essay
Tears of blood: the Calabrian villanella and immigrant epiphanies
Studies in Italian American folklore • Logan, Utah • Published In 1993 • Pages: 11-51
By: Chairetakis, Anna L., Del Guidice, Lusia.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is a study of Calabrian polyphonic song-poems, VILLANELLA, which are sung by Italian-American women, kin and friends who meet in small groups. The songs employ figurative language and metaphor. The imagery of the natural world and body such as flowers, trees, fruit, birds, serpents, eyes, breast and hair express feminine beauty, fertility, sentiment, bonding, and sexuality. The songs leading motif is female sexuality: the desirability of women and women's' inherent erotic power, which is conveyed as having magical and supernatural dimension. Chairetakis includes examples of the poems in Italian and English, and also discusses the cultural and historical context of the songs and singing.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Music
- Texts in the speaker's language
- Texts translated into english
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Italian Americans
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2000
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- North America
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Regional, Ethnic and Diaspora Cultures
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Social Scientist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard ;1999
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1975-1988
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1950-1990
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island, United States
- NotesAdditional notes
- Anna L. Chairetakis
- Includes bibliographical references (p.49-51)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 93021459
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Italian Americans