Goshen College professor emeritus edits second book on Mennonite and Amish folklore with chapters by former students

 

GOSHEN, Ind. – It isn’t often when a college student hands in a class assignment that anyone beyond the professor will see the fruits of their labor.

 

But Goshen College Professor Emeritus of English Ervin Beck saw greater potential in the assignments he read over the 21 years he taught folklore courses. Beck follows up his popular book “MennoFolk: Mennonite and Amish Folk Traditions” (Herald Press, 2004), with “MennoFolk 2: A Sampler of Mennonite & Amish Folklore” (Herald Press, August 2005), a compilation of folklore studies that were originally prepared by students as assignments for his class on such topics as foot-washings, courtship, summer Mennonite camp skits and horse-trading.

 

MennoFolk2” costs $15.99 and is available at Amazon.com, Provident Bookstores and the Goshen College bookstore. As well, there will be a book signing at the Goshen College Bookstore in the Union Building on Oct. 1 from 12:30-2:30 p.m. and at Provident Bookstore in Goshen, 119 E. Lincoln Ave., on Oct. 8 from 2-4 p.m.

 

“My former students – now professionals in their own right – are the true authors of the chapters, and I am pleased to join them in presenting these brief but interesting studies to a reading audience,” said Beck, who has spent more than 20 years researching the Mennonite and Amish folk cultures and becoming an expert on unique oral, material and cultural traditions of these groups and who wrote a chapter of his own. “At my request, the authors have cooperated in updating their work and turning their projects into publishable chapters of this book. Their collections – which they had carefully tape-recorded and laboriously transcribed word for word – remain intact.”

 

“MennoFolk2” also differs from “MennoFolk” in presenting folklore that represents small subgroups of Mennonites, rather than Mennonite culture at large. The first MennoFolk presents “Mennonite folklore,” meaning folklore that is widely distributed among Mennonite and Amish groups. “MennoFolk2” presents “Mennonites’ folklore,” meaning folklore nurtured by only some Mennonites and Amish.

 

The studies in “MennoFolk2” are rich and varied: daughters and wives from the Lockport (Ohio) Mennonite Church recounting the origins of their colorful nicknames; former Amish recalling the use of “powwow” to treat various medical conditions; and Mennonites of Dutch-Prussian-Russian descent both rue-ing and relishing derogatory terms like Pelsmetz (fur cap) and proverbial insults like Nein klug (“you’re as smart as number nine”).

 

“Mennonites (and Amish) are, most of the time, just ordinary people living ordinary lives. They may belong to a folk group whose identity is tied to a peculiar religious tradition, but most of the time they give no conscious attention to Anabaptist theology or Mennonite history or what the preacher said in church last Sunday,” wrote Beck in the book’s introduction. “They simply go about, doing their business, all the while unselfconsciously creating and sustaining folk traditions that they either receive and transmit orally in face-to-face encounters or learn to perform by customary imitation in the same small groups.”

 

As was also true of the first “MennoFolk” book, the studies in “MennoFolk2” are primarily from northern Indiana and represent primarily Mennonite and Amish people of Swiss-German background. However, since Goshen College students come from throughout the U.S. and Canada, the materials and informants actually come from very widespread geographical locations – ranging from Alberta to Virginia and from Pennsylvania to Kansas and beyond.

 

“At its best, ‘MennoFolk2’ will be interesting, revealing reading for a wide range of people. And it will also encourage readers to collect, preserve and think about similar materials from their own families and communities,” said Beck.

 

Beck, a 1959 Goshen College graduate and a professor in the Goshen College English department from 1967 to 2003, first became interested in folklore when he and his wife, Phyllis, led three Study-Service Term (SST) units part of Goshen College’s international education program, in the country of Belize during the 1975-1976 academic year. In Belize, he collected songs and traditions from the rich Creole culture. Sabbatical opportunities in 1981-82 and 1990 in England piqued his interest in English folklore, which in turn led back to his own roots and to Mennonite and Amish folklore. Beck has published widely in scholarly journals on folklore, folk arts, English literature, postcolonial literature and Mennonite studies.

 

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

 

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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a four-year residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S.News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.