Folklore Archives Research Articles

Folklore Archives of Pskov State University: From field recordings to remote access

Here is a brief analysis of the folk fund of Pskov State University. The purpose is study the process of obtaining the folklore collections in an electronic form, accessible to remote users. The article contains the location of folklore materials – scientific and educational regional laboratory of philological research. It describes the objects and the structure of the funds and passport data of materials, examples of passport data of materials, describes the content of the collections. Expedition activity of the University began in 1977. Technical means of recording changed from tape recorder to electronic recorder. Nowadays the collection has more than 1,000 audio tapes. Most of them are digitized. Handwritten fund folklore archive in Pskov State University consists of student transcripts and audio commentaries on them. There are indications of some of the genre features of the archive. There is mentioning on wedding folklore, folk-listed holidays in church calendar. The names of festivals and songs remain largely a local name, with the exception of the Easter ritual songs in the yards, known among folklorists as valachobny. The article refers to over 30 types of folk songs that are stored in the archives of the Pskov State University, lists the genre of children's folklore, points the features of fairy-tales of the Pskov region in line with the types of ciphers fabulous on "Comparative index of subjects: The Eastern Tale" (L., 1979), and also discloses the concept of "supporting material". In the archive there are developed principles of scientific systematization and classification of folk materials. The principles of scientific and folk materials classification were developed. Systematic work for the storage of folklore materials is conducted up to date with the use of information techniques. Three thematic electronic data-base were established. The first is devoted to tales of the Pskov region. The second one gathers collection of verbal stories about the Great Patriotic War. The third database is dedicated to children's folklore. The article describes the structure of the databases and opportunities for research, compares search capabilities at the index (G. Ploschuk, 2003). Folklore Pskov region: Index of materials folklore archive PSPI. Part 1 and Part 2. Pskov: PSPI named after Kirov), and with the help of an electronic database. The access to the database is local. However, in the scientific and educational laboratory of the regional philological research in Pskov State University much work is done actively developing the resource of remote access. The author comes to the conclusion that the stages which folk songs are going through before they become an object of study for the researcher, are links in one chain.

Digital indsamling som metode: Erfaringer fra undersøgelsen Lokaleliv.dk

The method of digital collection: Experiences from Lokaleliv.dk Collection and research are two central purposes for the Danish Folklore Archives at the Royal Library. Like many other archives in the Nordic countries, the archive is experimenting with digital collection via the internet. In 2009-2010, the Danish Folklore Archives carried out the internet based questionnaire Lokaleliv.dk (“Local lives in Denmark”) together with a number of Danish archives and museums. The purpose of the questionnaire was to gather information about voluntary activities taking place in different local communities in Denmark and to examine how local communities come into being. The questionnaire thus focused on leisure activities and social relations among people in Denmark. It consisted of 73 questions, with the last question including the option of writing a text about one’s activities in the local area. While the questionnaire responses document a rich and varied life of local communities all over the country, it has turned out that it is difficult to analyze the collected material with regard to the questions initially posed when the project was launched. Based on the initial experiences and results from Lokaleliv.dk, the purpose of this article is to discuss some of the challenges of digital collection. It discusses conceptual and methodological issues related to the study, and it argues that one of the key challenges in working with the findings from Lokaleliv.dk is based on a discrepancy between the questions asked and the methods used.

The Peasant Poor and Images of Poverty: Finnish Proverbs as Discursive Representations of Cultural Knowledge

This article examines the core idea of poverty proverbs as hints of cultural knowledge in old Finnish rural countryside. Until World War II, most of the Finns lived in a high-risk society with only few institutions to guarantee their safety and well-being. The continuous threat of absolute poverty was evi- dent for the majority of the Finns. The basis of this research is 204 proverbs that contain the words poor, poverty, pity or unfortunate. The proverbs analyzed and classified here were collected in the Folklore Archives of the Finnish Literature Society between the years 1885 and 1950. The ideational level of the proverbs in the context of social history is crucial in revealing the schematic structure that people use to communicate about rural poverty. Throughout the nineteenth and well into the twentieth century, the majority of the population in Finland remained agrarian and poor. By World War II, more than half of the Finns still lived in rural areas and most of them earned their living primarily from agriculture and forestry. Urbanization proceeded rapidly from the 1960s onwards. This paper focuses on the idea of the cultural knowledge and shared understanding that ordinary people, 'folk', had of the concepts and ideas concerning the rural-based poverty in Finland at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. The basis of this article is a corpus of 204 Finnish proverbs that contain the words poor, poverty, pity or unfortunate; of these, 54 have been selected as examples of a certain theme of cultural knowledge. 1 Some of the proverbs were explained by the informants. Therefore, I also carefully scrutinized every explanation provided by the in- formants for any given proverb text, if such was available. The article does not explore what is distinctive about Finnish proverbs but rather, how semiliterate poor peasants, the majority of the Finns in the relatively recent past, described their universe of experience from the point of view of living standards. The

Traditional Dream Narration and Interpretation

Abstract This article focuses on popular dream narration and interpretation, drawing from material gathered in Finland. The Finnish Folklore Archives and university students provided some of the examples, and others are from responses to questionnaires in newspapers and women's magazines.

Still, the small voice: narrative, personal revelation, and the Mormon folk tradition

Still, the Small Voice: Narrative, Personal Revelation, and the Mormon Folk Tradition. By Tom Mould. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 2011. Pp. xi + 388, introduction, appendix, notes, works cited, index. Still, the Small Voice explores the cultural significance of personal revelation narratives in Mormon culture. While not a Mormon, Tom Mould carefully researched and clearly articulated an emic view of this pervasive, important practice and its relevance to Mormon worldview. Mould's study includes ethnographic fieldwork with a ward in North Carolina; access to three archives: the Fife Folklore Archives at Utah State University in Logan, the William A. Wilson Folklore Archives at Brigham Young University in Provo, the Utah Humanities Research Foundation Records at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City; and finally the published records of church members and leaders in journals and magazines. Mould admits to the regional limitations of his research, but does an excellent job broadly outlining this important practice in Latter-day Saint culture and offering interested scholars many avenues for further research. Chapter 1 situates personal revelation narratives within the Mormon tradition as both intensely personal and fundamentally public. Because these narratives recall religiously affirming experiences and act as such in their own right, Mould correctly identifies them as a significant and often overlooked source for studying Mormon culture. Mould mentions, and I agree, that folklorists have too often focused on the fantastical, monstrous, and superstitious rather than the far more common, though sometimes less spectacular encounters with the (55). And that is exactly why this kind of study is long overdue. For instance, three Nephite stories have been a mainstay of Mormon folklore scholarship for decades, but as a Latterday Saint myself, I can say these are rarely shared. Tom Mould's research, then, is more reflective of everyday Mormon experience. Personal revelation is central for Latter-day Saints because it sits at the intersection between their spiritual and temporal lives, in which they ask God for help in their daily lives. With his focus on writing the everyday reality of Latter-day Saints, Mould's analysis is rooted in Richard Bauman's performance theory. To uncover the framework, esthetic response, and culture-specific contexts, Mould relies on thorough rhetorical analysis of these memorates. The importance of the narrator, audience, and historical and cultural contexts that give rise to the narrative form are prominent in every chapter. While speaking of genre in Chapter 3, Mould shows how author and audience expectations center on proving the divine in everyday life. That concern connects to the founding of Mormonism and is itself a central tenet of belief: that God speaks to people today. It shows how Mormon tradition and cultural life are arenas for one's beliefs. In Chapter 4, Mould uncovers the various rhetorical purposes these memorates are put to: instructing, forming connections with ancestors or progeny, and performing one's membership in the Latter-day Saint community. These retroactive revelations in the narrative tradition show how Mormons interpret spiritual and deeply personal experiences in culturally informed ways. Mould notes how blurry the lines are between genres and how overlapping the functions of these narratives can be. The personal revelation genre blends aspects of personal experience, legend, and sometimes even myth. …

Immateria Medica: Charmers and their Communities in Newfoundland

This paper offers a typology of charmers in Newfoundland, Canada. The ability to charm may be transmitted, often cross-sex, or may be ascribed by the community and adopted as a role by an individual who falls into the recognized categories of being a posthumous child, or a woman who marries a man who shares her own family name. Seventh sons and priests are ascribed the widest range of healing competency and are at the apex of a conceptual pyramid of power. Material is drawn from fieldwork conducted in 2010 and a review of holdings on charming contained in MUNFLA, the Memorial University Folklore and Language Archive. It is argued that it may be premature to conclude that charmers have lost their healing and social roles in Newfoundland communities and that in the case of wart charming, and blood stopping, the tradition continues.

Are Folklorists Studying the Tales of the Folk?

As has been pointed out in recent studies, collections of pre-industrial folklore found in folklore archives were made under the influence of certain presuppositions, which gave rise to important biases in the assembled material. For all practical purposes, however, many scholars continue to base their research on these materials only. This article suggests studying folklore preserved in other institutions in order to break this deadlock.

Herbert Toms (1874–1940), Witch Stones, and Porosphaera Beads

After early employment with the archaeologist, General Pitt Rivers, Herbert Samuel Toms (1874–1940) was a curator in the Brighton Museum. Amassing a significant folklore archive, including specimens, photographs, and records of interviews from Sussex and adjoining counties, his particular interest was naturally perforated flints (witch stones or hagstones), used to protect households against witches, domestic animals from the ravages of the nightmare, and to cure a range of diseases. By the 1920s, they were regarded as little more than “lucky stones”, as were necklaces made up of the Cretaceous fossil sponge, Porosphaera.

Change in medical plant use in Estonian ethnomedicine: A historical comparison between 1888 and 1994

The aim of this paper is to compare the changes in the utilization of species from various hemeroby categories (indicating the degree of sensitivity of the plant to human impact) using historical data concerning the years 1888-1994. The authors digitised 8808 handwritten reports, reflecting local ethnopharmacological knowledge from 8 selected collections from the Estonian Folklore Archives of the Estonian Literary Museum. They were semi-quantitatively analyzed according to the sensitivity to human impact of 540 taxa that could possibly be related to the plant vernacular names given in the reports. Although in different periods of time the number of ethnopharmacologically used plants has changed, the proportion of plants utilized from each group has remained relatively same, consisting on average of: 23% anthropophytes, 42% apophytes, 32% hemeradiaphores and 3% hemerophobes. Comparison of the application of the most used plants revealed considerable changes of plant utilization, in which the varied use of the most popular anthropophytes increased and the applied scope of the most popular hemeradiaphores and hemerophobes decreased almost by twofold in one century. Case studies on seven taxa are presented, of them, use of Allium sativum L., Aesculus hippocastanum L. and Mentha xpiperita L. increased, whereas the use of Hordeum L., Orchidaceae, Paris quadrifolia L. and Briza media L. decreased greatly. This research contributes to the better understanding of the cognitive and human ecological concepts underlying the use of medicinal plants in Estonia. Strong increase in the ethnomedical utilization of plants depending on human influence, and a decrease in the use of taxa that do not prefer human activities indicates that, despite some of the population still have access to natural resources and diverse knowledge of the medical use of plants, the majority relies on a very narrow selection and a rather restricted herbal landscape.

Traditional Inuit songs from the Thule area. Volume 1

This publication deals with the traditional song of the Inuit, primarily Inughuit from the Thule area, but also from Baffin Island and the Copper Inuit and Uummannaq and Upernavik areas, based on sound recordings from 1909, 1912, 1915, 1937, 1962 and 1984. In 1937 Professor Erik Holtved (1899-1981) recorded 134 traditional songs: no drum-songs and 24 other songs. Transcriptions and scientific processing of this collection is the nucleus of this work. The songs are presented/notated in their full length - with drum accompaniment and the texts/ singing syllables used - but also with analyses of a representative stanza from each song. The vast majority of Holtved's informants sang long songs in a dominating form type, where certain motifs had to be used in specific positions in the course of the stanza. The present author recorded approximately 350 songs in 1962 in collaboration with the eskimologist Bent Jensen and approximately 240 in 1984 in collaboration with the artist Pauline Motzfeldt Lumholt, also in the Thule area. Both collections were recorded for the Danish Folklore Archives. The 1962 collection has been transcribed and analysed in the same way as the 1937 collection, and other form types were found. One of the "new" form types was particularly easy to recognise, as the first motif in each stanza was repeated at a lower level. The informants of this form type were to a large extent descendants of people who had emigrated from Baffin Island in the 1860s. A frequent occurrence of the same characteristic was found in a collection of 45 songs from southern Baffin Island, indicating that the nucleus of the immigrant group of the 1860s had its roots in southern Baffin Island. This is confirmed by language studies and by genealogy. The most complicated and dominating form type found in the music of the Inughuit was also found in sound recordings made in 1914-16 with the Qitiqmiut, Copper Inuit. Both partial and close similarities indicated that the type was introduced by families coming from the Copper Inuit area(s). This is confirmed by archaeological finds and language studies. Old collections from the Uummannaq and Upernavik areas were also transcribed and analysed. These songs have only basic motifs in common with those of the Thule area. The song tradition, the performance of the songs as they were sung in 1962 and 1984, and the predominant soloist performance are described, as well as the song texts, the drum with its construction and use, movement patterns during the drum-dance and the difficult interplay between singing and drumming. A CD with a selection of the songs is enclosed with the publication.

From Medieval Literature to Missiles. Aspects of ATU 901 in the Twenty-first Century

In my paper, I look at a tale-type which has had a long and varied history, even by the often remarkable standards of international folktales. As such, the story provides us with an example of the persistence of certain themes in popular culture. The tale in question is ATU 901: Taming of the Shrew, obviously best-known in its dramatic adaptation by William Shakespeare, but appearing also in medieval sources. In modern times, it has likewise appeared in several literary sources, and has also been recorded in the oral traditions of many countries in Europe and beyond, thus proving its enduring interest as a popular narrative piece. In Ireland, for example, the rich resources of the National Folklore Archive provide about one hundred and fifty versions of the story.

Humorous Interpretations of Abbreviations as a Socio-Cultural Phenomenon

The article discusses the nature of abbreviation jokes, the possible formulation principles, relations to humour and slang and the way their inter- pretation depends on the socio-cultural context. The abbreviated riddle corpus, (ca 3,000 texts of about 330 types) stored in the Folklore Archives of the Esto- nian Literary Museum, constitutes the source material for the study. The mate- rial has been systematised and presented in the database Eesti luhendmois- tatused or Estonian Abbreviation Riddles (Voolaid 2004). The database pro- vides a fine overview of alternative folkloric interpretations of abbreviations and acronyms in different periods and allows us to diachronically observe and describe the transformation of the genre in the socio-cultural context. The article introduces the possible ways of systematisation and formula- tion principles of the alternative interpretations of Estonian abbreviations (ab- breviation parodies) bordering folklore and language. Folklorists have approached the phenomenon as a subgenre of riddles: the question part consists of a conven- tional abbreviation, whereas the explanation provided in the answer part is radically different from the conventional one; it is witty and humorous, often with a political or sexual undertone. A single abbreviation may produce several alternative interpretations, including the conventional and the folkloric expla- nation. Alternative (often witty) interpretation of abbreviations can be consid- ered an important source of the slang lexicon of group languages (e.g., exclusive subcultures, professional parlance) or secret language. 1

On the Life and Work of Academician Arvo Krikmann on His 70th Birthday

The 70th birthday of Arvo Krikmann, Estonian academician, folklorist, paremiologist and scholar of humour, is a fine moment to offer the readers of Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore a bit more thorough overview of his life and activities. For me, personally, Krikmann has been the most important teacher in folklore studies and during university studies and later the supervisor of my master’s and doctor’s theses. Krikmann’s lectures have been the most systematic and condensed ones I have ever attended, his methods and way of thinking have been appealing, and his work Sissevaateid folkloori luhivormidesse. Pohimoisteid, žanrisuhteid, uldprobleeme (‘Introspections into Minor Forms of Folklore (IMFF), Vol. 1. Basic Concepts, Genre Relations, General Issues’) has been an important reference source for discovering the original truths hidden in the folklore archive collections. In the following I have presented a rather eclectic combination of his academic career and memoirs, composed of different sources starting from Krikmann’s patient replies to my questions (Krikmann’s words are featured in italics throughout the text) about the beginning of things all the way to the previous reports of birthdays and Krikmann’s curriculum vitae on the Estonian digital research portal. Arvo Krikmann was born on 21 July, 1939, in Pudivere village (or, more precisely, in Liinemoisa), Simuna parish, Viru County, Northeast Estonia. In the manor times there had been a typical long farm-hand house to the west of our apple-tree and berry orchard. My paternal grandfather Mihkel had lived there with his family, but when I lived there only small heaps were discernible through the turf at the place where a stove or oven and the foundation had once been. When the lands of Pudivere manor were allotted and my parents got married, my father had some local craftsmen construct new buildings – a barn, stables and byres, and the house. This was where Krikmann spent most of his

HOW THE NAME ARNICA WAS BORROWED INTO ESTONIAN

The name of the classical medicinal plant, mountain arnica ( Arnica montana), was well known among Estonians at the end of the 19th century, although mountain arnica itself does not grow in Estonia. The folklore collection of the Estonian Folklore Archives indicates that the name was used to denote locally growing plants. The impulse for such renaming of local plants obviously came from popular medical books and almanacs published in Estonian in the 18th-19th centuries. The article discusses a particular example, arguing that foreign names were probably given to folk medicinal plants that were already effectively used. Many of them, however, had not received attention so far by pharmacological research. DOI: 10.3176/tr.2008.1.02

Horkka ja uskomustarinat

This article investigates ague (malaria) in Finnish-Karelian belief legends. The author examines the legends that tell about ague in rural Finland. The concept of belief legends is hard to define, as the legends are very heterogeneous in their form and content. As the comparative method is one of the best possibilities to reveal the characteristics of a certain culture, the author uses it in examining Finnish and Estonian ague legends. The research material, altogether 1000 text units, originates from Finnish and Estonian Folklore Archives. Typically, in Finnish-Karelian tradition ague was present in the form of a man. The disease-spirit had an ability to transform, while it entered a human body. During the day it called its victim in a familiar voice. It was possible to imprison the transformed ague spirit, or take it on a horse to a farm nearby. The author suggests that these legends shared the information about the aetiology of ague disease. Furthermore, these legends enabled to acquire basic knowledge about the causes and symptoms of the disease, also providing guidance on how to avoid and defeat it. After ague had become eradicated as a dangerous disease, the legends were told more due to their entertaining function.

Use of Proverbs and Narrative Thought

The article is based on a research of the functions of proverbs in social interaction. Academician Matti Kuusi's characterization of proverbs as signs of situations and emotional loadings was a starting point for the writer to collect material of proverbs in their social contexts. The multicultural corpus consists of context examples borrowed from other scholars around the world, from Finnish folklore archives and fiction, from everyday situations and the media. The use of proverbs or proverb-like sayings deals with questions con- cerning the same themes as in folk narrative research in general: selective me- mory, reconstruction of experiences, explaining and reasoning about the past, giving instructions and warnings for the future, encouraging or amusing each other, etc. The speech where proverbs are used and its mode of rationality differ from logical and scientific argumentation. The point is in the narrative strength of proverbs in social contexts. Proverbs are multifunctional and flexible instru- ments of everyday reasoning, although they may maintain solidified attitudes or traditional modes of thought of a certain culture.

“The proof of the proverb is in the probing.” Alan Dundes as Pioneering Paremiologist

A tribute to my and friend. There is no doubt that (1934-2005) was one of the giants of international folkloristics whose voluminous publications and lectures delivered around the world touched thousands of scholars and of folklore. In addition, he introduced over twenty thousand eager to studies in his more than four decades of teaching at the University of California at Berkeley. Many of them were so intrigued by this popular Pied Piper of that they earned their M.A. or Ph.D. degrees in either at Berkeley or other universities, the result being that there are students practicing the art of studies at universities or in the public sector throughout the United States and the rest of the world. Under his directorship the Folklore Program at Berkeley became internationally known as the ideal place to pursue serious studies, with the Berkeley Folklore Archives serving as a model for gathering various materials from modern oral and written sources. Little wonder that many folklorists traveled to Berkeley to spend time with the master teacher and scholar, who always gave freely of his time and expertise to help others with their important work. While was obviously busy with his own projects, he always had the time to welcome visitors from near and far, thereby practicing what he preached throughout his productive and fruitful life, namely that folkloristics is the key to a better understanding of the human condition and that its practitioners should conduct their work on a comparative and international basis. following paremiological tribute to has been divided into eight sections, a conclusion, and a list of references cited, i.e., 1. Honoring with Three Festschriften; 2. Proverbs as Exemplifications of Folklore Theory; 3. Major Paremiological Contributions; 4. Proverbs as Expressions of Worldview; 5. Darker Side of Proverbs: Ethnic Slurs and National Character; 6. Proverbs as Collateral Folklore References; 7. Major Monographs Based in Part on Proverbial Matters; and 8. Interplay of Paremiology and Paremiography. 1. HONORING ALAN DUNDES WITH THREE FESTSCHRIFTEN When celebrated his sixtieth birthday on September 8, 1994, he was honored with three Festschrifien, a perfect number of honorific publications for the scholar who early in his illustrious career had published an intriguing paper on The Number Three in American Culture (1968). Naturally he was particularly touched by the volume Folklore Interpreted: Essays in Honor of (1995) edited by Regina Bendix and Rosemary Levy Zumwalt and comprised of celebratory essays by numerous former who by now for the most part are major players on the folkloristic stage in many corners of the world. These scholars knew the best, with Rosemary Levy Zumwalt speaking for all of them by characterizing Dundes' research approach as follows: No matter the paths that was to explore, his work was always grounded in the search for meaning (ibid.:6), For Dundes, the comparative approach for the study of is crucial (13), To the psychoanalytical theory is necessary for the analysis of folklore (ibid.:18), and, quoting the master himself, The study of is nothing if it is not an international discipline (ibid.:26). love and appreciation that these former have for their hero is summed up in Regina Bendix's collectanea of Dundesiana that contains heartwarming campus lore, anecdotes, and memorates of as teacher and mentor, whom they affectionately called The big D, Uncle Alan or even Papa Dundes (ibid.:51) among themselves. Obviously was also very pleased with the volume Psychoanalytic Study of Society: Essays in Honor of (1993) that L. Bryce Boyer, Ruth M. Boyer, and Stephen M. Sonnenberg edited in recognition of his Freudian approach to interpretation. …

The Folk Cult of St Phanourios in Greece and Cyprus, and its Relationship with the International Tale Type 804

This paper discusses, from a historical perspective, the basic elements of the folk cult of St Phanourios in Greece and Cyprus—namely, the custom of preparing phanouropita (literally, “St Phanourios pie”), which is connected with the belief that one can find something lost or obtain good luck in general—and the oral narratives associated with St Phanourios and his mother, which seem to constitute the Greek adaptation of the international folktale type 804. The investigation is based on recently collected material as well as the manuscript collections of the public folklore archives.

Rainbow Quest: The Folk Music Revival and American Society, 1940-1970 (review)

Reviewed by: Rainbow Quest: The Folk Music Revival and American Society, 1940-1970 Jack Shortlidge Rainbow Quest: The Folk Music Revival and American Society, 1940–1970. By Ronald D. Cohen. (Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2002. Pp. xiii + 364, notes, index.) Rainbow Quest places the folk music revival of the late 1950s and 1960s, or "the great folk scare" as it is frequently called by participants, in its historical context. Ronald D. Cohen, a professor of history at Indiana University Northwest, begins by summarizing the careers of record-company producers, folklorists, and other participants who helped spark a general interest in American folk music through their fieldwork and recordings, starting early in the twentieth century. The English ballad collector Cecil Sharp, the poet Carl Sandburg, and the folk-song collector John Lomax are all discussed as people whose ground-breaking work and interests helped set the stage for a larger folk music revival. The first section also provides an interesting discussion of 1920s recording artists, including Blind Lemon Jefferson, the Texas singer and guitarist, and Jimmie Rodgers, the first widely popular singing star to record country and western music. The first part of the book traces the connection that early rural recording artists had with what eventually became identified as American folk music. Cohen then presents a nationwide survey of folk revival artists, publications, concerts, and festivals, especially in urban centers such as New York City, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Philadelphia, paying particular attention to the Newport Folk Festivals of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Cohen's book describes the social milieu of the urban folk music revival, particularly in New York City—the Sunday hootenannies at Washington Square, the nurturing atmosphere of Israel Young's Folklore Center store in Greenwich Village, the chronicling of the urban folk movement by Sing Out! magazine, and the influential recordings of key revivalists, as well as traditional musicians, by Moses Asch of Folkways Records. The musical career of Pete Seeger receives special attention, as does his connection with liberal and radical politics and social issues. What Cohen does not do is discuss the music itself in any detail. He repeatedly quotes or paraphrases the writings of newspaper columnists, academic folklorists, and editors and writers for folk music publications such as Broadside or The Little Sandy Review when they write about the blossoming popularity of revivalist performers and their young followers on college campuses during the late 1950s and 1960s. Cohen has gleaned stories from his interviews with key figures in the revival, or, as is more often the case, from publications, memoirs, and letters in folklore archives such as the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. A reliance on the words of others means that Rainbow Quest does not have a strong authorial presence or an overall vision to connect the myriad events and figures into a cohesive whole. Cohen clearly knows a great deal about the folk revival years, from both personal experience and intensive research. Some of his past activities underscore this interest—such as the "Wasn't That a Time" folk revival conference at Indiana University in 1991. At this meeting, speakers and panelists recounted stories about their own involvement with the music and at legendary events, such as the 1965 Newport festival that featured Bob Dylan's debut with a rock 'n roll backup band. Cohen also coproduced Songs for Political Action, a ten-CD anthology of music from the folk revival era, for Bear Family Records. These projects have the personal passion that is lacking in much of Rainbow Quest. Only intermittent stories give a real feeling for the people and the era that is being covered, such as a prologue in which three [End Page 129] young folkies from New York—Guy Carawan, Frank Hamilton, and Jack Elliott—take a summer trip in 1953 to the Blue Ridge Mountains and other points south in search of authentic American folk music, where they have a memorable meeting with an irascible and suspicious Bascom Lamar Lunsford at the Ashville Folk Festival. As a general survey, Rainbow Quest is a useful resource. The book covers many figures, recordings, important performances, and other...

Gabrielle Hatfield, Encyclopedia of folk medicine: old world and new world traditions, Santa Barbara, CA, ABC–CLIO, 2004, pp. xx, 392, illus., £56.95 (hardback 1-57607-874-4).

This volume comprises a short introduction and alphabetically arranged entries (abortion to yew, each around a half to two pages) mostly on plants, illnesses and health problems, but with a sprinkling on botanists/folklorists and on general topics. Hatfield's entries are generally eclectic. Although certain “recurrent themes” in folk medicine are noted in the introduction, they are not pursued consistently in the entries. Perhaps this reflects Hatfield's debatable view that “generalizations in folk medicine are largely meaningless” (p. xviii). Her reasons include the blurring of traditions, cross-borrowing between folk and official medicine, and that “for every folk remedy that we have today on record, there are many that have been forgotten, as the chain of oral tradition has been snapped”. She notes: “The best we can do is to attempt to record for posterity what is left” (p. xviii). Overall, she hopes “that this book will arouse further interest and curiosity in this once undervalued aspect of human culture” (p. xx). Unfortunately, I feel that, despite the author's documentation from a wide range of sources and a clear historical sense, it is questionable whether the book will arouse any more interest than countless popular books on herbs that have appeared in recent years. This feeling arises because Hatfield has not really overcome the enormous problem of distilling a vast amount of relevant folklore into brief synopses. Thus, entries often tend to become rather disparate lists—virtual potpourris—of remedies or conditions. Despite her caution over generalizations, Hatfield might have synthesized her material more effectively if she had pursued concepts and themes (e.g., transference of disease) consistently. She might, too, have been more critical in making British–North American comparisons. Unfortunately, by failing to offer a sense of regional differences, her comparisons lack real meaning. The absence of regional recognition is especially unfortunate, in so far as a significant number of relevant studies have been published in recent years. This reviewer is particularly disappointed that, perhaps mindful of her American publisher, Hatfield sees “North America” as virtually synonymous with the United States. The occasional reference to Canadian sources offers no sense of the richness of Canadian medical lore and the opportunities it offers for explorations of transatlantic transmission, of cultural interchange, and the development of novel folk practices. A key element of cultural interchange in North America naturally includes the traditions of First Nations' peoples; Hatfield dutifully notices these in many entries, but again without any sense of regional variations, or that the amount of medical knowledge transmitted to white people remains debatable. Since Hatfield emphasizes a responsibility to record information for posterity, it is also a pity that, in using the important University of California Los Angles Folklore Archives, she does not provide any information on the informants or on the regional nature of her citations. My general disappointments with the volume and its failure to really grasp the sub-title of “old world and new world traditions”, does not mean that I will not consult the book, or to suggest that it should not have a place on library shelves. It does pull together useful information, some on topics rarely brought together in this type of volume. Even then a more comprehensive index would have added to the book's utility for the serious student.