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  • American Folklore Society Annual Meeting Presentations77

51. Francis Lee Utley Memorial Lecture: What Ever Happened to Folk Songs? (1:18:40)

Date:
2015-10-16
Main contributors:
Szwed, John, Spitzer, Nick
Summary:
Folk songs have been at the heart of the study of folklore since its beginnings, and the scholarship on song is one of the finest achievements of the field. But in recent years interest in songs, especially songs in English, has waned among scholars in both folklore and ethnomusicology. Despite some continuing important and innovative work, and public fascination with the subject, song no longer seems central to folklore studies. I will argue that song is a cultural universal, indeed a cultural imperative, and exists as a system similar to kinship systems, language, and economic relations. This will be a plea to resume interest in songs, and will suggest some means by which folklore studies might again assume responsibility for understanding the role of song in human history. (Sponsored by the AFS Fellows.)

52. A Conversation with John Szwed (1:56:43)

Date:
2015-10-17
Main contributors:
Szwed, John, Baron, Robert, Cara, Ana
Summary:
Here, AFS continues the custom of including a public interview with a senior member of our field at the annual meeting. In this session, Robert Baron and Ana Cara will interview John Szwed, professor of music and jazz studies and director of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University, about his life and work. (Sponsored by the AFS Oral History Project.)

57. Herbs and Saints in the City of Angels: Researching Botánicas, Healing, and Power in Southern Cal... (1:18:37)

Date:
2018-10
Main contributors:
Jones, Michael Owen
Summary:
This lecture presents results of a project on folk medicine among Latinx in Los Angeles in which 131 interviews were conducted with 49 individuals, more than half of whom were healers associated with botánicas. Contrary to a number of previous reports, research data reveal that the healers were not poorly educated, unsophisticated, or adversaries of biomedical care; that clientele were not exclusively Latinx; and that a number of long-standing assumptions in works on Latinx healing traditions should be reassessed. The present study of ethnomedical treatment offers insight into needs and concerns that could inform the healthcare profession in regard to one of the largest and most underserved populations in the US.

59. The Phillips Barry Lecture: Afro-Mestizo Imaginaries in “Música Tropical”: Gender Differences in ... (1:13:49)

Date:
2015-10-16
Main contributors:
Herrera-Sobek, Maria, Winick, Stephen D.
Summary:
Some songs pertaining to the “música tropical” genre, or music exhibiting tropical rhythms from both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, feature Afro-mestizo protagonists in their lyrics. My study explores the imaginaries constructing the subjectivities of Afro-mestizo men and women and posits that these gender constructions are different between the two sexes. Men tend to be depicted more harshly than women. Both, however, are depicted in a stereotypical and racist manner. My study incorporates feminist and critical race theories as well as postcolonial theories in the analy- sis and hermeneutics of the representation of Afro-mestizos in the lyrics of these songs.