Essays
Below is a selected list of essays in books, magazines, and journals. Many can be found in full-text within on-line databases such as JSTOR, Literature Online, and Project Muse (e.g., Western Folklore, Journal of American Folklore, Journal of Folklore Research).
BOOK CHAPTERS
"'This is Why We Hunt': Social-Psychological Meanings of the Traditions and Rituals of Deer Camp." In Wild Games: Hunting and Fishing Traditions in North America, ed. Dennis Cutchins and Eric A. Eliason, 65-104. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2010.
"De Economie van Volkscultuur" [The Economics of Folk Culture]. In Splitsen of knopen? Over Volkscultuur in Nederland [Splitting of Knots: On Folk Culture in the Netherlands], ed. Hester Dibbits, Richard Hermans, Jan Jaap Knol, Gitta Luiten, Taco de Neef, and Ineke Strouken, 130-38. Antwerp: Thonik. [in Dutch]
"Digitizing and Virtualizing Folklore." In Folklore and the Internet: Vernacular Expression in a Digital World, ed. Trevor Blank, 21-66. Logan: Utah State Press, 2009.
"The Chutzpah of Jewish Cultural Studies." In Jewishness: Expression, Identity, and Representation, ed. Simon J. Bronner, 1-26. Oxford: Littman, 2008.
"The Analytics of Alan Dundes." In The Meaning of Folklore: The Analytic Essays of Alan Dundes, ed. Simon J. Bronner, 1-50. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2007.
"'Heile, Heile, Hinkel Dreck': On the Earthiness of Pennsylvania German Folk Narratives." In Preserving Heritage: A Festschrift for C. Richard Beam, ed. Joshua R. Brown and Leroy T. Hopkins, Jr., 77-100. Lawrence, Kansas: Society for German-American Studies, 2006.
"Building Tradition: Control and Authority in Vernacular Architecture." In Vernacular Architecture in the 21st Century, ed. Marcel Vellinga and Lindsay Asquith, 23-45. London and New York: Taylor and Francis, 2005.
"Plain Folk and Folk Society: John Hostetler's Legacy of the Little Community." In Writing the Amish: The Worlds of John Hostetler, ed. David Weaver-Zercher, 55-94. University Park: Penn State Press, 2005.
"Introduction," "Menfolk," and "Hidden Erections and Sexual Fabrications: Old Men Crafting Manliness." In Manly Traditions: The Folk Roots of American Masculinities, ed. Simon J. Bronner, 1-60, 274-314. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005.
"'Letting Out Jack: Sex and Aggression in Adolescent Male Recitations." In Manly Traditions: The Folk Roots of American Masculinities, ed. Simon J. Bronner, 315-50. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005 (with Ronald L. Baker).
"Woodhull's Old Tyme Masters: A Hillbilly Band in the Northern Tradition." In Exploring Roots Music , ed. Nolan Porterfield, 127-34. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2004.
"Folklore and Folklife." In Pennsylvania: A History of the Commonwealth, ed. William Pencak and Randall Miller, pp. 454-76. University Park: Penn State Press, 2002.
"Amerika no Folklore to Folklife: Amerika No Kodomo Tachi No Seikatsu Bunka" [Folklore and Folklife of America: Everyday Life and Culture of American Children]. In Dramatic America, ed. Hisashi Ishida, pp. 175-91. Tokyo: Eihosya, 2002. [translated by Youji Sawari into Japanese]
"Legendary Explanations: The Protection of the Remu Cemetery during the Holocaust." Markers XIX, ed. Richard E. Meyer, pp. 50-63. Greenfield, Massachusetts: Association for Gravestone Studies, 2002.
"Amerika Ni Okeru Amerika-Kenkyu To Sono Kyoiku-Hoho" [American Studies Pedagogy in the United States]. In Amerika Shin-Kenkyu [American Studies: A New
"Material Folk Culture of Children." In Children's Folklore: A Source Book, ed. Brian Sutton-Smith, Jay Mechling, Thomas W. Johnson, and Felicia McMahon, pp. 251-72. New York: Garland, 1995. Reprinted, Logan: Utah State University Press, 1999.
"'Your Mother's Like...': Formula in Contemporary American Ritual Insults." In Opus Maledictorum: A Book of Bad Words, ed. Reinhold Aman, 166-77. New York: Marlowe, 1996.
"From Nature to Culture and Object to Image: Challenges for the Preservation of the Past for the Future." In Conserving Cultural Heritage in the 21st Century, ed. Marilyn Kisly, pp. 15-22. Ann Arbor: Historical Society of Michigan, 1994.
"Introduction" and "Elaborating Tradition: A Pennsylvania-German Folk Artist Ministers to His Community." In Creativity and Tradition in Folklore: New Directions, ed. Simon J. Bronner, pp. 1-40, 277-326. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1992.
"Cane Making as Symbol and Tradition." In American Folk Art Canes: Personal Sculpture, ed. George H. Meyer. Bloomfield Hills, Michigan: Sandringham Press, 1992, pp. 219-21.
"Introduction" and "Reading Consumer Culture." In Consuming Visions: Accumulation and Display of Goods in America, 1880-1920, ed. Simon J. Bronner, pp. 1-53. New York: W. W. Norton, 1989.
"Object Lessons: The Work of Ethnological Museums and Collections." In Consuming Visions: Accumulation and Display of Goods in America, 1880-1920, ed. Simon J. Bronner, pp. 217-54. New York: W. W. Norton, 1989.
"Folklife Starts Here: The Background of Material Culture Scholarship in Pennsylvania." In The Old Traditional Way of Life: Essays in Honor of Warren E. Roberts, ed. Robert E. Walls & George H. Schoemaker, pp. 230-43. Bloomington, Indiana: Trickster Press, 1989.
"Background of the Blues: Afro-American Folklore." In The Blues: A Bibliographic Guide, ed. Mary L. Hart, Brenda M. Eagles, Lisa N. Howorth, pp. 11-30. New York: Garland, 1989.
"Folk Objects." In Folk Groups and Folklore Genres, ed. Elliott Oring, pp. 99-124. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1986.
"The House on Penn Street: Conflict and Creativity in Folk Art" and "Introduction." In Folk Art and Art Worlds, ed. John Michael Vlach and Simon J. Bronner, pp. 123-49, 1-10. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1986.
"̍Visible Proofs̍: Material Culture Study in American Folkloristics." In Material Culture: A Research Guide, ed. Thomas Schlereth, pp. 127-53.
"The Idea of the Folk Artifact" and "Researching Material Folk Culture in the Modern American City." In American Material Culture and Folklife, pp. 3-39, 221-37. "Idea of the Folk Artifact" reprinted in Academic and Public History: A Synthesis, ed. Phyllis Leffler. Melbourne, Florida: Krieger Publishing, 1989.
"Toward a Philosophy of Folk Objects." In Personal Places: Perspectives on Informal Art Environments, ed. Daniel Franklin Ward, pp. 171-77. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1984.
"Folklore in the Bureaucracy." In Tools for Management, ed. Frederick Richmond and Kathy Nazar, pp. 45-57. Harrisburg: PEN Publications, 1984.
"̍Let Me Tell It My Way̍: Joketelling by a Father and Son." In Humor and the Individual, ed. Elliott Oring, pp. 18-36. Los Angeles: California Folklore Society, 1984.
"The Paradox of Pride and Loathing, and Other Problems." In Foodways and Eating Habits: Directions for Research, ed.
JOURNAL ARTICLES
"Practice Theory in Folklore and Folklife Studies." Folklore 123, no. 1 (2012).
"Framing Violence and Play in American Culture." Journal of Ritsumeikan Social Sciences and Humanities 3 (2011): 145-60.
"The Rise and Fall--and Return--of the Class Rush: A Study of a Contested Tradition." Western Folklore 70, no. 1 (Winter 2011): 5-67.
"Framing Folklore: An Introduction." Western Folklore 69, nos. 3-4 (Summer/Fall 2010): 5-27.
"The Problem and Promise of Tradition." Levend Erfgoed: Vakblad voor public folklore & public history 6, no. 1 (2009): 4-11."Fathers and Sons: Rethinking the Bar Mitzvah as an American Rite of Passage." Children's Folklore Review 31 (2008-2009): 7-34.
"Hare Coursing and the Ethics of Tradition." Folk Life: Journal of Ethnological Studies 46 (2008): 7-38.
"Analyzing the Ethnic Self: The Hinkeldreck Theme in Pennsylvania-German Folk Narrative." Columbia Journal of American Studies, 8, no. 1 (2007): 19-53.
"Folk Logic: Interpretation and Explanation in Folkloristics." Western Folklore 65, no. 4 (Fall 2006): 401-34.
"The Year of Folklore, and Other Dutch Lessons in Public Heritage." Volkskunde 107, no. 4 (2006): 343-60 [Dutch summary on pp. 379-81].
"Folklore and the Quest for Meaning." Levend Erfgoed: Vakblad Voor Public Folklore and Public History 3, no. 2 (2006): 4-8. [English with Dutch Summary]
"Contesting Tradition: The Deep Play and Protest of Pigeon Shoots." Journal of American Folklore 118, no. 470 (Fall 2005): 409-52.
"'Gombo' Folkloristics: Lafcadio Hearn's Creolization and Hybridization in the Formative Period of Folklore Studies." Journal of Folklore Research 42, no. 2 (May-December 2005): 141-84.
"Narrating and Racializing Urban Black Folklife in Nineteenth-Century America: Lafcadio Hearn's Cincinnati Stories." Folklore Historian 21 (2004): 35-71.
"'This is Why We Hunt': Social-Psychological Meanings of the Traditions and Rituals of Deer Camp." Western Folklore 63 (2004): 11-50.
"Whither Pennsylvania-German Studies?" Der Reggeboge: Journal of the Pennsylvania German Society 38, no. 1 (2004): 3-8.
"The Lieberman Syndrome: Jewishness in American Political Culture." Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 2, no. 1 (2003): 35-58.
"Ideas for Inquiry: 'Exhibiting Children.'" Children's Folklore Review 25, nos. 1-2 (2002-2003): 101-4.
"Questioning the Future: Polling Americans at the Turn of the New Millennium." Prospects: An Annual of American Cultural Studies 27 (2002): 665-86.
"Folklore Responds to Columbine and Adolescence." Children's Folklore Review 24, nos. 1-2 (2002): 7-20.
"From Landsmanshaften to Vinkln: Mediating Community Among Yiddish Speakers in America." Jewish History 15, no. 2 (2001): 131-48.
"The American Concept of Tradition: Folklore in the Discourse of Traditional Values." Western Folklore 59, no. 2 (Winter 2000): 87-104.
"The Meanings of Tradition: An Introduction." Western Folklore 59 , no. 2 (Winter 2000): 87-104.
"Inventing and Invoking Tradition in Holocaust Memorials." Newfolk: New Directions in Folklore 4, no. 2 (October 2000). http://www.temple.edu/english/isllc/newfolk/memorials1.html.
"Cultural Historical Studies of Jews in Pennsylvania: A Review and Preview." Pennsylvania History 66, no. 3 (Summer 1999): 311-38.
"Eulogy for Pennsylvania Folklife (1957-1997)." Journal of the Center for Pennsylvania German Studies 6, no. 1 (Winter 1999): 4-7.
"History and Organization of Children's Folklore in the American Folklore Society"
Children's Folklore Review, 20, nos.1-2 (1997-1998): 57-65.
"Consumer Culture and Ethnicity in the Literature of Realism during America's Gilded Age." Kansai American Literature 34 (1997): 59-71.
"'Me'yin Kesem Afaf Ota': Retorika Shel Folklor V'historia Bezichronotav Shel Ya'akov Zeifter Me'ushpitzin ." ["There Was Something Magical About It": The Rhetoric of
Folklore and History in the Narratives of Jacob Seifter.] Chulyot: Journal of Yiddish Research 4 (Summer 1997): 233-49. [in Hebrew with English summary]
"Inspiriting the Land: Henry Shoemaker and Local Legend in Central Pennsylvania." Snyder County Historical Society Bulletin 1996, pp. 81-99.
"Craft in American Consciousness." Meisei Review 12 (1997): 3-26.
"Amerikajin-no Ishiki-ni-okeru Kurafuto" [Craft in American Consciousness] Gakujyutsu Kenkyu Kiyou 17 (March 1997): 127-37. [in Japanese]
"'Novel Impressions': Literature and Consumer Culture during America's Gilded Age." Borderlines: Studies in American Culture 3, no. 2 (1996): 123-43 .
"Shoemaker vs. Shoemaker: The Debate on Pennsylvania Germans in American Tradition." Der Reggeboge: Journal of the Pennsylvania German Society 30, nos. 1-2 (1996): 3-30.
"Epes Tsoyberhaftes: The Rhetoric of Folklore and History in Jacob Seifter's Memoirs of Auschwitz." Yiddish 10, nos. 2-3 (1996): 17-33.
"Theorizing and the Mission of Folklore Studies." Folklore Historian 13 (1996): 25-29.
"The Peculiar History of Public Folklore: Searching for America's First State Folklorist."
Folklore Historian 12 (1995): 14-28.
"Exploring American Traditions: A Survey of Folklore and Folklife Research in American Studies," American Studies International 31, no. 2 (October 1993): 4-36.
"Folk Art on Display: America's Conflict of Traditions," American Quarterly 45, no. 1 (March 1993): 128-50.
"Expressing and Creating Ourselves in Childhood: A Commentary." Children's Folklore Review 15, no. 1 (Fall 1992): 47-59.
"Martha Warren Beckwith, America's First Chair of Folklore." Folklore Historian 9 (1992): 5-53.
"James Maidment, Ballad Editor." Midwestern Folklore 18, no. 2 (Fall 1992): 64-68.
"A Prophetic Vision of Public and Academic Folklife: Alfred Shoemaker and America's FirstDepartment of Folklore." Folklore Historian 8 (1991): 38-55.
"The Fragmentation of American Folklife Studies." Journal of American Folklore 103, no. 408 (April-June 1990): 209-14.
"Anglo-American Connections in Folklore and Folklife." Folklore 101, no. 1 (1990): 47-57.
"̍Left to Their Own Devices̍: Interpreting American Children's Folklore as an Adaptation to Aging." Southern Folklore 47, no. 2 (1990): 101-15.
"̍Toward a Common Center̍: Pragmatism and Folklore Studies." Folklore Historian 7 (1990): 23-30.
"Children's Folklore as an Adaptation to Aging." Talking Folklore, no. 7 (August 1989): 21-38.
"The Use of Folklore in the Shaping of American Ideology, 1880-1900." International
Folklore Review 6 (1988): 21-25.
"The Anglo-American Fiddle Tradition in New York State." New York Folklore 14, nos. 3-4 (1988): 23-35.
"Talking Fieldwork." Talking Folklore, no. 5 (November 1988): 5-15.
"Political Suicide: The Budd Dwyer Joke Cycle and the Humor of Disaster." Midwestern Folklore 14, no. 2 (Fall 1988): 81-90.
"Art, Performance, and Praxis: The Rhetoric of Contemporary Folklore Studies." Western Folklore 47, no. 2 (April 1988): 75-101.
"Organizing Knowledge: Four Trends in American Folklore Historiography." Folklore Historian 3, no. 2 (Fall 1986): 26-31.
"Material Culture and Region: Lessons from Folk Studies." Kentucky Folklore Record 32, nos. 1-2 (January-June 1986): 1-16.
"Folklore and the Behavioral Sciences." Anthropos: International Review of Ethnology and Linguistics 79, nos. 1-3 (1984): 251-55.
"The Early Movements of Anthropology and Their Folkloristic Relationships." Folklore 95, no. 1 (1984): 57-73.
"The Processual Principle in Folk Art, Based on a Study of Wooden Chain Carving." Folk Life: Journal of Ethnological Studies 22 (1983-1984): 55-67.
"̍What's Grosser Than Gross?̍: New Sick Joke Cycles." Midwestern Journal of Language and Folklore 11, no. 1 (1985): 39-49.
"̍Visible Proofs̍: Material Culture Study in American Folkloristics." American Quarterly 35, no. 3 (1983): 316-38.
"̍Learning of the People̍: Folkloristics in the Study of Behavior and Thought." New York
Folklore 9, nos. 3-4 (Winter 1983): 75-88.
"Links to Behavior: An Analysis of Chain Carving." Kentucky Folklore Record 29, nos. 3-4 (July-December 1983): 72-82.
"Suburban Houses and Manner Books: The Structure of Tradition and Aesthetics." Winterthur Portfolio: A Journal of American Material Culture 18, no. 1 (Spring 1983): 61-68.
"The Haptic Experience of Culture." Anthropos: International Review of Ethnology and
Linguistics 77, nos. 3-4 (1982): 351-62.
"...Feeling's the Truth." Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin 48, no. 4 (Winter 1982): 117-24.
"̍Your Mother's Like...̍: Formula in Contemporary American Ritual Insults." Maledicta: The International Journal of Verbal Aggression 6, nos. 1-2 (Summer-Winter 1982): 199-210.
"The Hidden Past of Material Culture Studies in American Folkloristics." New York Folklore 8, nos. 1-2 (Summer 1982): 1-10.
"Structural and Stylistic Relations of Oral and Literary Humor: An Analysis of Leo Rosten's H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N Stories." Journal of the Folklore Institute 19, no. 1 (January-April 1982): 31-45.
"Historical Methodology in Folkloristics: Introduction." Western Folklore 41, no. 1
(January-April 1982): 28-29.
"Malaise or Revelation? Observations on the ̍American Folklore̍ Polemic." Western Folklore 41, no. 1 (January 1982): 52-61.
"Modern Anthropological Trends and their Folkloristic Relationships." Folk Life: Journal of Ethnological Studies 19 (1981): 66-83.
"Saturday Night in Greenville: An Interracial Tale-and-Music Session in Context." Folklore Forum 14, no. 2 (Fall 1981): 85-120.
"The Folk Technics of Chain Carving." Studies in Traditional American Crafts 4 (September 1981): 3-20.
"Charlotte Burne, British Folklorist: A Re-examination." Folklore Women's Communication, no. 24 (Spring 1981): 14-19.
"Investigating Identity and Expression in Folk Art." Winterthur Portfolio: A Journal of American Material Culture 16, no. 1 (Spring 1981): 65-83.
"The Durlauf Family: Three Generations of Stonecarvers in Southern Indiana." Pioneer America: Journal of Historic American Material Culture 13, no. 1 (March 1981): 17-26.
"American Folklore vs. Folklore in America: A Fixed Fight?" Journal of the Folklore Institute 17, no. 1 (January-April 1980): 76-84 (with Stephen Stern).
"The Harris House and Related Structures in South-Central Indiana." Pioneer America: Journal of Historic American Material Culture 12, no. 1 (February 1980): 9-34.
"Reflections on Field Research in the Folklife Sciences." New York Folklore 6, nos. 3-4 (Winter 1980): 151-60.
"An Experiential Portrait of a Woodcarver." Indiana Folklore 13, nos. 1-2 (1980): 30-45.
"From Neglect to Concept: An Introduction to the Study of Material Aspects of American Folk Culture." Folklore Forum 12, nos. 2-3 (1979): 117-32 (with Stephen Poyser).
"Concepts in the Study of Material Aspects of American Folk Culture." Folklore Forum 12, nos. 2-3 (1979): 133-72.
"̍We Live What I Paint and I Paint What I See̍: A Mennonite Artist in Northern Indiana."
Indiana Folklore 12, no. 1 (1979): 5-17.
"Old Time Tunes on Edison Records." Journal of Country Music 8, no. 1 (May 1979): 95-100.
"Pictorial Jokes: A Traditional Combination of Verbal and Graphic Processes." Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin 44, no. 4 (December 1978): 189-96.
"̍Who Says?̍: A Further Investigation of Ritual Insults among White American Adolescents." Midwestern Journal of Language and Folklore 4, no. 2 (Fall 1978): 53-69.
"A Re-Examination of Dozens among White American Adolescents." Western Folklore 37, no. 2 (April 1978): 118-28.
"Recent Folk Art Publications: A Review Essay." Mid-South Folklore 6, no. 1 (Spring 1978): 27-30.
"Country Music Tradition in Western New York State." Journal of Country Music 7, no. 1 (January 1978): 29-59.
"Country Music Culture in Central New York State." John Edwards Memorial Foundation Quarterly 13, no. 48 (Winter 1977): 171-82.
"̍I Kicked Three Slats Out of My Cradle First Time I Heard That̍: Ken Kane, Country Music, and American Folklife." New York Folklore 3, nos. 1-4 (Summer-Winter 1977): 53-81.
"Bad Man Monroe Legends from the Delta Region of Mississippi." Mid-South Folklore 5, no. 2 (Summer 1977): 53-58.
"Peddler Traditions and Street Cries in Contemporary
"Concrete Folklore: Sidewalk Box Games." Western Folklore 36, no. 2 (April 1977): 171-73.
"Woodhull's Old Tyme Masters: A Hillbilly Band in the Northern Tradition." John Edwards Memorial Foundation Quarterly 12, no. 42 (Summer 1976): 54-62.
MAGAZINE ESSAYS
"Sailor Men: Are Navy Rituals, Like Kissing the Royal Belly, Homophobic or Homoerotic?" American Sexuality Magazine (June 19, 2007). http://nsrc.sfsu.edu
"Atogaki ni Kaete: Beijin ni Kyoojyu no Komento. Jinbun-gaku ga Arata na Jyookyoo ni Taiou Suru Tame Ni." [Adjusting to New Conditions in the Humanities]. Bosei (January 1998), 64-65 [in Japanese].
"Fun Vanet Shtamstu?" [Where Are You From?] Der Onheib 26 (November 1997), 89-90. [creative essay in Yiddish on Holocaust theme]
"'Corn Enough to Make It Entertaining': An Interview with Lyle Miles." Old-Time Music, No. 45 (Spring 1989), 6-12.
"Stewart Culin, Museum Magician." Pennsylvania Heritage 11, no. 3 (Summer 1985), 4- 11.
"Eugene Powell: ̍Sonny Boy Nelson.̍" Living Blues, no. 43 (Summer 1979): 14-25.
"John Baltzell: Champion Old-Time Fiddler." Old-Time Music, no. 27 (Winter 1977-1978): 13-14.
"Does the Peddler Yell Anymore? Preserving Barker Cries." Yorker Magazine 34 (February 1976), 11-13.
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER AND NEWSLETTER ESSAYS
"The ASA Survey of Departments and Programs: Findings and Projections." American Studies Association Newsletter 31, no. 1 (March 2008): 11-19.
"How Well Do We Know the Amish?"
"Beyond Interdisciplinarity: The New Goals of American Studies Programs." American Studies Association Newsletter 28, no. 1 (March 2005): 1-5.
"American Studies and Humanities: The Challenge to University Administration." American Studies Association Newsletter 27, no. 1 (March 2004): 7-9.
"Iz Yidn Dortn?" [Are Jews There?-Japan] Forward, June 20, 1997, pp. 1, 13.
"Tall Tales from College Folk." [full-page essay in Education Life magazine on college student culture] New York Times, August 4, 1991, Section 4A, p. 42.
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