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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social institutions > Customs & folklore > Folklore
After centuries of mystery, the mythical Magical Unicorn Society has published its official handbook.
These learned lovers of unicorns have created a treasure chest of unicorn lore - the facts, the fiction, the where, why and what of these elusive beasts. This is the ultimate gift for anyone who truly believes.
Discover the myth of the Gold and Silver Unicorns, and the legendary stories of the seven unicorn families. Find out about their unique powers, where they live around the world, what unicorns eat and how to have the best chance of spotting one. Learn about the history of the Magical Unicorn Society - from its foundation to the present day - and how to become a member.
With breathtaking artwork from Helen Dardik and Harry and Zanna Goldhawk (Papio Press), and stunning design and production, this special book gallops through a history of these mythical creatures and looks at their magical future.
What do exotic area rugs, handcrafted steel-string guitars, and
fiddling have in common today? Many contemporary tradition bearers
embrace complexity in form and content. They construct objects and
performances that draw on the past and evoke nostalgia effectively
but also reward close attention. In Rugs, Guitars, and Fiddling:
Intensification and the Rich Modern Lives of Traditional Arts,
author Chris Goertzen argues that this entails three types of
change that can be grouped under an umbrella term: intensification.
First, traditional creativity can be intensified through
virtuosity, through doing hard things extra fluently. Second,
performances can be intensified through addition, by packing
increased amounts of traditional materials into the conventionally
sized packages. Third, in intensification through selection,
artistic impact can grow even if amount of information recedes by
emphasizing compelling ideas-e.g., crafting a red and black viper
poised to strike rather than a pretty duck decoy featuring more
colors and contours. Rugs handwoven in southern Mexico,
luthier-made guitars, and southern US fiddle styles experience
parallel changes, all absorbing just enough of the complex flavors,
dynamics, and rhythms of modern life to translate inherited
folklore into traditions that can be widely celebrated today. New
mosaics of details and skeins of nuances don't transform craft into
esoteric fine art, but rather enlist the twists and turns and
endless variety of the contemporary world therapeutically, helping
transform our daily chaos into parades of negotiable jigsaw
puzzles. Intensification helps make crafts and traditional
performances more accessible and understandable and thus more
effective, bringing past and present closer together, helping folk
arts continue to perform their magic today.
The Angel and the Cholent: Food Representation from the Israel
Folktale Archives by Idit Pintel-Ginsberg, translated into English
for the first time from Hebrew, analyzes how food and foodways are
the major agents generating the plots of several significant
folktales. The tales were chosen from the Israel Folktales
Archives' (IFA) extensive collection of twenty-five thousand tales.
In looking at the subject of food through the lens of the folktale,
we are invited to consider these tales both as a reflection of
society and as an art form that discloses hidden hopes and often
subversive meanings. The Angel and the Cholent presents thirty
folktales from seventeen different ethnicities and is divided into
five chapters. Chapter 1 considers food and taste-tales included
here focus on the pleasure derived by food consumption and its
reasonable limits. The tales in Chapter 2 are concerned with food
and gender, highlighting the various and intricate ways food is
used to emphasize gender functions in society, the struggle between
the sexes, and the love and lust demonstrated through food
preparations and its consumption. Chapter 3 examines food and class
with tales that reflect on how sharing food to support those in
need is a universal social act considered a ""mitzvah"" (a Jewish
religious obligation), but it can also become an unspoken burden
for the providers. Chapter 4 deals with food and kashrut-the tales
included in this chapter expose the various challenges of ""keeping
kosher,"" mainly the heavy financial burden it causes and the
social price paid by the inability of sharing meals with non-Jews.
Finally, Chapter 5 explores food and sacred time, with tales that
convey the tension and stress caused by finding and cooking
specific foods required for holiday feasts, the Shabbat and other
sacred times. The tales themselves can be appreciated for their
literary quality, humor, and profound wisdom. Readers, scholars,
and students interested in folkloristic and anthropological foodway
studies or Jewish cultural studies will delight in these tales and
find the editorial commentary illuminating.
Where human communication and development is possible, folklore is
developed. With the rise of digital communications and media in
past decades, humans have adopted a new form of folklore within
this online landscape. Digital folklore has been developed into a
culture that impacts the ways in which communities are formed,
media is created, and communications are carried out. It is
essential to track this growing phenomenon. The Digital Folklore of
Cyberculture and Digital Humanities focuses on the opportunities
and chances for folklore research online as well as research
challenges for online folk groups. It presents opportunities for
production of digital internet material from items and research in
the field of folk culture and for digitization, documentation, and
promotion of elements related to folk culture. Covering topics such
as e-learning programs, online communities, and costumes and
fashion archives, this premier reference source is a dynamic
resource for folklorists, sociologists, anthropologists,
psychologists, students and faculty of higher education, libraries,
researchers, and academicians.
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