New Release: Spring 2024 JAF: A Global Quarterly

The Spring 2024 issue of JAF: A Global Quarterly (Vol. 137, no. 544) has been mailed to subscribers and is now available online. 

In this issue: 

• Christopher James Blythe analyzes the Latter-day Saint legend in the United States of the naked dead and its assurance to Latter-day Saints that there is a transcendent purpose in ritual garments and burial practice.
•  Jelani K. Mahiri analyzes songs in the bumba-meu-boi of Maranhão, Brazil to reframe discussions of performance styles and of songs as exemplars of ludic (cultural) capital.
• Shashiprabha Thilakarathne, Sumith Gopura, Ayesha Wickramasinghe, and Alice Payne critically review legendary variants related to Kuweni, a foundational figure in Sri Lankan history, literature, and folklore, in order to explore how oral traditions can be transformed into metaphors and symbols applicable to other creative disciplines.
• Daniel L. Willett presents new evidence to cast light on the pivotal events and influences for singer/songwriter Woody Guthrie in his journey from a racist upbringing to the anti-racist art and activism of his later life in the context of the “Long Civil Rights Movement” in the United States. In his response essay, Guthrie biographer Will Kaufman contextualizes the significance of Willett’s research, while James Count Early offers critical observations and recommendations for further research and wider interpretation of the story Willett tells, intending “to emphasize principled accountability of all, at all times.”
• We remember Ronald Lee Baker (1937-2023), Elizabeth Lay Mathias (1931-2023), and Michel Ray Oyatayo Ali Abu Maryam (Mickey) Weems in the Obituaries.
• A dozen reviews consider recent work in the field. 

Contents

Articles

The Legend of the Naked Dead: Apparitions and Proper Burial in Latter-day Saint Folklore, by Christopher James Blythe

Accenting Songs in an Afro-Brazilian Festival: Song Structures, Performance Styles, and Ludic Capital in the Bumba-meu-Boi of Maranhão, by Jelani K. Mahiri

The Native Princess of Sri Lanka: The Thematic Metaphorical Approach in Symbolizing Characteristics of Folklore of Kuweni, by Shashiprabha Thilakarathne, Sumith Gopura, Ayesha Wickramasinghe, and Alice Payne

Perspectives

Woody Guthrie: Racial Transformation through the Framework of the “Long Civil Rights Movement,” by Daniel L. Willett

Response Essay, by James Counts Early

Response Essay, by Will Kaufman          

Obituaries

Ronald Lee Baker (1937-2023), by Simon J. Bronner

Elizabeth Lay Mathias (1931-2023), by Phyllis Gorfain

Michel Ray Oyatayo Ali Abu Maryam (Mickey) Weems (1957-2023), by Cory W. Thorne

Book Reviews 

Ginseng Diggers: A History of Root and Herb Gathering in Appalachia (Manget), by Betty J. Belanus 

Becoming Story: A Journey among Seasons, Places, Trees, and Ancestors (Sarris), by Charish Bishop 

Going Up the Country: Adventures in Blues Fieldwork in the 1960s (Bokelman and Evans), by Nicholas Booker

Our Stories Etched in Ivory / Qulip’yugut Iksiaqtuumaruat Tuugaami: The Smithsonian Collections of Engraved Drill Bows with Stories from the Arctic (Phillips-Chan), by Danielle Burke

Making Our Future: Visionary Folklore and Everyday Culture in Appalachia (Hilliard), by Tammy L. Clemons

Frankenstein Was a Vegetarian: Essays on Food Choice, Identity, and Symbolism (Jones), by Lindsay Anne Herring

We Are All Survivors: Verbal, Ritual, and Material Ways of Narrating Disaster and Recovery (Lindahl, Foster, and Horigan), by Nana Kaneko

The Enchanted Boot: Italian Fairy Tales & Their Tellers (Canepa), by Cristina Mazzoni

The Oral Epic: From Performance to Interpretation (Reichl), by Daniel Prior

Dhol: Drummers, Identities, and Modern Punjab (Schreffler), by Zoe Sherinian

Creole Soul: Zydeco Lives (Feintuch, Thomas, ed), by Roger Wood

Featured and reviewed projects

Thumbs Up for Mother Universe: Stories from the Life of Lonnie Holley (King), by Sophie Abramowitz