by James S. Griffith In his newest book, Saints, Statues, and Stories: A Folklorist Looks at the Religious Art of Sonora (University of Arizona Press, 2019), folklorist “Big Jim” Griffith recounts nearly 60 years of travel through Sonora, Mexico, making sense of roadside shrines, artists, fiestas, saints, and other religious art found in the ... [Continue Reading]
ARTIFACT: An Unnamed Fishing Vessel
ARTIFACT: An Unnamed Fishing Vessel SIZE: 90 feet FOLKLIFE: Transportation, fishing, migration, art, grief, memorialization by Robin Reineke On April 18, 2015, approximately 1,100 people boarded a nameless fishing vessel designed for a maximum of 15 off the coast of Libya. They had come from Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Ivory Coast, Eritrea, ... [Continue Reading]
ARTIFACT: The Sleeping Mexican
ARTIFACT: The Sleeping Mexican AKA: Pancho, Pedro, Ramón, the Lazy Mexican, the Sombreroed Dozer, the Dreamer, the Resting Worker, the Siesta Motif SIZE: Various FOLKLIFE: Occupational Folklife, knickknack, stereotypes, cultural icon, borderlands, Chicano culture, indigeneity, Mexico Story by Kimi Eisele Photographs by Kathleen ... [Continue Reading]
ARTIFACT: Barbed Wire
ARTIFACT: Barbed Wire SIZE: 12.5 to 15.5-gauge steel wire, various lengths, 2 point or 4 point FOLKLIFE: Occupational folklife, ranching, military, World War I & II, land use, immigration, borderlands by Kimi Eisele Two strands of steel wire twisted together to form a stiff double helix. Coiled perpendicularly around one of the ... [Continue Reading]
ARTIFACT: Smokey Bear
ARTIFACT: Smokey Bear SIZE: Various. See U.S. Forest Service’s Guide for proper use. FOLKLIFE: Occupational folklore, storytelling, advertising, land use, politics by Kimi Eisele Chances are, if you’ve ever set foot on public lands in the United States (or even into a gift shop near a national forest or wilderness area) you’ve seen Smokey ... [Continue Reading]
ARTIFACT: Caliche bar
ARTIFACT: Caliche Bar SIZE: ~5 feet, ~13.5 lbs FOLKLIFE: Food & foodways, landscape, nature, occupational folklore Anyone who has ever tried to plant anything in the desert probably knows that heavy clunk when the momentum of a shovel stops, the clink of metal against hard rock. That moment of reckoning when you know the winter garden or ... [Continue Reading]
ARTIFACT: El Molino
ARTIFACT: Electric corn grinder, molino SIZE: 5 x 3 x 4 ft FOLKLIFE: Food & foodways, kitchen tradition, gender roles, occupational folklore Illustration: Cara Gibson Story by Mele Martinez My father’s kitchen was an old, car garage in El Presidio neighborhood of downtown Tucson, Arizona. Outside, small plastic bags of ... [Continue Reading]
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