Vol. 68, No. 1 – Winter, 2009
Articles
The Ritualesque: Festival, Politics, and Popular Culture
Jack Santino
ABSTRACT: In this article I examine emergent acts that can be identified as forms of mumming or related to ritual house assaults and rough music. I question the nature of this linkage in terms of traditionality. I further suggest many events and symbolic social actions involve an intent to transform some aspect of public life, whether it be attitudes, conditions, ur opinions. As instrumental symbolic actions, such events may be termed “ritualesque.” KEYWORDS: ritual, festival, mumming, traditionality, ritualesque
Lonely Ranchers, Solitary Students, and Angry Governors: Personal Vulnerability and Community Conflict in Yaqui Emotion Talk
Kirstin C. Erickson
ABSTRACT: This article explores emotion discourses in a northern Mexican community. For Yaqui Indians, extreme emotional states are considered perilous: “anger” and “sadness” threaten community and jeopardize the self. The folklore of emotion—verbal acts and cautionary tales—reveals Yaqui emotion-talk to be an intersubjective, deeply sig;nificant commentary on humanness itself. KEYWORDS: folk belief, Indian, Yaqui, emotion, cautionary tales
The Birth of Fingerling as a Feminine Projection: Maternal Psychological Mechanisms in the Fingerling Fairy Tale
Ravit Raufman
ABSTRACT: Tale Type AT 700, named “Tom Thumb,” is presented as an expression of maternal psychological mechanisms and of experiences that relate to the early mother-son relationship. The underdeveloped figure is presented as an expression of maternal-symbiotic needs, as well as of the experience of maternal immaturity, projected through the child. KEYWORDS: folk tale, Tom Thumb, psychology, mother-son relationships
Review Essays
Reviews
William H. Beezley, Mexican National Identity: Memory, Innuendo, and Popular Culture
Reviewed by Sydney Hutchinson
Bess Lomax Hawes, Sing It Pretty: A Memoir.
Reviewed by Burt Feintuch
Brian Joseph Gilley, Becoming Two-Spirit: Gay Identity and Social Acceptance in Indian Country
Reviewed by Jason Whitesel
Kwame Anthony Appiah, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers
Reviewed by Willie Smyth
Julie Cruikshank, Do Glaciers Listen?: Local Knowledge, Colonial Encounters, and Social Imagination
Reviewed by Michele Hartley
Rudy Abramson and Jean Haskell eds., Encyclopedia of Appalachia & Handbook of Appalachia
Reviewed by Guy Lancaster
Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf ed., Female Circumcision: Multicultural Perspectives
Reviewed by Elizabeth Tucker
Leela Prasad, Ruth B. Bottigheimer, and Lalita Handoo eds., Gender and Story in South India
Reviewed by Frank J. Korom
Roger D. Woodard, Indo-European Space: Vedic and Roman Cult
Reviewed by Joseph Falaky Nagy
M. Elise Marubbio, Killing the Indian Maiden: Images of Native American Women in Film
Reviewed by Jacqueline L. McGrath
Benjamin Radford and Joe Nickell, Lake Monster Mysteries: Investigating the World’s Most Elusive Creatures
Reviewed by Luke Powers
Shelly O’Foran, Little Zion: A Church Baptized By Fire
Reviewed by John Wolford
Leith Davis, Music, Postcolonialism, and Gender: The Construction of Irish National Identity, 1725–1874
Reviewed by Dianne Dugaw
Samuel S. Hill ed., The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, Volume 1: Religion
Reviewed by Frank de Caro
Richard Pillsbury ed., The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, Volume 2: Geography
Reviewed by Guy Lancaster
James P. Leary, Polkabilly: How the Goose Island Ramblers Redefined American Folk Music
Reviewed by Richard March
Frank J. Korom, South Asian Folklore: A Handbook
Reviewed by Lena L. Reynoso
Frank J. Korom and Paul J. Smutko, Village of Painters: Narrative Scrolls from West Bengal
Reviewed by John Wolford
Michael Largey, Vodou Nation: Haitian Art Music and Cultural Nationalism
Reviewed by Mickey Weems
Monica McDermott, Working-Class White: The Making and Unmaking of Race Relations
Reviewed by Elinor Levy
Mark F. Sohn, Appalachian Home Cooking: History, Culture, and Recipes
Reviewed by Lucy M. Long
Elizabeth Tucker, Campus Legends: A Handbook
Reviewed by Steve Warrick
Sue Fawn Chung and Priscilla Wegars eds., Chinese American Death Rituals: Respecting the Ancestors.
Reviewed by Juwen Zhang
Rosemary Radford Ruether, Goddesses and the Divine Feminine: A Western Religious History
Reviewed by Sabina Magliocco
William M. Clements ed., Greenwood Encyclopedia of World Folklore and Folklife
Reviewed by Steve Roud
Barry Lee Pearson, Jook Right On: Blues Stories and Blues Storytellers
Reviewed by Derek Allen Clements
Nancy C. McEntire, Grey Larsen, and Janne Henshaw eds., The Lotus Dickey Songbook ; John Bealle, Old-Time Music and Dance: Community and Folk Revival
Reviewed by Anita Anderson and Paul Jordan-Smith
Simon J. Bronner ed., Manly Traditions: The Folk Roots of American Masculinities
Reviewed by Joseph P. Goodwin
Mark C. Amodio ed., New Directions in Oral Theory: Essays on Ancient and Medieval Literatures
Reviewed by Elissa R. Henken
Bill Mercer, People of the River: Native Arts of the Oregon Territory
Reviewed by Willie Smyth
Wolfgang Mieder, Proverbs Are the Best Policy: Folk Wisdom and American Politics
Reviewed by Anand Prahlad
George W. S. Aguilar, Sr., When the River Ran Wild!: Indian Traditions on the Mid-Columbia and the Warm Springs Reservation
Reviewed by Willie Smyth
Oyekan Owomoyela, Yoruba Proverbs
Reviewed by Anand Prahlad
Film review
Mark Morgan, Director, The Human Hambone
Reviewed by Irene Chagall