Roger D Abrahams

Biographic Data

ID86940
NAMERoger D Abrahams
GIVEN NAMESRoger D
FAMILY NAMEAbrahams
SIGNATUREABRAHAMS R D
AFFILIATIONSThe University of Texas at Austin
VERIFIEDNo
TOTAL WORKS138
TOTAL CITATIONS1758
AUTHOR COUNT137
EDITOR COUNT1
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1959
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2017
H-INDEX10

  • Planes of Classification in a Ritual of Life and Death

    Victor Turner, Roger D AbrahamsCHAPTERRitual Process2017

    This chapter explores the semantics of ritual symbols in Isoma , a ritual of the Ndembu, and to construct from the observational and exegetical data a model of the semantic structure of the symbolism. The binary-opposition red cock/white hen is significant in at least three sets of classifications in Isoma . Indeed, single symbols may represent the points of interconnection between separate planes of classification. The Ndembu belong to a great c…

  • Humility and Hierarchy: The Liminality of Status Elevation and Reversal

    Victor Turner, Roger D AbrahamsCHAPTERRitual Process2017

    This chapter focuses on liminality, as both phase and state. In complex large-scale societies, liminality itself, as a result of the advancing division of labor, has often become a religious or quasi-religious state, and, has tended to reenter structure and acquire a full complement of structural roles and positions. To summarize findings so far on rituals of status reversal: the masking of the weak in aggressive strength and the concomitant mask…

  • Communitas: Model and Process

    Victor Turner, Roger D AbrahamsCHAPTERRitual Process2017

    Ideological communitas is at once an attempt to describe the external and visible effects—the outward form, it might be said—of an inward experience of existential communitas, and to spell out the optimal social conditions under which experiences might be expected to flourish and multiply. The use of social-structural models has been extremely helpful in clarifying many dark areas of culture and society, but, like other major insights, the struct…

  • Liminality and Communitas

    Victor Turner, Roger D AbrahamsCHAPTERRitual Process2017

    The attributes of liminality or of liminal personae are necessarily ambiguous, since this condition and these persons elude or slip through the network of classifications that normally locate states and positions in cultural space. The neophyte in liminality must be a tabula rasa , a blank slate, on which is inscribed the knowledge and wisdom of the group, in those respects that pertain to the new status. Thus, liminality is frequently likened to…

  • Paradoxes of Twinship in Ndembu Ritual

    Victor Turner, Roger D AbrahamsCHAPTERRitual Process2017

  • The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure

    Victor Turner, Alfred Harris et al.BOOKRitual Process2017Cited by: 1409

    In The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure, Victor Turner examines rituals of the Ndembu in Zambia and develops his now-famous concept of "Communitas." He characterizes it as an absolute inter-human relation beyond any form of structure. The Ritual Process has acquired the status of a small classic since these lectures were first published in 1969. Turner demonstrates how the analysis of ritual behavior and symbolism may be used as a key…

  • And Other Neighborly Names: Social Process and Cultural Image in Texas Folklore

    Richard Bauman, Roger D AbrahamsBOOKAnd Other Neighborly Names2013

  • Blues for New Orleans: Mardi Gras and America's Creole Soul

    Roger D Abrahams, John F Szwed et al.BOOKBlues for New Orleans2006

    Celebrates the creole heritage of Mardi Gras, and considers the fate of the celebration in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

  • Everyday Life: A Poetics of Vernacular Practices

    Roger D AbrahamsBOOKEveryday Life2005

    Introduction PART I: THE MANY FORMS OF GOODWILL 1 Figures of Speech 2 Forms in Opposition 3 Genres 4 Stories PART II: GOODWILL TESTED 5 Just Talking/Taking License 6 Playing 7 Events/Experiences PART III: SOCIAL IMAGINARIES 8 Zones and Borders 9 Festive Gatherings 10 Facing Off at the Border PART IV: TERMS FOR FINDING OURSELVES 11 Ethnicities 12 Identities 13 Creolizations 14 Diasporas Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

  • Alan Lomax (1915-2002)

    Roger D AbrahamsARTICLEJournal of American Folklore2004

    Lomax's writings and recordings brought such figures as Leadbelly, Jelly Roll Morton, and Muddy Waters to national notice. His prodigious energy and enthusiasm carried over into his work at the many folk festivals that emerged during the folksong revival, which he guided as a conceptualizer, presenter, and more than occasional performer. Wherever he appeared, his eloquence on the stage was as powerful as his writings had been

  • Caribbean Voyage: The 1962 Field Recordings. 1997-2002

    Gage Averill, Alan Lomax et al.ARTICLEEthnomusicology2003

  • Questions of Criolian Contagion

    Roger D AbrahamsARTICLEJournal of American Folklore2003Cited by: 3

    This essay explores the plantation system as it operated in the Greater Caribbean in the formation of creole communities. Special focus is given to the two kinds of markets found in such communities, and to the ways in which African approaches to work and play entered into the rich mix of cultural forms growing out of the plantation experiment

  • National Redeemer: Owain Glendwr in Welsh Tradition

    Roger D AbrahamsARTICLEJournal of American Folklore1999

  • Antick Dispositions and the Perilous Politics of Culture: Costume and Culture in Jacobean England and America

    Roger D AbrahamsARTICLEJournal of American Folklore1998

    Roger D. Abrahams, Antick Dispositions and the Perilous Politics of Culture: Costume and Culture in Jacobean England and America, The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 111, No. 440, In Modern Dress: Costuming the European Social Body, 17th-20th Centuries (Spring, 1998), pp. 115-132

  • African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia: A Study of Folk Traditions

    Roger D Abrahams, Cecelia ConwayARTICLEJournal of American History1997

    Journal Article African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia: A Study of Folk Traditions. By Cecelia Conway. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995. xxviii, 394 pp. Paper, $25.00, ISBN 0-87049-893-2.) Get access Roger D. Abrahams Roger D. Abrahams University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 83, Issue 4, March 1997, Page 1490, htt…

  • The Negro Traditions

    Roger D Abrahams, Roger Abrahams et al.ARTICLEAfrican American Review1996

  • Singing the Master: The Emergence of African American Culture in the Plantation South

    Margaret Washington, Roger D AbrahamsARTICLEThe American Historical Review1994Cited by: 7

  • Victor Turner and the Construction ofCulturai Criticism: Between Literature and Anthropology . KATHLEEN M. ASHLEY

    Open AccessRoger D AbrahamsARTICLEAmerican Ethnologist1994

  • I Could Speak until Tomorrow: Oriki Women and the Past in a Yoruba Town. Karin Barber

    Open AccessRoger D AbrahamsARTICLEAmerican Ethnologist1994

  • Singing the Master: The Emergence of African American Culture in the Plantation South

    John Michael Vlach, Roger D AbrahamsARTICLEJournal of American History1993Cited by: 5

    Journal Article Singing the Master: The Emergence of African American Culture in the Plantation South. By Roger D. Abrahams. (New York: Pantheon, 1992. xxvi + 341 pp. $25.00, ISBN 0-394-55591-0.) Get access John Michael Vlach John Michael Vlach George Washington University, Washington, D.C. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 80, Issue 2, September 1993, Pages 668–669, https…

  • After New Perspectives: Folklore Study in the Late Twentieth Century

    Open AccessRoger D AbrahamsARTICLEWestern Folklore1993Cited by: 6References: 6

  • Phantoms of Romantic Nationalism in Folkloristics

    Roger D AbrahamsARTICLEJournal of American Folklore1993Cited by: 28

    L'emergence du folklore a la fin du 18 e me siecle s'est faite sous l'influence du Nationalisme Romantique. La comprehension du folklore par le public tout comme son etude par les folkloristes reste affectes par la nature de cette emergence, notamment par l'identification du folklore au territoire. L'A. met en evidence comment la pensee folkloriste a encourage les mouvements nationalistes, comment les folkloristes ont commence a penser une nouvel…

  • Jamaican Sayings, with Notes on Folklore, Aesthetics, and Social Control

    Roger D Abrahams, G Llewellyn Watson et al.ARTICLEEthnohistory1992

    In 1992, Jamaicans celebrate the 30 anniversary of Jamaica's formal independance from Britain. This collection of Creole sayings contributes to the interest cultural preservation which exists anticipation of the event. The sayings aim to trigger reflection and thought. They are never fully explained, and, says the author, in the most extreme situation one might well need an entire week to ponder and think seriously about their meaning. They exert…

  • Bonfires and Bells: National Memory and the Protestant Calendar in Elizabethan and Stuart England. David CRESSY

    Open AccessRoger D AbrahamsARTICLEAmerican Ethnologist1992

  • Folklore Matters

    Roger D Abrahams, Alan DundesARTICLEJournal of American Folklore1991