SLFK 212, January 20, 2004
Last lecture &endash; intro
Course will have three parts &endash; the body in its physical surroundings
And different understandings of the body
With what I started at the end, you already know that this is material culture
Like clothing, housing, food
Then rituals that have to do with a human life
Marriage, birth, and death
This, also from the material at the end, is social culture, various actions, something like dramatic forms
Then I stop lecturing and they go and do a collection project
Where they either participate in a ritual and describe it
Or they interview people about a ritual and present the data
For the first part &endash; lecture and section
Sign up for both
In lecture, I will mostly PARALLEL the readings (I assume they can read on their own except when it comes to difficult theoretical works like Mary Douglas)
Discussion section &endash; discuss readings, material covered in lecture, various exercises
This is for covering parts I and II
I am assuming that they found the readings on the syllabus
When they get to the project, lecture stops, section stops
They meet with us individually and do their work
Virtues of collecting in terms of the skills that they acquire
Go back, review, and from that work into new material
Different ideas about the body which are conveyed by all sorts of means
Not just mom telling you what looks good
Or your looking at other bodies
But toys (this is some of the debate surrounding Barbie)
Food
Clothing
Stories, songs etc.
So, if it is everything, in order to deal with it, to study it, need to break up into smaller, more manageable units
Standard folklore division &endash; material, social, verbal culture
Objects, actions, words
Give examples
As we look at these, a couple of things to notice
These are things that relate to the human being and his or her body
Personal space is very small
Things a quite intimate
You interact with all sorts of people
Soviet era and grannies telling you what to do
People on the metro now
How many people live in the house in Iavorivka at any one time
Ideas of kinship &endash; how far notion of "brother," "sister" extends in terms of blood kin
Kin by ritual action
Midwife who delivers baby becomes a "grandmother"
Wet nurse becomes a "milk mother"
Relationship to rest of family
Kin by adoption &endash; nazvannyi brat, sestra
Little kids allowed to use kin names for ANYONE and thus seek/insure that these individuals will treat them in a manner appropriate to kin = be nice to them
Openings are protected
In house &endash; orientation of house
Decoration
Icon corner
On clothing &endash; both female and male
Fear of strangers &endash; icon corner in the house and how it arranged toward the door
Treatment of stranger &endash; give food under icon corner
Tied with rushnyk across heart
Contradiction between intimacy and extension of kin and fear of strangers
This can be restated as the inside/outside distinction
While you are on the outside, you are horrible
Once allowed inside and accepted, you are like kin
Any social parameter that is important will often be articulated in opposites and extremes
American ideas of wealth
It is very good and desirable
But the commercial where the CEO wears jeans and sneakers
Early Russian Vogue or the way Novye Russkie dress in designer
Versus US rich in designer clothes
Male/female distinctions are important
In clothing
Male and female areas in house
Male and female work
If you see certain patterns in material culture
Then you check verbal, social culture
If you find the same patterns
Then this is a CORE belief
The three areas are useful for making the material manageable, but there is not only a great deal of correspondence, but of overlap
Ritual towels are material culture &endash; but, of course, used in ritual, like wedding and funeral
Bread is material culture &endash; also used in wedding and funeral
Where rituals take place in the house is important
Baby and stove
Laying out deceased in icon corner
What is folklore?
When you look at material culture, there are all sorts of houses and clothing and food
A Lean Cuisine dinner is not folk food
What I live in is not a folk house and neither are the UVa dorms
The clothes we all are wearing are not folk clothes
Though many folk principles apply to them &endash; outside of the principle of composition
Similarly, certain actions are ritual and others are not, even if they are structured and repetitive
Certain songs are folk songs, but what Brittney Spears sings is not
Stories about courtship are folk stories but reports about Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are not
What is the difference and how can you tell?
Five criteria of folklore
Traditional
Anonymous
Exists in variants
Transmitted orally or by custom and practice
Tends to be formularized
What does this mean?
Lets take material culture again
Traditional &endash; all houses in Central Ukraine, until you get to around Poltava, are painted white and blue
Most embroidery is red and black on white
Grannies with ass kerchiefs
Pins over heart
Anonymous &endash; you know who built Did Vasyl's and Baba Polia's house
You know who built Baba San'ka's house
But you have no idea who came up with the idea for this house type
You know who made a particular dress, but not who started this dress type
You know who told you a particular joke &endash; but not who made up the joke in the first place
And many jokes are VERY OLD jokes reworked to fit the contemporary situation
Jewish Samurai