Content-type: |
text/plain; charset=us-ascii |
Sender: |
|
Subject: |
|
From: |
|
Date: |
Sat, 21 Jul 2001 17:03:22 -0400 |
In-Reply-To: |
|
MIME-version: |
1.0 |
Reply-To: |
|
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
David:
I put the word "folk" in quotes for the reasons you outline.
Can you supply us with some published sources that discuss
the definition of "folk culture" (especially material) and the
differences between "folk" and "popular" culture.
In Utah, for example, gravestones carved by local people are
sometimes called "folk" in contrast to the mass produced items
sold and produced on the national level in the 19th and early 20th
centuries.
All these items are cultural and even the truly idiosyncratic
items (such as the Watts Towers) also have a cultural background.
RLS
At 02:47 PM 7/21/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>Schuyler's question is interesting, however, he misuses the concept of
>"folk," putting it on a par with non-cultural phenomena at the opposite end
>of a spectrum from what he described as "cultural-social."
>
>He is correct in dubbing some of the "attractions" in his notes
>"idiosyncratic," however that very term implies that the object/site is not
>folk (or vernacular). In the world of professional folklore, folks studying
>material culture often struggle with popular misconceptions that outsider
>art or self-taught art is folk art. It is not; it is idiosyncratic. The
>stone castles or pleasure gardens, including such places as artist Howard
>Finster's "Paradise Garden" <http://www.finster.com/paradise%20gardens.htm>,
>carry a folk label but are actually not tied to any community or cultural
>tradition that the word folk implies.
>
>DSR.
>
>
Robert L. Schuyler
University of Pennsylvania Museum
33rd & Spruce Streets
Philadelphia, PA l9l04-6324
Tel: (215) 898-6965
Fax: (215) 898-0657
[log in to unmask]
|
|
|