Books for next semester's courses

Again: this is one of those posts that I started and then got tired. Here are my books for Winter 2007, with amazon links.

For Folklore 113: Introduction to Folklore II

• Elliott Oring, ed. Folk Groups and Foklore Genres: An Introduction
• Elliott Oring, ed. Folk Groups and Folklore Genres: A Reader

For Folklore 267: Food and Culture

• Lucy Long, ed. Culinary Tourism
• Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik, eds. Food and Culture: A Reader

For Folklore 311: Gender in Traditional and Informal Culture

• Simon Bronner, ed. Manly Traditions: The Folk Roots of American Masculinities
• Pauline Greenhill and Diane Tye. eds. Undisciplined Women: Tradition and Culture in Canada
• Joan Newlon Radner, ed. Feminist Messages: Coding in Women's Folk Culture

Class the nineteenth: What an essay is

Simply put, an essay is an effort (Fr. essayer) at establishing an argument about a particular something. It locates the argument within a larger tradition (informing influences) and in relation to similar arguments (parallel examples); it offers new evidence (in folklore, we are assuming a new study with primary data based on fieldwork, but in other disciplines we refer either to (a) primary data based on some other discipline-related means of data collection or (b) a confluence of perspectives which in concert offer a new perspective); it connects the new evidence to the larger tradition, allowing for either reaffirmation or challenge to what the tradition tells us; and it allows for a personal voice to speak both from and to that larger tradition, occasioned by the privileged perspective of being an 'expert' on the subject, even if the subject about which one is expert is a fairly narrow slice of the universe.

Because you are the producer of primary data, you are the (or 'an') expert on whichever topic you have studied: someone has likely done a study on something similar before, but as you look at a distinct occurrence of that phenomenon, you have a particular contribution to make. A gajillion people have studied Halloween traditions before you, but they have not looked at Halloween, 2006, Glace Bay (for example).

Today we tried to make this general argument. Because so far you have

1. looked around for an aspect of 'tradition' from your life/environment;
2. read up on similar situations;
3. read up on local context;
4. framed a question;
5. plotted a course of research;
6. thought through the ethical implications of said research;
7. did the original research; and
8. have begun the process of mining and organising said research,

you are now in the position to write up your findings. A week to do an essay might not seem like much time, but all your little ducks are in a row: you have been thinking about this for two months now, so it's practically just typing.

Then we spent a while talking about citations: I refer you to any style guide for reference.

Some more very basic rules to doing an essay (very basic, nothing of insight, but pure 'this is sound advice which you might not like much but which every prof you will ever have will appreciate someone having told you and telling you early'):

• double space;
• type;
• 12 point font;
• clear font (Arial, Times (New Roman), Helvetica, Courier, etc.); and
• black ink.
• Take advantage of your word processor's spell check option, and do it slowly (don't simply accept the first option that comes along without thinking it through. See Jon Stewart's appendix to Naked Pictures of Famous People for a list of what Microsoft Word offers as possible corrections.
• Avoid exclamation points, italics or bold or colour or uppercase for emphasis, etc. This rule may be slightly disregarded: on occasion, an exclamation point or italics (only) can be used as a rhetorical device, but I caution you to do so judiciously.
• Be informed about your readership, even if it is a 'pretend' readership. You should be aiming to communicate your findings to a first-year university, North American, Canadian, Cape Breton-familiar but not -centric audience, so you should expect a certain level of 'common sense'. Provide context and definitions (your own are fine: this isn't an 'according to Webster's' thing) for terms that you can reasonably expect people not to know, and skip definitions for terms that you can reasonably expect people to know. (It is not unreasonable to assume that your reader knows what cheerleading is, but it would be unreasonable to assume that your reader has an understanding of Sydney-area high school rivalries.)

More tomorrow:

P.S. DaVinci Code sucks major (insert offensive body part here) for reasons too numerous to even begin the process of conceiving of a way to record them. However:

Behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people, except at Columbia Pictures, where the power lunches won’t even be half-started. The Catholic Church has nothing to fear from this film. It is not just tripe. It is self-evident, spirit-lowering tripe that could not conceivably cause a single member of the flock to turn aside from the faith. Meanwhile, art historians can sleep easy once more, while fans of the book, which has finally been exposed for the pompous fraud that it is, will be shaken from their trance. In fact, the sole beneficiaries of the entire fiasco will be members of Opus Dei, some of whom practice mortification of the flesh. From now on, such penance will be simple—no lashings, no spiked cuff around the thigh. Just the price of a movie ticket, and two and a half hours of pain. [Anthony Lane, The New Yorker 29 May, 2006]

Classes seventeen and eighteen: Music and Dance

This is Emily, the one who went to the vet. As I write this, she is recovering from a weekend during which my wife's parents were visiting, bringing along with them their dog, named Puppy. (I bet there's a great story behind that one.) She is fine now, but was not happy.

But enough about the world's awesomest cat, we are talking about music and dance.

Very simply, when one moves from the observance of (seemingly) straightforward performances - straightforward only in terms of a self-evident primary media for data collection - to more complex ones, one needs to expand one's repertoire of media and admit (which is not a big admission) that one needs a variety of media to make sense of it.

Take dance, and ethnochoreography (*sigh*). Photography, ethnography, interview: they would get a flavour of things, but wouldn't it be better to (a) have a medium that allows for both sound and vision recording of homeostatic phenomena (they do: film) and (b) have a medium for communicating movement on the page (they do: dance transcription)?

The lesson that can be learned from this is twofold:

1. the ability to study a phenomena is predicated on the access to a technology to research it properly. Complaining about nineteenth century folklorists' ambivalent attitudes to dance from a twenty-first century perspective is akin to deriding eighteenth century studies of epidemics and the concept of 'bad air': they didn't have microscopes, so cut them some frigging slack.
2. all human performance is complex: no medium exhausts one aspect of it. But the narrowing of focus to one aspect of it can nevertheless be fruitful if one is self-aware of this limiting.

The next aspect that 'separates' contemporary music and dance study - the staked claim domain of ethno- types - is the centrality of participant observation, where you not only observe and interact with the performers, you become one yourself. Only by doing are you really learning.

*hem*

Participant observation - as folklorists understand it - is the basis of all contemporary folklore scholarship. It is the involvement of the self within the community and the slow path of discovering what it is to be a member. When it comes to music and dance, the folkloristic approach is to learn what it is to be, shall we say, an audience. If that involves clapping or singing along, shaking one's ass, whatever, it is fine. But it is not trying to 'be' a tradition bearer. That is - qu'est-ce que c'est la mot juste? ah, oui - hippie liberal white bread suburban bullshit.

With that we take a deep breath and leave the topic for the day.

For those who want to know...

... the ethics approval process has gone through, and everyone has a honking big thumbs up. As I said in class, I think the process needs to be streamlined a nudge. If anyone has any ideas, we could - collaboratively - work towards proposing something to the board that makes things go better.

And my cat had a check up yesterday, and is in perfect health.

A good question from someone who is actually doing the assignment in an almost timely manner

Shera-Lea writes:

Hey Ian,
So i am having some problems with my tape recorder thing and i went to seeif i could borrow one from the school, so i could redo my interview. Butwhen i went and asked about it i was told that students couldn't rent themout on our own. I went to the one that is kind of by your office, so i waswondering if i went to the right place or not. I asked the guy but i think iconfused him(apparently i am quite good at that), and now i am confused. Soi was wondering what the procedures were again for renting out equipment?

Okey-dokey. You first need to go to see Chris Reid: He looks like this.:


He's in the NRC wing. Look at this remarkably useless map:



Do you see the crinkly looking building to the left, just off of A-Wing? That's it. Imagine yourself walking from the cafeteria to the registrar's office without going outside. Walk past the labs but, instead of turning left at that slopy corridor where there's always boxes waiting to be recycled, keep going straight, down a rather opulent corridor that looks like money not spent on liberal arts, to the very end (past the unused labs). Turn right (you can't turn left) and keep going through the set of doors that force you to turn right again, then left at the t-junction.

There's the Alexander Graham Bell centre, then the next thing to your left (once you get through a set of doors) is a non-descript looking corridor with three doors off of it. Music will be blaring from the one in front (the one in left will have a nice lady working on a journal, the one at right is a closet.

Knock on the door, say you are my student, and you need equipment.

TADA!

(Here's a deep question: I quote Shera-Lea directly, without changing spelling, etc. I have taken an informal communication to me and recontextualised it into a slightly more formal context. Given our conversations on how we should render speech into something that (a) is respectful of the vernacularity of the speech but (b) is respectful of the presumed intent of the speaker, what should I do with informal text?)

Class the sixteenth: Panic attack, explanation, and apology

I discovered something about myself this summer. I went to Loiusbourg because, hey, I heard good things. And there are nice things to see there, and the exhbit on how Louisbourg came to be is interesting, and all that sort of thing. But it was one of the worst days of my recent life, because I discovered that I suffer from panic attacks.

I am more or less allergic to historical re-enactment.

At the gate, we were stopped by a guard, and forced into conversation. Afterwards, it hurt so much that I had to sit down by the seawall with my head between my legs. The entire day was spent trying to thus avoid people talking old-timey, which is pretty fucking impossible when you are at Louisbourg. I went into another spiral when, at lunch (six bucks for bread and cheese!!), I was informed that "Yes, the King accepts credit cards."

WTF?

It was bad enough sitting next to strangers at communal tables (that's how they did it in the old days) and eating the faux-Acadian crap they serve (I don't eat the vrai-Acadian stuff in the real world, where it's free) because ye old ATM was experiencing difficulties and I had to eat in the restaurant as opposed to prithee-may-I-partake-in-a-bag-of-chips-and-a-diet-coke-nay-with-the-British-threatening-to-attack-we-do-not-take-Interac snack shop next door, but for Jebus's sake, drop the act.

So I suffer from attacks, like my dear departed dad. I can handle weird amounts of pressure (from the committees that the satanic adminstrators sit me on, from chairs, even from the ungrateful students over whose education I sweat), but embarassment, mine or someone else's, I can no longer handle well.

Which explains why I had to sit down. I was actually very close to coming apart completely. It is always awkward when you are in a position of some authority and you make a mistake. It is doubly awful when the students who so rightly laugh when they see that authority blown and the charade busted move from ridicule to embarassment to outright concern.

I am very sorry.

So, learn this, if you learned nothing else last class (which, I know, you didn't): when using equipment, take time to test it first to make sure (a) it's working and (b) you know what you're doing. If I had picked it up even a half hour before everything would have gone fine. I've decided to blame someone else. I haven't picked a victim yet, but I think I will blame the fairies.

Fourteenth and Fifteenth classes: Interviewing, Transcribing

By now, you should know the drill: everything one can say about photography and ethnography one can say about interviewing: it is doing what you do in your day to day world anyway, only a bit more structured.

An interview is a conversation: like most conversations (as opposed to idle chit chat, which is swell but something different) it has a point. You are talking about something. But it is as much an opportunity for communion as it is an instrument in data mining (perhaps more the former than the latter). So you don't go into it with a strict "must get answers to these questions" mentality. It is not an oral questionnaire. No matter what ethics boards want to tell you to do, you can;t predict the course of an interview any more than you can predict the course of a conversation. You can make intelligent guesses, and have intelligent expectations, but it isn't rocket science (it's harder than rocket science, because you are dealing with the trajectories of human interaction (see how I did that with the word 'trajectories'? I'm balls to the wall clever sometimes)).

But you know this already, don't you? Because you all slavishly read the Statement of the American Folklore Society On Research with Human Subjects, particularly where it says:

On occasion, a folklorist may employ a questionnaire or other survey instrument at the initial stages of research, but these are rapidly abandoned in favor of close conversation, careful observation, and prolonged participation.

and

There is almost no folklore research that can be conducted using a pre-formulated set of questions. As folklorists learn more about the traditions that are the focus of their research, the kinds of questions they ask will necessarily change. Each response provokes new and unanticipated questions, each question leads to new areas of inquiry. In folklore and other ethnographic research, the questions to be asked cannot be known or formulated in advance. In many respects, folklore research is a type of investigative journalism; but it is deeper, longer lasting, and more responsible: the bonds established between the researchers and community members are more personal and enduring.

and

Folklore research presents no more risk to human subjects than any sustained, deep, and wide-ranging conversation about cultural beliefs and social practices.

So that's that.

After the interview is the transcription. You will all have read Ives (on reserve at the library). And, based on the exercise in class, creating a transcription is a subjective exercise: no two will be exactly the same, and each will depend not so much on the relative strengths and weaknesses of the transcriber as on the way they choose to interpret the recording. How literal one is in terms of trying to capture accent, how one uses punctuation to express pauses, changes in thought and idea, etc., are as much framing devices as what one chooses to write down in the ethnography and what one puts in the picture in photography.

Get the interview assignment handout here.

Eleventh and Thirteenth classes: Ethnography

Ethnography is a weird thing. It is fieldwork at its most basic, on one level. You go somewhere and observe. It is highly subjective, but over time one gets to see patterns. What you are creating is a primary document that can be later translated into something more textual: it is a record of your impressions and observations there.

The idea I try to put across is that you are doing what you do normally: you go into a space and try and figure out what is going on and how you should operate. To do ethnography, reflect on what you do when you go to a new place for the first time. You tend to hang back and check things out a little bit, get the lay of the land, see what happens and where, see if you can figure out what you should and shouldn't, can and can't do.

The ethnographer does the same thing, albeit with the intent of translating that experience into a more formal text that will be read by an undisclosed third person.

With that in mind, we went out boldly into the world (the cafeteria) and as a group recorded what happened. Each person was seemingly dissatisfied with the activity (and with the entire exercise) but, when we got back, it was weird to hear what other people had seen, how they created shorthand for it, and so on.

In the middle of everything I went to Milwaukee for the annual meeting of the American Folklore Society. So here are three cool things from there:

1. The Onion started there, and they give out free copies.
2. Lots of German's (Budweiser, Schlitz, etc.) so ate German food.
3. Not a huge amount of Africans (at least not compared with Germans) but that doesn't stop one from eating at African Hut and ordering the Mandingo Warrior Platter. (Get menu here.)

Get the ethnography assignment handout here.

Ninth and Tenth classes: Margaretbennettpaloozathon '06

If only all irruptions in the schedule were as pleasurable as this one. Margaret Bennett, that Hebridean firecracker, entered our lives for a week of things.

First she came to our class not to hit on Clare, as the picture may imply (oh, see last post) but to talk about some of the practical aspects of conducting fieldwork.

For those who have trouble remembering:

1. Have a bag
2. Put things in it
3. Things should include
   1. Recorder, all cords for same, microphone, and instruction manual
   2. Spare recording media
   3. Extra batteries
   4. Bottle of water
4. Bring bag with you
5. Position equipment so that it can pick up sound good but
6. Don't position equipment so that your interviewee is uncomfortable
7. Things of ways to reciprocate for their time: this might include
   1. Offering to make them copies of the interview
   2. Bringing them something like a housewarming present (everybody likes muffins)
   3. Cure them of their diseases (*swamis or angels only)
   4. Don't bring them booze (revision to standard folklore protocol 1975)
   5. Cookies: everybody likes cookies too
8. And, in all instances, like in life, don't be a turd (my paraphrase).

Then, on Thursday, we finally got a taste of lore (some of you who signed up with a less talk, more rock approach must have been waiting for this). Her talk on the songs of immigration (or emigration) indicated not only the time-depth of the tradition in a Cape Breton and Scottish repertoire, but also how they can be used as a source of historical data. Take that, "real disciplines."

Seventh and Eighth Classes: Photography

First off, here's a link to an article about post 9/11 Photoshopping. It should work from on-campus or from anywhere with a subscription to the database.

Between writing that sentence and this one, it has been something like five weeks. Damn.

So, the next couple of posts are going to be the entire course since then, condensed into nuggets.

Photography is put forward as evidence, as proof, because it is the visual evidence we seek. Because it involves mechanical reproduction, unlike drawings or text, it is somehow more real. People more profound than I (and there are a few, as hard as you may find that to believe: your homework is to find one) have written about the relationship between the image and the real: just watch the special features of The Matrix; or take intro Phil (into an empty bathroom and introduce him to the ways of... sorry, different intro Phil) and read Plato's allegory of the cave; or consult just about anything written while smoking Gallois cigarettes.

Essentially, what is photographed, what is framed by the sides of the image, what is left outside the frame, how focus is drawn, the level of 'staging': all these are questions dealing with the ostensible objectivity of the photograph.

So a photograph is subjective? Big deal. The solution is adverting to the fact that the photographer - i.e. you, when you take pictures - is making conscious decisions about the subject matter, and is not a mere conduit for neutral information. Therefore, explain the decision-making process, which means explain the reason you took the photograph the way you did, and explain the context in which the photo was taken.

Lastly, the photograph is not sufficient on its own to explain something. As the photographer (the ethnographic photographer, that is: I don't care what you do with snapshots or if you've been subjected to art photography classes) you have to provide information about the contents: who are the participants, where and when did it take place, and any other extraneous information.

Here is the photography assignment handout as a pdf (since it has images, it's larger than usual).

Ethics Review: A How-To Guide

Let's go through it together, shall we?

First, get the form. A PDF is available for those with typewriters; a Microsoft Word version is there for the rest of us.

You'll only be using the first seven pages: the next two are for long term projects or ones that require a final review. Hold on to the last one.

Now, let's take the questions one at a time.

Title of Proposed Research:

Come up with a title: It doesn't have to be catchy yet. "Ethnography of a Shopping Mall" or "Interview with a Sculptor" will suffice for now.

Date submitted to the REB:

October 5th, 2006

Project Start Date:

October 5th, 2006

Expected Completion Date:

November 21, 2006

Principal Investigator(s): Provide name(s), academic status (faculty, undergraduate student, graduate student or other (please specify), department, e-mail address, office telephone, home telephone.

[Put your name here], undergraduate student, [your department/ degree/ programme/ whatever], [your email]. [Don't give them your phone number: they're lonely and want friends]

Co-Investigator(s): Provide name(s), department, academic status, e-mail address, office telephone.

You don't have one: leave this blank

Supervisor(s): (if principal Investigator is a student): provide department, e-mail address, office telephone:

Ian Brodie, Heritage and Culture, ian_brodie@cbu.ca, x1418

The undersigned parties certify that they have consulted, and undertake to comply with, the Tri-Council Policy Statement Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans.

[By the time we get through this, you will have, so it won't be a lie]

Principal Investigator(s):

[when you print it off, you put your John Hancock here]

Co-Investigator(s):

n/a

Supervisor(s):

[when you hand it in, I'll put my John Hancock here]

Has funding been received for this research?

No

If yes, from what agency and for what period?

n/a

If no, has funding been requested for this research?

No

If yes, from what agency and for what period?

n/a

Summary: Provide, in 150 to 300 words, a summary of the proposed research, indicating clearly the role of the research participants and any procedures to which they will be subjected. (Include copies of any questionnaires, interview guides or other instruments with your application)

[Easiest thing to do is say 'see attached'. and then attach your proposal]

Risk: In your opinion, does this research pose more than minimal risk (Tri-Council Policy Statement, Section 1.C1, page 1.5) to participants?

The answer should be 'no', but you should read what it says in the policy (follow the link) and really think about it first. Why are they asking this? What is the nature of your research and how does it relate to this?

What are the risks of harm in this research project and how will your research methodology address these risks?

Note that not only physical injury, but also anxiety or embarrassment, are included in the concept of harm. Describe means adopted to minimize risk and means (such as provision of counseling) to deal with harms which participants may experience. Describe as well the potential benefit that will result from this research that justifies the above risk of harm.

Again, the answer should be 'no'. But it isn't impossible that certain activities are possibly subject to some sort of scrutiny: even if everyone involved is fully consenting, there are some frosh week activities, for example, that may contradict official school policy or current legal practice. So, think twice, and, what is more, your informants might not think that harm embarrassment can come to them but you might be cleverer than that, so sometimes you act on behalf of your informants.

Deception: Does this research involve deception or partial disclosure?

No [You're telling them what you are doing, and you aren't recording things secretly]

If yes, refer to the Tri-Council Policy Statement, Section 2, specifically Article 2.1(c) and subsequent commentary (pages 2.1 to 2.3), and provide an explanation of how you plan to comply with the requirements of that Section for debriefing. Describe as well the potential benefit which will result from this research, which justifies waiving the normal requirements for full disclosure.

n/a [but hey, read it anyway]

Research Participants:

Hopefully you have an idea now-ish.

Number of Participants: How many individuals will participate in this research?

Typically, one.

Recruitment: How will they be recruited, and from what population?

You are likely to directly approach them as representative of the folk group under discussion.

Inducements: Will any inducements (money, grade points, etc.) be offered to encourage participation?

No [Well, no-ish. Interestingly enough, this is the greyest of areas in folkloristics. Does sitting people down and offering them pizza, scotch, etc. qualify as 'inducements'? It isn't the same as paid participation in clinical trials: it is the same kind of reciprocity that one would do if one were asking a favour of a friend (help me move, I'll buy beer). So, once again, take a ponder.]

If yes, indicate how compliance with Section 2B of the Tri-Council Policy Statement concerning voluntariness (page 2.4) will be achieved. If academic rewards are to be used, give details of alternative means of achieving equivalent rewards.

n/a

Informed Consent: Will individual consent be sought from all participants?

Yes [you will be telling people what you are doing.]

If yes, provide the information requested below. If no, explain why such consent will not be obtained and indicate how the requirements for waiver of informed consent are being met. The requirements for such waivers are described in Section 2 of the Tri-Council Policy Statement (pages 2.1 to 2.12).

(below)

Informing Participants: How will the nature of the research be explained to potential participants, in compliance with Section 2D of the Tri-Council Policy Statement (pages 2.5 to 2.8)? Attach a copy of any document(s), such as an explanatory letter, to be used for this purpose.

You will explain it to them.

Evidence of Consent: If written evidence of informed consent will be obtained, attach a copy of the consent form. If written evidence of informed consent will not be used, explain in detail how you intend to comply with the requirements of Section 2A of the Tri-Council Policy Statement, particularly Article 2.1(b) and subsequent commentary (pages 2.1 to 2.3).

You will, in the case of interviewing people, explain the project to them when the recorder is on, and ask them if it is still okay. See 2.1 (b): about the "culturally unacceptable" ways of finding informed consent. You can also reference the Statement of the American Folklore Society On Research with Human Subjects and what they say about evidence of informed consent.

Children as Research Participants: If the proposed research involves children as participants, provide a statement indicating how compliance with Section 2E and specifically with Articles 2.5, 2.6 and 2.7 of the Tri-Council Policy Statement (pages 2.9 to 2.11) will be achieved.

n/a

Incompetent Adults as Research Participants: If the research involves adults of diminished competence as participants, provide a statement indicating how compliance with Section 2E and specifically with Articles 2.5, 2.6 and 2.7 of the Tri-Council Policy Statement (pages 2.9 to 2.11) will be achieved.

n/a

Anonymity/Confidentiality: Will complete anonymity of participants and confidentiality of data be maintained?

No

If yes, explain the procedures to be used to ensure anonymity of participants and the confidentiality of data both during the research and in the release of the findings. If no, explain the procedures to be used to discuss limits to anonymity and confidentiality and to obtain participants agreement to waive anonymity.

See Statement of the American Folklore Society On Research with Human Subjects again, this time looking at 'Confidentiality'. Then write something.

Describe the procedures for securing written records, questionnaires, video/audio tapes and electronic data, etc.

Everything is going to go into the Beaton Institute Archive. It will be accessioned, described, stored, and made accessible by institute staff, in accordance with any restrictions you may place upon it (for example, you may insist that pseudonyms be used for particular informants, or you may put a hold of ten years on the info until the risk of embarrassment has passed).

Indicate how long the data will be securely stored and the method to be used for final disposal of the data.

[X] Paper Records

[X] Data will be retained indefinitely in a secure location

[X] Audio/Video Recordings

[X] Data will be retained indefinitely in a secure location

[X] Electronic Data (you will be using digital copies of things, so include this too.

[X] Data will be retained indefinitely in a secure location

[ ] Other (Provide details on type, retention period and final disposition, if applicable).

I don't think this will apply.

Feedback: Describe the measures which you propose for providing feedback to research participants concerning the outcome of the research.

Give them a copy of your paper. Easy peasy.

Continuing Review: All research requires brief annual reports and a brief report upon completion of the research. Suitable report forms are included at the end of this file. Research involving more than minimal risk may require additional measures for continuing review. If your research involves more than minimal risk, describe here the measures you propose for facilitating continuing review of this research, in compliance with Article 1.13 of the Tri-Council Policy Statement (pages 1.10 to 1.11)

Since it doesn't involve more than minimal risk, no problem.

Additional Information: Please feel free to append any additional information which you feel may be helpful to the REB in evaluating this application.

Attach your proposal.

And that's all there is to it. Only do one copy: I'll mark it up and suggest any changes needed. Then we'll submit it.

YAY!

Sixth Class: Liberry!

I thought the tour was reasonably straightforward, so I won't reiterate too much. I'll make three bullet points.

1. As swell as RefWorks may be at helping you with your bibliographies, there's something amiss in the world when they (you know, the man) don't think you need to learn how to do references and citations by hand. It's a skill that really helps you explore the work and, in the practice of it, forces you to understand something about what - and more importantly why - information is considered necessary for academic purposes. It's kind of like learning how to cook: other people may be able to do it for you, but self-sufficiency is a good thing. If the benefits of a liberal arts degree are all about learning to express oneself and present an argument (and it therefore has applications far outside the disciplinary boundaries of which it is constituted), then you should learn it. This is not (entirely) an old coot decrying the younger generation, but I understand some things better (not 'than you' but 'than I would have otherwise') because I struggled to understand the apparati that surrounds their use.
   
2. As in all things - cooking, making love, calligraphy - as much as one wants instant gratification one will discover that taking time will yield better results. When you look up things in the databases - either the Novanet Catalogue or the MLA or PAIS - take time to look around. Look at the subfields and cross-references. Enter new search parameters if the first ones are too wide, too narrow, or off-kilter. Browse, don't hunt. You will be surprised how central serendipity is to the researcher: you can simply chance upon something while looking for something else (I know: 'Come on people now/Smile on your brother/ Everybody get together/ Learn to love one another right now').
   
3. And, in the name of all that is good, holy, and sacred to you, when you find something, read it. Read it. For goodness' sake read it. Take time to read it. Just sit your ass to an anchor, take a few minutes, and read it. You don't have to rewrite it: just read it. You don't have to translate into Urdu and then to Ugaritic: just read it. You don't have to write a Michel Foucault-style treatise on why it is incorrect or representative of a bourgeois attitude: just read it. Please, I beg you, read it.

For those of you who actually read this thing, you are getting advanced warning of a reading being put on reserve, Roland Barthes' "The Photographic Message." It's a hard one (don't... just don't), but should make you scratch your collective chins and ponder.

Fifth class: cramming the folklore down the throat-hole

But perfesser: I don't have any folklore! I can't think of anything!

errcoughcoughbullshitcoughcoughhmm

Take something that almost* everyone does, like Christmas. Think about what you do for it. Of course it's going to have a lot in common with other people's traditions. But in the details there are found elements that are dictated not by the outside world's expectations of how to partake in it but in the expectations of the particular group.

"Christmas isn't Christmas without ..." Tree? Sure. Presents? You betcha! Oranges? Umm... okay: not personally, but I've heard of that and, hey, why not. Pickles secreted about the woodpile? WTF?

Explore!

Now wasn't that easy? The same works for friendship groups (we all got Garfield tattoos!), sports teams (we dress the newbies up as women and leave them tied to the overpass!), and on and on. Think of what makes the group distinct, even if it is not wholly unique. (Ponder those two terms... a little more... a little more.... GOOD. Stop pondering.)

So, what do other people do? What is similar and distinct from the larger practice? What is particular to your group? Maybe, where did the practice, the variation, come from? That's why you need the library.

Write.

Submit.

Happy faces all 'round.

*The composition of CBU students permits me to make sweeping generalisations, but don't take me for exclusionary. Oh no. I'm 21st century man, through and through.

Fourth Class, but written, like, five minutes before the fifth, but posted the next day

For those who want a guide (more like Fodor's, less like For Dummies) to the first assignment

FOLK 101 – Paper proposal
Due: October 5th, 2006 Value: 20% of final

For this proposal you need three things:

1. Some semblance of an idea: by this time in the semester, you hopefully have some insight into what constitutes ‘folkloric’ or ‘vernacular’ behaviour. You should have been able to recognise such patterns of behaviour in some aspect of your day-to-day life (or that of your friends, neighbours, etc.). Something that is (a) part of the activities of a group (however defined) which (b) is communicated through informal means (oral, by example, through regular exposure, vernacularly produced ‘guides’) and (c) is based in par on a precedent (i.e. something happened before, and you do it again because of and in the manner of that previous occurrence). It somehow defines the group: the ‘group-ness’ is revealed through that activity. Even if you intend to study an individual (a Mi’kmaq basket maker, for example), they are representative of a larger group and work in a particular context.
2. Some background information on that idea: once you settle on a potential project, you go to the library and find out a little more about it: you want to look at similar activities as they occur elsewhere, and about the context in which your particular activities take place. If (for example) you were doing something on residence customs at CBU, you would look at both studies of residence life as they occur elsewhere, and at histories of CBU, industrial Cape Breton, etc.
3. A tentative plan for finding out more information through primary research: you now have an idea and a little knowledge: what else do you need to do to find out that little extra bit? Will you best be served with photographing objects? This would make sense if you are doing a project on material culture. Should you interview someone about the activity? This would be best for something about oral traditions. Should you maybe do an ethnography, a deep observation? This is suited for researching customs and rituals.

These three things translate into the three components of the proposal:

1. A brief (200-300 words) statement: it should define the parameters of the group and the activity (-ies). In other words, shape your semblance of an idea into a coherent piece of writing. It should also indicate how you plan to do the primary research (you tentative plan).
2. An annotated bibliography: take five items that you have come across in your library research, READ THEM (in case that wasn’t clear), and, in about fifty words per item, explain their basic position and why they are relevant to your research. (You should consult a standard style guide – MLA, Turabian, etc. – for how to do a citation.)
3. The completed research forms: by this time you know what and how you are going to do your research. Fill out the forms as best you can.

Type that puppy up, hand her in, and let the fun begin.

Download this

New Online Journal - Oral Tradition

On September 15, 2006, the academic journal ORAL TRADITION, founded in 1986 by the Center for Studies in Oral Tradition at the University of Missouri, entered a new chapter in its existence as an international and interdisciplinary forum for the study of worldwide oral traditions and related forms.

As of this date the journal became available electronically and free of charge at http://journal.oraltradition.org as a series of pdf (Adobe Acrobat) files, with key-word searching of all online texts and with embedded multimedia. In addition to the current issue (volume 21, number 1), four years of back issues have already been posted, and plans are underway to include the entire twenty-two years of ORAL TRADITION by the end of 2007.

Third Class: Quarters, Tar(a)bish, Hearts, Poodles, Cinderella... and ETHICS!

Does life get any more exciting than talking about ethics? Methinks not.

First, we wrassled with the issue of 'ownership': last class (which blogically has been remembered solely for its Top Gun aspects) we talked about the spurious idea of 'communal ownership'. If something belongs to 'the folk', then it in essence belongs to no one person: so I can come along, take it, and make it mine.

Some brave soul offered Tarabish as an example: it is a game 'owned' by Cape Bretoners. But now someone has come along and published a book that, first of all, offers the 'official' version and, second of all, makes money therefrom.

So I offered up the example of Hearts. When I was a sprig of a lad (the sprig being me and the lad being my father), I would spend many an evening at the New Edinburgh Pub in Ottawa playing Hearts with kith, and not with kin. The rules had been learned over the course of kith's respective childhoods. But then we went away to university and bought computers, and played Microsoft Hearts, which introduced us to new rules (principally the proscription against playing a heart or the Queen of Spades on the first round). When we came back after first-year, several of us had changed our way of playing, having learned the 'official' rules. No resolution was found, and eventually we stopped playing as we could not reconcile.

The question deals with the difference between a type and a version: there is the bidding, trumping, exchanging game that is recognisably something called Tarabish, and there are the specific instances of a group's rendition of that game. To establish one as the definitive way to play is to elevate a version to that of type.

A type is, in a way, the aggregate of all versions: we know how to recognise a version of Cinderella because it has enough of the features that are common to all versions and thus to the tale-type Cinderella; at the same time, we only know the tale-type Cinderella because we have gathered enough individual stories and recognised patterns between them to file them all under the general heading 'Cinderella. It's a chicken-and-egg scenario or, for vegans, a bean and sprout one.

My poodle, Fifi, is a poodle because she shares a series of features - or motifs - with all other poodles: fluffy, strangely shorn, skittish, long-legged, canine, etc. But unless we had a large assembly of fluffy, strangely shorn, skittish, long-legged canines that were recognisably similar, we wouldn't have the category 'poodle' to begin with.

So (and this is the point): when we collect, we are collecting a version that is unique to the performer even when the type is considered 'communally owned' (and even when the performer prides themselves in an almost slavish rendition of the type and denies personal artistry). It's still theirs, and that is something we need to heed when collecting and - and this is the point - subsequently distributing our collectanea.

More thics to come, campers. Read the AFS statement again (for those who didn't the first time), and CBU's Human Subjects Utilization Ethics Review - Application and Guidelines, and start to think about how to reconcile the two.

Second class

First of all, some references for you, re: Top Gun and homoeroticism. This is the monologue from Sleep With Me, as performed by Quentin Tarantino (written by Roger Avary, his frequent co-writer). Here is a YouTube link to it as well. Furthermore, here is an Australian article on "An Ideological Analysis of Top Gun". Just type "homoeroticism of top gun" into Google and you will get 406,000 references.

The point (inasmuch as there is one) is that texts which are creations of a marketing apparatus, created for mass-appeal and thus typically crafted to be interpreted in a way to appeal to the broadest spectrum of the population, can be reinterpreted by audiences in whatever manner appeals to them. Did Simpson and Bruckheimer set out to create a homoerotic film? Unlikely, but it has been embraced by two complementary subcultures: those who ironically self-identify with it and those who merely revel in the ironic interpretation, in addition to the (presumably larger) population who interpret it more or less as it was meant to be interpreted.

This is not a unique phenomenon: certainly, in this day and age, the process of adopting and re-interpreting the products of popular culture at the folk level can be demonstrated virtually everywhere. Think of how you may employ Simpsons references in everyday speech, going beyond quoting and performing tracts of dialogue therefrom (which is a similar activity) but using a word or catchphrase in a parallel context to act as a linguistic shorthand: by using, for example, Homer's "D'oh" or Burns' "Excellent", one hopes to evoke for the listener aspects of those respective characters and the Springfield worldview. It is a form of insider speech, using a shared known text: it is no different from using Shakespearean references or - dare I say it - folklore, both of which build on an assumed shared cultural background. We ascribe greater gravitas to Shakespeare (it is a sign of being 'lettered'), or greater 'authenticity' to folklore (it is a sign of immersion in a community's customs and traditions), but the process is identical.

One final example, blissfully obscure. If I can track down the precise episode name, I will supply it, but in an episode of BBC's Yes, Minister (it could have been Yes, Prime Minister, but something tells me no), Bernard tells Hacker that a certain protocol was "more honoured in the breach than the observance." Hacker chastises him for using such an ugly and cliched phrase, reminding him that English is "the language of Shakespeare," which forces Bernard to gently remind Hacker that he was, in fact, quoting Shakespeare directly.

And hilarity ensues.

Read the Statement of the American Folklore Society On Research with Human Subjects for Monday.

First class: Introductions, administrata, and hopscotch

Welcome to those who were able to recover from the fun times available at lunch and show up the cavalcade of fun that is introductory folklore. You now have seen me and have had the opportunity to size me up: those who choose to slink away are wished the best.

For those who are prone to losing paper, the syllabus is available here as an Adobe Acrobat file. I will try to make all handouts available in this way. You should still hold on to things as a rule, but, speaking as one who tends to use important things as coasters, I can only speak from experience.

And yes, I can hear it calling in the air tonight: hold on.

So lonely, the first post

Greetings:

I give you the preamble for the course, lovingly taken from the course outline.

‘Folklore’ is the study of informal culture: the behaviours, activities, texts, and customs that exist among the more formally structured and institutionalised modern living. It is a study of ‘traditions’ only inasmuch as (a) these items are often repeated and (b) a previous occurrence is given as a sufficient basis and rationale for this repetition. As such, a tradition may date back before recorded time or from the beginning of the semester. The locus of any item of folklore is the ‘group,’ which likewise can exist on a scale of scope and time-depth ranging from, on the macro-scale, an ancient globally-situated people (‘The Celts’; ‘First Nations’) to, on the micro-scale, recently formed ad hoc locally-situated small groups (‘three people from Sydney Mines I carpool with’; ‘Margaree Chamillionaire fans’).

As a consequence of studying living traditions, folklorists do much of their research ‘in the field,’ in addition to the research tools of the library and the archive. This course is an introduction to the basic techniques of field research, cumulating in a short essay which draws on both primary sources (the student’s own fieldwork) and secondary sources. By the end of the course, students will be able to apply these tools to any ethnographic project.

That's it. No one (presumably) will have read this without having been to the first class but you never know.