Presenter: Sarah Buck
Faculty Mentor: John Baumann, Carol Silverman
Presentation Type: Creative Work 2 (GSH 116)
Primary Research Area: Humanities
Major: Folklore
For generations, the Speelman family of Grants Pass, Oregon have been the unconscious preservers of traditional methods of butchering that nearly died out in the early 1900s. Transmitting their knowledge from father to son
and brother to brother, this butchering family presents a unique piece of oft overlooked Oregon folklore. Within this fieldwork project, fieldworker Sarah Buck discusses the theory and methodology which was used during her research, from staples of the folklore discipline to Jim Dodge’s writing on bioregionalism. The folkloric aspects of the Speelman family’s trade is defined and discussed using Dan Ben-Amos’ Towards a Definition of Folklore in Context as a communal knowledge of butchering that is a small cross-section of antiquity which is transmitted through family members verbally and through imitation. The Speelman family’s story is told in short documentary format, in which the fieldworker utilizes filmed interviews, her research and photographs.