Anthropology Commons^™

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.

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 …

Political And Theoretical Feminisms In American Folkloristics: Definition Debates, Publication Histories, And The Folklore Feminists Communication, Jeana Jorgensen

Jeana Jorgensen

What role does feminist theory play in American folkloristics, and which versions of feminism have become mainstreamed in the nearly forty years since folklorists first became attuned to the promises and premises of feminism? By attending to these issues, I hope to at least partially answer the question Alan Dundes asked in his 2004 Invited Presidential Plenary Address to the American Folklore Society: "What precisely is the 'theory' in feminist theory?" (2005, 388). In lamenting the lack of grand theory in folkloristics, Dundes remarks, ''Despite the existence of books and articles with 'feminist theory' in their titles, one looks in …

Maine Folklife, Vol. 20, Iss. 2, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

The Penobscot Dictionary Project is well underway. It is a project that brings together Native culture, linguistics and digital humanities. On the one hand, we are engaged in on-going discussions with members of the Penobscot Language committee on Indian Island to make sure that our work helps their work in teaching and sustaining their language program. On the other hand, we are building a digital file with all of the linguistic information that we can incorporate into the dictonary. Working with a part of the dictionary that was digitally entered onto 5 1/4 inch floppy disks in the 1980s, the …

Moving Foward?: Problematic Ideologies In Twenty-First Century Fairy Tale Films, Alyson Kilmer

All Master's Theses

Fairy tales, as a reflection of our values and belief systems, are crucial in shaping and maintaining cultural ideologies. In the twenty-first century, cinematic fairy tales have the unique position of representing such values in an expansive and expeditious manner. Audiences must therefore be critically conscious of the messages promoted by these tales. An analysis of the five most popular contemporary fairy tale films, Disney’s Princess and the Frog (2009), Tangled (2010), Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), and Disney’s Frozen (2013) and Maleficent (2014), revealed minimal attempts to propitiate critical audiences in regard to changing cultural values, but …

"Dark And Wicked Things": Slender Man, The Folkloresque, And The Implications Of Belief, Jeffrey A. Tolbert

Faculty Journal Articles

In this paper I examine the media discourses surrounding the May 2014 stabbing of a 12-year-old girl in Waukesha, Wisconsin by two of her friends, supposedly to please the online legendary monster Slender Man, and several subsequent events which media outlets also attempted to link to the horror meme. I consider the implications of folkloric believability, by which I mean the interplay of belief about a tradition’s status as folklore, which in turn has important implications for the believability of the tradition’s content. I argue that an understanding of the processes through which individuals interact with and shape emergent traditions …

Once Upon Our Time: The Ancient Art Of Storytelling In A Contemporary West Africa, Harlee Keller

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Storytelling is an art form that has been flourishing in Senegal since the country’s origin. Traditionally, storytelling was a communal endeavor, oral and interactive. As modernity crept up on Senegal storytelling began to change, oral tradition only partially surviving in rural settings, almost completely obsolete in big cities. I am particularly interested in how Wolof tales and oral storytelling are surviving in a modernizing Senegal. I think that storytelling is a form of cultural education for children and adults alike, and that preservation is dire for the survival of this art. I will discuss story structure, content and the opinions …

Wilson, Alexander Gordon, 1888-1970 (Sc 2857), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2857. Typescripts and a few photocopies of a printed newspaper column titled “Tidbits of Kentucky Folklore” written by WKU English professor Gordon Wilson, Sr. This grouping includes columns that were not incorporated into the bound volumes of his work found in the Kentucky Library Research Collections (GR110 .K4 W542)

Maine Folklife, Vol. 19, Iss. 1, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

Bobby Ives was honored at a brunch held by the University of Maine Foundation to launch the new Sandy and Bobby Ives Fund on Oct. 19, 2014. David Taylor and LeeEllen Friedland established the fund, the purpose of which is to support undergraduate students doing ethnographic and/or oral history research who have had formal training and/or a mentor at UMaine and/or by attending field schools. Students Hilary Warner-Evans and Taylor Cunningham, currently minoring in folklore studies, attended the event and talked about their research.

The Art Of Lebanese Verbal Dueling: The Battle Of Beit Mery And Beyond, Paula Marie Haydar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the living and vibrant oral tradition of verbal dueling in Lebanon, also known as Lebanese zajal. The introductory chapter explores the historical, sociolinguistic, and musical-metrical roots of today's Lebanese zajal contests and festivals, which feature teams of up to four poets who compete against each other in improvised, sung verse in colloquial Lebanese, carrying a sort of dialogue within which they argue opposing sides of universal themes and topics of current social interest. Though time, tradition, and culture in the Lebanese mountainside have nurtured the development of sung oral poetry into its current form and status …

Kentucky Folklore Record (Mss 501), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 501. Correspondence, manuscripts, and subscription and financial records relating to the content, editing, publication and management of the Kentucky Folklore Record, a quarterly journal of the Kentucky Folklore Society.

Kentucky Folklore Society (Mss 497), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 497. Records of the Kentucky Folklore Society, primarily correspondence of president Janet Gilmore and of Dr. Camilla A. Collins, editor of the Society’s journal, the Kentucky Folklore Record. Also includes some financial and organizational information.

Report On My Fall 2013 Sabbatical Leave, Haiwang Yuan

DLPS Faculty Publications

Haiwang Yuan, Professor of Department of Library Public Services of WKU, received his 2012-2013 Research & Creative Activities Program (RCAP) grant from WKU Research Office and a book contract from a U.S. publisher ABC-CLIO to write a book on Tibetan folktales. He then applied for and was awarded the fall 2013 sabbatical leave. With the grant and the leave, he made his research field trip to Tibet and some other Tibetan communities in China. This is the report he has given to his dean and WKU Academic Affairs Office as required. He has now submitted the manuscripts of his book.

Feather Crowns (Sc 1115), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1115. Correspondence concerning inquiry of Tom Russell, Dallas, Texas, with Western Kentucky University personnel, Bowling Green, Kentucky, about feather crowns. Includes family story regarding the formation of the crowns in a goose down pillow after an individual’s death.

Maine Folklife, Vol. 18, Iss. 1-3, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

When we began developing the Maine Song and Story Sampler, our graduate assistant, Josh Parda, worked on the project as his primary task at the Folklife Center. Folks who follow us on Facebook or check our website frequently have seen the occasional posts of a song here or a story there that is relevant to some holiday or other event(s) going on in the wider world. And, thanks to our Archives Manager, Katrina Wynn, the full Sampler is available through Digital Commons. However, we went a full year without actually adding material to the Sampler.

Wilson, Alexander Gordon, 1888-1970 (Mss 445), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 445. Correspondence, published and unpublished writing, and research of Alexander Gordon Wilson, faculty member in the English department of Western Kentucky University from 1915-1959. Includes genealogical and autobiographical material as well as extensive research data and writing on the ornithology of Bowling Green and Warren County, Kentucky, on folklore and linguistics, and on the ornithology and folkways of the Mammoth Cave region of Edmonson County, Kentucky.

Williams, Camilla Reynolds, 1923-2005 (Sc 790), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 790. Photocopies of story written by Camilla Reynolds Williams entitled, “Ma Motley’s Robbery Tale,” 1863?, which supposedly occurred in Warren County, Kentucky. She won second place in the 1971 Kentucky Woman’s Club Folklore Contest for this entry. Also Hays family genealogical chart prepared by Joseph S. Hays.

Oral History, Working Class Culture, And Local, Pauleena M. Macdougall

Publications

Stories of factory closings from many industries throughout the latter part of the twentieth century are common and numerous studies have documented the economic impact of these unfortunate events. In this case study of Brewer, Maine, oral histories with former workers at the primary source of local employment, Eastern Corporation, illuminate the nature of management-worker interactions at the mill. Eastern’s former employee narratives reveal a surprisingly unified perspective regarding the closing of the mill that does not reflect the public narrative put forward by management and business leaders.

Maine Folklife, Vol. 17, Iss. 1-2, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

The Maine Folklife Center has embarked on an ambitious project to digitize the entire collection of the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History. To that end, the University of Maine has contracted with George Blood L.P. of Philadelphia to provide audio digitization services to create a digital preservation master of each of our sound files for the Library of Congress and the University of Maine from our original copies of analog tapes (reel to reel, cassettes, and VHS). George Blood L.P. was chosen from a group of companies who responded to a request for proposals because his company was …

Slavery - Tennessee (Sc 704), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 704. Photostats of slave narratives which relate a folk history of slavery in Tennessee from interviews with former slaves. The records were prepared by the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938. Originals (typed) are in the Library of Congress.

From Roosters To Talking Fish: A Comparative Study Of Hispaniolas Societal Evolution Through Folktales And Myths, Sara Block

Honors Theses

The island of Hispaniola is home to two sovereign nations with a bloody and complex history: Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Their disparate experiences with European powers and colonization and their different roads to independence fundamentally shaped their cultures and current political status. The evolution of culture and the intrusions of external influences and powers are visible in the popular myths and folktales of the two countries. After a close analysis of the respective folktales through a historical lens, the thematic and structural composition of the stories suggest that Haitian and Dominican cultures are similar, but still characterized by small …

Chapter 5, History, In Intimacy And Community In A Changing World: Sikaiana Life 1980-1993, William Donner

Sikaiana Ethnography

This chapter is a discussion of the legendary and the more recent recorded history of the Sikaiana people from the Solomon Islands.

A related website can be found at www.sikaianaarchives.com

Maine Folklife, Vol. 17, Iss. 2, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

A new collaboration between the Library of Congress' American Folklife Center and the University of Maine will preserve a unique archival collection that documents the history and traditions of Maine, other New England states the Canada's Maritime Provinces. That collection, the entire holdings of the Northeast Archives of Folklore and History, is part of UMaine's Folklife Center.

The library will acquire the entire collection, preserve it at its state-of-the art facilities and serve it online and in person to researchers from around the world. Digital copies will remain accessible at UMaine's Maine Folklife Center.

The folklife center will contract with …

Maine Folklife, Vol. 16, Iss. 1, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

British Ballads from Maine, edited by Phillips Barry, Fannie Hardy Eckstorm and Mary Winslow Smyth was published by Yale University Press in 1929. It is an academic collection of Child ballads that the authors collected from singers in Maine. Each ballad is listed with Child numbers with variants used to illustrate the sources and dates of the collection. The authors hoped to demonstrate the richness of New England as a ballad area, to prove that many American ballad texts are old compared with those printed in the Child collection, and to provide a handbook for fieldworkers who might wish to …

Trout, Allan Mitchell, 1903-1972 (Mss 346), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 346. Correspondence and writings relating to the career of Allan Mitchell Trout, political reporter and columnist for the Louisville Courier-Journal. Includes letters from readers, written mostly on the occasion of his retirement, collections of Trout's "Greetings" columns, speeches and articles, historical memorabilia, correspondence relating to the Allan M. Trout Collection at Western Kentucky University, and messages of sympathy to his wife after Trout's death.

Mythology In The Middle Ages: Heroic Tales Of Monsters, Magic, And Might, Christopher R. Fee

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

Myths of gods, legends of battles, and folktales of magic abound in the heroic narratives of the Middle Ages. Mythology in the Middle Ages: Heroic Tales of Monsters, Magic, and Might describes how Medieval heroes were developed from a variety of source materials: Early pagan gods become euhemerized through a Christian lens, and an older epic heroic sensibility was exchanged for a Christian typological and figural representation of saints. Most startlingly, the faces of Christian martyrs were refracted through a heroic lens in the battles between Christian standard-bearers and their opponents, who were at times explicitly described in demonic terms. …