Cultural History Commons^™

Georgia Ghosts: History, Folklore, And The Roots Of The Southern Gothic, Katherine M. Mcdowell

Master's Projects

There is something quintessentially human about ghost stories, yet particular regions tend to be more powerfully associated with haunted folktales than others. One of the regions is the southeastern United States. In fact, these oral traditions appear to have influenced the area's best-known literary subgenre: the Southern Gothic.

Why is the South considered haunted? Are there particular qualities in historical events that make them more likely to engender ghost stories? What makes the South's folkloric spirits so powerful that they appear even in modern literature? Most of all, what connects the region's history and folklore with the Southern Gothic? By …

Dancers Of The Book: Yemenite, Persian, And Kurdish Jewish Dance, Quinn Bicer

Anthós

Despite the cultural significance of dance in Jewish communities around the world, research into Middle Eastern Jewish dance outside of the modern nation-state of Israel is sorely under-researched. This article aims to help rectify this by focusing on Yemenite, Persian/Iranian, and Kurdish Jewish dance and explores how these dancers have functioned and been received within the societies they have been a part of. The methods that have gone into this article are a combination of analyzing primary source recorded dances and existing secondary source research into the dance of these communities. Through these methods, this article reveals how Yemenite, Iranian, …

Analysis Of Artifacts And Storage Organization: Clinton Lock 2, Hannah Curtis

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

For this project, we are hoping to address the potential problems and help refine future work between the storage in the Cummings Center and the Anthropology Department. Some of the research questions that we have are: What is in the Cummings Center from the Anthropology Department? What type of techniques is the most beneficial in storing archaeological material? How are the items stored in the Cummings Center? Is this method of storage going to protect or damage the artifact? Do we still need to keep this material, returned to its original owner, or can it be deaccessioned? We plan to …

The Syndemic Landscape: A New Paradigm For Montana Suicide Prevention Grounded In Agricultural Renewal, Emory Chandler Padgett

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Montana has had one of the highest suicide rates in the nation for half a century, and since 2000, it has risen almost 50%. Despite suicide’s alarming persistence in the state, there has been minimal academic study of suicide or mental health specifically in Montana, so this thesis attempts to answer a few questions: Why does Montana have such a high suicide rate? Is there something culturally, historically, or socially unique about Montana that contributes to suicide? Are current prevention efforts helpful, harmful, or lacking? Could a consideration of culture and land benefit an understanding of suicide in Montana? What …

Mapping Out Our Space In Stories: A High School Curriculum For A Social Justice Tour Of San Francisco, Elena Ramírez Robles

Master's Projects and Capstones

How do youth engage with the spaces around them? In what ways might students connect their personal, lived knowledge to the politics and intricacies of space? The manners in which schools approach outside-of-school learning includes non-critical Place-Based Learning and field trips as optional material; however, doing so breaks the powerful relationship waiting to be explored between Critical Geography and Critical Education. This field project uses Henri Lefebvre’s concepts of The Production of Space and Rhythmanalysis as foundations to argue for the implementation of Critical Geography into high school curricula, and offers a 9-week high school curriculum to create a student-led …

Paper House: The Revolution, The Disappeared, And The Historicity Of Lebanon, Elsa Saade

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis will be an attempt to reenact events in relation to the disappeared and the Lebanese civil war, with the help of newspaper cuts, oral history, theories on historical writing, memories, and books on Lebanon. As a prospective historian, the writer will be tapping into the internal event of thought processes and meaning of the past, as advised by R. G. Collingwood in The Idea of History. (Collingwood, 1946 ) That critical inquiry will only be at the service of understanding the present from the lens of a self-reflecting inquisitor that has faced many silences in a past …

Handing Down The Heritage: Preserving Irish Diasporic Identities In The Festival City Of Montana, Margaret Mary Walsh

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Butte, Montana is a tough, historic industrial town in western Montana known for its mining, its Irish, and strangely, its festivals. The city boasts countless parades and community events each year for a variety of holidays as well as for showcases of traditions and ethnic pride. Three celebrations in particular, St. Patrick’s Day, Fourth of July, and An Rí Rá, attract visitors from all over the country – and world – who seek to experience the enthusiasm and splendor of these celebrations. So, what can these popular celebrations in Montana’s Festival City, Butte, reveal about the Irish community living there? …

Typography And The Evolution Of Hebrew Alphabetic Script: Writing Method Of The Sofer, Shayna Tova Blum

Faculty and Staff Publications

Typography is the study of language letterforms, phonographic alphabetic characters that, when combined with additional characters, form words and/or sentences to express an idea and communicate a message to an audience. The history of typographic design dates back to early civilization and the invention of alphabetic writing systems, formulated and processed through the literary skills of the Hebrew Scribe Ezra whose knowledge and practice offered a significant contribution within a predominantly oral society. By examining the history of Hebrew typography through the discourse of biblical writing systems and alphabetic design, the article addresses the development of Hebrew scripts evolving from …

The Symphony Of State: São Paulo's Department Of Culture, 1922-1938, Micah J. Oelze

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 1920s-30s São Paulo, Brazil, leaders of the vanguard artistic movement known as “modernism” began to argue that national identity came not from shared values or even cultural practices but rather by a shared way of thinking, which they variously designated as Brazil’s “racial psychology,” “folkloric unconscious,” and “national psychology.” Building on turn-of-the-century psychological and anthropological theories, the group diagnosed Brazil’s national mind as characterized by “primitivity” and in need of a program of psychological development. The group rose to political power in the 1930s, placing the artists in a position to undertake such a project. The Symphony of State …

Ubiquitous And Unfamiliar: Earthenware Pottery Production Techniques And The Bradford Family Pottery Of Kingston, Ma, Martha L. Sulya

Graduate Masters Theses

Redware ceramic sherds are frequently found in New England historical archaeological sites; however, detailed data has not always been published regarding excavated New England earthenware pottery production sites. The goal of this thesis is to contribute to the small body of research on New England redware production through the study of the life and ceramic production techniques of the Bradford family pottery. Their workshop operated in Kingston, Massachusetts, from the 1780s to the 1870s, a time when stoneware production and industrial scale ceramics manufacturing took hold in America. Documentary study of the Bradford family and the ceramics industry shows that …

Lenses Of Industry: The Rise Of Industrial Photography In The United States And The Lake Superior Mining District, 1880-1933, Robert Anthony

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This thesis, Lenses of Industry, examines how industrial companies and engineers adapted photography to their needs in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Innovations in camera and plate technologies marketed to a broad range of people contributed to a steep rise in the number of photographers in the United States. Recognizing the potential that photography held for industrial companies and engineers, a handful of experts advocated the idea that photography had the potential to make many aspects of business faster, and easier, as well as to make visual records more truthful and accurate. Likewise, innovations in halftone printing technology …

Interpreting, Stephanie Jo Kent

Doctoral Dissertations

What do community interpreting for the Deaf in western societies, conference interpreting for the European Parliament, and language brokering in international management have in common? Academic research and professional training have historically emphasized the linguistic and cognitive challenges of interpreting, neglecting or ignoring the social aspects that structure communication. All forms of interpreting are inherently social; they involve relationships among at least three people and two languages. The contexts explored here, American Sign Language/English interpreting and spoken language interpreting within the European Parliament, show that simultaneous interpreting involves attitudes, norms and values about intercultural communication that overemphasize information and discount …

A Pacific Island Collection In Rhode Island, Terence Hays, Mary Conaway, Susan Yeaw

Terence Hays

Collections of artifacts and specimens from Pacific Island cultures are found throughout Rhode Island. The largest and most systematically collected is in the Museum of Natural History in Roger Williams Park, Providence. The items were acquired by Rhode Island citizens over about a 150 year period from the early 1800's to the 1950's. They are from the 3 culture areas of the Pacific: Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. All form of matter including wood, shell, fiber, bone and skin, ivory, pottery, stone, and human hair are part of the artifact assemblage. The specimens (not studied for this project) include birds, lava, …

Wayne County, Kentucky Project (Fa 23), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid for Folklife Archives Project 23. Oral history interviews with various residents of Wayne County, Kentucky, conducted by Western Kentucky University folk studies students. Topics include the oil industry, folk medicine, water witching, one-room schools and banjo playing.

Hiding Hiroshima, Adam T. Fernandes

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Explores the representation of nuclear weapons in Japanese anime and US live action cinema in the 1980's, using methods from cultural studies. Examines, specifically, the silences and contradictions of the selected films to reveal the cultural ideologies of Japan and the United States during the time in which the films were produced. Analyzes the Japanese animated films, Barefoot Gen, Barefoot Gen 2, and Grave of the Fireflies, and the American live action films, The Day After, Testament, and Miracle Mile.

Tattoo World, Agnieszka Marczak

Honors Projects

Presents a holistic look at the world of tattoo. Covers the history of the practice of tattooing in Europe, Asia, and the Pacific. Discusses such major issues as tattooing in relation to the body, authenticity, commodification and meaning, functions, medical and legal concerns, the impact of technological developments on the practice, and the increase in popularity of tattooing in recent decades.

The Seeds Of Prosperity And Discord: The Political Economy Of Community Polarization In Greenfield, Massachusetts, 1770-1820, Gerald F. Reid

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Focuses on the process of community polarization in Greenfield, Massachusetts leading to two distinct communities in the 1816. Social and economic transformation in Greenfield in the late 18th century; Distribution of wealth; Labor supply; Expansion of trade; Immigration of skilled workers; Religious differences; Factors leading to the division of the congregational society.

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 37, No. 1, Edward W. Chester, Nancy K. Gaugler, Ralph Connor, William T. Parsons, Roger W. Fromm, Hans F. Sennholz, Guy Graybill

Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine

• Franklin in Fact and Fiction: The Double Perspective of Leland Baldwin
• Jost Hite: From the Neckar to the Shenandoah
• The Migration and Settlement of Pennsylvania Germans in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina and Their Effects on the Landscape
• Bethesda Evangelical Church in Farmers Mills: Fact and Folklore
• The Tourist Bureau Shuns Me!

The Settlement And Development Of Wayne County, Utah, To 1900, Aldus Devon Chappell

Theses and Dissertations

Although John C. Fremont had traveled through Wayne County, Utah, in the winter of 1853-54, it was not until 1874 that the first herd of cattle was introduced to Rabbit Valley. Reports soon circulated that here was a new land, conducive to the raising of livestock, and in 1876 about a dozen families entered the valley and began settlement. Families that moved into this area came from various places. Each settler came to make a new life, and came independently of the others. In 1895 the population was nearly 2,000, and by 1970 it had dropped to 1,486.

The Church …

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 18, No. 4, Earl F. Robacker, Ada Robacker, Martha S. Best, Don Yoder, Edna Eby Heller, Carter W. Craigie, Betty Snellenburg, William H. Egle, Robert C. Bucher

Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine

• Discord in the Garden
• The Folk Festival Seminars: Crafts and Customs of the Year
• What to Read on the Amish
• "Soup's On!"
• Festival Highlights
• Folk Festival Program
• Folk Festival Geisinger
• Four Interviews with Powwowers
• The First Historian of the Pennsylvania Germans
• The Public Sale Sixty Years Ago
• The Long Shingle
• Quilts and Quilting: Folk-Cultural Questionnaire No. 12

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 15, No. 4, Constantine Kermes, Earl F. Robacker, Ada Robacker, Henry Glassie, Don Yoder, Mac E. Barrick, Victor C. Dieffenbach, Tyrone Power

Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine

• Amish Album
• Look Back, Once!
• The Pennsylvania Barn in the South: Part II
• Folk Festival Program
• Contributors to this Issue
• Festival Highlights
• Twenty Questions on Powwowing
• Moon-Signs in Cumberland County
• Reminiscences of "Des Dumm Fattel"
• Notes and Documents: Two Documents from the First World War
• The Dutch and Irish Colonies of Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 14, No. 4, Don Yoder, Alliene Dechant, Earl F. Robacker, Ada Robacker, Richard Shaner, Amos Long Jr., Evelyn Benson

Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine

• Kutztown and America
• Sixteen Years of the Folk Festival
• Like the One Grandma Had!
• Kutztown's Mennonites
• Folk Festival Program
• Festival Highlights
• The Ice-House in Pennsylvania
• The Conestoga Wagon
• Folklife Studies Bibliography 1964

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 13, No. 4, Earl F. Robacker, Alexander Marshall, Don Yoder, Amos Long Jr., Susanna Brinton, Edna Eby Heller, George L. Moore, Phil R. Jack

Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine

• Stoneware: Stepchild of Early Pottery
• The Days of Auld Lang Syne
• Grout-Kootch, Coldframe, and Hotbed
• Memories of Three Spring Farm
• Folk Festival Program
• Saffron Cookery
• My Childhood Games
• Western Pennsylvania Epitaphs

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 12, No. 3, Earl F. Robacker, Ada Robacker, J. William Frey, Vincent R. Tortora, Victor C. Dieffenbach, Alfred L. Shoemaker, John A. Hostetler, Laura Huyett, Andrew S. Berky, Don Yoder, Amos Long Jr., Alan G. Keyser, Richard Shaner, Alliene Dechant

Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine

• Antiques in Dutchland
• Antique or Folk Art: Which?
• Pennsylvania Dutch
• Amish Barn Raisings
• Building a Pennsylvania Barn
• Water Witching
• Amish Family Life: A Sociologist's Analysis
• Straw Hat Making Among the Old Order Amish
• Bread and Apple-Butter Day
• Schnitz in the Pennsylvania Folk-Culture
• Dutch Country Scarecrows
• The Man Who Was Buried Standing Up
• Living Occult Practices in Dutch Pennsylvania
• Farewell to Ollie

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 12, No. 2, Earl F. Robacker, Vincent R. Tortora, Don Yoder, Robert C. Bucher, Paul R. Wieand, Amos Long Jr., Clarence Kulp Jr., Gary S. Dunbar, Alfred L. Shoemaker, Alan G. Keyser, Christ Geiger, Victor C. Dieffenbach, Richard Shaner

Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine

• The Township Weavers of Pennsylvania
• Amish Funerals
• The Bush-Meeting Dutch
• Steep Roofs and Red Tiles
• Carpet Rag Parties
• Fences in Rural Pennsylvania
• Folk Festival Program
• A Study of the Dialect Terminology of the Plain Sects of Montgomery County, Pa.
• Henry Chapman Mercer, Pennsylvania Folklife Pioneer
• The "Glingelsock"
• Sauerkraut in the Pennsylvania Folk-Culture
• Collectanea