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Race and Nation in Puerto Rican Folklore: Franz Boas and John Alden Mason in Porto Rico explores the historic research trip taken to Puerto Rico in 1915. As a component of the Scientific Survey of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands, Boas intended to perform field research in the areas of anthropology and ethnography while other scientists explored the island's natural resources. A young anthropologist working under Boas, John Alden Mason, rescued hundreds of oral folklore samples, ranging from popular songs, poetry, conundrums, sayings, and, most particularly, folktales while documenting native Puerto Rican cultural practices. Through his extensive excursions, Mason came in touch with the rural lives of Puerto Rican peasants, the jíbaros, who served as both his cultural informants and writers of the folklore samples. These stories, many of which are still part of the island's literary traditions and collected in a bilingual companion volume by Rafael Ocasio, reflect a strong Puerto Rican identity coalescing in the face of the U.S. political intervention on the island. A fascinating slice of Puerto Rican history and culture sure to delight any reader!
Inhaltsverzeichnis
List of Illustrations
Introduction: Retention and Reinvention of Puerto Rican Oral Folklore Tales
1 Porto Rico as a Colonial Scientific Laboratory: Documenting Puerto Rican Oral Folklore
Part I: The Island of Porto Rico in the U.S. Public Eye
Part II: Identifying Porto Rican Folklore: The Compilation Process
2 A Post-Spanish American War National Identity: Editing Puerto Rican Folktales in a Socio-Political Vacuum
Part I: Arguing about La Raza and a Native Puerto Rican Culture
Part II: Editing in a Socio-Political Vacuum: Personal and Professional Differences
3 Jíbaros' Authorship through Self-Literary Characterization
Part I: A Countryside-inspired Folklore through Jíbaros' Authorship
Part II: Juan Bobo and Other Native Picaresque Characters: Surviving the Rural Campo
4 Telling a Story about Class and Ethnicity through Fairy Tales, Cuentos puertorriqueños and Leyendas
Part I: Expressing Jíbaro Cultural Values through Native Oral Folklore
Part II: El campo as a Site of Puerto Rican Identity in Cuentos de encantamiento, Cuentos puertorriqueños and Leyendas puertorriqueñas
5 An (Un)colored Puerto Rican Culture: Unpublished Negro Fieldwork in Old Loíza
Part I: Loíza as a Site of an Afro-Puerto Rican Culture
Part II: Reconstructing A Post-Slavery Afro-Puerto Rican Popular Folklore: The Unpublished Field Notes
6 Tropicalizing the Puerto Rican Racial Past: The Quest of an Indian Area
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Über den Autor / die Autorin
RAFAEL OCASIO is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Spanish at Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, Georgia.
Zusammenfassung
Explores the founding father of American anthropology's historic trip to Puerto Rico in 1915. As a component of the Scientific Survey of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands, Boas intended to perform field research in the areas of anthropology and ethnography there while other scientists explored the island's natural resources.
