What a coincidence. Just last week I was thinking about villages: identity and stereotypes. We're assigned to open the paper and draw out an issue from any article we liked, and guess what?
So, I guess that's fate deciding that villages it is! So yesterday was spent trying to figure out exactly what it was about villages I was really interested in. And I settled on...
How do Rural Communities form an identity for themselves?
The article above featured brief stories about villages throughout the UK- their idicoyncracies, their bizarre customs and rituals, their historic signifigance...
I love the idea that communities come together under shared rituals. And in this case, the symbol of the Hare Pie is a rallying symbol for the whole village. When it was threatened one year by the village Pastor (because of its rumoured Pagan origins) the slogan 'No Pie, No Pastor' was found dawbed acr0ss the church walls the next day. A worthless pie, priceless in symbolic value.
My research routes will be:
- Weird Village Traditions
- Pastoral Iconography and Identity
- British rural perceptions and projections