Front Matter Source: Folklore, Vol. 102, No. 1 (1991), pp. 1-103 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1260351 . Accessed: 15/06/2014 11:11 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Folklore Enterprises, Ltd. and Taylor & Francis, Ltd. are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Folklore. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 188.72.126.181 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 11:11:14 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Transcript
Front MatterSource: Folklore, Vol. 102, No. 1 (1991), pp. 1-103Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1260351 .
Accessed: 15/06/2014 11:11
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
Folklore Enterprises, Ltd. and Taylor & Francis, Ltd. are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve andextend access to Folklore.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 188.72.126.181 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 11:11:14 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
FOLKLORE is the Journal of the Folklore Society. It is published twice yearly, in Spring and Autumn. The annual subscription is ?18.00 (special rates for students and pensioners), or $45. Single copies of current numbers may be obtained for ?9.00. Contributions to FOLKLORE (including return postage, please) and all editorial correspondence should be sent to the Hon. Editor- Jacqueline Simpson MA, DLit, 9 Christchurch Road, Worthing, West Sussex BN11 1JH. Books for review should be sent to the Hon. Reviews Editor- Juliette Wood MA PhD, The Folklore Society, University College, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT. Back numbers from 1976 onwards are available from the Assistant Secretary, The Folklore Society, University College, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT; price ?23.00 per volume and pro rata for individual parts. Special rates apply for members (prices on application). Microfilm and microfiche copies obtainable from University Microfilms Inc., 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106, USA.
THE FOLKLORE SOCIETY
The Folklore Society (founded 1878) exists for the systematic comparative study of oral traditions and cultures, material cultures, folksong and dance and folktales, etc.
The annual subscription is ?18.00, or $45 (special rates for students and pensioners). This covers the subscription to the Journal mentioned above. Members are entitled to receive copies of FOLKLORE, to attend the meetings held between October and June, usually at University College, Gower Street, London, and to use and borrow from the Society's large Library. Books may be borrowed by post.
Applications for membership, subscriptions, and all other communications concerning the Society should be sent to:
The Hon. Secretary, The Folklore Society, University College, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT.
Officers and Committee: PRESIDENT: Roy Judge MA Oxon, MA Leeds PhD VICE-PRESIDENTS: Venetia J. Newall MA DLitt FRSA FRAI FSA FRSL
Professor John Widdowson MA PhD
MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE: Gordon Ashman MSc Joss O'Kelly BA ALA Jennifer Chandler MA(Oxon) MA Cantab MLitt Brian Shuel Ruth Glass BA PhD Jean Tsushima
SECRETARY: Marion Bowman MA TREASURER: John Hutchings CPhys FInstP AUDITOR: John Whittaker FCA LIBRARIAN: Stephen Roud EDITOR OF 'FOLKLORE': Jacqueline Simpson MA DLit ARCHIVIST: Julia Bishop MA(Cantab) MA Leeds PUBLICITY OFFICER: Doc Rowe PUBLICATIONS OFFICER: Juliette Wood MA PhD MLitt EVENTS OFFICER: George Monger BSc AMA EDITOR OF MISTLETOE BOOKS: Gillian Bennett MA PhD
ISSN 0015-587x Printed in Great Britain
by Gadds Printers Ltd., 2 Wenban Road, Worthing, West Sussex.
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THE Folklore Society's annual Katharine Briggs Lecture was given last November by Professor Bill Nicolaisen, Distinguished Professor of English and Folklore and former President of the American Folklore Society, on the 6th November at University College London. Professor Nicolaisen has long been associated with the Folklore Society and is currently a member of the Council. He is a member of the Society and was a friend of Dr. Briggs, so we were particularly pleased to invite him to give the lecture founded in her name. The audience included members and friends of the Society and representatives from several publishers as well as many of the authors whose books had been submitted for the prize. Professor Nicolaisen's lecture on 'The Past as Place: Where was the World of the Folktale and Where was Childhood?' covered an aspect of the folktale not usually considered by scholars and drew not only on his experience researching and teaching the folktale, but on his long-standing association with Scotland as well.
This lecture was followed by a reception at University College during which the current President of the Society, Dr. Roy Judge, presented the Katharine Briggs Folklore Award to Mr. Paul Oliver. The prize is intended to encourage serious research in the field of folklore studies in Britain, a field which Katharine Briggs did so much to establish. It is awarded annually for a book having its first, original, and initial publication in the United Kingdom, which the judges consider to have made an important contribution to the field of folklore studies. The award has gained in importance since its inception and a number of prominent academic publishers now regularly submit books. The more than three dozen books submitted this year cover a wide and varied field and reflect such diverse aspects of folklore as music, folk medicine, social history, the study of traditional aspects of ancient cultures and a biography of a nineteenth-century folklorist.
The winner of the 1990 Katharine Briggs Folklore Award was Paul Oliver's Blues Fell This Morning, published by Cambridge University Press. It presents a balanced and intelligent assessment of the blues genre such as one would expect from a noted musicologist and radio broadcaster with a special interest in jazz. Mr. Oliver's study, however, also considers the dense cultural background from which the blues developed and illuminates an area of social history hitherto only imperfectly explored.
The runners-up indicate the wide range of current work in folklore and the generally high standard of books received this year. The first is Magic, Science, Religion and the Scope of Rationality by Stanley Jayaraja Tambiah (Cambridge University Press). Professor Tambiah's work, originally presented as the Lewis Henry Morgan lectures at the University of Rochester, examines the concepts of magic, science and religion within the rich intellectual history of anthropological and philosophical thought.
So many good books were submitted this year, that the judges made joint awards for the second and third runners-up. Elizabeth Warner and Evgenii Kustovskii's study of traditional Russian folksong, Russian Traditional Folksong (Hull University Press), presents the texts of the songs themselves, together with an account of the relationship between the folksong and village life. There is an accompanying tape which contains recordings. Geoffrey Wainwright's The Henge Monuments (Thames and Hudson) speaks with the authority of an archaeologist who has been involved in the excavation of many of the
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1990 KATHARINE BRIGGS LECTURE AND FOLKLORE AWARD 103
monuments he discusses. The book serves as a corrective to the astrological theories that have gained such popular currency, as well as bringing the great monuments of Stonehenge and Avebury into clearer perspective. Tony Hunt's edition of medical treatises in Popular Medicine in Thirteenth Century England (Boydell and Brewer) makes available scrupulously edited texts which will be of great use to students of folk medicine and students of dialect alike.
Other books shortlisted for the 1991 Award include Barker, New Religious Movements: A Practical Introduction (HMSO): Cressy, Bonfires and Bells (Weidenfeld & Nicolson); Dugaw, Warrior Women and Popular Balladry 1650-1850 (Cambridge University Press); Opie and Tatum, A Dictionary of Superstitions (Oxford University Press); Piggott, Ancient Britons and the Antiquarian Imagination (Thames & Hudson); Smith and Stevenson, Fermfolk and Fisherfolk (Aberdeen University Press); Speight The History of the English Puppet Theatre (Robert Hale). We wish to thank the many authors and publishers who submitted books for the 1990 Award and who helped to make the event such a success.
JULIETTE WOOD
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