Folk Groups And Folklore Genres: An Introduction

Chapter 9. Folk Objects

.:. .:. .:. .:. .:. Chapter 9 Folk Objects Simon J. Bronner .:. .:. .:. .:. .:. In Utah, two'story houses display their symmetrical faces of stone against a mountainous backdrop. In Indiana, woodcarvers show chains and caged balls amazingly made out of one piece of wood with the aid of only a pocketknife. In Pennsylvania, New Year's Day is greeted with the making of sauerkraut and pork. These things are folk objects, or more accurately, the material products of folkways. Folk objects materialize tradition. Typically learned by imitating the work of community or family members and by participating in local customs, folk objects exhibit the repetition and variation common to other forms of folklore such as tales, songs, proverbs, and riddles. Of course, folk objects show the interconnections common to all forms of folklore. A house, a carving, or a food dish reflects shared experience, community ideas and values connecting individuals and groups to one another and to the environment. To stress these interconnections, the term "material culture" is often used to point to the weave of objects in the everyday lives of individuals and communities. Things so woven give us texts to read. Indeed, "text" is a term so characteristic of narrative and other verbal forms, that we forget that it comes from the Latin for "woven thing," and therefore should be applicable to the characterization of objects as well. But because folk objects exist in material, rather than verbal or gestural form, differences arise in the way they are studied. Because an object takes up space, 199 Simon]. Bronner because it endures, and because it can be seen, smelled, and touched, the study of folk objects takes on additional dimensions. These additional dimensions will be addressed in this chapter. The study ~fobjects tends to emphasize aspects ofform. An object is visible and three dimensional; indeed, the word "form" is taken from the Greek for "visible shape." An object is described primarily by its stable, visible features - its contour, size, and structure. To be sure, the object has other components to record - its material, construction, use, and design. But while the color and material may vary in one type ofobject, its form remains fairly constant and readily lends itself to comparison. Aluminum siding can be tacked onto a log building; the carving of a wooden chain can become a pastime in retirement while it was once plied by active young men. Yet the forms of these buildings and chains do not change. With a form that is easily discernible and stable, measurements can be made. An object's ability to be measured allows for the expression of repetition and variation in exact and comparable units. Measurement helps us to describe standards of form within a culture. Words may change radically from one tale version to the next, and the other versions are irretrievable. To change an object, the maker must create a new object or significantly alter an existing one. The older versions remain for us to see and to conceptualize as some kind of series; e.g., the versions can be arranged by when or where they were made. Measurement permits a discussion of pattern and symmetry through time and space. It reveals that the middle'Yirginia folk house is based upon transformations of a basic square, and that a type ofstone house in Utah is typically two rooms wide and has a two'to'one ratio of length to width. 1 The forms of folk objects are usually slow to change. Consequently, form becomes an especially good indicator of a historical region and its culture. Stone houses with the symmetrical form of one room on either side of a hallway and an elevation ofone or two stories are so pervasive in Utah and surrounding areas that they place a distinctive mark upon the landscape (Figure 1). The distribution of this central,hall house and similar forms parallel the distribution ofMormon settlement in the West. 200 FOLK GROUPS AND FOLKLORE GENRES Figure 1. Stone house; near Brigham City, Utah (Simon Bronner) Geographers see in the houses a visible and enduring imprint of a unique region of Mormon culture with sources in the Midwest and New England.2 Ifthe similarities of forms within a region indicate a shared culture, then the differences of basic forms may suggest differences of culture and world view. The bilateral symmetry of Utah's stone houses came into prominence as western society was increasingly transformed by science and technology...