The Meaning of Folklore

The essays of Alan Dundes virtually created the meaning of folklore as an American academic discipline. Yet many of them went quickly out of print after their initial publication in far-flung journals. Brought together for the first time in this volume compiled and edited by Simon Bronner, the selection surveys Dundes\u27s major ideas and emphases, and is introduced by Bronner with a thorough analysis of Dundes\u27s long career, his interpretations, and his inestimable contribution to folklore studies.https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs/1077/thumbnail.jp

Saturday Night in Greenville: An Interracial Tale-and-Music Session in Context

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The Proverbial and Psychological Meanings of “Who’s Your Daddy?”

At the end of the twentieth-century and early twenty-first century, “Who’s Your Daddy?” spontaneously chanted by large crowds at sporting events in the United States drew national press attention. Journalists usually reported the ritualized chanting of the question being of recent origin, but differed over whether it was meant to be offensive or endearing. In this essay, I use linguistic, paremiological, historical, folkloristic, and ethnographic research to show that the phrase could be considered a “proverbial interrogative” indicating social dominance associated with patriarchy and probably dates to the American frontier experience in the mid-nineteenth century. Through the twentieth century, it became associated with African-American street culture and the “beat scene,” often with sexual connotations. In its latest iteration, I argue with reference to “frame theory” that the frame of sports allowed for psycho-logical projection in this and other folk sayings of anxieties about declining power of men in a feminizing American society

Following Tradition

Following Tradition is an expansive examination of the history of tradition— one of the most common as well as most contested terms in English language usage —in Americans\u27 thinking and discourse about culture. Tradition in use becomes problematic because of its multiple meanings and its conceptual softness. As a term and a concept, it has been important in the development of all scholarly fields that study American culture. Folklore, history, American studies, anthropology, cultural studies, and others assign different value and meaning to tradition. It is a frequent point of reference in popular discourse concerning everything from politics to lifestyles to sports and entertainment. Politicians and social advocates appeal to it as prima facie evidence of the worth of their causes. Entertainment and other media mass produce it, or at least a facsimile of it. In a society that frequently seeks to reinvent itself, tradition as a cultural anchor to be reverenced or rejected is an essential, if elusive, concept. Simon Bronner\u27s wide net captures the historical, rhetorical, philosophical, and psychological dimensions of tradition. As he notes, he has written a book about an American tradition—arguing about it. His elucidation of those arguments makes fascinating and thoughtful reading. An essential text for folklorists, Following Tradition will be a valuable reference as well for historians and anthropologists; students of American studies, popular culture, and cultural studies; and anyone interested in the continuing place of tradition in American culture.https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs/1064/thumbnail.jp

Crossing the line: violence, play, and drama in naval Equator traditions

For centuries, new sailors from European and North American countries have embraced often brutal hazing in an elaborate ceremony at sea called 'crossing the line' (British-American) and 'Neptunusfeest' (Dutch). Typically enacted upon crossing the equator, the beatings, dunks, sexual play, mock baptisms, mythological dramas, crude shavings and haircuts, and drinking and swallowing displays have attracted a number of protests and even bans as well as staunch defenses and fond reminiscences. The custom has especially drawn criticism since the late twentieth century with the integration of women into the military and the questioning of its hierarchical codes of manliness. In this study, the persistent ceremony's changing meaning into the twenty-first century is examined with considerations of development, structure, symbolism, performance, and function. A timely study revising previous assumptions about the custom's origins, diffusion, and functions