1846 and All That: A New History of Folkloristics, Including Good Things, Bad Things, and One or Two Really Weird Things

Topics and Comment

Italian Immigrant Narratives

Topics and Comment

Lay and Expert Knowledge in a Complex Society: The AFS Teagle Foundation Project

The Teagle FoundationHow Do You Know What You Know? 2-3, Jay Mechling; Lay and Expert Knowledge in the Community College 4-5, Sean Galvin; Teaching to Live with Moving Horizons of Knowledge: Folklore Studies and New Social Problems 6-7, Jason Baird Jackson; Confronting Alternative Realities 8-9, Howard Sacks; Knowledge Gaps, Lay Experts and Feedback Loops 10-11, Sabina Magliocco; Fostering Critical Engagement through Experiential Learning 12-13, Danille Elise Christensen; Documenting Community Knowledges in Houston 14-15, Carl Lindahl; The knowledge gap as it relates to the concept of expert and lay knowledge 16-17, Tom Mould; What can student vets teach the teachers? An observer's perspective 18-19, Dorothy Noye

Review of 'Italian Folklore: An Annotated Bibliography' by A. Falassi

Book Review

Coordinates of Power and Performance : Festivals as Sites of (Re)Presentation and Reclamation in Sardinia

This article examines festivals and related forms of public culture in Sardinia as performance events which construct and negotiate meanings for both hosts (the dominated culture, in the case of Sardinia) and guests (tourists), serving as sites for the creation of identity and authenticity. It documents the emergence of “festival reclamation,” a phenomenon in which subjugated groups reclaim or reappropriate (re)presentations of them created by the dominant culture. Festival reclamation may entail the reappropriation or recreation of a separate festival as an exquisitely local celebration after a larger festival has become a tourist attraction. Thus when a town’s primary festival no longer performs an identity narrative to which the population can subscribe, the community may choose to transform the festival through new activities, or to designate a new, separate festival to perform the identity with which the community identifies. This article examines these processes as part of the phenomenon of globalisation/localisation.Cet article analyse des festivals et des formes semblables de culture publique en Sardaigne comme événements-performances qui construisent et négocient des significations autant pour les hôtes (la culture dominée, dans le cas de la Sardaigne) que pour les invités (les touristes), servant de lieux pour la création de l’identité et de l’authenticité. Ce texte documente l’apparition de la « récupération du festival », un phénomène dans lequel les groupes subjugués récupèrent ou se réapproprient les (re)présentations d’eux-mêmes créées par la culture dominante. La récupération du festival peut supposer la réappropriation ou la recréation d’un festival séparé, qui prend la forme d’une extraordinaire célébration locale, après qu’un grand festival soit devenu une attraction touristique. Ainsi, quand un festival essentiellement local ne met plus en scène un récit identitaire auquel la population peut adhérer, la communauté peut choisir de transformer le festival par de nouvelles activités ou en désigner un nouveau, un festival séparé à l’occasion duquel mettre en scène l’identité à laquelle la communauté s’identifie. Cet article analyse ce processus qui est ici abordé comme une partie du phénomène de globalisation/localisation

The Real Old-Time Religion : Towards an Aesthetics of Neo-Pagan Song

This paper, based on dialogic fieldwork and close collaboration between the ethnographer and the tradition-bearers, examines Wiccan and Neo-Pagan musical performance practice. In the absence of a single unifying text or body of beliefs, songs may actually serve to codify and diffuse a shared set of principles in Wiccan and Neo-Pagan folk culture. The paper delineates various categories of songs, examines their role in Wiccan and Neo-Pagan ritual, and explores how emic critiques of music illuminate areas of conflict and tension within the movement. It attempts to delineate an emerging aesthetic of Neo-Pagan song, one that is syncretic, participatory, anti-authoritarian, Romantic and woman-centered, reflecting the movement’s counter-cultural values.Cette recherche, qui s’appuie sur un travail de terrain dialogique et sur une étroite collaboration entre l’ethnographe et le porteur de tradition, fait l’analyse des performances musicales néopaïennes et wiccaines. En l’absence de textes ou d’un ensemble de croyances uniques et partagés de tous, la chanson est utilisée pour codifier et diffuser un ensemble de principes de la culture wiccaine et néopaïenne. Cet article décrit différentes catégories de chansons et analyse leur rôle dans les rituels wiccains et néopaïens, explorant la façon dont les critiques émiques de la musique éclairent les lieux de conflits et de tensions à l’intérieur du mouvement. Ce travail vise à décrire l’émergence d’une esthétique de la musique néopaïenne qui est syncrétique, participative, antiautoritaire, romantique et centrée sur la femme, reflétant les valeurs de contreculture du mouvement

Employee Management and Animal Care: A Comparative Ethnography of Two Large-Scale Dairy Farms in China

Farm management can directly and indirectly affect animal care. We explored how farm management affected animal care on two large dairy farms in China (anonymized as Farm A and Farm B). We used a mini-ethnographic case study design whereby the first author lived for 38 days on Farm A and 23 days on Farm B. She conducted participant observation and ethnographic interviews with farm staff positions within five departments in Farm A and six departments in Farm B. In addition, she conducted 13 semi-structured interviews (seven on Farm A; six on Farm B). We used template analysis to generate key themes. On both farms, workers believed that animal care practices had improved over time, due to three key employee management factors: 1) organizational culture, 2) competency of worker and management, and 3) an effective incentive system. Our results suggest that animal care may be improved in this context by: 1) promoting a culture in which workers have ‘grit’ and are eager to learn, 2) ensuring basic worker wellbeing, and 3) using animal care outcomes as performance indicators linked to pay.Arts, Faculty ofOther UBCAnthropology, Department ofReviewedFacult