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February Issue 2003
Conference Celebrates South Carolina's Belief Traditions at SC State Museum in Columbia, SC
The South Carolina Traditional Arts Network (SCTAN), an organization of academic and public sector folklorists, lay scholars, and other South Carolinians interested in the state's traditional cultures, is partnering with the South Carolina State Museum and the USC McKissick Museum's Folklife Program to host a day-long conference on belief traditions in South Carolina. This conference will bring together scholars of religion, history, folklore, and cultural studies, along with community religious leaders, arts and cultural agency administrators, educators, and traditional artists for a daylong discussion of the role of religion, belief, and faith in the various cultural, religious, and ethnic communities in our state. The conference, will be held on Mar. 8, 2003, at the SC State Museum in Columbia, SC.
Rather than focusing on "official religion," (i.e., religious texts, formal traditions, religion in theory), this conference will examine what religion scholar Peter W. Williams calls "popular religion" or what historian Charles Reagan Wilson describes as "the religion of the people" - beliefs as they are practiced, expressed, and transmitted at the community level. The conference will give special consideration to folk belief, or religious and spiritual traditions that are transmitted through word of mouth, imitation, and custom and to the visual and performing arts related to these traditions. The conference will emphasize how beliefs are put into practice in everyday life, how they shape and maintain communities, and how they find aesthetic expression in traditional material, performance, culinary, and other arts. A variety of performers will be on hand to illustrate how many of these faiths are manifested in music and dance. The conference fee includes lunch catered by Miller's Bread Basket, a Mennonite bakery and restaurant in Blackville, SC.
Information and registration forms for the conference are available on-line at (www.olsfrm.com/sctan/)
For more information on the conference, please call 803/773-3667 or 803/253-5221.
This conference is funded in part by grants from the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, and The Humanities CouncilSC.
Conference Schedule
8:30-9:30 Registration, Morning performance
by the Maxie Branch Boys.
9:30-10:00 Opening Session.
10:00-11:30 Concurrent Sessions (Select one)
· The Archaeology of Belief Traditions in the South.
· Seeing Things: The Evidence of Belief Traditions through
SC Visual Art.
· Food and Faith.
11:30-12:00 Bill Wells and the Blue Ridge Mountain Grass*
12:05-1:30 Lunch and Keynote Address with Erika Brady - Over Yonder,
Right Here: Placing Supernatural in Southern Folklife?
(Lunch provided by Miller's Bread Basket of Blackville, SC)
1:35-2:25 Concurrent Sessions (Select one)
· Keeping House: Domestic and Healing Beliefs in the South.
· Catholic Hill: Low Country Religious Experience.
· SC Legends and Ghost Stories.
2:30-3:00 Drink Small*
3:05-4:00 Concurrent Sessions (Select one)
· Ancient Spirituality and Contemporary Expression of SC
Indigenous People.
· Emerging Religious Traditions.
4:00-5:00 Open discussion and Closing Reception
* indicates conference programs open to the public. Additional
programs include storytelling sessions in the Discovery Room and
additional music and dance performances.
Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer
427, Bonneau, SC 29431
Telephone, Answering Machine and FAX: 843/825-3408
E-Mail: info@carolinaarts.com
Subscriptions are available for $18 a year.
Carolina Arts
is published monthly by Shoestring
Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 2003 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 2003 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.