"More than corn grows tall on the American Plains. Here for the delectation of amateur folklorists is a collection of country whoppers from the frontier of Nebraska, Oklahoma and Iowa-funny and fantastic yarns and anecdotes of pioneer vintage that belie the erroneous notion that the men and women who settled the Plains were 'grimly serious' forerunners of Grant Wood's farming couple."-Publishers Weekly

To Carolyn Brown s mind, the tall tale is not necessarily an account of the adventures of a larger-than-life hero, nor is it just a humorous first-person narrative exaggerated to outlandish proportions. It is as well an interaction between teller and audience a game played at the hazy border between the credible and the incredible, a challenge and an entertainment at the same time. The tall tale is also a social statement that identifies and binds a folk group by flaunting the peculiar knowledge and experiences of group members, and it is a tool for coping with a stressful or even chaotic world, for conquering life s problems by laughing at them.

Between 1895 and 1920, the United States saw a sharp increase in commercial sound recording, the first mass medium of home entertainment. As companies sought to discover what kinds of records would appeal to consumers, they turned to performance forms already familiar to contemporary audiences—sales pitches, oratory, sermons, and stories. In A Most Valuable Medium, Richard Bauman explores the practical problems that producers and performers confronted when adapting familiar oral genres to this innovative medium of sound recording. He also examines how audiences responded to these modified and commoditized presentations. Featuring audio examples throughout and offering a novel look at the early history of sound recording, A Most Valuable Medium reveals how this new technology effected monumental change in the ways we receive information.

American folklife is steeped in world cultures, or invented as new culture, always evolving, yet often practiced as it was created many years or even centuries ago. This fascinating encyclopedia explores the rich and varied cultural traditions of folklife in America - from barn raisings to the Internet, tattoos, and Zydeco - through expressions that include ritual, custom, crafts, architecture, food, clothing, and art. Featuring more than 350 A-Z entries, "Encyclopedia of American Folklife" is wide-ranging and inclusive. Entries cover major cities and urban centers; new and established immigrant groups as well as native Americans; American territories, such as Guam and Samoa; major issues, such as education and intellectual property; and expressions of material culture, such as homes, dress, food, and crafts. This encyclopedia covers notable folklife areas as well as general regional categories. It addresses religious groups (reflecting diversity within groups such as the Amish and the Jews), age groups (both old age and youth gangs), and contemporary folk groups (skateboarders and psychobillies) - placing all of them in the vivid tapestry of folklife in America. In addition, this resource offers useful insights on folklife concepts through entries such as "community and group" and "tradition and culture." The set also features complete indexes in each volume, as well as a bibliography for further research.

Plains folklorist Roger L. Welsch has edited a lively collection of stories by some master yarnspinners—those old-time traveling horse traders. Told to Federal Writers' Project fieldworkers in the 1930s, these stories cover the span of horse trading: human and equine trickery, orneriness, debility—and generosity.

This text is devoted to studies of the languages and cultures of the Cushitic-speaking peoples of the Horn of Africa. It is concerned with linguistics in a technical sense, and analyzes the oral literature of the people of the area.

Featuring lively essays from rural elementary and secondary teachers, this volume describes the theory and practice of place-conscious education--using one's local place to build real, lasting connections to learning. The teachers describe the development and implementation of rich classroom writing programs that link learners with their rural communities and can serve as models for both public engagement and pedagogy. The outgrowth of research lead by the National Writing Project and funded in part by the Annenberg Rural Challenge, this book: - Applies place-conscious ideas to rural and regional contexts, rather than to urban communities in crisis.- Shows how to integrate place-conscious teaching into student-centered workshop teaching.- Describes a community writing project that attempted to save a school in the face of economic worries.- Details a Rural Institute program that guides teachers in implementing place-conscious education in their setting.- Includes an introduction by Robert Brooke and an afterword by Marian Matthews that position the work in relation to national trends in rural education.