At Imaginal Companions, Mary Koegel

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

American culture tends to consider imaginary friends (or imaginal companions, as I refer to them) as a folk belief belonging in the realm of childhood. If an adult believes in imaginal companions, they are potentially subject to the social stigma of psychological labeling. The mass media reflects this perception of reality and influences social interactions regarding experiences and beliefs in imaginal companions. Fear of this social stigma limits folk group size, which potentially creates an issue with informant group size. I gathered my informants from a group of friends, whom I interviewed over a one-year period. Although there is a …

Can Developing Women Create Primitive Art? And Other Questions Of Value, Meaning And Identity In The Circulation Of Janakpur Art, Coralynn V. Davis

Faculty Journal Articles

In this article, I examine the values and meanings that adhere to objects made by Maithil women at a development project in Janakpur, Nepal – objects collectors have called ‘Janakpur Art’. I seek to explain how and why changes in pictorial content in Janakpur Art – shifts that took place over a period of five or six years in the 1990s – occurred, and what such a change might indicate about the link between Maithil women’s lives, development, and tourism. As I will demonstrate, part of the appeal for consumers of Janakpur Art has been that it is produced at …

A Wave Of The Magic Wand: Fairy Godmothers In Contemporary American Media, Jeana Jorgensen

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

The increased personification of fairy godmothers in contemporary American media corresponds to an aspect of the American worldview that emphasizes "magical" quick fixes and solutions. The two fairy-tale pastiche works informing this study are a novel, The Fairy Godmother, by fantasy author Mercedes Lackey, and a movie, Shrek 2. Both of these works feature fairy godmother characters that depart from canonical folktale and fairy-tale depictions. Associated with fate and wisdom, fairy godmothers act much as folklorists do by rewarding traditional behavior with gifts. Recent fairy godmother roles are hybrid and multivocal, illuminating ideologies and power structures in both society and …

Haunting Experiences: Ghosts In Contemporary Folklore, Diane E. Goldstein, Sylvia Ann Grider, Jeannie B. Thomas

All USU Press Publications

Ghosts and the supernatural appear throughout modern culture, in any number of entertainment, commercial, and other contexts. Popular media's commodified representations of ghosts can be quite different from what people believe about them, based on tradition or direct experience. Belief and tradition and the popular or commercial nevertheless continually feed off each other. They frequently share space in how people think about the supernatural. In Haunting Experiences, three well-known folklorists broaden the discussion of ghost lore by examining it from multiple angles in various modern contexts. Diane E. Goldstein, Sylvia Ann Grider, and Jeannie Banks Thomas take ghosts seriously. They …

Folklore/Cinema: Popular Film As Vernacular Culture, Sharon R. Sherman, Mikel J. Koven

All USU Press Publications

Interest in the conjunctions of film and folklore is stronger and more diverse than ever. Documentaries on folk life and expression remain a vital genre, but scholars such as Sharon Sherman and Mikel Koven also are exploring how folklore elements appear in, and merge with, popular cinema. They look at how movies, a popular culture medium, can as well be both a medium and type of folklore, playing cultural roles and conveying meanings customarily found in other folkloric forms. They thus use the methodology of folklore studies to analyze films made for commercial distribution. The contributors to this book look …

El Árbol De La Vida: El Mito De Wuanámei De La Comunidad Nativa Huachipaeri De Queros, Emily Fisher

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Los seres humanos siempre han empleado mitos para explicar fenómenos naturales y sobrenaturales. El género Mito es uno de los más romantizados por su identificación con lo “antiguo” u “ancestral”. El Mito es ambos, reverenciado y también puesto en el reino de la “fantasía”. A pesar de esto, las dimensiones de la literatura oral, específicamente el mito, incluyendo la voz, el lenguaje, su carácter fundamentalmente dinámica y viva de literatura oral crea una forma sumamente complejo. El mito cuenta lo que es esencial a su gente — explicaciones de su naturaleza, costumbres y su moda de vida. El mito de …

'Listen, Rama’S Wife!’: Maithil Women’S Perspectives And Practices In The Festival Of Sāmā-Cakevā, Coralynn V. Davis

Faculty Journal Articles

As a female-only festival in a significantly gender-segregated society, sāmā cakevā provides a window into Maithil women’s understandings of their society and the sacred, cultural subjectivities, moral frameworks, and projects of self-construction. The festival reminds us that to read male-female relations under patriarchal social formations as a dichotomy between the empowered and the disempowered ignores the porous boundaries between the two in which negotiations and tradeoffs create a symbiotic reliance. Specifically, the festival names two oppositional camps—the male world of law and the female world of relationships—and then creates a male character, the brother, who moves between the two, loyal …

Roadside Memorial Practices: An Examination Of Landscapes Of Commemoration In Warren County, Kentucky, Michael Briggs

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Roadside memorials commemorating the death of automobile crash victims are scattered throughout the Kentucky landscape. This persistent cultural practice contains symbolic elements oftentimes indicative of religious connotations. Because there is a constitutional separation of church and government in the United States, these memorials can prelude controversy if located on state-maintained rights-of-way. This study examines Warren County, Kentucky, and analyzes the spatial distribution of these memorials on the landscape and the cultural implications to society because of their ties to death and dying. Scientific research in various fields of psychology, sociology, folk studies, geoscience, and religious studies was analyzed, including religious …

Once Upon A Virus: Aids Legends And Vernacular Risk Perception, Diane E. Goldstein

All USU Press Publications

Once Upon a Virus explores how contemporary, or "urban," legends are indicators of culturally complex attitudes toward health and illness. Tracing the rich tradition of AIDS legends in relation to current scholarship on belief, Diane Goldstein shows how such stories not only articulate widespread perceptions of risk, health care, and health policy, they also influence official and scientific approaches to the disease and its management. Notions that appear in narratives of who gets AIDS, how and why, are indicators of broad issues involving health beliefs, concerns, and needs.

What Goes Around Comes Around: The Circulation Of Proverbs In Contemporary Life, Kimberly J. Lau, Peter Tokofsky, Stephen D. Winick

All USU Press Publications

In this collection of essays, prominent folklorists look at varied modern uses and contexts of proverbs and proverbial speech, some traditional and conventional, others new and unexpected. After the editors' introduction discussing the history and status of attempts to define proverbs, describing their contemporary circulation, and acknowledging the especially important work of paremiologist Wolfgang Meider, the contributions examine the continuing pervasiveness and idiomatic relevance of proverbs in modern culture.

The Anunnaki, The Vampire, And The Structure Of Dissent, Marcus Librizzi

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

The latest incarnation of the vampire - in the conspiracy theories of David Icke - reveals the critical, revolutionary heart of the vampire legend. Discourse on the vampire appears above all to provide a structure of dissent, a metaphorical means of representing and soliciting critiques of the social order. The Anunnaki form of the vampire - in its immersion in the constellation of contemporary conspiracy theories, in its reflection on global capitalism, and in its blurring of historical and fictional narratives - has moved this structure of dissent from the cloak of darkness to the light of day.

Young Childrens' Understanding Of Superstitions, Kara Yeckering

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The aim of this study was to examine young children's understanding of superstitions—specifically bad luck superstitions. Children between the ages of 4 and 9 received a set of interview questions concerning their experiences with superstitions, their beliefs about the efficacy of superstitions, and their knowledge of the mental and physical components of superstitions. Participants also completed a belief task designed to assess the relative importance of belief and action in superstitions. The findings indicate developmental patterns in children's awareness of superstitions and beliefs in efficacy of superstitions. With age, children demonstrated a significantly greater awareness of superstitions. In contrast, children …

Common Origins/"Different" Identities In Two Kaqchikel Maya Towns, Walter E. Little

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

Kaqchikel Maya residents of San Antonio Aguas Calientes and Santa Catarina Barahona (neighboring towns in Guatemala) tell the same origin story. This story is used to root historically their concepts of collective identity and community. However, residents in each town hold that those in the other town have no real claim to the story. Both towns can equally claim this origin story, but the debate between residents of these towns offers an opportunity to discuss how the meaning of place is related to the historical and ethnographic contexts of which that place's residents are part. By weighing the story and …

Creating Community: Macnas’S Galway Arts Festival Parade, 2000, Christie L. Fox

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Of Corpse, Peter Narvaez

All USU Press Publications

Laughter, contemporary theory suggests, is often aggressive in some manner and may be prompted by a sudden perception of incongruity combined with memories of past emotional experience. Given this importance of the past to our recognition of the comic, it follows that some "traditions" dispose us to ludic responses. The studies in Of Corpse: Death and Humor in Folklore and Popular Culture examine specific interactions of text (jokes, poetry, epitaphs, iconography, film drama) and social context (wakes, festivals, disasters) that shape and generate laughter. Uniquely, however, the essays here peruse a remarkable paradox-the convergence of death and humor.

Two studies …

Lucky Pennies And Four Leaf Clovers: Young Children's Understanding Of Superstitions, Christy Bryce

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The development of organized, explanatory systems of knowledge is an integral part of human nature; it allows us to categorize objects and events and to make predictions based on our experiences. In our society, the quest for answers to the questions "How?" and "Why?" begins early in life. By the preschool years, children are actively seeking and providing explanations for an abundance of physical and social events, and they are developing knowledge of causal forces at work in the environment (Bullock, Gelman, & Baillargeon, 1982; Rosengren & Hickling, 1999). Paradoxically, at about the same age at which children demonstrate they …