Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d'auteur. L'utilisation des services d'Érudit (y ... more Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d'auteur. L'utilisation des services d'Érudit (y compris la reproduction) est assujettie à sa politique d'utilisation que vous pouvez consulter en ligne.
What follows is an exploration, the trace of my attempt to find out what kinds of things have bee... more What follows is an exploration, the trace of my attempt to find out what kinds of things have been written about women who are members of ethnic groups, and to begin to formulate answers to two questions: (1) How does a woman's membership in an ethnic group influence her status? (2) What are the particular experiences of and pressures upon ethnic women? I soon realized that the compilation of a comprehensive bibliography of the materials regarding "women and ethnicity " would be an enormous task. (See Appendix A for book-length annotated bibliographies on subsections of this topic.) At the same time, however, certain patterns and regularities were emerging. I elected to continue with the original task in order to delineate trends and guiding issues within the field broadly defined, rather than to limit my investigation to a narrower topic for which a truly exhaustive bibliography could be created. My focus in this project has been consistently on change and comparison...
The interview was conducted on April 9th, 2011. Included are personally chosen photos and also li... more The interview was conducted on April 9th, 2011. Included are personally chosen photos and also links to two articles which are very relevant in relation to content in the interview.
As a primary generator and transmitter of expressive culture, the family is an important source f... more As a primary generator and transmitter of expressive culture, the family is an important source for folklorists. Nevertheless, our dependence on family often has gone unrecognized and unproblematized in folklore scholarship. Enlarging the scope of family folklore beyond an identified, largely celebratory core to include other considerations of family narrative, we complicate folkloristic concepts of group, genre, and performance. Like any other group, families are made, not given, and are performed in diverse and shifting ways. The articles in this special issue explore the inherently dialogic, multi-voiced, co-produced, and sometimes conflictive nature of narratives of identity shared within families. By taking family, rather than the individual, as the producer and primary audience for these stories, the introductory essay and the articles that follow highlight ways in which family storytelling invites imaginative identification even across difference and contributes to a folklori...
The process of adopting a child can be protracted and difficult. Members of families formed throu... more The process of adopting a child can be protracted and difficult. Members of families formed through adoption, especially international or transracial adoption, often find that others treat their family as not fully real or legitimate. I analyze stories told by five adoptive mothers about the remarkable circumstances through which their children joined their families and their attendant sense that larger-than-human forces must have played a role. Critics of international adoption object that such stories depict birth parents as expendable and mask political and economic inequality. I argue that such an interpretation results when the stories are overgeneralized and stretched beyond their meaning-making capacity. When told within and among adoptive families, they valuably stabilize mothers’ identities and assure children that they belong.
Stories and prescriptive statements recorded from participants in Cajun country Mardi Gras, as we... more Stories and prescriptive statements recorded from participants in Cajun country Mardi Gras, as well as standard scholarly descriptions, insist that complete disguise is essential. However, actual masking practice varies between groups and among members of each group. I reject the claim that the tradition is truly degenerating and interpret statements about disguise as rhetorical moves. These portray Mardi Gras as promoting community cohesion and thus defend it against detractors’ negative characterizations. Alternate masking practices articulate contemporary visions of a changing community and link participants to new audiences not seen as legitimate in older conceptions.
... Where local standards favor aggressive theatricality, as for the Cretan village men whose poe... more ... Where local standards favor aggressive theatricality, as for the Cretan village men whose poetics of self-presentation Michael Herzfeld has articulated in The Poetics of Manhood, resonances between the levels of technique and image lend extra richness to self-characterization. ...
Richard Bauman’s theory of performance has supported feminist work in folklore but proves incompa... more Richard Bauman’s theory of performance has supported feminist work in folklore but proves incompatible with contemporary concepts of gendered subjectivity. Bauman’s combination of formalist and behaviorist perspectives paradoxically de-emphasized and undertheorized audience and emotion. The threat posed by women’s performance is better explained by exploring how performance constructs reciprocal positions for audience and performer, mobilizes desire, and motivates investment in gendered subject positions. Analysis of two stories Bessie Eldreth tells about audience response to her singing exemplifies the power of this gender-informed approach.
The essays in this volume speak to a growing Muslim presence in the West, highlighting the ways M... more The essays in this volume speak to a growing Muslim presence in the West, highlighting the ways Muslim communities conceptualize, appropriate, and utilize social and cultural spaces where they can express personal and communal faith and, not least, announce their presence. The root of this endeavor, notes Metcalf, is a sense of physical and cultural displacement from homelands in the Muslim world. Yet, as her authors demonstrate, space can be as grandiose as a Manhattan mosque or as humble as a Persian foyer, as transient as a transnational peddler or as transcendent as the ritualized reenactment of definitive historical moments.
This first ethnographic study of a folklife festival focuses on festival participants - those who... more This first ethnographic study of a folklife festival focuses on festival participants - those who cook, dance, tell stories, play music, or demonstrate crafts in a public display of folk culture. Valorizing and legitimizing divers aspects of different ethnic and regional cultures is the philosophical foundation of folklife festivals. As a form of representation, the festival, according to its proponents, should allow members of the cultural groups represented to "talk back" to those producing the representation - scholars, folklorists, anthropologists, etc. Supporters of these events argue that this form of folkloric representation is as intellectually legitimate as the scholarly article or monograph. The validity of this contention, however, depends upon an openness to critique by other representers and participants. This study is an attempt to fulfill that critical function.
Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d'auteur. L'utilisation des services d'Érudit (y ... more Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d'auteur. L'utilisation des services d'Érudit (y compris la reproduction) est assujettie à sa politique d'utilisation que vous pouvez consulter en ligne.
What follows is an exploration, the trace of my attempt to find out what kinds of things have bee... more What follows is an exploration, the trace of my attempt to find out what kinds of things have been written about women who are members of ethnic groups, and to begin to formulate answers to two questions: (1) How does a woman's membership in an ethnic group influence her status? (2) What are the particular experiences of and pressures upon ethnic women? I soon realized that the compilation of a comprehensive bibliography of the materials regarding "women and ethnicity " would be an enormous task. (See Appendix A for book-length annotated bibliographies on subsections of this topic.) At the same time, however, certain patterns and regularities were emerging. I elected to continue with the original task in order to delineate trends and guiding issues within the field broadly defined, rather than to limit my investigation to a narrower topic for which a truly exhaustive bibliography could be created. My focus in this project has been consistently on change and comparison...
The interview was conducted on April 9th, 2011. Included are personally chosen photos and also li... more The interview was conducted on April 9th, 2011. Included are personally chosen photos and also links to two articles which are very relevant in relation to content in the interview.
As a primary generator and transmitter of expressive culture, the family is an important source f... more As a primary generator and transmitter of expressive culture, the family is an important source for folklorists. Nevertheless, our dependence on family often has gone unrecognized and unproblematized in folklore scholarship. Enlarging the scope of family folklore beyond an identified, largely celebratory core to include other considerations of family narrative, we complicate folkloristic concepts of group, genre, and performance. Like any other group, families are made, not given, and are performed in diverse and shifting ways. The articles in this special issue explore the inherently dialogic, multi-voiced, co-produced, and sometimes conflictive nature of narratives of identity shared within families. By taking family, rather than the individual, as the producer and primary audience for these stories, the introductory essay and the articles that follow highlight ways in which family storytelling invites imaginative identification even across difference and contributes to a folklori...
The process of adopting a child can be protracted and difficult. Members of families formed throu... more The process of adopting a child can be protracted and difficult. Members of families formed through adoption, especially international or transracial adoption, often find that others treat their family as not fully real or legitimate. I analyze stories told by five adoptive mothers about the remarkable circumstances through which their children joined their families and their attendant sense that larger-than-human forces must have played a role. Critics of international adoption object that such stories depict birth parents as expendable and mask political and economic inequality. I argue that such an interpretation results when the stories are overgeneralized and stretched beyond their meaning-making capacity. When told within and among adoptive families, they valuably stabilize mothers’ identities and assure children that they belong.
Stories and prescriptive statements recorded from participants in Cajun country Mardi Gras, as we... more Stories and prescriptive statements recorded from participants in Cajun country Mardi Gras, as well as standard scholarly descriptions, insist that complete disguise is essential. However, actual masking practice varies between groups and among members of each group. I reject the claim that the tradition is truly degenerating and interpret statements about disguise as rhetorical moves. These portray Mardi Gras as promoting community cohesion and thus defend it against detractors’ negative characterizations. Alternate masking practices articulate contemporary visions of a changing community and link participants to new audiences not seen as legitimate in older conceptions.
... Where local standards favor aggressive theatricality, as for the Cretan village men whose poe... more ... Where local standards favor aggressive theatricality, as for the Cretan village men whose poetics of self-presentation Michael Herzfeld has articulated in The Poetics of Manhood, resonances between the levels of technique and image lend extra richness to self-characterization. ...
Richard Bauman’s theory of performance has supported feminist work in folklore but proves incompa... more Richard Bauman’s theory of performance has supported feminist work in folklore but proves incompatible with contemporary concepts of gendered subjectivity. Bauman’s combination of formalist and behaviorist perspectives paradoxically de-emphasized and undertheorized audience and emotion. The threat posed by women’s performance is better explained by exploring how performance constructs reciprocal positions for audience and performer, mobilizes desire, and motivates investment in gendered subject positions. Analysis of two stories Bessie Eldreth tells about audience response to her singing exemplifies the power of this gender-informed approach.
The essays in this volume speak to a growing Muslim presence in the West, highlighting the ways M... more The essays in this volume speak to a growing Muslim presence in the West, highlighting the ways Muslim communities conceptualize, appropriate, and utilize social and cultural spaces where they can express personal and communal faith and, not least, announce their presence. The root of this endeavor, notes Metcalf, is a sense of physical and cultural displacement from homelands in the Muslim world. Yet, as her authors demonstrate, space can be as grandiose as a Manhattan mosque or as humble as a Persian foyer, as transient as a transnational peddler or as transcendent as the ritualized reenactment of definitive historical moments.
This first ethnographic study of a folklife festival focuses on festival participants - those who... more This first ethnographic study of a folklife festival focuses on festival participants - those who cook, dance, tell stories, play music, or demonstrate crafts in a public display of folk culture. Valorizing and legitimizing divers aspects of different ethnic and regional cultures is the philosophical foundation of folklife festivals. As a form of representation, the festival, according to its proponents, should allow members of the cultural groups represented to "talk back" to those producing the representation - scholars, folklorists, anthropologists, etc. Supporters of these events argue that this form of folkloric representation is as intellectually legitimate as the scholarly article or monograph. The validity of this contention, however, depends upon an openness to critique by other representers and participants. This study is an attempt to fulfill that critical function.
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