> > In the American west, it was very common to sing "Two Babes in the
> > Woods" as a lullabye.
Not all of us *old* westerners have a "clue" about "Two Babes in the
Woods." Some may have, and for them it's presumably important. I'd urge
that "sub-sultures" be considered.
To respond to various sub-threads:
I learned about lullabyes after my kid brother (8 years younger) was born.
I remember nothing at all about what my parents sang to me when I was an
infant, if they sang anything at all, as I assume they did.
>From what I just wrote, it's clear that my father also sang "lullabyes."
That my father did so may not be culturally universal. Somewhere in my
mess of books I have "something" on American Appalacia and that the
fathers in those families were more involved in child-rearing than in
general America. My father's parents moved west from Kentucky and
presumably brought their cultural practices with them. Class, gender,
region, religion, nationality, etc may all be important factors to
consider.
In terms of literature, I have always enjoyed the fact that (in Thomas
Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles) Tess's mother sang the bawdy song, "The
Spotted Cow," to Tess's kid brother as she rocked him. Unfortunately, most
editions footnote it merely as "an old song." As Georgina rightly
pointed out, there's a clear split between what we consider to be generic
lullabyes and what are actually used as songs sung to put kids to sleep.
Cheers,
Mike
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|