Regina Bendix

The Uses of Disciplinary History

Many folklorists were rather perplexed when the first call for papers for a special issue on “The Uses of the Folk” circulated on-line. “Haven’t we worked on this topic since the 1960s?” they asked, and they followed that query up with a sardonic observation that, once again, the labors and insights of the small discipline of folklore had gone unnoticed by the giant field of history.1 A similar mixture of unease and amazement pervaded in the early 1980s when two books dealing with tradition, a core term in folklore, stirred wide debate. One was by the sociologist Edward Shils, and the other, which brought the idea of “invented tradition” into the academic limelight, had been edited by the historians Eric Hobsbawm and Terrence Ranger.2 Neither book acknowledged folklorists’ extensive work on, or perhaps more accurately, with the concept of “tradition.” Folklorists in turn may have embraced invented tradition a little too hastily, as they adopted it as a label for various sociopolitical and economic phenomena, most notably “fakelore” and “folklorismus,” that had long been debated in folklore studies internationally.3 These discussions among folklorists, which lasted roughly from the 1960s to the 1980s, acknowledged the inherent entanglement of the folk construct with both political and economic forces. They presaged the movement toward a broad intellectual interest in the politics of culture in which collected, exhibited, and performed folk treasures have figured very prominently.4 The question of “invention,” crucial for historical practice concerned with the reliability of primary sources, turns the investigator’s gaze to the agents and to those who perform as much as to those who collect and publish folklore. The questions to be asked, and indeed the entire focus of research, are likely to change from simply deciding whether a given collection is trustworthy as a source document. There is the

The Sound of Music zwischen Mythos und Marketing, and: Walt Disney and Europe: European Influences on the Animated Feature Films of Walt Disney (review)

Some months ago, a Philadelphia colleague told me she had spent an evening at a Sound of Music sing-along. She found it to be a most astonishing event, with audience members dressed in dirndl and lederhosen and many people capable of recalling lyrics from the film. An evening of this nature is unthinkable in Austria, the land where the nearly mythic von Trapp family’s tale of family, love, music, righteousness, and determination in the face of evil takes place, where the film was a flop, and where today hardly anyone knows what the film is about or who the Trapp family was. “Edelweiss” was never a popular song in Austria. By contrast, The Sound of Music has lured more American visitors to Austria than the country’s rich cultural legacy or its spectacular mountains. Sound of Music tours have been offered in the Salzburg region for decades, but Austrians rarely take them. Now Ulrike Kammerhofer-Aggermann and Alexander Keul have brought together contributions from twenty-seven individuals from academic and applied settings who jointly shed light on the Rogers and Hammerstein musical, the American film and Julie Andrews vehicle, the film’s German cinematic predecessors, and the place of these productions in popular culture and the marketplace. Produced as much for a local, lay audience as for an academic readership, the contributions are uneven yet fascinating in their effort to grasp the phenomenon comprehensively. Part 1 consists of two short, literary vignettes that sketch the pervasive presence of The Sound of Music in the most unlikely places on the globe. Part 2 looks at the actual history of the Trapp family, drawing from interviews, letters, and written accounts by family members as well as individuals who worked with or for them. Particularly interesting are the portraits of Martha Zöckbauer, who worked for the Trapps for eight years in America, and of Pater Franz Matthias Wasner, who “discovered” the Trapp choir in the 1930s; became their conductor, arranger, and manager; and accompanied them to America. Part 3 chronicles the path from Maria Augusta von Trapp’s book to films, the musical, documentaries, and perhaps somewhat absurdly, sound recordings that drew on the songs of the film musical rather than the quite different repertoire that the Trapp choir actually performed. The historical and visual inaccuracies of the film remain a source of amusement and critique for a number of the authors, in particular the magical flight of the Trapps from Salzburg’s Unterberg right into Switzerland which would, geographically, be completely impossible. Part 4 examines the interplay of the growing Trapp fame with its marketing, while the final section explores ways in which Salzburg could potentially exploit The Sound of Music more successfully. These last two parts contain contrasting points of view. In one, individuals from the world of tourism and cultural management seriously and statistically probe the further sales potential of the saga, while in the other cultural critics theorize the peculiar role of this document in Austrian-American relations. With detailed musical analyses, visual comparisons, a storehouse of interesting pieces of information, and some 122 (in part quite esoteric, though not necessarily fully explained) illustrations, the editors have made a tremendous effort to explain the phenomenal reception of a piece of their country’s history in America. Folklorists have critically examined Walt

Book review: Irene Bellier and Thomas Wilson, eds, 2000. An Anthropology of the European Union: Building, Imagining and Experiencing the New Europe. Oxford: Berg. pp. x + 205. ISBN (pb) 1 85973 329 8. Price: £14.99

between exploratory and explanatory studies, thereby pointing to the links between theory, analysis and research design. The other chapters in Part 1 of the book are dedicated to ethics, to feminist methods (understandably absent in the 1970 volume, and presented here with the conciliatory tone that characterizes the whole volume, rejecting the equation of masculine and quantitative, and recommending explicitness in presuppositions), and to transnational research – another newcomer. The techniques discussed in Part 2 refer to observation, interviewing, questionnaire construction, discourse research, visual anthropology, and the study of archives. Usually the link between theoretical stance and the selection of a particular technique receives attention. Thus the humanist and scientific origins of participation and observation are elaborated and the connection between functionalism and participant observation drawn. In discussing the merits of observation, the emic/etic debate is addressed, and discourse study is explained with reference to the relationship between culture and language. The value of such a once-in-three-decades book stems in part from its exceptionality as a huge project. Furthermore, though, it is a book to have on the shelf, next to the dictionaries, to consult whenever the need arises. Methodologists will find it extremely valuable and will go carefully through the chapters of his or her own speciality if not read the book from cover to cover. Those of us whose primary loyalty is with theoretical reflection in anthropology will as well discover much of value in this volume. Its eclectic perspective is a guarantee that any reader will find his or her interests addressed. André Droogers Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands [email: AF.Droogers@scw.vu.nl]

Book Review: Out of Our Minds: Reason and Madness in the Exploration of Central Africa

When we consider the dependencies and human suffering brought about through colonialism, terms such as lunacy or madness do come to mind. Johannes Fabian asks us to set aside the image of the explorer in rational pursuit of scientific goals, and join him instead in exploration of the insanities inscribed into the occupation of exploring. Fabian works largely with the travelogues, letters and research reports of Belgian and German explorers, such as Jérôme Becker, Paul Pogge and Hermann Wissmann who set foot in Central Africa nearly a century before he began his own research there. Allowing an English speaking audience access to the world of these little-known accounts is one of the many assets of this work. Fabian seeks the contradictions between the vocabulary of the intrepid, heroic, and courageous travelogue writer, guided by a positivist ‘can-do’ attitude, and the experience of the fatigued, fearful, delusional, angry, contemptuous, feverish and often drugged explorer whose deepest insight into the cultural Other occurred when he was ‘out of his mind’. Fabian uses the concept of ecstasis to characterize this condition where the explorer, facing intellectual and moral dilemmas, found himself outside the rationalized frames of exploration and within a state that allowed for non-violent meetings between Europeans and Africans. Ecstasis, according to Fabian, is also a prerequisite for the production of ethnographic knowledge, and the nature of exploration thus compares easily with the emergent discipline of ethnography. Through this account of the mental, bodily, communicative and representational modes of exploring, Fabian leads ‘toward critical reflection on the processes of ethnographic knowledge’ (p. 10). This requires an ethnographic accounting of the (proto-)ethnographic occupation, which is carried out with a methodological circumspection involving several disciplines (colonial and disciplinary history, historiography and ethnolinguistics). The meticulousness with which Fabian analyses 21 European explorers’ writings for their vocabularies and for evidence of their professional habitus constitutes a mammoth task and explains the decade of work Fabian invested in this project. Explorers entered the field burdened with the trappings considered necessary for civilized existence, an entourage of staff, often including military personnel, and weaponry. Keeping oversight and authority over this caravan was the first occupational challenge, controlling the explorer in unaccustomed ways. For some, the responsibility brought a new ability to oversee and plan ahead – bridging into a state of less welcome wakefulness. The physical exertion, disease, and medications used to prevent or cure illness had an impact on the reasoning powers, and influenced perception and communicative styles, just as stretches of good health, successfully sustained marches and peaceful encounters produced elation and contentedness. Mood swings, witnessing native nudity dying associates, and upholding one’s civilized status are no emotional foundation for rationally-scripted discovery. Fabian points to the crucial role of sensory perception, and how it could be heightened or misled during stretches of delusion. If earlier chapters concentrate on ‘how [our authors] found out what they reported’, the final chapters turn to ‘how they reported what they found’ (p. 154). Fabian shows the contradictions between assumptions of ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY 1(4)

The Hidden Musicians: Music-Making in an English Town

A landmark in the study of music and culture, this acclaimed volume documents the remarkable scope of amateur music-making in the English town of Milton Keynes. It presents in vivid detail the contrasting yet overlapping worlds of classical orchestras, church choirs, brass bands, amateur operatic societies, and amateur bands playing jazz, rock, folk, and country. Notable for its contribution to wider theoretical debates and its influential challenge to long-held assumptions about music and how to study it, the book focuses on the practices rather than the texts or theory of music, rejecting the idea that only selected musical traditions, ‘great names’ or professional musicians are worth studying. This opens the door to the invisible work put in by thousands of local people of diverse backgrounds, and how the pathways creatively trodden by amateur musicians have something to tell us about both urban living and what it is to be human. Now with a new preface by the author, this long-awaited reissue of The Hidden Musicians will bring its insights to a new generation of students and scholars.