Morin, O.

English

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116 Book ReviewsFinally, I myself am intrigued that Boy is called Rupert's 'Necromantick Dogge, hisMephostophelis' (135), since in Goethe's Faust Mephistopheles first appears in the form of ablack poodle; sheer coincidence, or some common source?Professor Stoyle is to be congratulated on this important and entertaining contribution to bothhistory and folklore studies.Jacqueline Simpson, The Folklore Society, UK© 2013, Jacqueline SimpsonCultures enfantines—Universalité et diversité [Children's Culture—Universality andDiversity]. Edited by Andy Arléo and Julie Delalande. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rermes,2010. 464 pp. illus. € 22.00 (pbk). ISBN 978-2-753-51249-8when is children's folklore really children's folklore? Children's peer culture is no longer whatnineteenth-century folklorists put under this label. It used to refer, in quite a narrow fashion, tothose games, rhymes, and superstitions that children learn from one another. Now, with the fieldwelcoming new approaches from sociology and cultural studies, the deflnition appears to beexpanding to the point of including more or less any cultural activity involving children. A recentvolume gathering the best research on the topic is a fitting place to observe this evolution. AndyArléo and Julie Delalande have edited a book, comprising thirty-flve papers from forty-threeauthors, that spans the whole range of interests associated with children's peer cultures (culturesenfantines) today.What are children's peer cultures? If most articles in this collection are to be believed, nearlyeverything children do and say qualifies. More to the point, everything we do or say to childrenalso qualifles. The peculiar inflexions fotmd in conversations between Breton-speaking adults andchildren is an instance of culture enfantine, and so is the schooling of children with special needs;ditto for tween girls listening to the pop songs designed for them by the music industry, for adult-organized May Day festivals where children participate, for children-special guided totirs ofmuseums. Kipling writing his Just So Stories (1902) is notjust an adult writing a book for children;he is 'crossing the botmdaries between adult culture and children's culture', according to LatirentLe Paludier (359). Two ideas spurred this shift in the definition of children's peer culttires: theinsistence on children's agency, and the notion of 'interpretive reproduction', discussed byWilliam Corsaro (59). Many contributors want to set the record straight against a Durkheimianconception of socialization, where children would be nothing but empty vessels—or 'infra-socialbeings . . . passive objects', as Sylvie Octobre expresses it (87). In contrast, everyone insists thatchildren never behave as mere recipients of adult cultures. Everything they meet they manage tomake their ovm.Some papers indeed make quite a convincing case for this view. Corsaro's study of approach-avoidance games highlights how games allow children to 'create and share emotionally thepower and the control that adults hold upon them' (70). Gilles Brougère notes that severalproducts of the entertainment industry (Power Rangers, Cars) are built from children's gamesrather than the other way around. Yet at other times the invocation of children's agency has ahollow ring. One researcher, Laetitia Peifer, having asked children to summarize a series of tales,albums, and television cartoons, comments that 'the child takes from the narratives he isconfronted with, the narratives that are designed for him, to feed his own culture and thuscontribute to building children's very own culttire (une culture enfantine toute singulière)' (276).Overstatements of children's agency abound, in particular when commenting on their politicallife. Bumper riding and the '5 cents chocolate war' in Canada are depicted by Carole Carpenter asfull-blown rebellions against adult order (54). In two studies (by Amy Shuffleton and ClaireGallagher), organizers ask children to administer a toy city. Both papers aim to demonstrate thatBook Reviews 117children show political sense and valuable insights. In Gallagher's paper on txrban planning, theteam of little planners focuses its effort on building a monorail (eventually turned into a roller-coaster), a giant flat screen, a candy factory, a fleet of flying limousines, and a park, called'Moneyland', where money grows on trees. Children's political views, it seems, boil down to akind of enchanted consumerism.In spite of this insistence on putting children flrst, some of the most interesting papers actuallyhighlight the importance of direct adult influence. Camille Eerdenzi, Olivier Wathelet, andBenoist Schaal's study of olfaction in children shows that mothers have a disproportionate role inshaping their children's sense of smell, which might explain why girls (and women) typicallyoutperform the other sex in this area. Their argument rests on the fact that the level ofeducational attainment in a child's mother (but not in her father) predicts higher olfactoryproficiency. Their hypothesis-driven approach proves fruitftil.The child-centred view works best, of course, when applied to children's peer culture in itsnarrowest sense: children's folklore. The collection offers remarkable contributions to thisresearch tradition, most of them concentrated in Part Two (97-169). The identification of near-universal formal features in children's rhymes, a long-running quest for students of children'sfolklore, bears some fruit in those papers. Andy Arléo and Amina Mettouchi explore thephonetics of children's rh3mies, in continuity with Arléo's earlier work. Readers will learn manythings about the near-universal preference of children for groups of maximally contrastivevowels (such as /a/ , / i / , /u/) and internal rhymes (as in eigele beigele feigele). Surprisingly similarconstraints seem'to apply to Sign Language folklore, as Marion Blondel shows in a fascinatingpaper that belies the claim, made by several authors in the book, that children's traditions areuniversally oral (121-36). Sylvie Mougin's study of nineteenth-century children's folklorethrough the work of Louis Pergaud brings an historical perspective to bear on two importantrituals: exchanges of insults before flghts (from African-American 'dozens' to Turkish rhymefights) and adolescent quests for birds' nests.Overall, the book is a precious addition to the literature on children's folklore; although, in thisreviewer's opinion, it might have been even more precious, had it focused more narrowly onchildren's peer cultures.[All quotations translated from French by the reviewer.]Olivier Morin, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary© 2013, Olivier MorinDeadly Powers: Animal Predators and the Mythic Imagination. By Paul A. Trout. New York:Prometheus Books, 2011. 325 pp. Illus. $26.00 (hbk). ISBN 978-1-616-14501-9I have always believed that as human beings we should be reminded more often of our humbleorigins and weaknesses, considering that our megalomaniac and narcissistic tendencies push usconstantly to do the contrary. In this sense. Deadly Powers has a fairly rare virtue among otherbooks of a scholarly nature. It is a text that has the kind of information and insights that willmake perfect sense if you have had the uncomfortable experience of being chased by an angrydog, or, even worse, by a larger and more dangerous predator. Eor some it might be animprobable or forgotten situation. Nevertheless, Paul Trout embraces the fascinating endeavourof reminding us where the primal fear of certain animals and their traits comes from, and howthis has permeated myth and storytelling. This sole enterprise constitutes, of course, animportant part of its charm because it connects the reader with the very basic aspects that haveensured the survival of our species. So, in an ingenious and complementary way, one has a pieceof work that operates at a very intellectual level, but at the same time stirs basic emotions andimpulses in the reader.Copyright of Folklore is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiplesites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print,download, or email articles for individual use.

Cultures enfantines—Universalité et diversité [Children's culture—universality and diversity]. Edited by Andy Arléo and Julie Delalande

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Cultures enfantines—Universalité et diversité [Children's culture—universality and diversity]. Edited by Andy Arléo and Julie Delalande

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