Roadside memorials in Allen, Barren, Butler, Edmonson, and Warren Counties in south central Kentucky mark the sites of automobile fatalities. These informal memorials are construced by family or friends of the deceased. Thirty-one memorials are found throughout these five counties. The majority of these memorials take on one of three forms: crosses, crosses with flowers, and standing styrofoam-based flower arrangements. Crosses, particularly white wooden crosses, are the most common element in these memorials. Unlike most death-related material culture studies, this research is built heavily upon interviews and conversations with those who construct and maintain the memorials. Much of the analysis of this thesis consists of in-depth explorations of particular roadside memorials and the meanings they have to those who constructed and maintain them. The memorials are explored within the larger context of regional death memorials in general. This larger context includes personal memorials, cemetery decoration, public memorials, and newspaper memorials.

An intersection of vernacular architecture studies and American studies, "The Dark Ride" defines the standard amusement park attraction both generally within the contexts of horrific iconography and the history of amusement devices and structures, and also specifically within the contexts of five amusement park environments. As a "ride-thru Halloween," the dark ride maintains a popular tradition of deriding and mocking the symbols of hell and death. As a variety of theater, the dark ride shares its technological and structural origins with primitive cinema (whose own century-long development intertwines with that of the dark ride) and the scenic attractions of late 19th and early 20th century expositions and amusement parks. As a commercial shapeshifter, the dark ride responds to the greater changes in its environment with structural alterations made over time; to illustrate this tendency, "The Dark Ride" presents structural histories of eight rides in five traditional amusement parks. Finally, from a constructivist point of view, I examine the attraction as a liminoid space which dark riders variously interpret as an opportune location for romance, storytelling, mischief and vandalism.

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Yaksagana

Sanketees

Kannada janapada

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Feb. 8, 2010). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-05, Section: A, page: 1745. Adviser: Henry Glassie.

Proefschrift--Utrecht. / Illustrated cover. "Literatuur": p. 193-196.

The study of folk art, or self-taught art, has been riddled with problems. Scholars have not agreed on terms or definitions, and research has been sporadic. Folk art environments, large decorated sites at homes or businesses, cause further problems because these sites define space. Simon Rodia built The Watts Towers in Los Angeles, and no one knows why he built the site or why he later abruptly abandoned it. The environment he built consists of three tall spires and several other smaller structures, all covered with colorful tile mosaic. Reverend Howard Finster created Paradise Garden just outside Pennville, Georgia as a means to communicate the teachings of God. The environment, a result of religious visions, contains hundreds of sculptures and describes an area of over seven acres. These sites represent two types of folk art environments: systematic and random.

No description available.