Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Dailey, Jan (Fa 1268), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1268. Student paper titled “The Dorm Death: An Analysis of a Tale” in which Jan Dailey collects variants and subtypes of a popular urban legend regarding a student’s death on WKU’s campus. Dailey provides a brief historic background on the tale and addresses common motifs present in a majority of the narratives. Dailey gathered stories from multiple students living on WKU’s campus.

Watkins, Ronald (Fa 1266), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1266. Student paper titled “An Historic-Geographic Study of the ‘Face in the Wall’” in which Ronald Watkins attempts to locate the exact origins of a popular folktale. Ronald examines fifty variants of the same narrative and outlines traits found in each tale. The paper includes summaries of archetypes, characters, settings, and facial features of the apparition. Watkins gathered his stories from a volume title Indiana Folklore written by Ronald Baker in 1969.

Drake, Marilyn (Fa 1265), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1265. Student paper titled “A Historic-Geographic Study of Tale Type 990” in which Marilyn Drake attempts to locate the origins of a folktale about a woman buried with a ring on her finger. The paper examines subtypes, variants, and archetypes of the tale and includes motifs present in each narrative. Drake collected her folktales from informants in south central Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Missouri, and England.

Future Of Appalachian Culture, Emily Hilliard, Travis Stimeling, Michael Kline, Carrie Kline, Trevor Mckenzie, Nancy Abrams, Torey Siebart, Chris Haddox, Mehmet Oztan, West Virginia University Press

Exhibit Panels

Appalachia is often associated with its traditional arts and culture, but that does not mean that we are stuck in the past. Local traditions often play a crucial role in galvanizing forward-thinking cultural institutions, involving artists and workers alike in making new futures that are still distinctively Appalachian. This section of the exhibit highlights this kind of work from the West Virginia Humanities Council, Arthurdale Heritage, and more, connecting to a traditional past to new traditions yet to be forged.

How Ghost Stories Shape The State Of Mississippi And The People, Ana Lauren Martinez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many people chose to brush off the stories and when asked about them they would skip around the story to talk about the history of a place. Those who embraced the stories were not only knowledgable about the stories but also the history. They tended to give both sides with equal enthusiasm and seriousness. Over the years Mississippians have learned about their neighbors through the stories that they told around the campfire or at sleepovers. These stories have been passed down from one generation to the next and have a way of not only identifying a place but also a …

The Everyday Sacred : A Symbolic Analysis Of Contemporary Yucatec Maya Women's Daily Realities, Crystal Sheedy

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

As a collaborative effort between myself and the Maya women with whom I worked, who live in Xocén, this dissertation seeks to illuminate the sacred world of Maya women, as well as dismantle the insidious narrative that younger generations of Mayas are losing their culture. Instrumental to this process is the use of decolonial methods (Lawless 1993) and descriptive theoretical premises (Geertz 1973; Turner 1967, 1969) that allowed me to analyze Maya women’s discursive speech, referred to as both chismes and heridos in Spanish, which can be translated as gossip, as well as the speech genre of u t’àan nukuč …

Bastin, Glen (Fa 1241), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1241. Collection of 38 cassette tapes featuring Glen Bastin's regional public affairs syndicated radio program, "Pondering Kentucky: The Magazine." A contents list was prepared and appears at the end of this finding aid.

Mccurry, Pam (Fa 1222), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1222. Student paper titled “Games and Toys” in which Pam McCurry examines various expressions of childhood material culture. McCurry interviewed close family and friends to gather information for her paper, which includes brief descriptions of each informant, and hand-drawn illustrations of assorted knick-knacks and trinkets.

Ohio River Survey (Fa 656), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 656. Kentucky Folklife Program project titled: “Ohio River Survey,” which includes interviews, tape logs, photographs and other documentation of folklife along the Ohio River in Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. Interviews may include a description of belief, traditional occupation, practice, craft, or tool, informant’s name, age, birth date, and address.

Upton, Pamela J. (Fa 1193), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1193. Student paper titled “Black and White Attitudes on a College Campus and Their Possible Relations to Folklore” in which Pamela Upton analyzes data from a survey to examine how feelings regarding race are expressed through folkloric beliefs and practices. Upton provides a copy of each type of questionnaire that was given to students and offers insight into the predominant and prevailing attitudes on WKU’s campus during the early 1970s.

Craig, Patricia (Fa 1183), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1183. Student paper titled “Folk Remedies” in which Patricia Craig gathers together traditional herbal remedies and folkloric practices as they relate to health and healing. Craig collected information from close relatives, friends, and other residents of Muhlenberg County.

Editor's Introduction, Marc R. Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

Among The Palms1, Lee Haring

Publications and Research

Born out of the convergence of intellectual traditions and owning a borrowing capacity analogous to the one that engenders creole languages, the study of folklore, or folkloristics, claims the right to adapt and remodel political, psychological, and anthropological insights, not only for itself but for the humanities disciplines of philosophy, art, literature, and music (the “PALM” disciplines). Performance-based folkloristics looks like a new blend, or network, of elements from several of those. What looks like poaching, which is a common practice for folksong and folk narrative, can be examined in the PALM disciplines under names like intertextuality and plagiarism. Nation-oriented …

Forgotten Fairies: Traditional English Folklore In "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Alexandra Larkin

The Criterion

While the fairies shown in the play would have been known by Shakespeare’s audience, there was a clear difference between the fairies of traditional folklore and the fairies that Shakespeare describes in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In traditional English folklore, fairies were “made” for, and by, the middle and lower classes; their stories were most believed and the most encounters were experienced by these people. Fairies in folklore were alternatingly deadly and wildly helpful, giving humans who stumbled upon them presents or death. In the play, Shakespeare departs from more traditional depictions of fairies and instead characterizes these magical creatures …

Constraints Of Haunted Heritage Tourism In Logan, Utah, Kylie Schroeder

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

It has become common in Salem, Savannah, New Orleans, Edinburg, or Gettysburg, to witness groups of people being led through the darkened streets as part of a ghost tour or haunted history walk. An altered form of commercialized legend tripping, these companies offer guided tours, feature spooky stories, and often showcase local history. However, the trend of haunted heritage tourism, especially in the form of ghost walks and haunted history tours, has spread beyond places with national or international reputations for hauntings and is now growing in small towns whose stories are rarely shared beyond the local populace.

This thesis …

Ivey, Janice (Fa 1144), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1144. Student paper titled “Folklore Study: Paul Bunyan,” in which Janice Ivey collects traditional oral narratives relating to famed folk icon Paul Bunyan. Ivey, who gathered stories from family members, also touches briefly on the claims of authenticity surrounding Paul Bunyan and his relationship to lumber camps in the early 20^th century.

Clarke, Kenneth Wendell, B. 1917 (Mss 635), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 635. Manuscripts, notes, publisher’s correspondence, and photographs relating to the scholarly work of WKU English and folklore professor Kenneth W. Clarke, principally "Bud Long: The Birth of a Kentucky Folk Legend" and "The Harvest and the Reapers."

On Being Trans: Narrative, Identity, Performance, And Community, Chloe Jo Brown

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis focuses on various topics related to transgender identity and culture. Through a combination of ethnographic and secondary research, I studied transgender coming out narratives, trans media representation, transgender performance and identity, and conceptualizations of group and chosen family in a community of trans students, the WKU Transgender and Non-Binary Student Group.

The three chapters of my thesis address some of the traditional milestones of a trans person’s acculturation: coming out, constructing one’s newly discovered trans identity, and finding community. Chapter 1 explores coming out as transgender, and the way in in which coming out is valued and discussed …

Monstrous Maternity: Folkloric Expressions Of The Feminine In Images Of The Ubume, Michaela Leah Prostak

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ubume is a ghost of Japanese folklore, once a living woman, who died during either pregnancy or childbirth. This thesis explores how the religious and secular developments of the ubume and related figures create a dichotomy of ideologies that both condemn and liberate women in their roles as mothers. Examples of literary and visual narratives of the ubume as well as the religious practices that were employed for maternity-related concerns are explored within their historical contexts in order to best understand what meaning they held for people at a given time and if that meaning has changed. These meanings …

Bodylore And Dress, Amy K. Milligan

Women's & Gender Studies Faculty Publications

Bodylore includes the ways in which the body is used as a canvas for inherited and chosen identity. Bodylore considers the symbolic inventory of dress and hair, addressing a range of identities from conservative religious groups like the Amish and the Hasidim to edgy goth and punk devotees. The body is scripted in portrayals of race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, and politics, including such topics as tattoos, piercing, scarification, hair covering and styling, traditional and folk dress, fashion, and body modification. The central bodylore questions are whether individuals choose consciously or subconsciously to engage with their performative body, as well …

Andrew Lang: A World We Have Lost, William Donaldson

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses the career and wide-ranging accomplishments of the Scottish essayist, poet and critic Andrew Lang (1844-1912), author of Myth, Ritual and Religion (2 vols., 1887), arguing that Lang was "an original thinker with a powerful oppositional streak;" reviews his significance for late Victorian anthropology and the studies of religions (including psychical research), and on his work as a translator and classicist, reviewer, ballad scholar, biographer, and Scottish historian, as well as his contribution to children's literature; includes an assessment of a new 2-volume selection of Lang's writing; and concludes that Lang's "virtuosic range" and "slashing keenness of intellect" "contributed significantly …

Hay, William G. (Fa 951), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 951. Paper titled: “Hardin Springs.” Includes description, terms, beliefs, and photos of Hardin Springs and the watermill in Hardin County, Kentucky.

Montell, William Lynwood, 1931-2023 (Fa 949), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 949. Paper titled: “[Student Collections: Watermills]," WKU professor Lynwood Montell’s compilation of survey sheets from various collections by students with brief descriptions of watermills, farm implements, steam engines, etc. from the Knobs and Penny Royal Regions in Kentucky and Connecticut. Sheets may include a brief description, informant’s name, terms, a photo and/or illustration.

Beatty, Beverly D. (Fa 884), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 884. Paper titled: “Jewish Folklore.” Project includes survey sheets and note cards with brief descriptions of various religious and superstitious beliefs. Survey sheets and note cards include a brief description of each belief or saying and informant’s name.

Linder, Gary (Fa 953), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 953. Paper titled: “White Mills.” Project includes a description and photo of White Mills village and the watermill in Hardin County, Kentucky.

Costellow, Ann Tapp (Fa 873), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 873. Paper titled: “Quilt Patterns.” Project includes survey sheets with brief descriptions of various quilts. Sheets include a brief description including quilt pattern, informant’s name, and photo or

illustration of quilt.

Maine Folklife, Vol. 21, Iss. 1, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

The University of Maine celebrated its 150th anniversary as Maine's Land Grant Institution throughout 2015. The Folk and Tradition Arts area reflected the University of Maine's special milestone with programming provided by students, faculty and staff from several departments on campus.

American Myths, Legends, And Tall Tales: An Encyclopedia Of American Folklore, Christopher R. Fee, Jeffrey Webb, Danielle R. Dattolo, Emily A. Francisco, Bronwen Fetters, Jaime Hillegonds, Andrew Wickersham

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

Folklore has been a part of American culture for as long as humans have inhabited North America, and increasingly formed an intrinsic part of American culture as diverse peoples from Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania arrived. In modern times, folklore and tall tales experienced a rejuvenation with the emergence of urban legends and the growing popularity of science fiction and conspiracy theories, with mass media such as comic books, television, and films contributing to the retelling of old myths. This multi-volume encyclopedia will teach readers the central myths and legends that have formed American culture since its earliest years of …

“Persuading The Secret”: In Search Of Maine’S Hermits, Taylor Cunningham

Honors College

I have been working on this project for nearly three years now. The journey feels like a long one—with various roads, some yet to be traveled, detours, and dead ends. Largely, it has been a process of trial and error, as I learned to navigate the boundless, at times overwhelming, depths of research—within archives, old newspapers, photographs, poems, fiction, informal conversations and formal interviews—hoping to make some sense of what hermit characters mean to the state of Maine.

I found almost immediately that inconsistencies and gaps plagued—as I’m sure they do in any sort of oral history project—my attempts at …

The Vibrant Traditions Of Masaya: El Mestizaje As A Culture, A Process, And A State Of Being, Isabelle Lee

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

“The only constant in life is change.” What this old adage leaves out is that the processes that catalyze these changes can occur in vastly different ways which impact the product. In the case of the history of Masaya, Nicaragua, today’s dominant culture of mestizaje is the result of the arrival of the Spaniards to the Americas and the process of racial and cultural blend that followed between Spanish, indigenous and African peoples. But in this mixing process, Spaniards held disproportionate power: most of the changes they imposed were made through violent and deceptive imposition. Yet indigenous and African people …