Sean O’Suilleabhain (1903-1996) and the Irish folklore commission Lysaght, Patricia Sean O Suilleabhain (Sean O’Sullivan) was born in the townland of Doire an Locha (Derrylough) about ten miles southwest of the town of Kenmare, in the parish of Tuosist, in south County Kerry, Ireland, on the 30th of November 1903, and he died in Dublin […]
Category: Western Folklore
Rap Music and Street Consciousness Rich, Jordan Rap Music and Street Consciousness. By Cheryl Keyes. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002. Pp. xxv + 303, preface, acknowledgments, introduction, photographs, musical notation, glossary, notes, discography, bibliography, indices. $34.95 cloth) As a reader whose commitment to the study of folklore is rooted in a fascination with African […]
Chicana Traditions: Continuity and Change Lamadrid, Enrique R Chicana Traditions: Continuity and Change. Edited by Norma E. Cantu and Olga Najera-Ramirez. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002. Pp. x + 269, acknowledgments, introduction, photographs, bibliography, index. $18.95 paper) ¡Enhorabuena, par fin! This pioneer collection of essays on Chicana expressive culture by Chicana anthropologists, folklorists, musicologists, […]
Ritual Ground: Bent’s Old Fort, World Formation, and the Annexation of the Southwest Joseph C Jastrzembski Ritual Ground: Bents Old Fort, World Formation, and the Annexation of the Southwest. By Douglas C. Comer. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1996. Pp. xiii + 329, photographs, drawings, maps, notes, index. $45.00 cloth) Headquarters of […]
Cultural Memory in Afro-Cuban Possession: Problematizing Spiritual Categories, Resurfacing “Other” Histories Viarnés, Carrie It should have been my last day in Santiago de Cuba, but I could not refuse a last minute invitation to attend a dia del medio ceremony.1 I delayed my return to Havana for a few more days and instead embarked on […]
Masking gender: A German Carnival custom in its social context Tokofsky, Peter In his essay on “Carnivals, Carnival, and Carnivalization” in this issue, Daniel Crowley observes that the “most astonishing characteristic of Carnival is its conservation of form in a situation designed to maximize innovation and creativity.” Despite the staggering variety of costumes, customs, displays, […]
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Rumor and Race in America
Whispers on the Color Line: Rumor and Race in America Ellis, Bill Whispers on the Color Line: Rumor and Race in America. By Gary Alan Fine and Patricia A. Turner. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. Pp. x + 260, illustration, notes, index. $27.50 cloth) This book presents an important argument for folkloristics as both […]
Binary opposition in myth: The Propp/Levi-Strauss debate in retrospect Alan Dundes In 1928, Russian folklorist Vladimir Propp published his pathbreaking Morphology of the Folktale in a limited printing of only 1600 copies (Bravo 1972:45). In his Morphology, Propp delineated a syntagmatic sequence of thirty-one functions which he claimed defined the Russian fairy tale (Aarne-Thompson tale […]
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A legend from Swedish Finland
Kidnapping, infanticide, cannibalism: A legend from Swedish Finland Lindow, Johnm Among the so-called historical legends included in V E. V Wessman’s collection of Finland Swedish legends is one curious type from near Abo, of whose seven versions Wessman himself collected three in 1915 (Wessman 1924:244-46). The first version he prints is one of those he […]
Medieval Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Myths, Legends, Tales, Beliefs, and Customs Kelly, Henry Ansgar Medieval Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Myths, Legends, Tales, Beliefs, and Customs. 2 Vols. Ed. Carl Lindahl, John McNamara, and John Lindow. (Santa Barbara, Denver, and Oxford: ABC-CLIO, 2000. Pp. xxxiii + 1135, preface, acknowledgments, illustrations, indexes. $175 cloth) This large compilation […]