Reading the Skies

Reading the Skies
Author: Vladimir Jankovic
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2001-04-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780226392158

From the time of Aristotle until the late eighteenth century, meteorology meant the study of "meteors"—spectacular objects in the skies beneath the moon, which included everything from shooting stars to hailstorms. In Reading the Skies, Vladimir Jankovic traces the history of this meteorological tradition in Enlightenment Britain, examining its scientific and cultural significance. Jankovic interweaves classical traditions, folk/popular beliefs and practices, and the increasingly quantitative approaches of urban university men to understanding the wonders of the skies. He places special emphasis on the role that detailed meteorological observations played in natural history and chorography, or local geography; in religious and political debates; and in agriculture. Drawing on a number of archival sources, including correspondence and weather diaries, as well as contemporary pamphlets, tracts, and other printed sources reporting prodigious phenomena in the skies, this book will interest historians of science, Britain, and the environment.

Handbook of American Folklore

Handbook of American Folklore
Author: Richard M. Dorson
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 614
Release: 1986-02-22
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780253203731

Includes material on interpretation methods and presentation of research.

Folklore

Folklore
Author: Joseph Jacobs
Publisher:
Total Pages: 648
Release: 1909
Genre: Folklore
ISBN:

Most vols. for 1890- contain list of members of the Folk-lore Society.

Nature

Nature
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1032
Release: 1904
Genre: Science
ISBN:

Science

Science
Author: John Michels (Journalist)
Publisher:
Total Pages: 894
Release: 1898
Genre: Science
ISBN:

Wait Five Minutes

Wait Five Minutes
Author: Shelley Ingram
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
Total Pages: 203
Release: 2023-05-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1496844378

Contributions by Emma Frances Bloomfield, Sheila Bock, Kristen Bradley, Hannah Chapple, James Deutsch, Máirt Hanley, Christine Hoffmann, Kate Parker Horigan, Shelley Ingram, John Laudun, Jordan Lovejoy, Lena Marander-Eklund, Jennifer Morrison, Willow G. Mullins, Anne Pryor, Todd Richardson, and Claire Schmidt The weather governs our lives. It fills gaps in conversations, determines our dress, and influences our architecture. No matter how much our lives may have moved indoors, no matter how much we may rely on technology, we still monitor the weather. Wait Five Minutes: Weatherlore in the Twenty-First Century draws from folkloric, literary, and scientific theory to offer up new ways of thinking about this most ancient of phenomena. Weatherlore is a concept that describes the folk beliefs and traditions about the weather that are passed down casually among groups of people. Weatherlore can be predictive, such as the belief that more black than brown fuzz on a woolly bear caterpillar signals a harsh winter. It can be the familiar commentary that eases daily social interactions, such as asking, “Is it hot (or cold) enough for you?” Other times, it is simply ubiquitous: “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes and it will change.” From detailing personal experiences at picnics and suburban lawns to critically analyzing storm stories, novels, and flood legends, contributors offer engaging multidisciplinary perspectives on weatherlore. As we move further into the twenty-first century, an increasing awareness of climate change and its impacts on daily life calls for a folkloristic reckoning with the weather and a rising need to examine vernacular understandings of weather and climate. Weatherlore helps us understand and shape global political conversations about climate change and biopolitics at the same time that it influences individual, group, and regional lives and identities. We use weather, and thus its folklore, to make meaning of ourselves, our groups, and, quite literally, our world.