Names and Tales: On Folklore and Place Names

Abstract

Names, like stories, are linguistic performances; so the twin disciplines of folkloristics and place-name studies can learn from each other’s methods. Some names offer straightforward evidence for traditional culture, but others are rhetorical, not literal. Allusions to goblins, giants, and the Devil derive from playful storytelling rather than supernatural belief, while names of landmarks are used as pegs on which to hang local legends. The rules for coining names have varied through time and often use special linguistic markers to highlight moral or imaginative content. As we move into a more semiotically aware onomastics, we find ourselves interpreting names from a realm of popular idiom and allusion which is already familiar from folklore.     

The Secret Society's Secret: The Invoked Reality of the Tiandihui

This essay examines two sets of reports in the Qing-dynasty Jiaqing and Daoguang periods (respectively 1796-1820 and 1821-45) in order to understand better the perceived reality of the Tiandihui.The first set,found among the papers of Jiangxi governor Xianfu (1809-14),allows a comparison of a criminal gang that invoked the Tiandihui ceremony with one that did not.The second set includes the diary of Taihe county magistrate Xu Dihui (in office from 1824) that recorded various events which came to be reported to the senior officialdom as having been conducted by secret societies.By collating the incidents as reported in the diary and memorials to the emperor,the authors argue that the pressure of the administrative process was responsible for the ultimate acquiescence by the Hunan governor Han Wenqi (in office 1825-29) in the perception of an indisputable connection of the incidents with secret societies.Moreover,both sets of reports show that participants in secret-society ceremonies and officials who suppressed them knexv that the acclaimed networking of the Tiandihui as implied in its folklore was very far from the reality.     

世界社会的民俗协商:民俗学理论与方法的新生命

民俗学是随着现代性的全球扩张而发展起来的一门高度国际性的关于民族文化传统的学科,它在方法上采取集体主义,在理论上假设民族在民俗上的同质性。在现代性走向巅峰的时候,同质性人群和民俗传统的快速消逝带来民俗学的危机。面对危机,从日常生活来界定民俗的思潮兴起,却并不能解除危机。在人口流动、文化杂糅的世界社会,个人与小群体必须与他人协商安排日常生活的细节,这种世界社会的民俗协商正在成为广泛的事实。能够应对这种趋势的民俗学将会获得发展的生命力,这有赖于从业者带来理论与方法的创新。     

民俗与身体——美国民俗学的身体研究

20世纪80年代以来,作为对灵肉二元论的反叛,身体成为西方人文社会各学科持久的热点之一。1989年美国民俗学年会上,民俗学家凯瑟琳·扬依照民俗(folklore)的构词法,创造性地提出"身体民俗"(bodylore)一词,着力于探讨有关身体的民俗或知识,特别是身体如何参与构建社会意义。本文主要追溯美国民俗学身体转向的社会与学术思潮背景,勾勒其基本理论视角与研究路径,并指出身体性、身体知识是民俗知识的根本属性之一。     

从“民俗”到“语境中的民俗”——中国民俗学研究的范式转换

20世纪90年代中后期以来,中国民俗学学者开始从单纯的民俗事象研究,转向在语境中研究民俗,强调田野调查,强调在田野中观察民俗生活、民俗表演的情境、民俗表演的人际互动、民俗表演与社会生活、社会关系、文化传统之间的复杂关联等等,呈现出民族志式的整体研究取向,时空、人、社会、表演、变迁、日常生活等系列关键词,表明在语境中研究民俗的学者具有共同的问题、方法以及学术取向,初步具备学术范式的意义。     

The Jackal and the Lion: Aspects of Khoisan Folklore

This article explores the relationship between southern African Khoekhoe and San folktales through discussion of a specific nineteenth-century tale. Indigenous meanings embodied in the selected narratives rather than in Khoisan trickster tales in general are sought by explication of highly significant words and phrases.