Wicked Witch Research Articles

The wizard from Oz meets the wicked witch of the East: Freeman, Mead, and ethnographic authority

In recent years considerable attention has been paid to various anthropological writing styles, to the ways anthropologists construct their written accounts (texts), and to the bases of ethnographic authority. Derek Freeman's 1983 critique of Margaret Mead's Samoan writings provides a well‐known and highly publicized case with which to explore the issues of anthropological writing and text construction. I examine the choice of words in Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth in order to reveal one way Freeman constructs his critique and to illuminate some of the rhetorical devices he uses to undermine Mead's ethnographic authority and enhance his own. The examination highlights an important issue in the debate over ethnographic authority by showing that Freeman overemphasizes experience and the extent to which “the facts” speak for themselves in ethnographic writing. [Mead‐Freeman controversy, rhetoric, ethnographic authority]

The End of the Cold War: Its Meaning and Implications

Preface The authors 1. Introduction Michael J. Hogan 2. An end to which Cold War? Walter LaFeber 3. The Cold War, the Long Peace, and the future John Lewis Gaddis 4. Quiet cataclysm: some afterthoughts on World War II John Mueller 5. Some lessons from the Cold War Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr 6. Nuclear Weapons and European security during the Cold War Samuel F. Wells, Jr 7. Victory in the postwar era: despite the Cold War or because of it? Alexei Filitov 8. The wicked witch of the West is gone. Long live the wicked witch of the East Bruce Cumings 9. The end and the beginning Ronald Steel 10. A balance sheet: Lippmann, Kennan and the Cold War Richard J. Barnet 11. Why did the Cold War arise, and why did it end? Raymond L. Garthoff 12. A view from below Noam Chomsky 13. The end of the Cold War in the Middle East Nikki R. Keddie 14. The end of the Cold War in the Near East: what it means for historians and policy planners Bruce R. Kuniholm 15. After the Cold War: the United States, Germany, and European security Hermann-Josef Rupieper 16. The end of the Cold War: a sceptical view Denise Artaud 17. The end of the Cold War, the new role for Europe and the decline of the United States Geir Lundestad 18. The fading of the Cold War and the demystification of twentieth century issues Gar Alperovitz and Kai Bird 19. The US government, a legacy of the Cold War Ernest R. May 20. Foreign policy, partisan politics and the end of the Cold War Michael J. Hogan 21. Beyond polarity in space and time David Reynolds 22. A usable past for the future Robert Jervis.

On Franz Boas and the Samoan Researches of Margaret Mead

Previous articleNext article No AccessDiscussion and CriticismOn Franz Boas and the Samoan Researches of Margaret MeadDerek FreemanDerek Freeman Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Current Anthropology Volume 32, Number 3Jun., 1991 Sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/203962 Views: 8Total views on this site Citations: 4Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1991 The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological ResearchPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Stephen O. Murray, Regna Darnell Margaret Mead and Paradigm Shifts Within Anthropology During the 1920s, Journal of Youth and Adolescence 29, no.55 (Oct 2000): 557–573.https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005118313624Hiram Caton The Mead/Freeman Controversy is Over: A Retrospect, Journal of Youth and Adolescence 29, no.55 (Oct 2000): 587–605.https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005122414533MAC MARSHALL the wizard from Oz meets the wicked witch of the East: Freeman, Mead, and ethnographic authority, American Ethnologist 20, no.33 (Oct 2009): 604–615.https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.1993.20.3.02a00080 John Neu Current Bibliography of the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences, 1991, Isis 82 (Oct 2015): 1–271.https://doi.org/10.1086/356021

Culture and Consciousness in the Intellectual History of European Women

Previous articleNext article No AccessReview EssayCulture and Consciousness in the Intellectual History of European WomenElizabeth Fox-GenoveseElizabeth Fox-Genovese Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Signs Volume 12, Number 3Spring, 1987 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/494343 Views: 7Total views on this site Citations: 3Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1987 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article: Barbara Becker-Cantarino "Feminist Consciousness" and "Wicked Witches": Recent Studies on Women in Early Modern Europe, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 20, no.11 (Oct 2015): 152–175.https://doi.org/10.1086/494958Yenlin Ku The changing status of women in Taiwan: A conscious and collective struggle toward equality, Women's Studies International Forum 11, no.33 (Jan 1988): 179–186.https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-5395(88)90133-1Marie Withers Osmond, Barrie Thorne Feminist Theories, (): 591–625.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-85764-0_23

She shall overcome: Overtures to the Trickster heroine

With the growth of the woman's movement in the 1970s and the new attention being given to children's literature, the image of the woman in folktales became a subject for serious consideration. Feminists objected to her stereotyped depictions as passive princess or wicked witch, with little in between. However, the depiction of the woman in folktales has seldom been clearly realized; her role in the tale has been oversimplified and she has been denied motivation and intention. Particularly slighted has been the consideration of the female in American folktales. Such a consideration reveals that while she is often a victim, her independence, moral conviction and active intellect frequently show her to be stronger and certainly more admirable that those who oppress her. While the woman may often submit to others' demands, her behavior may be explained as the only means she has to survive or as the best means she has to subvert an uncompromising system. Admittedly, open rebellion is impossible, subject as woman is to cruel and even lascivious fathers and to the brutal or merely thoughtless whims of lovers and husbands. Yet, even in tales where woman is dominated and oppressed, she may be able to manipulate the forces that deny her freedom, may be able to struggle towards a selfhood. That selfhood becomes evident in her role as witch and even in her roles as ghost and spirit. In addition, when other tales are examined (not in the province of this paper), the female in American folktales emerges as ‘The Trickster Heroine.’ This paper concentrates on the tales which emphasize the need for her transformation and suggest the wit and wiliness she has that will enable her to become this ‘heroine’.

Forest of a Thousand Daemons: A Hunter's Saga

His total conviction in multiple existences within our physical world is as much an inspiration to some of the most brilliant fiction in Yoruba writing as it is a deeply felt urge to 'justify the ways of God to man.'--Wole Soyinka, translator and Nobel Laureate classic work of African literature, Forest of a Thousand Daemons is the first novel to be written in the Yoruba language. First published in Nigeria in 1939, it is one of that country's most revered and widely read works, and its influence on Nigerian literature is profound, most notably in the works of Amos Tutuola. triumph of the mythic imagination, the narrative unfolds in a landscape where, true to Yoruba cosmology, human, natural, and supernatural beings are compellingly and wonderfully alive at once: a world of warriors, sages and kings; magical trees and snake people; spirits, Ghommids, and bog-trolls. Here are the adventures of Akara-ogun--son of a brave warrior and wicked witch--as he journeys into the forest, encountering and dealing with all-too-real unforeseen forces, engaging in dynamic spiritual and moral relationships with personifications of his fate, projections of the terrors that haunt man. Distinguished Nobel Prize--winning author Wole Soyinka offers a supple and elegant translation and provides an essay on the special challenges of translating from the Yoruba into English, along with a glossary of Yoruba and unfamiliar words. With illustrations by acclaimed Nigerian printmaker Bruce Onobrakpeya. Daniel Orowole was born in western Nigeria in 1903. He died in a motorcycle accident in 1963. Praise for Forest of a Thousand Daemons: A deep tale of the spirit; a classic of the African imagination.--Ben Okri Fagunwa is as important to the Nigerian imagination as Grimm's tales to the Western imagination. Except that Fagunwa's book is not a collection of oral tales, but an original modern novel, one that sets out to test the limits of the form of the novel, the range of myth and its overlap into daily life. Soyinka offers us not a simple translation but a complex and truly respectful re-rendering. With this tender touch by Soyinka, Fagunwa's book comes alive - reanimated in this new language. Beautiful, important and endlessly fascinating. must read. --Chris Abani, author of Virgin of Flames and Secret History of Las Vegas Praise for the contributors: The work of stands at the head of creative writing in the Yoruba language and exerts the most pervasive influence on every category of Yoruba literary expression...He responded early to the need for a literature in the vernacular, at a moment when a new cultural consciousness began to emerge out of changing social conditions.--Abiola Irele, scholar of African literature Among the Africans who deserve some kind of secular sainthood is Wole Soyinka.--The New York Times Mr. Onobrakpeya ...is one of the best known and most prolific African printmakers.--The New York Times

Ideologies in Children's Literature: Some Preliminary Notes

Ideologies in Children's Literature:Some Preliminary Notes Ruth B. Moynihan (bio) Stories told or written for children are often indicators of the dominant values within a society. Various times and cultures reveal various attitudes, not only towards children but also toward life and society. As a Swedish specialist in children's literature recently said, Every age has felt the need to provide new instructions in its children's books on how life is to be lived. Thus children's books do not merely reflect the contemporary social scene and the problems of adult life; the simplified manner in which they treat their subjects also makes them something of magnifying glasses.1 The number of such magnifying glasses in our modern world is greater than ever before in history. An adequate discussion even of a particular era in one society could well be a major study. The purpose of this brief essay is merely to point out a few examples and to indicate some possibilities for further investigation. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published in 1900 by Lyman Frank Baum, is one of the best known of American children's stories, but few have given much thought to the way in which its characters and plot reflect the political and social situation of the time. However, an article by Henry M. Littlefield recently described in detail the way the book serves as a populist parable. The Scarecrow, for example, represents Midwestern farmers, while the Tin Man represents the honest laborers bewitched by Eastern industrialists (personified in the Wicked Witch of the East). The Cowardly Lion is a parody of William Jennings Bryan. The Wizard, says Littlefield, "might be any President from Grant to McKinley. He come straight from the fair grounds in Omaha, Nebraska, and he symbolizes the American criterion for leadership—he is able to be everything to everybody."2 But Dorothy's innocence and her loving kindness, along with the brains, heart, and courage of her friends (which were within them all along though they didn't know it), are sufficient to unmask even the formidable Wizard and to achieve Dorothy's goals—the freedom of her friends and her own return to reality among her hard-working relatives in Kansas. If we compare The Wizard of Oz to the English classic for children, Winnie the Pooh, the contrast is startling. A. A. Milne's story takes place in a sheltered circumscribed world, the easy-going world of the English upper classes, where one lone child might live on a huge green estate with a dozen stuffed animals for playmates, and in a fantasy world where he himself was in complete control. Baum's book, on the other hand, reveals a world full of conflict and [End Page 166] danger where the heroine lives in a harsh grey world with only a little dog for a playmate (but a live dog, not a stuffed one) and can only escape into fantasy by being hit on the head in a tornado. Furthermore, even the fantasy world is full of dangers and harrowing experiences. Dorothy and her friends must deal with events as they occur, while Milne's characters generally frame or manipulate events according to their own expectations. Winnie the Pooh, published in England in 1926, has been tremendously popular in America as well, though perhaps not as influential as The Wizard of Oz. It is better known to the intelligentsia, probably, while Oz is better known to the "common man." Pooh reflects a disillusionment with the pre-World War I world and its leadership. It is a sustained low-key spoof on official bureaucracies, the adult world in general, and the adventure and travel tales of nineteenth century imperial Britain. Where many earlier fairy tales were full of seriousness and took pretentiousness for granted as necessary and good, A. A. Milne's tales are all humor—especially in regard to pretensions. The ideology is that of a bumbling imperfect world, though a generally kind-hearted and not at all dangerous one. Let us look at one chapter as an illustration. Chapter VIII, called "In Which Christopher Robin Leads an Expotition to the North Pole," reveals even through its...

A Modern Devil-Baby

There is a theory that woman first evolved and used the fairy story, that combination of wisdom and romance, in an effort to tame her mate and to make him a better father to her children. The stories finally became a rude creed, or rather rule of conduct, which softened the treatment men accorded to women. In support of this theory it is pointed out that in the typical fairy story the heroine is often disguised under a repulsive and ugly mask and the man is destroyed by seductive beauties. The old woman, the mother-in-law to the maker of the tale-let us observe in passingis too often a wicked witch who gives men bad advice, and, above all, the stepmother is the incarnation of all wickedness. These first pitiful efforts of women became so widespread and so powerful that we have not yet escaped their influence. We had a remarkable experience at Hull House this year of the persistence of one of these tales which has doubtless had its taming effects through the centuries upon recalcitrant husbands and fathers. It burst upon us one day in the persons of three Italian women who, with an excited rush into Hull House, demanded to see the devilbaby. No amount of denial convinced them that it was not there, for they knew exactly what it was like, with its cloven hoofs, its pointed ears, and its diminutive tail. It had been able to speak as soon as it was born and was most shockingly profane. For six weeks the messages, the streams of visitors from every part of the city and suburbs to this mythical baby, poured in all day long and so far into the night that the regular activities were almost swamped. The Italian version, with a hundred variations, dealt with a pious Italiangirl married to an atheist who vehemently tore a holy picture from the bedroom wall, saying that he would quite as soon have a devil in the house as that, whereupon the devil incarnated himself in the child. As soon as the devil-baby was born, it ran about the