The Unibrows of Tajikistan

This article proves that conceptions of beauty are definitely culturally influenced. Personally, I find it more pretty than collagened lips.

"Where the Unibrow Reigns."

Your Folklore Festivus Gift Guide

Sorry for the dormancy! Let me welcome myself back! I will start it off with a holiday guide of new folklore books:

• The Implied Spider: Politics and Theology in Myth - Wendy Doniger. Columbia Classics in Religion.
• Chicano Graffiti and Murals: The Neighborhood Art of Peter Quezada - Sojin Kim. Folk Art and Artists Series. University Press of Mississippi.
• The Demon at Agi Bridge and Other Japanese Tales - Haruo Shirane, translated by Burton Watson. Columbia University Press.
• Hungarian Classical Ballads and Their Folklore - Ninon Leader. Cambridge University Press.
• Folklore and Folklife in the United Arab Emirates - Sayyid Hamid Hurriez.
• Wyoming Folklore: Reminiscences, Folktales, Beliefs, Customs, and Folk Speech - Federal Writer's Project; James R. Dow, Susan D. Dow and Roger Welsch, editors. Bison Books.
• Myth, Ritual and the Oral - Jack Goody. Cambridge University Press.
• Mulan's Legend and Legacy in China and the United States - Lan Dong. American Literatures Initiative.
• Santeria Garments and Altars: Speaking Without a Voice - Ysamur Flores-Pena and Roberta J. Evanchuk. Folk Art and Artists Series. University of Mississippi Press.
• Kinship Myth in Ancient Greece - Lee E. Patterson.
• Italian Folk: Vernacular Culture in Italian-American Lives - Joseph Sciora, ed. Critical Studies in Italian America. 3rd edition. Fordham University Press.
• Never Marry a Woman with Big Feet: Women in Proverbs from Around the World - Mineke Schipper. Leiden University Press.

See you soon!

August Folklore Book Releases

Here are some of the exciting new titles in folklore studies arriving in a bookstore near you:

• An Ethnographic Study of Papadjab, an Afro-Caribbean Devil Dancer: The Christmas Street Festival in St. Lucia - Benjamin Wintersteen.
• Hungarian Classical Ballads: And Their Folklore - Ninon A. M. Leader.
• Making Caribbean Dance: Continuity and Creativity in Island Cultures - Susana Sloat (ed.)
• Fairy Tale Films: Visions of Ambiguity - Pauline Greenhill and Sidney Eve Matrix.
• The Uncoiling Python: South Africa Storytellers and Resistence - Harold Scheub.
• Princes, Frogs and Ugly Sisters: The Healing Power of the Grimm Brothers' Tales - Dr. Allan Hunter.

Open Folklore is Open!

This is very exciting! The Open Folklore project - still in its infancy - is online here. This is exactly what folklore studies needs to thrive in the next century.

Summer of Folklore Books!

New month, new collection of folklore books. Buy me some!

• Italian Folk: Vernacular Culture in Italian-American Lives - Joseph Sciorra. Must be a good book - it has my favorite euphemism for folklore in the subtitle! :)
• Heroism and the Supernatural in the African Epic - Mariam Konate Deme. In Routledge's series "African Studies."
• Myths and Legends of the Second World War - James Hayward.
• When the Gods Were Born: Greek Cosmogonies and the Near East - Carolina Lopez-Ruiz.
• Pandora's Senses: The Feminine Character of the Ancient Text - Veren Lev Kenaan. Wisconsin Studies in Classics.
• Travel Narratives in Rabbinic Literature: Voyages to Imaginary Realms - Tziona Grossmark.
• Koasati Traditional Narratives - Geoffrey D. Kimball. Studies in the Anthropology of North Ame.
• London Lore: The Legends and Traditions of The World's Most Vibrant City - Steve Roud.
• Introduction to African Oral Literature and Performance - Bayo Ogunjimi & Abdul Rasheed Naallah.

Cleaning the Cupboards!

Time to clean out my aggregator of folklore links!

• The American Folklore Society newsletter for Folklore and Education is out and worth a browse.
• Librarian Amy writes about the benefits of using folktales as a literacy tools in libraries servicing Latino communities.
• Two of my favorite scholars - Bill Ellis and Gary Allan Fine - have collaborated on a book on rumor and terrorism. The new book is called "The Global Grapevine" - and everything these two fine writers do is worth reading.
• Bruce Jackson recently presented the Botkin Lecture on the boundaries between photography and folklore as represented in photographs from Cummins Prison, where he did much fieldwork.
• This is only tangentially folk, but it is super cool! Video of song Kostroma by Ivan Kupala!
• The Huffpo passes along a fake book cover as a real Russian fairy tale book. I won't need to translate - the word 'caca' is universal!
• Aktuellen has an article by Richard Kuehnel and Rado Lencek on the motif of living waters in Slavic folklore.

Folklore Books for May

If I ever get the time, I intend on doing a post about folklore books available for the Kindle and the iPad. Right now we are sticking with new releases of books printed on actual paper.

• Classical and Contemporary Mythical Identities: Construction of the Literary Imagination - ed. by Amina Alyal and Paul Hardwick.
• Warlpiri Dreamings and Histories: Newly Recorded Stories from the Aboriginal Elders of Central Australia - Peggy Rockman Napaljarri and Lee Cataldi. Sacred Literature Trust Series.
• Mystical Oldham: Superstitions, Marvels and Mysteries Around Oldham and Saddleworth - Janette Quinlan.
• "The Inside Light": New Critical Essays on Zora Neale Hurston - ed. by Deborah G. Pliant.
• Historical Residues in the Old Irish Legends of Queen Medb: An Expanded Interpretation of the Ulster Cycle - Diana D. Dominguez.
• Decoration Day in the Mountains: Traditions of Cemetery Decorations in the Southern Appalachians - Alan and Karen Jabbour.
• Culture and Customs of Portugal - Carlos A. and Rhonda Cunha. Part of the Series Culture and Customs of Europe.
• Aphrodite - Monica S. Cyrino. Part of the Series Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World.
• Delmarva Legends and Lore - David Healey.
• Traditions of the Osage: Stories Collected and Translated by Francis La Flesche - Garrick A. Bailey.