Editor: Ray B. Browne, RBrowne@bgnet.bgsu.edu
Associate Editor: Peter C. Rollins,
Rollins@osuunx.ucc.okstate.edu
Survey of Contents for Special Issue:
CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY/POPULAR CULTURE
"Introduction"
Ray B. Browne
This issue of the _Journal of Popular Culture_ focuses on the
many connections between cultural anthropology and popular
culture studies. (These essays were read as papers at the 92nd
annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association,
Washington, DC, November, 1993.)
"Cultural Policy Through Public Display" (3-14).
Richard Kurin, Director
Smithsonian Center for Folklife Program & Cultural
Studies
Kurin discusses some of the ways in which public displays both
reflect and help to shape public policy. He uses two festivals
planned by the Smithsonian to illustrate his points: "America's
Reunion," staged on the Mall to celebrate the inauguration of
President Clinton and the Jerusalem project of the Festival of
American Folklife. The first festival was organized to express
the purpose of the newly elected administration while the second
recounts the political issues which influenced the development of
a site map for the project which would satisfy the expectations
of both Israeli and Palestinian planners.
"Surveilling Cirque Archos: Transgression and the Spaces of Power
in Popular Entertainment" (15-27).
Kenneth Little
Associate Professor of Anthropology
York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Using the performances of the performances of the Cirque Archos
in Toronto as an example, Little employs the theories of Michel
Foucault to argue that trangressive spectacles like the Cirque
Archos may serve to reproduce the very ideological constructions
which they seek to ridicule.
"Transnationalism and Popular Culture: The Case of Brazilian
Immigrants in the United States" (29-41).
Maxine L. Margolis, Professor of Anthropology
University of Florida in Gainsville
Margolis explores ways in which elements of popular culture
fosters transnationalism ("a process in which international
migrants maintain their ties to the home country ") among
Brazilians living in New York City. She describes the complex
patterns of communication, travel, and consumption which allows
Brazilians to live concurrently in two different cultures.
"Rituals of Resistsettlement: Identity and Resistance Among Maya
Refugees." (43-60).
Nancy Welmer, New Ethnic and Immigrant Congregations
Project
at the University of Illinois at Chicago
Welmer uses the example of a Mayan refugee community in Indian
town, Florida to illustrate the ways in which public religious
rituals (fiestas) have encouraged pan-Mayan unity both by
preserving traditions of their life in Guatemala and making
members of the community aware of their condition as exiles. The
fiestas, adapted to the conditions of exile, have helped to
reinvent a Mayan national identity which is not limited by
geography of national borders.
"American Country Dancing: A Religious Experience" (61-69).
Juliana Finn, Department of Sociology and Anthropology,
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Finn argues that a desire to escape the sense of social
fragmentation which results from excessive individualism, as
well as to revitalize a sense of the spiritual, has led many
Americans to turn back to social customs by-passed by modern
life. Among the customs is country dancing, often described in
religious terms by participants. While dancing they feel
themselves a part of something larger than themselves, connecting
them to others and awakening something beyond ordinary
consciousness. Dancing, Finn, concludes, has no theology, but it
is frequently linked to American social values, especially
equality.
"Aesthetic Choice and Innovation in Western India:
Views from the Street." (71-91).
Jayasinhji Jhala, Department of Anthropology
Temple University, Philadelphia
In a world where the emphasis upon technological progress tends
toward cultural uniformity, argues Jhala, aesthetic pleasure is
one of the last expressions of human freedom and cultural
diversity. The wide national differences in aesthetic choice,
however, cannot be adequately explained in terms of established
cultural tradition.
Pleasure-giving objects result from aesthetic innovation which
contends with (and sometimes overwhelms) tradition. Jhala draws
examples of this thesis from the popular culture of the
Dhrangadhara area of western India.
"Martial Gods and Magic Swords: Identity, Myth, and Violence in
Chinese Popular Religion" (93-109).
Aaron A. Bares, Assistant Professor of Modern Languages,
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Bares explores the importance of martial ritual objects
characteristic of Chinese popular religion. The essay approaches
these symbolic from from two related points of view: that of
Chinese culture in general and that of ways the forms serve to
form the subjective and social identities of individuals. His
thesis is illustrated with an analysis of the cult of Han-tan Ia
which has served to create solidarity both among working-class
males and among the inhabitants of rural villages in southeastern
Taiwan. In this cult the general idea of the "man of prowess,"
with its ethos of revenge underlies that underlies an ideology of
mutual loyalty, has taken on historically specific and heterodox
qualities.
"Yes, It's True: Zimbabweans Love Dolly Parton" (111-125).
Jonathan Zilberg, Department of Anthropology
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Zilberg attempts to account for the widespread popularity of
American country music in Zimbabwe by examining the specific
popularity of Dolly Parton. Country music appears to shape
people's lives and speak "in some way to the complex whole of the
national imagination and local historical consciousness." Many
Zimbabweans identify with her music and lyrics which recount
tales of love, loss, and survival -- of a life which, though
difficult, offers spiritual satisfactions.
"His and Hers: Gender and Garage Sales" (127-45).
Gretchen M. Herman
Coordinator of Women's Studies
and Associate Librarian, SUNY, Cortland
Garage sales, which are usually run by women, with the occasional
assistance of men reflect a familiar division of labor by gender.
Women, who are responsible for household management, decide what
is to be sold and set the prices. Men, who take out the trash
and undertake household repairs, mirror these activities when
they help their wives.
"'If You Read It, I Wrote It' The anonymous Career of Comic Book
Writer Paul S. Newman" (147-62).
Greg Metcalfe, Visiting Assistant Professor of American
Studies
University of Maryland -- Baltimore County
Metcalfe reviews the career of Paul S. Newman, who wrote the _The
Lone Ranger_ from 1951 to 1975 as well as many other comic book
stories from _Buck Rogers_ and Jungle Jim_ to _Darkwing Duck_.
The essay recounts how Newman became a writer for comics,
describes his influence on the genre, and includes a list of the
more than 300 comic titles which Newman had a hand in writing.
"'Buddy, Can You Sparer a Paradigm?' Popular Cultural Studies
in Australian History" (163-74).
Raymond Evans, Reader in History,
University of Queensland, Australia
Evans explores the evolution of Australian popular cultural
studies over the past half century. The paradigm which
characterized these studies in the 1940s and 1950s held that both
the "purely Australian folk tradition" of working-class culture
and the high culture of the colonial elite were being undermined
and corrupted by American-made mass culture. Since the 1960s,
however, this model has given way to one in which sees Australian
popular culture as the product of a an interactive relationship
between provincial and overseas influences that began over a
century ago.
"Jazz Cricketers: The New World in the Popular Culture of
North West England, 1890s to the 1930s" (175-83).
Jeffrey Hill, Department of International Studies
The Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham, England
Hill uses the example of the cricket leagues which developed I n
Lancashire with their emphasis on competition and the use of
professional players to explore the ways in which the
transatlantic influences in popular culture intersected with
"internal tensions within British society." During the 1930s
these influences were widely disparaged as displacing a more
wholesome and robust working-class culture. In reality, Hill
argues, they were assimilated into local traditions in ways which
challenged the dominant culture and bolstered class and regional
identity.
"Comics in East Asian Countries: A Contemporary Survey" (185-98).
John A. Lent,
Managing Editor, _Witty World International Cartoon
Magazine,
and Editor,_Asian Cinema_
Lent explores the booming comic book industries of Hong Kong,
Korea, and Taiwan. He provides a brief history of the industry
in each country, introduces the major publishers, and gives the
circulation figures and revenues of a surprisingly large
industry. This is the first of two articles. The second will
deal with the Phillippines and Singapore.
"Enduring Image of War: Myth and Ideology in a _Newsweek_ Cover"
(199-211).
Jack Lube, Associate Professor
Journalism and Communication, Leigh University
On February 4, 1991 _Newsweek_ devoted its cover to a photograph
a television image of an American pilot taken prisoner during the
Persian Gulf conflict. Using Roland Bathes's methodological
approach to analyzing news photographs, Lube interprets both the
news value and the ideological messages evident in the image. It
helps to "confirm and maintain the rituals of a country at war;"
it evokes the captivity narrative which has a central place in
American cultural mythology; and it indicates the role of
television in relation to Operation Desert Storm.
"The Invention of Circus and Bourgeois Hegemony: A Glance at
British Circus Books" (213-21).
Yoram S. Carmeli, Northrop-Frye Center, Victoria
University, Toronto, Canada, and
Department of Sociology/Anthropology, U of Haifa,
Israel
Carmeli explores the cultural significance of a largely ignored
aspect of British popular culture: popular circus literature.
This literature "is itself a part of the performance of the
circus," helping to reify an "illusionary real" circus which both
exists outside of time and social relations. At the same time
this literature uses the circus to invoke bourgeois values.
Getting in the Scrap: The Mobilization of American Children in
World War II" (223-33).
Robert Wm. Kirk
Department of History, Yuba College, Clearlake,
California
During World War II, when children were organized to engage in
activities which would aid the war effort, government leaders and
educators sought to promote patriotism and build character as
well as serve the country. While the material contribution of
children was marginal, their organizations had the effect of
creating a sense of solidarity among the participants, encouraged
the character-building labor valued by progressive educators, and
emphasized the idea of a nation waging total war.
"The Triumph of Materialism: The Popular Fiction of 18th-Century
Japan" (235-45).
Susan Griswold, Assistant Professor
Department of Chinese and Japanese, U of California,
Davis
Davis argues that the fiction of late pre-modern Japan played an
important role in the shaping of a distinctly popular culture.
Furthermore, by concentrating on "materialism and the tangible
aspects of life," popular fiction literature asserted a
definition of cultural worth independent of the values enforced
by the ruling warrior class.
________________________________________________________________
Phil Landon, Reporting
Dept. of English
Univ. of Maryland--Baltimore County
Baltimore, MD 21228
Landon@gl.umbc.edu
_______________
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