In every time and place, various traditions, customs, and legends have developed around food. These foodways help define cultures and hold them together, since food is central to life. The foodlore of the world is especially significant to contemporary American society, since the multicultural character of the United States embraces the foodways of diverse ethnic traditions. Written especially for high school students and general readers, this book is a convenient introduction to the folklore of food. From early native American cultures to the modern influx of Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants, the book surveys the vast legacy of American foodways. The book gives special attention to the myriad foodways of the United States. In doing so, it also explores the wide range of ethnic foodlore at the heart of multicultural American society. Culturally and ethnically inclusive, it covers everything from soul food to Navaho fry bread, basic Jewish and Islamic food traditions, and Asian, Latin, and European influences on the foods of America. A chapter on definitions and classifications helps students understand the nature of foodlore. This is followed by an extensive selection of examples and texts related to the folklore of food. The volume then looks at different approaches for learning about foodlore. It then examines the role of food folklore in the works of writers, artists, musicians, filmmakers, and others. The volume closes with a glossary and a bibliography of print and electronic resources.

Folklore is the cultural expression of a people, and it makes up key elements of the stories they tell. Using easily accessible language, this book defines, separates, and gracefully weaves together story and folklore. From the ancient world of traveling bards in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America, to the contemporary world of storytelling festivals, fan fiction, and digital story conferences, this reference unravels confusion between concepts of folklore and story, and demonstrates how they are linked. Included are numerous examples and texts, a review of critical approaches, and a discussion of story in literature and popular culture. Story informs folklore, and folklore informs story. The complex relationship between them is compounded by many definitions and points of view generated by scholars over time. Humans construct their sense of the world through story, vernacular transmission, and folklore. Folklore is the cultural expression of people, and it makes up the key elements of the stories they tell. Written for high school students and general readers, this reference conveniently overviews story as a folklore genre.

When Evelyn Waugh wrote The Loved One (1948) as a satire of the elaborate preparations and memorialization of the dead taking place in his time, he had no way of knowing how technical and extraordinarily creative human funerary practices would become in the ensuing decades. In Funeral Festivals in America, author Jacqueline S. Thursby explores how modern American funerals and their accompanying rituals have evolved into affairs that help the living with the healing process. Thursby suggests that there is irony in the festivities surrounding death. The typical American response to death often develops into a celebration that reestablishes links or strengthens ties between family members and friends. The increasingly important funerary banquet, for example, honors an often well-lived life in order to help survivors accept the change that death brings and to provide healing fellowship. At such celebrations and other forms of the traditional wake, participants often use humor to add another dimension to expressing both the personality of the deceased and their ties to a particular ethnic heritage. In her research and interviews, Thursby discovered the paramount importance of food as part of the funeral ritual. During times of loss, individuals want to be consoled, and this is often accomplished through the preparation and consumption of nourishing, comforting foods. In the Intermountain West, AFuneral Potatoes, @ a potato-cheese casserole, has become an expectation at funeral meals; Muslim families often bring honey flavored fruits and vegetables to the funeral table for their consoling familiarity; and many Mexican Americans continue the tradition of tamale making as a way to bring people together to talk, to share memories, and to simply enjoy being together. Funeral Festivals in America examines rituals for loved ones separated by death, frivolities surrounding death, funeral foods and feasts, post-funeral rites, and personalized memorials and grave markers. Thursby concludes that though Americans come from many different cultural traditions, they deal with death in a largely similar approach. They emphasize unity and embrace rites that soothe the distress of death as a way to heal and move forward.