"Tradition" in Identity Discourses and an Individual's Symbolic Construction of Self

Food Choice, Symbolism, and Identity: Bread and Butter Issues for Folkloristics and Nutrition Studies (American Folklore Society Presidential Address, October 2005)

“…The son of a Scottish immigrant, he was reared by his mother as an assimilated Canadian-Anglo Roman Catholic in the city of Winnipeg. He now cultivates an image composed of several identities that are directly opposite of the earlier ones: rural, Ukrainian, Orthodox lay monk (Jones 2000a). Born in 1939, he was the only child of alcoholic, promiscuous, abusive parents; in his teenage years he sought refuge with his Polish-Ukrainian grandparents, from whom he learned a smattering of household dialect, religion, and ethnic traditions.…”

“…When I began teaching a course on foodways in 1974, I was intrigued with not only the social dimension of gastronomy-the group customs and traditions associated with food-but also the importance of sensory experiences in determining individuals' eating habits (Jones, Giuliano, and Krell 1981); this includes disgust (Jones 2000b) as well as the effects of sensory deprivation, such as my mother's loss of her sense of smell from head injuries suffered in an auto accident (Jones 1987). Particularly appetizing, because of its richness and complexity, was the symbolic realm of foodways: why are cooking and eating imbued with special meanings, how are they related to individuals' multiple identities, and how do these idioms and ideologies affect food choice?…”

Practice Theory in Folklore and Folklife Studies

“…Arguably, performance comes out of a view of an individually constructed identity rather than a social precedent. Accordingly, American perspectives on performance frequently emphasise individuals as artists; they show the malleability of identity in different situations (see Bauman 1987;Oring 1994;Jones 2000a). But the kind of material considered is therefore more limited to the action rather than the acting involved.…”

“…Folklorists want to know how tradition is expressed and how people behave when it is enacted. Some American folklorists, such as Michael Owen Jones, Jay Mechling, and Roger Abrahams, go further in suggesting that certain actions, such as "organizing," "playing," and "speaking," are pivotal and aesthetic activities underlying rather than dividing everyday life or as it has been conceptualised recently, "public culture" (Jones 1987;Abrahams 2005).…”

“…Notably in addition to "life," the importance of the "everyday" is evident in American folkloristic works that refer to practice. Jay Mechling and Michael Owen Jones have pointedly asked whether a "pragmatic" conception of action drawing attention to itself applies to an individual expressing identity through activity that is rendered symbolic, such as a ritualised way of working or discourse with oneself rather than a social other (Mechling 1989;Jones 2000a). One can read an orientation toward practice signifying the everyday in various declarations of daily life as the scope of folklore study, such as Georges's and Jones's statement in their textbook Folkloristics: An Introduction that "Folklore is an integral and vital part of our daily lives" (Georges and Jones 1995, 1) or Barre Toelken's opening to The Dynamics of Folklore that "folklore comes early and stays late in the lives of all of us" (Toelken 1996, 19).…”