Yes indeed! In fact, one of my reasons for asking him
if he'd allow 'fairy' into the title was so that
international students using search engines would see
the article was something relevant to that area of
research. But it was his country, his language, his
lore -- so his choice stood.
Jacqueline
--- Daniel Harms <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I can add another layer of controversy to this
> particular problem. At some point, a particular
> sort of "etic" classification has to be employed
> toward every item of research - the subjects imposed
> by librarians. At some point, someone has to place
> an "outside" frame on any problem so others can find
> and share the benefits of their research.
>
> This is especially true with regard to terms that
> have variant spellings. If some people are calling
> this creature a "pookah" and others a "pookah", and
> if some see it as a fairy and some don't, you can
> easily miss a great deal of literature relevant to a
> problem if you're not aware of these issues.
>
> Dan Harms
> Coordinator of Instruction Librarian
> State University of New York - Cortland
> Memorial Library B-110
> (607) - 753-4042
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic on
> behalf of jacqueline simpson
> Sent: Sun 1/15/2006 8:56 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Emic and Etic
>
>
>
> Even if the terms emic and etic are problematic, the
> difficulty they attempt to address can be quite a
> practical one!
>
> In the days when I was a journal editor, a
> contributor
> from Ireland submitted an article on the Pookah. One
> matter under discussion was what title to give the
> paper, and i suggested "The Pookha: A
> Multi-Functional
> Irish Fairy". He rejected this indignantly, as from
> the Irish point of view Pookhas are quite distinct
> from fairies, indeed hostile to them. But from my
> english viewpoint it seemed obvious that in all the
> tales about the pookha he was behaving either like a
> house-spirit (brownie, pixy etc), or like a
> trickster
> shape-changing spirit (Puck), and that both these
> are
> fairy traits, so in my eyes he was a type of fairy.
> Naturally, I let the author's view prevail, and we
> agreed to call him a 'supernatural entity'. As it
> was
> only a single article, we could agree this
> compromise.
> But if I'd been editing, say, an Encyclopedia of
> European Folklore, it would have been a more
> troublesome problem.
>
> Jacqueline
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --- jacqueline simpson <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> > Hi, Caroline,
> >
> > If you're interested in the ways that Neo-paganism
> > has
> > drawn on folklore materials, have you read
> Hutton's
> > "Triumph of the Moon" yet? It's more recent than
> his
> > "Stations of the Sun" and has a whole section on
> > this
> > topic, plus much else that is of top-grade
> interest.
> >
> > For folklore in itself, of course, the reading
> list
> > would be huge, even for Britain alone.
> >
> > Jacqueline
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --- Caroline Tully <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > > Hi Sabina...
> > >
> > > You said...
> > > >>Thanks for the fan letter! It's always nice
> to
> > > know one's books are read
> > > and appreciated, that they don't just go out
> there
> > > into the ether, or the
> > > Romulan Neutral Zone of unread academic books,
> or
> > > (the worst of all
> > > horrors!) the remainder bin at the used book
> > shop.<<
> > >
> > > I am very enthusiastic about academic works that
> > are
> > > informative, in a new
> > > way, about Neo-Paganism and broader subjects -
> for
> > > the benefit of
> > > practitioners, as well as for those studying
> them.
> > > Without sounding like a
> > > sychophant (how can a fan *not* sound somewhat
> > > sychophantic however!?!) I
> > > think your book is on the level of importance
> for
> > > the Neo-Pagan movement's
> > > looking-at-itself as is, say, "Ronald Hutton's
> > > Triumph of the Moon" - your
> > > book is different to his, sure, but still very
> > > informative in its
> > > highlighting and analysis of components of
> > > Witchcraft-Neo-Pagansim that we
> > > may have not seen, or looked at, or been aware
> of
> > > before. I liken it to
> > > contributing to what I think of as "The
> Continuing
> > > Detective Story About the
> > > Origins of Modern Paganism". Your folklore angle
> > is
> > > really, really
> > > interesting - I became interested in folklore's
> > > relationship to modern
> > > Paganism a few years ago when I read that last
> > > chapter (I think it was) in
> > > Hutton's "Stations of the Sun" and so I'm
> pleased
> > to
> > > read something else
> > > that is even more folklore, or
> > > folkloristics-informed (because I know hardly
> > > anything about folklore but am interested in
> it).
> > I
> > > was also led to Pagan
> > > Reconstructionism in part via your Streghe &
> > Aradia
> > > articles, it went
> > > something like this... thinking about Wicca,
> > > thinking about C.G. Leland's
> > > contribution, thinking about Raven Grimassi's
> > > claims, thinking about your
> > > articles regarding Italian Witchcraft, thinking
> > > about Leland's Etruscan
> > > book, thinking about ancient Roman religion,
> > leading
> > > to ancient Greek
> > > religion etc.
> > >
> > > I notice in the Introduction in "Witching
> > Culture",
> > > which I hadn't read as
> > > of my last post but have now, that you mention
> > > aesthetics and creative
> > > expression as some of what you're looking at
> > > regarding Neo-Paganism. (Now of
> > > course can't find citation). I've been toying
> with
> > > the idea that religion,
> > > so-called religious experience, is really
> > aesthetic
> > > experience, an "art
> > > experience" if you will - even when it involves
> > > aniconic religions, it's
> > > still an aesthetic.... I need to think about
> this
> > > more to elucidate exactly
> > > what I mean here.. but I am inspired in this by
> > the
> > > grumpy atheism of
> > > Richard Dawkins, which I find liberating, but my
> > > simultaneous attraction to
> > > Pagansim which I think may be aesthetic, I'm not
> > > sure if it is primarily
> > > aesthetic or not, and by "aesthetic" I mean not
> > only
> > > visual, but literary,
> > > bodily...
> > >
> > > >>I've been enjoying your posts to the magic
> list,
>
=== message truncated ===
___________________________________________________________
Yahoo! Photos – NEW, now offering a quality print service from just 8p a photo http://uk.photos.yahoo.com
|