| Contents |
Introduction: definition, concepts, and theories of a diverse, mobile nation / Simon J. Bronner -- Historiography and intellectual history / Jill Terry Rudy -- Folk ideas, themes, and worldview of Americanness / Jay Mechling -- Methods and tools of American folklore & folklife studies / Anthony Buccitelli -- Applications, presentations, and uses of folklore and folklife research / Gregory Hansen -- Speech, names, and gestures / Charles Clay Doyle -- Proverbs and related sayings / Wolfgang Mieder -- Poetics of rhymes, inscriptions, and recitations / Elizabeth Tucker -- Tales, myths, and storytelling / Frank deCaro -- Jokes, pranks, and humor / Moira Marsh -- Legends, anecdotes, and personal narratives / Elizabeth Tucker -- Beliefs, rituals, and customs / Jack Santino -- Drama, performance, and festival / Lisa Gabbert -- Music, ballad, & song / Stephen D. Winick -- Dance and movement / Eric Cesar Morales -- Play, games, toys, and sports / Fernando Orejuela -- Buildings, constructions, and landscapes / Simon Bronner -- Art, aesthetics graphics, and crafts / Kurt Dewhurst & Marsha MacDowell -- Markers, shrines, and icons / Holly Everett -- Dress and bodylore / Amy Milligan -- Foodways and dining / Lucy Long -- Medicine and health practices / Andrea Kitta -- Regions, environments, and reservations / Brant Ellsworth -- Town, farm, & country / Troy Boyer -- Cities, streets, and suburbs / David Puglia -- Waters, islands, and shores / Shelly Drummond -- Borderlands, territories, and frontiers / Anthony Buccitelli -- Internet and media / Robert Glenn Howard -- Home and vehicle / Cory Hutcheson -- Schools and colleges / Simon J. Bronner -- Total institutions: military bases, prisons, hospitals, and camps / Jay Mechling -- Native and indigenous America / Tom Mould -- Race and ethnicity / Anand Prahlad -- Immigrant, refugee, and transnational groups / Fariha Khan -- Religious, communal, and belief communities / William Clements -- Occupational groups / Nancy Groce -- Age, life passage, and generational groups / Spencer Green -- Family and friends / Caren S. Neile -- Organizations and social networks / Simon Bronner -- Men, women, and other gendered identities / Lisa Gilman -- Sexual orientation and practice communities / James Tyler Chadwell -- Body, neurodiverse, and ability-centered identities / Sheila Bock. |
| Abstract |
"This handbook surveys the materials, approaches, contexts, and applications of American folklore and folklife studies to guide students and scholars of American folklore, culture, history, and society in the future. In addition to longstanding areas in the 350-year legacy of the subject's study and applications such as folktales and speech, the handbook includes exciting fields that have emerged in the twenty-first century such as the Internet, bodylore, folklore of organizations and networks, sexual orientation, neurodiverse identities, and disability groups. These studies encompass cultural traditions in the United States ranging from bits of slang in private conversations to massive public demonstrations, ancient beliefs to contemporary viral memes, and a simple handshake greeting to festivals encompassing multiple genres and groups. Folklore and folklife studies include material traditions such as buildings and crafts as well as oral and social genres of dance, ritual, drama, and play. Whereas the use of lore often emphasizes speech, song, and story that all people express, the rhetoric of life draws attention to tradition-centered communities such as the Amish and Hasidim, occupational groups and their workaday worlds, and children and other age groups. Significant to the American context has been the cultural diversity and changing national boundaries of the United States, relative youth of the nation and its legacy of mass immigration, mobility of residents and their relation to an indigenous and racialized population, and a varied landscape and settlement pattern. The handbook is a reference, therefore, to American studies as well as the global study of tradition, folk arts, and cultural practice"-- Provided by publisher. |
