Ceremony and Citizenship: African American Weddings, 1945–60

Following the Second World War, many Americans embraced the white wedding – an event marked by conspicuous consumption, gendered roles and responsibilities, and welcoming of ‘traditions’ such as formal dress, proper vows and post‐ceremony reception. For aspiring, middle‐class and elite African Americans, the wedding served a dual purpose. Through the ceremony, they demonstrated adherence to the ideals of post‐war American citizenship while preserving distinct cultural practices and values. Focusing primarily on the upwardly mobile black community of Indianapolis between 1945 and 1960, this article emphasises the wedding as a site of both personal and public significance. Adoption and enactment of the white wedding reinforced the strength of the black family and declared African Americans’ rightful belonging to the American middle‐class community.     

Dhammapada Traditions and Translations

The Dhammapada is probably the most frequently translated Buddhist text in the world today. This article looks at the history of translations of the Dhammapada since it was first translated into English in the nineteenth century. I start by comparing the little known first English translation by Daniel Gogerly from 1840 with the influential 1870 translation by Max Müller. The paper then examines the main translations which have appeared since the mid-twentieth century. I show how they represent Buddhist, Hindu and other views on the Dhammapada and that they continue to be influenced by the pioneering nineteenth-century translations. I argue that translations of the Dhammapada are conditioned not only by the viewpoints of the translators but also by the existence of a tradition of translating the Dhammapada . Both factors I conclude have contributed to the importance placed on the Dhammapada as a representative Buddhist text.     

Folklore and Symbolism of Green

Colour is not a quality of an object, but a perception. As such, it can symbolise anything we want it to symbolise. This paper reports the results of a survey of the use of colour in folklore and tradition supported by the Folklore Society and the Colour Group (GB). Drawing attention to the diversity of colour symbolism worldwide, it posits two basic principles, the Principle of Adaptation of Ideas and the Principle of Singularity, to account for apparently contradictory usages.     

Symbolism rehashed and symbolism rethought

Edmund R. Leach. Culture and Communication: The Logic by Which Symbols Are Connected. An Introduction to the Use of Structuralist Analysis in Social Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1976. 105 pp.

Dan Sperber. Rethinking Symbolism. Translator, Alice L. Morton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1975. xiii + 153 pp.     

Making Witches: Newfoundland Traditions of Spells and Counterspells

Le Folk-Lore de France, par PAUL Sébillot. Tome iv. Le Peuple et l'Histoire. Paris: E. Guilmoto, 1907. By E. Sidney Hartland.

The Jataka, or Stories of the Buddha's former Births, translated from the Pali by various hands, under the editorship of Prof. E. B. Cowell. Vol. VI. Translated By Prof. Cowell and Dr. W. H. D. Rouse. Cambridge: The University Press, 1907. By W. Crooke.

Cradle Tales of Hinduism, by the Sister Nevedita (Margaret E. Noble). London: Longmans, 1907. By W. Crooke.

Folk Tales from Tibet, with Illustrations by a Tibetan Artist and some Verses from Tibetan Love-Songs. Collected and Translated by Capt. W. F. O'Connor. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1906. By A. R. Wright.

The Welsh Fairy Book. By W. Jenkyn Thomas. With 100 Illustrations By W. Pogány. Fisher Unwin, 1907. By Alfred Nutt.

Popular Handbooks of Religions.

1. J. Abrahams, "Judaism"; 2. E. Anwyl, "Celtic Religion in Pre-Christian Times"; 3. C. Bailey, "Religion of Ancient Rome"; 4. L. D. Barnett, "Hinduism"; 5. W. A. Craigie, "Religion Of Ancient Scandinavia"; 6. W. M. F. Petrie, " Religion of Ancient Egypt " ; 7. T. G. Pinches, " Religion of Babylonia and Assyria"; 8. C. Squire, "Mythology of Ancient Britain and Ireland. " London: Constable &; Co., 1906-7. By W. Crooke.

Short Bibliographical Notices.

Volkskundliche Zeitschriftenschau für 1904, herausgegeben im Auftrage der hessischen Vereinigung für Volkskunde von L. Dietrich. Leipzig: Teubner, 1907. pp. 328. By N. W. Thomas.

Transactions of the First Annual Congress of the European Theosophical Society, held at Amsterdam, 1904. Edited By Johan van Mauen. Amsterdam, 1906. Second Congress, London, 1905. London, 1907. Third Congress, Paris, 1906. London, 1907.

Trans. I., Amsterdam.

E. Weise, Fraternity as found in the Laws of Primitive Races. (Marriage-Laws, Taboo, Totemism, Etc.)

D. v. Hinlasper, Labbertav Kitab Tasaref. (A Dutch Paper, relating to a curious Javanese philosophical work.) By W. F. Kirby.

Trans. II., London.

A. Von Ulrich, The Religion of our Forefathers ; The Mythology of Germany in the Light of Theosophy. (Deals chiefly with the Eddas and the Sagas connected with them.) By W. F. Kirby.

Trans. III., Paris.

George M. Doe, Some Folklore Gleanings, principally from Devonshire. (An important paper, including notes on Omens and Warnings, Charms and Incantations, Witchcraft, and Beliefs and Customs.)

A. Von Ulrich, The Religion of our Forefathers in the SlavonicRace. (Some of the remains of old religious beliefs to be found among the Lithuanians, Russians, Bohemians and Poles, and the Wends and Prussians.)

M. U. Green, Some Notes on the Voyage of Bran, with special references to other Planes and States of Being.

Ed. Bailly, Invocation Aux Dieux Planitaires By W. F. Kirby.

Orkney and Shetland Old Lore, vol. i., 1907, and vol. ii., part i., January, 1908: together with Diplomalarium Orcadense et Hialtlandense. Collected and edited by Alfred W. Johnston, Amy Johnston, and Jón Stefánsson. London : Printed at the King's Weigh House for the Viking Club.     

Policy Frames and Ethical Traditions

Discussions of the framing of policy issues have developed in the policy process and policy analysis literatures. This article uses a concept of “ethical traditions” derived from ideology theory to analyze the framing of programs promoting homeownership for the poor. It argues that the rhetoric surrounding the legislation of these programs was drawn from a tradition of agrarian republicanism, and concludes with some comments about the implications of this finding for designing antipoverty policy.     

Traditions in transition: Sanskritization and Yakkhafication in East Nepal

Based on fieldwork conducted amongst the Yakkha of East Nepal from 1989–90, this article looks at the similarities and differences in how “tradition” is approached by anthropologists and historians. It focuses on reflexivity, performance and process as key intellectual traditions within both anthropology and history, but takes issue with Hobsbawm’s suggestion that “tradition” is the stuff of “modern” societies while “custom” is a feature of “traditional” ones. It also argues for the “construction” rather than “invention” of traditions, by anthropologists as well as by people they study. In the case of the Yakkha, this construction can be seen in the changes in agricultural techniques over the past 150 years, the use of pellet bows by Yakkha men, and the celebrations of the ostensibly Hindu festival of Dasain. Only with hindsight can the ‘invented’ nature of the Dasain tradition be appreciated; even so, during the research period covered by this article, the rituals that epitomized ‘Sanskritization’ were simultaneously the subject of ‘Yakkhafication’, a process reflecting the negotiation, manipulation and subversion of Yakkha identity.     

Inconstant Companions: Archaeology and North American Indian Oral Traditions

As an historian of the American West, I find myself in the unusualposition of writing a review of a book, written by an archaeologist,for an audience of oral historians. But Ronald J. Mason's elegantlyprovocative Inconstant Companions: Archaeology and North AmericanIndian Oral Traditions cries out for interdisciplinary linkagesand understandings. Mason spent his professional years as anarchaeologist among anthropologists and is the author of thehighly acclaimed Great Lakes Archaeology (1981). In InconstantCompanions, Mason "addresses a fundamental historiographicalproblem in archaeology, history, and anthropology":     

Traditions and transitions: teenagers' perceptions of parading in Belfast

The purpose of this article is to explore and illuminate teenagers' experiences of, and attitudes to, parades in Belfast. The research draws on responses from 125 teenagers located in interface areas (areas where Catholics and Protestants live side by side but apart) to government supported attempts to rebrand Orangefest (traditional parade associated with Protestant/Unionist/Loyalist community) and St Patrick's Day (traditional parade associated with Catholic/Nationalist/Republican community) as all-inclusive community events. For the most part, young people access these parades in pre-existing, single identity peer groups and view these parades as either inclusive or exclusive calling into question the extent to which Belfast's city centre can be viewed as shared space.