"Gombo" Folkloristics: Lafcadio Hearn's Creolization and Hybridization in the Formative Period of Folklore Studies

Discourse on cultural hybridization and creolization in contemporary American folklore studies was presaged by Lafcadio Hearn, a prolific writer in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In his studies of and involvement with the Creoles of Louisiana and the Caribbean, Hearn increasingly came into conflict with folklorists of his day who espoused ideas of cultural evolution. These schemes mapped a progression from darker to lighter races, from savagery to civilization; in this view, folklore represented relics from earlier or lower stages of cultural progress, and racial mixing produced "mongrel" or unnatural results. In contrast, rather than emphasizing racial boundaries or cultural hierarchies, Hearn drew attention to the continual emergence of folklore from the mixing and blending of peoples and cultural forms. Using traditional Creole foods and speech as metaphors, he described the cultural and linguistic processes of the Creoles as a model for modern folklore, a varied "gombo" that was nevertheless spicy and consistent in its result. This article uses Hearn's own essays, the extensive record of his letters, and the many biographies written about him to suggest whyÑagainst the political and intellectual temper of the timesÑhe advocated creolization as a natural cultural process. A psychoanalytical interpretation of the ejective function of Hearn's work is given, and the social issues of racial superiority and separation at stake in his arguments with evolutionary folklorists are analyzed. Examining Hearn's interest in heterogeneity offers an historical perspective on the rise of hybridization theory within folklore studies in the late twentieth century.