Theses and Dissertations

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The Biological Properties of X-Ray Inactivated Bacteriophage
(1950) Watson, James
Some Aspects of the Connection Between the Fourteenth Amendment and the Federal Bill of Rights
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 1951-08) Veale, Louis Richard
The purpose of this thesis is to show the history of the attempt to bring the states within the restraining influence of the Federal Bill of Rights by the connection between the Fourteenth Amendment and the provisions of the Bill of Rights. The historical period covered extends from 1787 to 1947. Special reference has been made to the 1937-1947 period covering the Roosevelt Court. The use if the phrase "Roosevelt Court" needs some explanation. The term does not imply improper executive control over the judiciary. It is used purely for descriptive purposes and represents a shortening of "the Supreme Court as reconstituted and redirected by President Roosevelt's appointees." A brief historical background of the connection between the Fourteenth Amendment and the Bill of Rights is presented to give a general picture of its early development. Numerous cases have been cited to point out the Supreme Court's interpretation of this connection. Many more cases illustrating this connection principle could be presented, but those which are included are considered by the author to be most representative of the Supreme Court's attitudes. Sources other than the United States Reports have been used to interpret the reasoning of the justices. In order to show clearly the Supreme Court's changes in thought on the connection principle, the cases have been cited in chronological order rather than by subject matter. Therefore, this monograph could not be divided into sections without losing the main objective of the study.
The influence on American musical culture of Dvorák's sojourn in America
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 1965) Aborn, Merton Robert
Folkloric behavior : a theory for the study of the dynamics of traditional culture
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 1967) El-Shamy, Hasan M.
"Folklore" may be defined as a class of learned, traditional responses forming a distinct type of behavior. The individual must undergo the psychological process of learning in order to acquire the responses of folkloric behavior, and this learning process occurs under conditions determined by social and cultural factors. The fundamental factors involved in learning are: drive, cue, response, and reward. Secondary factors such as repetition, recency, and ego involvement can contribute, but their presence is not required in the process of learning. Folkloric behavior is distinguishable from non traditional, non folkloric behavior, and consequently, folkloric responses are distinguishable from other classes of responses, such as those characteristic of modern science and technology. Thus, folklorists should initially concern themselves with folkloric responses (narrating, believing, singing, applying a proverb, or dancing) and relevant social and cultural factors before proceeding to the study of the folklore items themselves (narratives, beliefs, songs, proverbs, or dances). Through the application of psychological theories of individual and social learning to folkloric phenomena, we can gain an understanding of the forces affecting the perpetuation or extinction of folklore and thus can explain the function of a particular folkloric response in a particular community.
The Cumulative Effect of Auditory Fatigue Following Repeated High Level Pure Tone Stimulation
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 1967-09) Stanfield, Gordon Lee; Epstein, Aubrey
Fatigue has been one of the most extensively studied phenomena of the auditory system. Many of the parameters of fatigue have been defined and limited. There are several comprehensive monographs which deal specifically with this problem and provide an excellent review of the literature (Hood, 1950; Kyiin, 1960; Ward, 1963). Auditory fatigue, also called temporary threshold shift, is identified as a shift toward poorer threshold (less sensitivity) following exposure to a supra-threshold auditory stimulus. Immediately upon cessation of the exposure stimulus the shifted threshold begins to return to normal, swiftly at first and then more slowly. Ewing and Littler (1953) were among the first to definitely establish the existence of fatigue and to relate its extent to the intensity, frequency, and duration of the exposure stimulus. Harris (1955) attempted to show that an ear is not physiologically the same following exposure even though the threshold has recovered. Jerger (1958) reported that the time required for a threshold to return to within 10 or 20 dB of its pre-exposure value increases with repeated exposures. In today’s clinical procedures audiologists use high intensity masking noises without control or concern of how the fatigue caused by this masking might affect later measures. Many experimenters have assumed that once the threshold has returned to its pre-exposure level, the exposed ear is normal. There have been few rigorous attempts to examine the cumulative affects that repeated high level stimulation might have upon the auditory system.
Continuous coding of general activity in the rat during repeated exposure to a constant environment and to stimulus change
(University of Michigan, 1969) Timberlake, William David; Birch, David; Walker, Edward L.
Bindra (1961) has suggested that general activity in the rat studied through the use of exclusive and exhaustive behavior coding categories based on the motor movements and body configurations of the animal. The present study attempts to implement this suggestion, improving Bindra's behavior sampling procedure by using continuous (to the nearest 1 sec.) coding, a finer level of categorization, and a large number of repeated exposures to the same environment and to stimulus change. Eight hooded rats were observed during 60 daily 10 min. ses= sions in a modified small animal test chamber. Behavior was coded into 10 categories within three classes: locomotor, pointing, selective, rearing, and nudging exploration; face and paw, dorsal, ventral and hind foot grooming; and pausing. These categories proved reliably distinguishable and were observed under five stimulus conditions: standard empty cage, scent, visual, auditory, and holes in the wall. Each of these conditions was present over at least five continuous days, and the standard condition was repeated twice after its initial presentation period of 20 days. The results supported the generalization that exploration decreases with exposure to a particular stimulus condition, both within and across exposure periods. This decrease appears to occur in two phases, a rapid initial decline, followed by a very slow decline involving a characteristic repeatable level of responding. This level of responding, at least in the case of the standard condition, could be re-established by reinstating the stimulus conditions. The form of the decline within a single exposure period was similar for most categories, but showed evidence of competition for expression between them. The results did not support a simple stimulus change hypothesis of exploration. The presentation of a new stimulus condition seemed to increase only those categories of exploration which were relevant to an examination of the stimuli. Removing a stimulus condition usually merely returned responding to a level characteristic of the old stimulus conditions. In general, exploration categories showed independent elicitation, low positive sequential dependencies which decreased with time of exposure, and a relatively stereotyped average duration of expression. Exploration seemed to serve three functions capable of relating the animal to a wide variety of stimulus conditions: (a) the expression of caution (b) the acquisition of general information and (c) the acquisition of specific thorough information. These functions were not always cleanly separable. Changes in pausing were usually in the opposite direction to those in exploration. Several kinds of pausing were distinguished (listening, forced, and resting). These observations together with evidence of response competition and sequential independence between pausing and exploration were used to argue that pausing is an actual behavior rather than a place holder necessitated by the coding scheme. Grooming tended to peak near the middle of the exposure period, though face and paw grooming peaked earlier. There was considerable between and within animal variability in grooming, and a strong positive sequential dependency between face and paw, dorsal, and ventral grooming. Evidence was presented for a displacement-conflict theory of grooming, but elements of response competition and inter-category differences in expression indicated the need for more complex models of grooming. Analyses of the first order transitions between behavior classes showed a large degree of sequential independence; the first order transitions between the categories supported the coherence of the behavior classes, except that pointing exploration was more closely associated with pausing than with the other exploration categories. Analyses of the second order transition& between both classes and categories showed a large number of deviations from independence involving the alternating repetition of a behavior (behavior triples of the form, XNX).
A PHOTOMETRIC STUDY OF PLUTO AND SATELLITES OF THE OUTER PLANETS
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 1974-09) Andersson, Leif Erland
The "Illustrated London News," 1842-52
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 1977-04) Grogg, Ann Hofstra; Vicinus, Martha
The Illustrated London News was one of the most popular journals of the Victorian era. Its wide circulation was due primarily to its innovation in illustrated journalism; it was Britain’s, and the world’s, first illustrated newspaper. Illustrations from woodcuts had for many years appeared in newspapers and journals on special occasions, but the Illustrated London News, which began publication on May 14, 1842, was the first newspaper to employ artists and engravers on a regular basis and to provide its readers with numerous illustrations in every issue, illustrations sketched at the scene by special artists, rushed through the process of engraving, and reproduced at the week’s end for the edification and enjoyment of its readers. The breadth and variety of the paper’s contents were also responsible for its success. The journal clearly saw its mission as the presentation of a panorama of the life of the times.
TRADITION AND CREATIVITY IN THE STORYTELLING OF PRE-ADOLESCENT GIRLS
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 1977-09) Tucker, Elizabeth Godfrey
Toward a Theory of Library and Information Science
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 1983-07) Schrader, Alvin Marvin; Steiner, Elizabeth
The present inquiry addresses the problem of an adequate definition of the domain of library and information science. Such a definition must be formulated according to the rigor of logic, for it is patent that mapping out a scholarly domain is more than an act of self-evident discovery. Discourse about a domain does not arrange itself in social reality; it must be rendered explicit. Concepts must be expressed as a system of linguistic terms. Such a terminological system is a necessary condition for the development among a community of researchers and practitioners of a consensus on the fundamental problems posed in their inquiry and service activities. Without this consensus in the community, progress in conceptualization is impeded, and so knowledge cannot advance. The present research applies logical and conceptual analysis to the task of defining the domain of library and information science. First, extant definitions are examined from the literature (in English, to 1981) and their diverse usage of terms is set forth. Basic concepts are identified and for each basic concept the synonymous terms are brought together. In this way a typology of generic definitions is developed. Then, the logical adequacy of each generic definition is considered. The analysis reveals a profound depth of confusion, disagreement, contradiction, and inconsistency over the past 100 years about the proper characterization of the domain. More than 1,500 definitions of it are documented here, and they contain over 340 synonymous, quasi-synonymous, and pseudo-synonymous terms purporting to capture its essence. Nowhere are the flawed claims more apparent than in the efforts to tease apart a domain of information science (itself only one among many fuzzy terms) from that of library science. The dissertation then introduces the SIGGS metatheory, an extension of general system theory, as a way of enhancing domain conceptualization. In this enhancement, library and information science is taken to be a system of human social practice in which one person facilitates access to selected cultural objects on behalf of another person who is seeking access to them. The practice so characterized is the 'symbolic culture accessing system'. The present work argues that this conception provides a more adequate and more powerful description of the domain than those definitions so far posited. As such, it constitutes a rudimentary descriptive theory of library and information science and so holds some promise of focusing the community's long-awaited consensus.
THE SHADOW OF A NOBLE MAN: HONOR AND SHAME IN ARABIC PROVERBS
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 1984-08) Webster, Sheila Krieg; El-Shamy, Hasan
The purpose of this dissertation is to evaluate the link between the contents of a major art form, the proverb, and ethnographic reality vis a vis honor and shame in Arab culture. The emphasis is on the context of cultural meaning as opposed to the context of interaction. A second consideration is whether well-known collections of Arabic proverbs available in English translation are reliable sources of data for folkloristic analyses of cultural expression. Items for analysis were culled from ten published collections of colloquial proverbs ranging geographically from Morocco to Iraq and spanning more than a century of work by native and non-native collectors. The substance--the literal evaluation of behavior or states contributing to honor or shame--was the criterion for selection of individual proverbs. Of a total corpus of 10,332 proverbs, a surprisingly small number were found explicitly relevant to honor/shame or closely related concepts such as generosity/stinginess, good/bad reputation, family, and so on. These 105 items were then analyzed in relation to ethnographic data on the honor/shame complex and peripheral concepts. A high, although not perfect, correlation was found between meaning in the proverbs, behaviors recorded in ethnographic literature, and such organizational aspects of culture as religion, family, hospitality and revenge. Inconsistent messages were expressed in proverbs concerning daughters, family ties, and secrecy, which are emotionally-charged and ambiguous areas of the culture. The proverbs are expressive of cultural ambiguities and provide a traditional means of supporting either side of an argument. Finally, the English translations used for this study appear to render accurately the traditional Arab view of honor and shame as integral measures of human worth.
Diurnal Variation in Minimal Thermal Conductance of the White-Footed Mouse (Peromyscus leucopus), the Golden Hamster (Mesocricetus auratus), and the Eastern Woodrat (Neotoma floridana)
(1988-04) Stewart, Craig A.
Minimal thermal conductance (MTC) has been used as a measure of the minimal rate heat loss from endotherms at low temperatures. An analysis of previously published data led to the suggestion of diurnal variation in MTC. However, the use of MTC has been debated on the grounds that it results from an incorrect and overly simplistic representation of the thermal exchange of small mammals. In this report, MTC is developed as a parameter in a linear, lumped-parameter model of the energy exchange of a small mammal at low ambient temperatures in a metabolism measurement chamber.
Battling bishops : religion and politics in Transylvania on the eve of the Ausgleich
(1989) Niessen, James P.
The thesis reexamines the political struggle in Transylvania from the decline of absolutism in 1860 to the eve of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise (Ausgleich) of 1867 in the light of the heavy political involvement of the bishops and clergy of the Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic and Orthodox Churches in these events. The administrative and social structure of Transylvania and the role which Austrian policy-makers assigned to that province led to considerable clerical involvement in politics. Two chapters use government archives to present the course of secular politics. One chapter examines the three administrative regions of Transylvania and their social structure, while another treats the relationship of religion and popular culture. These chapters rely chiefly on social historical and ethnographic studies. Chapters five through nine consider both the secular political and the ecclesiastic activity of the bishops, clergy and laity of selected regions on the basis of church archives and personal papers. Because of its constitutional, dynastic and international position the Roman Catholic Church and its bishop in Transylvania, Lajos Haynald, are at the center of chapters five through nine. The activity and relationship with Haynald of Greek Catholic Metropolitan Alexandru Sterca-Sulutiu and Orthodox Bishop Andrei Saguna receive separate treatment. The religious communities were key players in provincial politics by virtue of their territorial organization and distinctive social composition. Ecclesiastic connections also assured the relevance of events outside of Transylvania for the course of provincial politics. The bishops, clergy and laymen of the three churches studied here represented ethnic (Hungarian and Romanian) but also social interests, both on the secular stage and in the conflict over the churches' administrative independence and lay participation that reflected ideological tensions in the rest of society.
Evaluating Public Sector Folklore: The Tennessee State Parks Folklife Project
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 1989-06) Belanus, Betty J; Brown, Mary Ellen
This study examines recent developments in public sector folklore, a sub-field of the discipline of folklore. In the past dozen years, this sub-field has experienced a "boom" period, with many academically-trained folklorists taking positions as "state folk arts coordinators" or other government-sponsored jobs on local, state or national levels. In some aspects, public sector folklore parallels the public history, applied anthropology and contract archaeology movements. Using a project known as the Tennessee State Parks Folklife Project as a case study, the activities, methods and findings of public sector folklore are evaluated. The questions the author seeks to answer are: How effective is public sector folklore work? How does it differ from folklore in academic settings? What historic circumstances have shaped the sub-field in the past, and what does the future hold for public sector folklore? The study includes sections on the historic development of public sector folklore, an examination of field research and presentation, and an approach for evaluating public sector folklore projects. It concludes with an assessment and prognosis for the sub-field, pointing to positive effects of the work done this far, and voicing concerns for the future.
The ritual humor of students: capping at Victoria University, 1902-1988
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 1992-04) Smith, Moira Lorrraine; McDowell, John H
Capping is graduation; in New Zealand it consists of both formal ceremonies and a festival of ludic events produced by undergraduates. This study examines capping at one New Zealand university from 1902 to 1988, with detailed examination of the ceremonies themselves, into which students introduced interjection and horseplay; the satirical and frequently outrageous student processions through the city; and the large-scale hoaxes that students perpetrated on members of the public. These activities flourished even though they severely tested public and official tolerance, and were often judged to have gone "over the limit." Since 1970, however, capping has retrenched and become less public because, according to insiders, of a failure of license. Capping raises the problem of how license for festivity, reversal, and ritual humor is achieved in a modern complex society. Using Gregory Bateson's and Erving Goffman's concepts of play, license, and framing, I investigate how students obtained and kept license for capping for over eighty years, framing their performances as spontaneous play. At the same time however, a chorus public disapproval, even outrage, was a constant accompaniment to capping. Accounts of conflict in and opponents to festivity are no new thing in the literature on urban festivals. However, concepts of festivity, festive license, and Max Gluckman's model of ritual reversal all treat antagonism and opposition as extrinsic elements and as indications of the dysfunction of license. This study revises the model incorporate the existence of opposition and negative evaluations as intrinsic ingredients, which in the case of capping were valued by performers as a sign of successful performance. With this revision of the concept of festive license in mind, the retrenchment of capping cannot be attributed to the failure of license. The cause is sought instead in an ideological shift that has occurred throughout the western world since the Second World War. In this shift, the political implications of humorous public performances like capping have been made explicit, rendering ritual humor problematic in a way that exceeds the usual problems of achieving festive license.
Interactive visualization tools for topological exploration
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 1992-09) Heng, Pheng Ann; Hanson, Andrew J.
This thesis concerns using computer graphics methods to visualize mathematical objects. Abstract mathematical concepts are extremely difficult to visualize, particularly when higher dimensions are involved; I therefore concentrate on subject areas such as the topology and geometry of four dimensions which provide a very challenging domain for visualization techniques. In the first stage of this research, I applied existing three-dimensional computer graphics techniques to visualize projected four-dimensional mathematical objects in an interactive manner. I carried out experiments with direct object manipulation and constraint-based interaction and implemented tools for visualizing mathematical transformations. As an application, I applied these techniques to visualizing the conjecture known as Fermat's Last Theorem. Four-dimensional objects would best be perceived through four-dimensional eyes. Even though we do not have four-dimensional eyes, we can use computer graphics techniques to simulate the effect of a virtual four-dimensional camera viewing a scene where four-dimensional objects are being illuminated by four-dimensional light sources. I extended standard three-dimensional lighting and shading methods to work in the fourth dimension. This involved replacing the standard "z-buffer" algorithm by a "w-buffer" algorithm for handling occlusion, and replacing the standard "scan-line" conversion method by a new "scan-plane" conversion method. Furthermore, I implemented a new "thickening" technique that made it possible to illuminate surfaces correctly in four dimensions. Our new techniques generate smoothly shaded, highlighted view-volume images of mathematical objects as they would appear from a four-dimensional viewpoint. These images reveal fascinating structures of mathematical objects that could not be seen with standard 3D computer graphics techniques. As applications, we generated still images and animation sequences for mathematical objects such as the Steiner surface, the four-dimensional torus, and a knotted 2-sphere. The images of surfaces embedded in 4D that have been generated using our methods are unique in the history of mathematical visualization. Finally, I adapted these techniques to visualize volumetric data (3D scalar fields) generated by other scientific applications. Compared to other volume visualization techniques, this method provides a new approach that researchers can use to look at and manipulate certain classes of volume data.
An empirical investigation of the effects of process restrictiveness sources on the perceptions and performance of decision-making groups in a group support system environment
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 1993) Wheeler, Bradley C.
Group Support Systems (GSSs) have been advanced to improve group decision making. Much work on group decision making has advocated that groups use structured decision procedures or heuristics to enhance their decision processes. Organizational research, however, has documented that groups seldom adhere to structured decision procedures, instead they pattern group interaction in ways which are more familiar or less effortful. The present research extends adaptive structuration theory by investigating the role of process restrictiveness. An experiment evaluated the efficacy of facilitation-based, user-based (e.g., training), and technology-based sources of process restrictiveness to improve group outcomes. The process restrictiveness sources were investigated individually and in combinations. Five person groups worked on an intellective hidden-profile task and all groups used a GSS. Group level measures of decision quality and consensus along with individual member satisfaction were assessed among eight different process restrictiveness treatments. The results found that the three sources of process restrictiveness frequently interacted to moderate decision quality, consensus, and satisfaction. In general, facilitation resulted in high decision quality, low process satisfaction, high outcome satisfaction, and no impact on consensus. User training resulted in low decision quality, low process satisfaction, high outcome satisfaction, and low consensus. System-based process restrictiveness resulted in low decision quality, high process satisfaction, low outcome satisfaction, and high consensus. Facilitation was effective in correcting process deviations when the group strayed from the structured decision procedure. User training produced an awareness of the decision procedure, but did not sufficiently equip the groups to faithfully appropriate it. System-based process restrictiveness provided procedural focus for the group. These results have implications for the design and organizational adoption of GSS technology. They can help guide efforts to embed group decision process expertise in GSSs.
A life of any worth : life histories of retired Brandeis University faculty
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 1994) Griff, Hanna; Dolby, Sandra K
Making sense of lives has an awkward history in the discipline of folklore. For many years, storytellers were seen as the bearers of tradition they did not own. Folklore texts of all sorts were regarded as a collective representation of a group rather than a personal possession of individuals. When folklorists realized that the ballad singers or storytellers were recognized by their own community and very much aware of their role, they began to ask questions about the individuals' lives, influences in their lives, in order to help explain the role of the particular folklore in their folk group. Thus, the life of the performer became important in collecting and evaluating the text (and became a required appendix to all studies). Drawing upon the works of such scholars as Bauman, Dolby, and Goffman, this dissertation examines the life history as host to the many dimensions and genres of folklore. Life history is egocentric: the teller presents it imbedded in the current of his/her own life and the facts of this life are biased by his/her views. This condition may prove useful in the search for an adequate classification system to guide us through this body of everyday narration. Except for practical, thematic distinctions, or distinctions according to permanent, transitory or ad-hoc social groups to which the teller relates his story, no attempt has yet been made to create analytical order. In an attempt to make sense of the lives of retired professors, I look at this "hodgepodge" of stories that many scholars propose to edit and present the texts as performed to me: as an oral text or narrative, responding to a prepared questionnaire; as the product of an analytic conversation between folklorist and informant; and as spontaneous narration, where the folklorist tries to minimize his/her influence on the natural context and allows the informant free expression. Separate chapters of the study demonstrate how life histories, processed through inspiration, as they become self reflective, occurring in any narrative moment serve many functions. They unite a group of professors through the actual performance of the life, circumstances of history and through the presentation of self. Throughout the dissertation I will present various examples of life histories, unedited, to underscore the notion that life histories defy the notion of story because they are not linear and need to be read and listened to in their natural uninterrupted flow. Since the beginning of the discipline, there had been an undercurrent of belief that the Grimms wrote better stories and Krohn created an epic where there was none. That's what's wrong with framing life histories and why one needs to be reminded to appreciate the performance of folklore.
Curve and surface framing for scientific visualization and domain dependent navigation
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 1996-02-03) Ma, Hui; Hanson, Andrew J.
Curves and surfaces are two of the most fundamental types of objects in computer graphics. Most existing systems use only the 3D positions of the curves and surfaces, and the 3D normal directions of the surfaces, in the visualization process. In this dissertation, we attach moving coordinate frames to curves and surfaces, and explore several applications of these frames in computer graphics and scientific visualization. Curves in space are difficult to perceive and analyze, especially when they are densely clustered, as is typical in computational fluid dynamics and volume deformation applications. Coordinate frames are useful for exposing the similarities and differences between curves. They are also useful for constructing ribbons, tubes and smooth camera orientations along curves. In many 3D systems, users interactively move the camera around the objects with a mouse or other device. But all the camera control is done independently of the properties of the objects being viewed, as if the user is flying freely in space. This type of domain-independent navigation is frequently inappropriate in visualization applications and is sometimes quite difficult for the user to control. Another productive approach is to look at domain-specific constraints and thus to create a new class of navigation strategies. Based on attached frames on surfaces, we can constrain the camera gaze direction to be always parallel (or at a fixed angle) to the surface normal. Then users will get a feeling of driving on the object instead of flying through the space. The user's mental model of the environment being visualized can be greatly enhanced by the use of these constraints in the interactive interface. Many of our research ideas have been implemented in Mesh View, an interactive system for viewing and manipulating geometric objects. It contains a general purpose C++ library for nD geometry and supports a winged-edge based data structure. Dozens of examples of scientifically interesting surfaces have been constructed and included with the system.
A Baltic music: The folklore movement in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, 1968-1991
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 1996-04) Smidchens, Guntis; Degh, Linda
Folksongs have been a symbol of Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian culture for more than two centuries. Herder's Volkslieder was a model which demonstrated that folk poetry made these peoples equal to others in the world, and showed how songs could be used to advance national liberation. These ideas were brought to life in the choral movements and national song festivals of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and were maintained after Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were annexed by the Soviet Union. In the late 1960s, a new movement emerged, calling for "authentic" performance of folksongs in small, inclusive groups, in contrast to the spectacular displays of Soviet folklore performed in front of passive audiences. The loud, unrefined singing style of rural traditions challenged the official Soviet models of art. Government efforts to suppress the new folklore ensembles only raised their popularity, and by the early eighties, folklore festivals were attracting many thousands of people. As a broadly based phenomenon which successfully evaded government control, the folklore movement provided a model for mass activism in the Baltic after 1985. This dissertation presents a history of the Baltic folklore movement up to 1991, when Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania gained independence from the Soviet Union. Participant observation of three leading folklore ensembles--Ratilio (Lithuania), Leegajus (Estonia), and Skandinieki (Latvia)--revealed these groups as communities which are held together in ways similar to the imagining of a national community. The example of modern Baltic singing traditions complements the discussions about folklorism which emerged in both East and West Europe during the 1960s and 1970s. Folklorism, defined here as the conscious recognition and use of folklore as a symbol of ethnic, regional, or national identity, is itself a tradition which has folklorized and nationalized in the modern Baltic cultures. Baltic folklorism today is a new variant in the long-lived tradition of using folksongs and singing as a means of national self-realization.

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