POSREDNICI FOLKLORA U KULTURI

U potrazi za definicijskim obilježjem folklora autor preispituje još jednom povijest termina. Osvrćući se na raniji vlastiti prijedlog da se atribut tradicije zamijeni pojmom umjetničke komunikacije u malim grupama, ispituje osnovne kulturne pojmove koji posreduju između stvarnosti i kategorije umjetnosti: kontekst, izvedbu (performance), okvir i sistem. Analiza pokazuje da postoje podaci o postojanju umjetnosti u mnogim društvima, pa je tako i definicija koja ovisi o pojmu umjetnosti prihvatljiva. lako je ideja o umjetnosti potencijalno univerzalna, ipak je njezina primjena ograničena sistemom komunikacije svakog pojedinog društva. To dovodi do teškoća u razlikovanju folklora i drugih umjetničkih oblika. Industrijalizirana društva obnavljaju tradicije, ali iako su pjesme i priče po obliku iste, njihova je društvena osnova izmijenjena. Takve bi pojave morale postati predmetom folklorističkog istraživanja

Meditation on a Russian Proverb in Israel

My father spoke in proverbs, but for many years I did not notice. Only after I completed my graduate studies in folklore and began teaching, did I become aware of the idioms in his conversation. Without being a religious person he interlaced his anecdotes and narratives with proverbs, biblical verses, and parables from the talmuds. I began to pay attention. A few years later, when I visited my parents in Israel, my father, who was a construction worker, told me that in retirement he tried to make a business deal but failed. Yet in spite of his naiveté in such matters, he came through that experience unscathed. The Lord protects the simple [minded] (Psalms 116:6). He concluded his story with a touch of self-irony, and then explained, why \u27the simple [minded]\u27? Because smart people can take care of themselves. When my mother\u27s health declined, he tended to her at home, and at the same time struggled to maintain his regular busy schedule of volunteer activities in several local organizations. Not one to complain openly, he wrote me in a letter the following parable, hardly realizing its history. A Jew has complained before God about his share of troubles. He complained so much until God got tired of him and showed him the troubles other people in the world had, and told him to select out of these any trouble that would suit him best. After observing all these afflictions the Jew chose his own old troubles—at least with those, he felt, he was familiar.

Midrasch

1. Wortgeschichte. Der Begriff M. (bezeichnet sowohl die in den M.im (,M.-Werke\u27) gesammelten Texte der rabbinischen Bibelexegese als auch die darin angewandte Interpretationsmethode. In der hebr. Bibel reichen die Bedeutungen des Verbs , drsch\u27, der Wurzel für die Bildung des Substantivs M., von ,nachforschen\u27 (lev. 10, 16; Dtn. 13,15) bis zu ,fodern\u27 (Gen. 9,5; Dtn. 18,19) und zu ,nachforschen in Sinne von , befragen\u27 mit Divinationsabsicht (Gen. 25,22; 2. Kön. 1,2—3; 1. Chr. 10,13)

The Name is the Thing

During the 1996 annual meeting of the American Folklore Society (AFS), several folklorists called for the replacement of the term folklore with one that would better represent current activities in the filed and that would be free of any negative connotations. A new term would enable folklorists to center themselves in both scholarship and public affairs. In defense of folklore, the present article begins by comparing the addresses given at the celebration of the term\u27s centennial and those delivered at its 150th anniversary. In the United States, where folklore has suffered the greatest damage, there is a correlation between the departure of folklorists from the academy and their move into the public sector and the devaluation of the meaning of folklore

Jewish Studies and Jewish Folklore

Occasionally in the annals of scholarship there are events that turn upon themselves, so that, instead of being forums for exchange of ideas about a defined topic, they themselves become a subject for analysis and self-rejection. Our present panel is such an occasion. This is the first time in the history of the World Congresses for Jewish Studies that the program committee has allocated the discipline of folklore a plenary session, treating it as the equal of history, literature, Jewish languages and other fields that make up the entire gamut of Jewish studies. And thereby hangs a question. Why the long delay in such recognition, and what has changed now, at the Tenth World Congress, that a new recognition of folklore is warranted? Any attempt to answer this question requires a careful examination of the complex relations between the discipline of folklore and the field of Jewish studies

Review of Joseph C. Miller, \u3cem\u3eThe African Past Speaks: Essays on Oral Tradition and History\u3c/em\u3e

The African past certainly speaks, but in what language? Is it the language of testimonies and accounts, or is it the language of metaphors, of symbols, and of structures? And once identified, what and whose code will decipher the message and unveil the secrets oral tradition both reveals and conceals? Ten scholars—all historians, Vansina vintage—join in this volume to answer these and related questions, and to counter the critique anthropologists mounted against their mentor\u27s historical method. The eleventh contributor is Vansina himself, who has the last word

Story Telling in Benin

One of the most significant traditions of African artists is that of the storyteller. This traditional figure remembers the legends and history of the tribe and village and passes them on to later generations in a linking of oral continuity. Modern phenomena are destroying the social cohesion in which this art form flourished, and although linguists and anthropologists are now endeavoring to record as many stories as possible, many, it is feared, have already been lost

Editorial

Nous remercions vivement notre ami, Dan Ben Amos, d\u27avoir accepté la responsabilité de ce numéro et d\u27avoir réuni tous les articles qui y figurent. Notre seule contribution à ce travail a consisté à réviser les traductions françaises

On Demons

The year was 1966. The sixties were at their height, though we did not know it then. It was two years after the Beatles had landed in New York, and a year before the Six Day War. The Democratic convention in Chicago was still two years away. A group of us, all Israelis, came to UCLA, each for his own reasons. Ruth Kartun-Blum and her husband Amos were there, and so were Ella and Dan Almagor. Professor Joseph Dan, Yossi to his friends, who was the most academically senior among us, came to teach in the Near Eastern Languages and Literatures Department, substituting for Professor Arnold Band who was at the Hebrew University that year. This was Yossi\u27s first visit to the United States. I had just returned from Nigeria and had a one year appointment in the Anthropology Department at UCLA. We all knew each other, at least casually, from the Giva\u27at Ram campus of the Hebrew University and from the Hebrew Literature Department. In Los Angeles we became friends