New Books in Folklore

What can we learn from our landscape? How can Geomythography help us understand our cultural heritage? What is Geomythography?

Geomythography is the interpretation of prehistoric and later societies at specific locales through a combination of oral tradition, place-names, landscape analysis and archaeology. The process is a means of finding new perspectives and interpretations to further the understanding of early and extant cultures, the continuities between them and investigating oral traditions that initially arose in pre-Christian myth, much of it concerning a Mother Goddess.

In Scotland's Geomythography (Luath Press, 2025), Stuart McHardy unveils the intricate ties between Scotland’s landscapes and the rich tapestry of its pre-Christian and later traditions. Geomythography is a vital lens through which to understand the enduring relationship between the land and its people.

The book invites readers to discover how communities have thrived within the land of Scotland, fostering a deep-rooted cultural connection. McHardy argues that respect for our ancestors and the knowledge they imparted shape not only individual identity but also communal responsibility towards future generations. This book is an essential read for history enthusiasts, those interested in myth and folklore and anyone interested in finding out more about Scotland’s Geomythography.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/folkore

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When world kettle-bell
lifting champion David Keohan heard the old tales of stone-lifting, he
was captivated, setting off on a quest to rediscover these famous stones
and attempt the feats of heroes past by lifting them. Guided by a 1930s archive, the dúchas,
in which schoolchildren shared their local folklore, Keohan began to
travel the country in search of the stones, as documented in The Wind Beneath the Stone: My Quest to Unearth a Piece of Ireland's Folklore (Bloomsbury and Chelsea
Green, 2026). They were often to be found hidden away in quiet villages
or cemeteries, their purpose almost forgotten. But, as he journeyed
through Ireland, he met those who recalled the stories of the stones and
the legends attached to them. Soon, others joined him as he took on the
challenge of lifting these pieces of history, the heaviest of which
weighed well over 450 pounds.

As Keohan’s efforts garnered more and more
attention, he realized that this was more than a personal challenge.
Stone-lifting had become a way for Irish people to reclaim their lost
heritage, coming together to celebrate what makes their homeland
special.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book
focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty
negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative
analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find
Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. 
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/folkore

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Since time immemorial, water has been a major theme in myth, religion
and folklore throughout the world. With its 12,000-mile coastline, as
well as a plethora of rivers and lochs, Scotland is a particularly
rewarding place in which to explore the spiritual dimensions of what is
both the most commonplace and yet the most mysterious of all chemical
compounds.

Liquid Faith: Scotland's Sacred and Supernatural Waters
(Birlinn, 2026) by Ian Bradley is a journey from healing wells,
springs, river sources and bogs to the seashore, islands and whirlpools,
to discover the legends, superstitions and rituals that have grown up
around them. Drawing on spirituality, philosophy and faith as well as
history and tradition, Professor Bradley highlights the crucial
importance of water over thousands of years, and emphasises its
preciousness and vulnerability today and in the future.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book
focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty
negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative
analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find
Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. 
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/folkore

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Do
you look back at your sex ed classes and wonder WTF?! Are you a parent
looking at your kid’s curriculum and asking the same question?

Sex Education 101: Approachable Essays on Folklore, Culture, & History (Fox Folk Press, 2023) is
less of a how-to of sex education and more of a why. Why does
abstinence-only sex ed receive so much federal funding? Why do
instructors show gross images of STIs to scare students? The answers, believe it or not, have a lot to do with folklore.

Folklore—informally
transmitted traditional culture—has a lot to say about sex. And it is
often people’s first point of contact with information and messages
about sex. Folklore encompasses urban legends, moral panics, and rumors,
which influenced early U.S. policies around sex, and also
includes jokes, raunchy folk songs, and beliefs and slang about
menstruation or STIs. And thus, folklore shapes sex ed classrooms and
school sex ed policies.

Jeana
Jorgensen earned her PhD in folklore at Indiana University. She is a
lecturer in anthropology at Butler University and part of the editorial
team at Marvel's & Tales. Her books include Folklore 101 (2021), Fairy Tales 101 (2022), and Sex Education 101 (2023), and her work has appeared in the Journal of American Folklore, Fabula, Journal of Folklore Research, and elsewhere.

Rachel Hopkin PhD is a folklorist and audio producer.
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The
early twenty-first century ushered in a period of change in Bolivia.
The country welcomed its first Indigenous president, a new constitution,
and a profusion of laws that recognized individual music and dance
expressions as intangible cultural heritage. Using cultural heritage
lawmaking as a window through which to view the de-centered workings of the Indigenous-focused Plurinational Bolivian State, Heritage Fever: Law and Cultural Politics in a Decolonizing State
(Oxford University Press, 2025) by Dr. Michelle Bigenho and Dr. Henry
Stobart unpacks the myriad motivations for heritage making in this this
politically transformative moment. Heritage Fever reorients
UNESCO-driven heritage debates towards a different set of questions—a pivot the authors call “heritage otherwise.”

These
inquiries focus on how citizens use law to frame expressive culture and
engage their new state. Through grounded case studies, Bigenho and
Stobart reveal how competing claims over cultural expressions stimulate
aficionado research and produce an abundance of cultural activities.
Managing these productive conflicts often involves strategic uses of
scale within the country's new political autonomies, even as old-style
nationalisms lurk beneath a plurinational sheen. One case study highlights
imagined Indigenous autonomy as bolstered by decolonizing
historiography that predates the Plurinational State by several decades.

Privileging
the stories told by those who championed or who were bureaucratically
involved in the respective heritage-making campaigns, Heritage Fever's
research draws from the authors' combined fieldwork in Bolivia over the
last 30 years, recent multi-sited fieldwork conducted as a team, and
ethnographic interviews conducted with Bolivians involved in
heritage-making projects. Contributing to legal anthropology, critical
heritage studies, ethnomusicology, and anthropology of the state, Heritage Fever
looks beyond intellectual property frames, opens new perspectives on
archival thinking, reflects on decolonizing practices in expertise and
knowledge production, and uncovers the agency of mid-level citizens in a
decolonizing state.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book
focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty
negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative
analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find
Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. 
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/folkore

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.