Culture and Cultural Studies

B

• Benjamin, Walter [1935] 
  The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
  Based on Julian Scaff's new edition of Benjamin's text. “In principle a work of art has always been reproducible. Man-made artifacts could always be imitated by men. Replicas were made by pupils in practice of their craft, by masters for diffusing their works, and, finally, by third parties in the pursuit of gain. Mechanical reproduction of a work of art, however, represents something new.” Benjamin explains what’s new.
• Bill Douglas Cinema Museum
• Bobbie, Gloria - Plattsburgh, USA
  A Journey Through the Culture of Capitalism
  Capitalism isn't just an economic or political system, it pervades every aspect of the culture in countries which have adopted it as a way of making a living. "Capitalism affects every aspect of our lives, from the way our children are born to the way our dead are laid to rest. It affects how we think, what we wear, what we eat, where we live, what we buy and how we buy it. There is no part of our lives which is not in some way affected by capitalism." This site is dedicated to the study of this phenomenon. You'll find courses, resources and a potpourri section on themes like cooking, travel and shopping. The site is home to "Anthropological Perspectives on Global Issues", a Global Issues webcourse, taught through SUNY Plattsburgh, which deals with issues prevalent within the culture of capitalism. It is designed as a learning center which supports the course and research into the culture of capitalism.
• Burnett, Ron - McGill University, Canada
  Critical Approaches - Culture & Communications 
  A Cultural Studies and Communications resource designed for interactive use by students and faculty and visitors with connections to resources, essays, homepages designed by students, syllabi and bibliographic material.

D

Delgado-Moriera, Juan M. (Researcher Ministry of Education, Madrid, Spain)
Cultural Citizinship and the Creation of European Identity
An essay that compares the concept of cultural citizenship, based on an anthropological study of Latino communities in the United States, with the proposal of European identity made by the European Union Administration during the past five years. He explains what is to be understood by cultural identity and citizenship. He concludes with a critique of the current European identity project.

F

FeMiNa: Culture
A culture listing from an international feminist perspective.

M

• M/C - A Journal of Media & Culture
  A fully blind, peer-reviewed academic journal, but is also open to submissions and responses from anyone on the Internet. It’s a place of public intellectualism analysing and critiquing the meeting of media and culture.
• Miraglia, Eric / Law, Richard / Collins, Peg
  What is Culture?
  An exploration of the concept of human culture as it has been articulated in Western scientific and philosophical traditions. With references to Matthew Arnold, Raymond Williams, Clifford Geertz e.o. and with special galleries on environment, learned behavior, social organization, and values & beliefs.

P

• Popular Culture: The Dirty Thirties
  The thirties will be forever remembered as a period of great depression, yet they will also be immortalized as a time of entertainment - of glamorous movie stars and singers, glitzy nightspots and big bands, high fashion, leisure activities, fads, numerous radio shows and more. This dream world was the foundation of popular culture in the thirties. On this site you can relive it once more, from a North American point of view (focused on the city of Vancouver, B.C. Canada).
• Popular Culture Studies - Ohio State University, USA.

R

Robbins, Richard H. (SUNY at Plattsburgh, USA)
Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism
A course that helps students understand the major global issues that they confront in the mass media: population explosion, famine and hunger, global environmental destruction, the emergence and spread of new diseases, so-called ethnic conflict and genocides, and terrorism and social protest. The site is designed to describe Robbins' book, and to provide access to Internet resources, exercises, and discussion questions for readers, students, and instructors. The links to sites are arranged by topics covered in the book. You can also examine the Table of Contents and read the introductions to each of the chapters.

S

• Sanes, Ken
  Transparancy
  A comprehensive theory of culture as a form of action, and as a disguised expression of our deepest fears and desires. It seeks to make all of popular culture -- movies, TV, news, politics, theme parks, advertisements, video games, et al -- transparent to the reader's view and understanding. Part of his project is Image and Action: Deconstructing the News, a book-in-progress about the way the representations and communications of the news media are forms of action and interaction. It is focussed on the way images are manipulated in the media (as well as in everyday conversation) in an effort to gain and exert power.
• SocioKultur
  A personal site on the sociology of cultural practices and the “sociabilités” of music. Presented by: Antoine Durafour.

CyberCulture: the cultures of the internet

• Anglia Research Centre in Media & Culture (ARCMedia)
  ARCMedia promotes research in media and culture through the organisation of a number of research projects, research seminars and conferences, and support for collaborative and interdisciplinary encounters. They are dedicated to experimental, theoretical and practical meetings in the interzone between media, cultural theory, film, avant-garde arts and the emerging sciences of network culture. Key areas of interest include: network society and culture; digital and network politics and society; popular culture and music; digital art and time-based media; sonic and performance arts; practice-based research; experimental cinema; alternative and radical media.
• Association of Internet Researchers (AOIR) 
  A learned society dedicated to the advancement of the transdisciplinary field of Internet studies. It is an international, member-based support network promoting critical and scholarly Internet research, independent from traditional disciplines and existing across academic borders. AOIR is committed to supporting diversity and inclusivity both within internet research and beyond.
• Cyberpunk as Counterculture
  Maybe, with the cyberpunks, the new counterculture has come of age...
• Lawley, Elizabeth Lane
  The Sociology of Culture in Computer-Mediated Communication
  In initial exploration of CMC using Bourdieu's theoretical model.
• NetCulture 
  A Greek site on internet cultures, trying to bring us closer to the 'digital spirit'. Includes reviews of Web sites, spotlights on recent internet trends, monthly features, and a newsletter.
• Net Culture & Cyber-Anthropology 
  An archive on netcultures presented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
• Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies (RCCS)
  A not-for-profit organization directed by David Silver that researches, teaches, supports and creates diverse and dynamic elements of cyberculture. RCCS hopes to foster a web community where students, researchers, and web builders alike can collaborate and share experiences and projects in the area of cyberculture. It includes syllabi for over thirty higher education courses in the US and Canada devoted to cyberculture dating from 1993 to the present. It also includes an annotated bibliography of print articles and monographs on "Cyberculture in Context", "Virtual Communities", "Virtual Cities", and Virtual Identities", as well as a list of recent and upcoming events and conferences addressing cyberculture. Hosted by the School of Communications at the University of Washington.
• Silver, David
  Introducing Cyberculture
  In: David Gauntlett (ed.) [2000] Web.studies: Rewiring Media Studies for the Digital Age. Oxford University Press, pp. 19-30.
• TeknoKultura
  A journal of digital culture and social movements. Officially manazine of the Complutense University in Madrid, Spain.
• Treanor, Paul - Germany
  Internet As Hyper-Liberalism
  The political ethic of the Internet is like its structure, liberal. Treanor demonstrates the defects of liberalism. There is also a Germen version: Der Hyperliberalismus des Internet and a short Dutch version: Het liberalisme van het Net

Customs

Customs

Birth

• Campbell, Rona / Porter, Sam [1997]
  Feminist Theory and the sociology of childbirth
  In: Sociology of Health & Illness, 19(3): 348-358
• Dolan, Alan / Coe, Christine [2011]
  Men, masculine identities and childbirth
  In: Sociology of Health & Illness, 33(7): 1019-1034
  How do men construct masculine identities within the context of pregnancy and childbirth and how do healthcare professionals construct masculinity. The article demonstrates the ways in which men can find themselves marginalised within the context of pregnancy and childbirth, but are still able to draw on identifiable markers of masculine practice which enable them to enact a masculine form congruent with dominant masculinity. It also illustrates how healthcare professionals’ constructions of masculinity enable them to predict how men will behave and allow them to position men in ways that involve minimum disruption to their own practice. The article highlights how men’s marginal status is embedded in the dynamics of the social structure, which produce and reproduce dominant masculine identities within the context of childbirth.
• Irish Customs: Birth and Babies
  Such as: “Animals or humans born on May Day were said to be assured of good luck.” Presented by: From Ireland.
• Labor and Birth Resources
  Collected by Robin Elise Weis.
• Macintyre, Sally [2008] - Institute of Medical Sociology, University of Aberdeen, Scotland
  The Sociology of Reproduction
  In: Sociology of Health & Illness, 2(2): 215-222

Wedding

• African Marriage - African Holocaust Society
• African Weddings - African Guide
  Information on the planning of an African-inspired or traditional wedding.
• Boden, Sharon [2001]
  Superbrides: Wedding Consumer Culture and the Construction of Bridal Identity
  In: Sociological Research Online, 6(1)
• Emery, Robert E. [2013]
  Cultural Sociology of Divorce: An Encyclopedia
  Sage Publications.
• Fowler, Ana Carolina [2007]
  Love and Marriage: Through the Lens of Sociological Theories
  In: Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge: 5(2)
• Guide to the Jewish Wedding
  A Jewish bridal source with information on the specific personal and traditional needs of brides within the diverse spectrum of the Jewish Community. Don’t forget to break a glass.... Written by Chaplain Shlomo Shulman.
• History of Wedding Traditions - Bride & Groom
• Islamic Wedding Party Customs - About.com
• Thomas, Kirsti S.
  • Medieval and Renaissance Wedding Page
    Information and links on wedding traditions, food and menus, costuming, handfasting and neopaganism and music
  • Medieval and Renaissance Marriage: Theory and Customs
    A very general overview of Christian wedding customs in Western Europe during the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
• Wedding Traditions
  Information from the book "A Natural History of Love," by Diane Ackerman. Editor: Melanie Ganson
• Wikipedia: Marriage | Wedding | Wedding customs by country

Death

• Death and Dying (SocioSite)
  Resources on death & dying, stillbirth & neonatal death, grief & remembrance, suicide & euthanasia.
• Ashlima, D. L.
  Aging and Death in Foklore
  For most pre-industrial cultures, life's last chapter has been a bitter one. Surviving folklore reflects widespread resignation as to the inevitability of impoverishment, sexual impotence, failing health and vitality, and the loss of family and community status. No one expected the impossible. Such euphemisms as "golden years" and "senior citizens" did not exist. It has not always been so.
• Association for Gravestone Studies (AGS)
  The mission of the AGS is to foster appreciation of the cultural significance of gravestones and burial grounds through their study and preservation. It is an international organization with an historical and artistic interest in gravemarkers of all periods.
• Bibliography of Death and Burial Customs
  Compiled by M.D. Bathrick and C.M. Niquette.
• Benschop, Albert (Univ. of Amsterdam, Netherlands)
  Death in Cyberspace (Dutch version: Dood in Cyberspace)
  A sociological analysis of death cultures and customs in cyberspace: online death memorials and remembrance sites.
• Bardo of Death Studies, The
  Wants to assist in the development of discouses, discussion, and archival materials related to personal experiences in death and dying. Theprimary behicle for eliciting response is an in-depth guestbook "Questionnaire on Death and Dying" written by Jerral Sapienza. The purpose of the questionnaire is to allow you to think about and ask yourself some of the difficult questions about life and death. Posted responses to the questionnaire provide a rich archive of people's feelings, impressions and observations about death. They also offer a free service called "Net Memorials", allowing you to process some of your grief by sharing with the world some aspect of your loved one. And last but not least they provide an informal reader-contribution series of "Book Reviews" for books on death and dying.
• Bielksi, Zosia [2012] 
  A social media update from beyond the grave
  In: The Globe and Mail, Jan. 13 2012
• Budge, E. A. Wallis [1895]
  The Book of the Dead - The Papyrus of Ani
  Information about the ancient Egyptians' view of death and the afterlife.
• Cemetery Culture: City of the Silent 
  An extensive cemetery site presents information about cemetery symbols, epitaphs, history, burials, tombstone rubbing, and other aspects of mortuary culture. The site is dealing with the cultural appreciation of death and burial customs. It includes a listing of related terminology and a glossary of symbolic actions such as offerings to the dead, particular days that commemorate death, and Gods associated with dying. Additional information is provided by literary references to death. The site includes a PostMortem Search Engine with paths to other grave sites. The grave sites are rated with stones (one stone sites are almost hopeless, in four stone sites you can almost smell the spring blossems and feel the sunshine.
• DearDeath Central An exploration of the faces of death across art, societies and rituals, science and medicine.
• Death in Ancient Egypt
  A project investigating the funerary customs and beliefs of the ancient Egyptians, covering the provision for life in the 'next world' and the significance of shabtis. Presented by Alexandra A. O'Brien of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.
• Death / Tod
  A general listing of death resources from Germany. It contains special sections on mummies, danse macabre, cemeteries (differentiated in continents).
• Geser, Hans [1998] (University of Zürich, Switzerland)
  "Virtually Yours Forever"
  Death memorials and Remembrance Sites in the WWW 
  Geser analysis death memorials as significant objects of societal and macrocultural studies. He suggests that the impact of the internet on death may be more significant than on most other aspects of human existence, like birth, marriage and divorce. The actual web memorials and remembrance sites he sees as embryonic manifestations of a new "post-modern" discourse about human death, because it may overcome the tendency of "modern" societies to marginalize the topic from everyday life by constraining it into institutional (mostly religious) enclaves still dominated by ossified premodern ritualizations.
• Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth
  • On Death and Dying
    In this interview Bubler-Ross describes her experience as a young woman visiting a concentration camp just after the liberation in 1945, addresses the highly controversial idea that there is an aspect of Hitler in all of us, and raises troubling questions on the nature and roots of human evil. She also shares her thoughts on the fear, denial and uncertainty which characterize much of modern Western humanity's approach to death.
  • On life after death
    Excerpt of her book with the same name.
• Kearl, Michael (Trinity University, USA)
  Sociology of Death and Dying
  A starting point for sociological research on death and dying. Contains a page of images across cultures and times where you can see that 'death' is a socially constructed idea.
• Leimer, Chris Tina [1996]
  Funeral and Memorial Practices in a New Era
  Funeral customs are inherently conservative, traditional. There are several factors that contribute to keeping funeral customs from changing much: our beliefs about the afterlife and the relationship between the living and the dead, the desire to respect, honor and remember the deceased, the mystery and fear surrounding the unknown, and the disruption and grief that occurs when somebody dies. But in these days funeral rites do change rather fast in some societies and Leimer suggests that this is a reflection of dramatic material, behavioral, and/or ideological changes in the broader society. To explain this phenomena she identifies five trends that are typical of all of our new rites: personalization of funeral rites and memorials, participation, informalization, secularization and inclusiveness.
• Levins, Hoag [2002]
  A Lively Look at the History of Death - Exploring the Architecture and Rituals of Nieneteenth-Century Mourning
  This article from the Camden County Historical Society describes death customs in the 19th century throughout the world. Details superstitions such as covering mirrors, stopping clocks on the hour of death, and the invention of coffin alarms. A coffin alarm was a bell attached to the headstone with a chain that led down into the coffin to a ring that went around the finger of the deceased. So, if you were to wake up and find yourself accidentally buried, you could pull on the chain and ring the bell in the cemetery yard.
• Lore & Saga
  Viking Burial Customs and Food
  Burial rites are an important source of information about Viking life. The Vikings believed that after death they would join their gods in an afterlife much like the world we live in. In the afterlife they would need the same type of things they needed in this life so they took them with them into their graves. This gives us a wonderful insight into what they thought was important. Men generally took their weapons and the tools of their trade while women were buried with domestic equipment and their jewellery. Editor: Gary Waidson.
• Peardon, Keri. M. [2011]
  All Things Gruesome: Torture
  A gruesome article on torture in the middle ages.
• Shopkorn, Jana
  “Til Death Do Us Part”: Mariage and Funeral Rites in Classical Athens
  In the ancient Mediterranean world there was hardly room for choice: not only was marriage destiny, but so was death. The identity of the Classical Greek world is established through the traditional sacrifices and rituals that were practiced in these times of bliss and mourning. The sacred wedding and the dramatic funeral compliment each other in character and content, for the ceremonies are both interwoven with ritual meaning and overlapping rites.
• The Tibetan Book of the Dead
  Information about Tibetan beliefs and practices about death. It includes sutras, tantras, art of dying and transitions to the other world. Presented by the Special Collections Department of the University of Verginia Library.

Holiday

• Holidays on the Net 
  A source for holiday celebrations on the WWW. From mother's and father's day to Ramadan and Christmas.
• New Year's Day
  People in different parts of the world use different calanders. That's why not all countries celebrate New Year at the same time, nor in the same way. The site contains information the history of New Year and on the New Year's custums in different parts of the world. Editor: Jausten/Cynthia.

Eating

• Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS)
  ASFS promotes the interdisciplinary study of food and society.
• Dirks, Robert - Illinois State Univerity, USA
  • Hunger and Famine [2011]
    Eighteen million people die every year from hunger-related causes. “Hunger takes many forms. It smolders as chronic undernutrition. It can flare up intermittently, sometimes annually, because food stores are never quite sufficient to last until next harvest. Occasionally, hunger erupts infamine, an episode of want so acute as to precipitate the breakdown of societies’ most fundamental institutions. Whatever the form, the costs areimmense.” The central question is: what causes hunger and leads to such tragic consequences? He argues that famine is avoidable if government has incentive to act in time: no democratic country with a free press has ever suffered famine (Amartya Sen).
  • The Antropology of Food (with Gina Hunter) [2013]
    In: Routledge International Handbook of Food Studies.
    Historical background and major theoretical appoaches of the anthropology of food. Eating and drinking are analysed as social and cultural experiences. This includes the foodways of particular peoples and regions; the dynamics of various food systems; the cultural effects of ancient foodways; the ethnohistory of specific commodities; food-habit formation and change; the sociocultural effects of foodshortage; food-related beliefs, rituals, and symbols; eating habits and etiquettes; and systems of food classification and meal structure.
• Food and Foodways [abstracts]
  An international, refereed, interdisciplinary journal devoted to publishing original scholarly articles on the history and culture of human nourishment.
• Food, Culture & Society (FCS) [abstracts]
  An international peer-reviewed quarterly journal published by Routledge on behalf of the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS. FCS explores the complex relationships among food, culture, and society from numerous disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as in the world of food beyond the academy.
• Food habits from around the world - Body + Soul
• International Commission on the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition (ICAF)
  Commission of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES).
• Institut Européen d’Histoire et des Cultures de l’Alimentation (IEHCA)
  A scientific development agency closely associated with François- Rabelais University of Tours. IEHCA contributes to the development of research in the humanities and social sciences related to food and to a better awareness of the importance of our food and cooking methods as part of our heritage and our culture.
• Mintz, Sidney W. / Du Bois, Christine M. [2002]
  The Anthropology of Food and Eating
  In: Annual Review of Anthropology, 31:89-119.
• Murcott, Anne [1983] 
  The Sociology of food and eating
  Food carries meanings about what is social, proper and virtuous. The topics covered include the sociological aspects of wedding meals, food and family reconstitution, and the importance of food purchase and preparation in triggering violence in the home.
• Ocha
  A French site on eating habits.
• Slow Food
  A global, grassroots organization, founded in 1989 to prevent the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions, counteract the rise of fast life and combat people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from and how our food choices affect the world around us.
• Wikipedia: Sociology of food | Food studies

Etiquette

• Art of Kissing - William Cane
• Core Rules of Netiquette, The
  Excerted from the book Netiquette by Virginia Shea. It’s summarized in 10 rules, not difficult to memorize. From "Remember the Human" to "Be forgiving of other people's mistakes".
• Netiquette Homepage
  Learn the core rules of netiquette by reading this concise overview of network etiquette excerpted from the book Netiquette by Virginia Shea. Shea's "Core Rules"are the classic introduction to the subject and are widely cited in cyberspace. After reading these rules you can read the complete online edition of her book.
• Morris, Hugh [1936, reprinted 1988, degitized 1985]
  The Art of Kissing
  Differerent kinds of kisses, why people kiss and why kissing is pleasant, approved methods of kissing, kisses as preludes to love, the technique of kissing, how to kiss girls with different sizes of mouths, and everything else you always wanted to know about this human habit.
• Netiquette Page
  Ethics and Etiquette for the netizens. You’ll find translations of the User guidelines and Netiquette, a bibliography and ten commendments for computer ethics. Editor: Arlene H. Rinaldi. See Dutch version.

Fashion

• Angel of Fashion
  A collection of groundbreaking fashion sites for praise and links to many others.
• Beauty Matters
  An exploration into the human creation of objects of beauty and the nature of beauty itself with original articles and teaching resources on aesthetics, visual arts, fashion, the culture of beauty and more.
• California Apparal News (CAN)
  A comprehensive source for for fashion and apparel information.
• CNN - Style
• Elle Magazine 
  The world’s best selling lifestyle magazine of French origin that focuses on fashion, beauty, health, and entertainment. “Si elle lit, elle lit Elle.”
• Fashion-Era
  Illustrated pages of fashion history, costume history, clothing, fashions and social history.
• Fashion Net
  Information on fashion sites, online magazines, designer sites, and fashion news. Detailed analyses of two centuries of women’s constume history and fashion history silhouettes. Includes a section of theories of fashion: fashion as a sign system; fashion as a barometer of cultural changes; fashion and the need for tribal belonging; fashion and role differentiation; fashion and class stratification; fashion as status symbol, and the theory of the leisure class (Veblen).
• Fashion Net 
  Internet’s very first fashion site, founded in 1994. It covers the fashion shows on the internet by the Chambre Syndical du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode.
• Fashionscene 
  A Dutch online magazine with reports and exclusive photo's of fashion shows and collections.
• Fashion Worlds
  A site about fashion designers and influences past, present, famous and up-coming, with original articles and regular news updates. Created by a group of students (with varies backgrounds in fashion, design, art history, graphics and computing) from villages across Dorset in the UK.
• First View 
  A catalogue of the latest collections. Almost complete collections of leading European and American designers.
• Fuk
  An UK webzine with news, articles and background information.
• Look On-line, The
  An insiders’ look at the world of American fashion, with articles, profiles, schedules, runway photos and more.
• Lucire 
  A fashion magazine which brings a global perspective to fashion, beauty, lifestyle and travel. Editor: Simone Knol.
• Lumière
  A real fashion webzine from the USA. Also contains news from the European fashion scene. Advanced design.
• Men’s Flair 
  A men’s fashion magazine, constantly updated with latest trends reviews, grooming tips, fashion advice, clothes shopping guide, and more.
• Pitti Immagine 
  Peephole at the Italian fashion industry.
• Stoecker, Abby [2014]
  Ancient Beauty Rituals: They Did it First
• Textilia 
  The biggest Dutch fashion magazine for professionals. Provides a weekly selection of articles and an archive.
• Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) 
  The first designer to present his haute couture collection (Fall/Winter 96/97) on the internet. On the 10th of July, as Claudia Schieffer and her supermodel mates walked down the catwalk, the whole thing was broadcast live over the Internet in an inch square box. You can watch replays of the catwalk show or see the whole collection as a sequence of slides.
• Wikipedia: Beauty | Fashion | Haute couture
• Women Links: Fashion Directory
  The latest news from the fashion world.

Folklore - Mythology - Legends

Folklore - Mythology - Legends

• The American Folklive Center in the Library of Congress. 
  This site incorporates:
  • Archive of Folk Culture
    A repository for American folk music. Its multi-format, ethnographic collections are diverse and international, including over one million photographs, manuscripts, audiorecordings, and moving images. It is America's first national archive of traditional life, and one of the oldest and largest of such repositories in the world.
  • Ethnographic Studies Resources
    A collection of resources in anthropology, ethnomusicology, folklore, and folklife.
  • Folklife Sourcebook
    A directory of folklife resources in the USA. Editor: Peter Bartis.
• Arcadian Archives - Professional Garden Writing
  Janet Queen is specialized in practical gardening. Her collection of words and images she shares her botanical knowledge. It is balanced with references to historical details including folklore, legend and medicinal uses of plants.
  • Folk and Fairy Tale Links
    Indo-European Folk and Fairy Tales.
  • Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts
  • Germanic Myths, Legend, and Sagas
    Links on ancient monuments, God’s home pages, and the Vikings.
• Best of Legends
  Explores the lore surrounding Robin Hood, King Arthur, Beowulf, Pirates & Privateers, and other swashbuckling characters. The site provides detailed information on ballads and broadsides, on the original tales behind some of Shakespeare’s famous plays. It also contains a broad selection of book reviews. Editor: Paula Katherine Marmor.
• British Columbia Folklore Society
• Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage - Smithsoninan Institution.
• Center for Studies in Oral Tradition (CSOT) - University of Missouri, Columbia
  Interdisciplinary research and scholarship on the world's oral tradition.
• Classical Myth - The Ancient Sources
  Laurel Bowman (University of Victoria, Canada) draws together the ancient texts and images available on the Web concerning the major figures of Greek and Roman mythology. It includes a section on The Olympian Gods: from Aphrodite to Zeus.
• Drachen-Bestiarium, Das
  An Austrian site on the history of old and new dragons. Beware, you restless explorer of the vast vaults and dungeons of the web. Dragons haunt this place. And they are quite different from the dragons you are used to: they are historical dragons. What's the origin of these myths? English and German version. Editor: Georg Friebe (Austria).
• Encyclopedia Mythica
  An encyclopedia on mythology, folklore, mysticism, and more.
• Greek American Folklore Society
  Dedicated to the study, preservation and instruction of the history and performative traditions of Hellenic folk culture.
• International Society for Contemporary Legend Research (ISCLR)
  A society that encourages study of "modern" and "urban" legends, and of any legend that circulates actively
• Folklore Discussion List Archives
• Folklore, Myth and Legend
  Folk tales, fairy tales and stories from around the world. Includes folklore reference sources. This site is part of the Children's Literature Web Guide at the University of Calgary, Canada.
• Folklore & Mythology at Harvard - USA
• Myth and Legend from Ancient Times to the Space Age 
  Philip R. "Pib" Burns, Emerging Technologies Group.
  Interesting stories about mythology and folklore, legendary creatures, pirates, UFO's, vampires, werewolves and other nasties. Includes an extensive list of Mythology and Folklore resources.
• Mythic Crossroads: Myths & Legends
  Online resources collected by David Blanchard.
• Myths & Legends -mirror
  A great collection of links, organized by region and language group. Editor: Chris Siren.
• New Frontier - Magazine of Transformation
  Concerning unexplained phenomena, including UFO's, crop circles and extraterrestrial research. Full text articles and archive.
• Norse Mythology
  Before the Norse and other Germanic peoples were converted to Christianity during the Middle Ages, they had their own highly sophisticated and complex indigenous religion. Norse mythology is one expression of this religion. It included the veneration of deities such as Odin, Thor, Freya, and Loki. This site informs on the fascinating gods, goddesses, tales, places, and ideas that comprise the ancient mythology and religion of the Norse and other Germanic peoples. Editor: Dan McCoy.
• Rio Grande Folklore Archive
  This archive, situated in The University of Texas-Pan American Library, is one of the largest collections of Mexican American folklore and specializes in computerized data bases. Editor: Mark Glazer.
• Tales of Wonder
  Folk and fairy tales from around the world including Africa, Asia, India, China, Russia and Siberia. Editor: Richard Darsie (USA).
• Vietnam Veterans Oral History and Folklore Project
  An ongoing undertaking to collect, preserve, and make more known the folklore, especially the folksongs, of the Vietnam War. Here you can learn about the songs made by and for the American civilian and military men and women who served there. Director: Lydia Fish (Buffalo State College, USA).
• Voices
  A scholarly journal published annually by the Folklore Society (UK). Publishes ethnographical and analytical articles on vernacular culture wordwide, it takes a special interest in the history, theory and method of the study of folklore. Table of contents only.
• Wikipedia
  • Folklore | Folkloristics
  • Legend | Saga
  • Mythology | National myth | Germanic mythology | Norse mythology

Consumption

• Association for Consumer Research (ACR) 
  An organization of academics and marketers, who hold annual meetings in the USA, Europe, and Asia. If you’re interested in what kinds of research is currently being done on consumption issues around the world, you will find some excellent resources here.
• Association for Indonesian Consumer Research  (AICORE)
• Book Reviews on Consumer Culture
  Richard Wilk (University of Indiana, USA) has compiled reviews of books addressing the issues of consumption and consumerism.
• Bureau Européen des Unions de Consommateurs (BEUC) 
  The European Consumer Organisation.
• Center for a New American Dream 
  A private, not-for-profit organization devoted to teaching wasteful North Americans to think about the environmental consequences of consumption, and promote frugal lifestyles. On the site you can get all kinds of information on how and why we consume what we do, and what can be done about it. You can also join in discussions on various topics, often led by specialists on consumption.
• Consumentenbond 
  The Dutch consumer organization.
• Consumer Culture and Modernity - by: Don Slater (Polity Press 1996) 
  Table of Contents and Introduction. Slater argues against a "productivist bias" which misleads into believing that production is the engine and essence of modernization. He traces the development of consumer culture from the tresent day to the early modern period. Nabil Echchaibi has written a review of this book.
• Consumer’s Research 
  An independent educational organization whose mission is to increase the knowledge and understanding of issues, policies, products, and services of concern to consumers and to promote the freedom to act on that knowledge and understanding.
• Consumer World
  A collection of over 1700 consumer resources on the Internet, including consumer product information, money and credit information and consumer agency listings. Editor: Edgar Dworsky (consumer education consultant for the Federal Trade Commission).
• Consumers - European Commission
• Consumer-studies Mailing List
  The mailing list in centred around the University of East Londen.
• Consumers International (CI) - The global voice for consumers
  A worldwide non-profit federation of consumer organisations, dedicated to the protection and promotion of consumer interests. It has more than 240 member consumers groups in 120 countries. It took hundreds of years for labor to organize and successfully negotiate with employers for better pay and working conditions. How long will it take for consumers to organize and use their power to alleviate the problems created in the culture of capitalism? CI is an organization that might be the forerunner of such organizational efforts.
• Consumers Union 
  The consumer advocacy web site of Consumers Union, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine. The site contains information on a variety of consumer issues, such as the health, environmental and social consequences of various products; the affects of corporate advertising on children and its infiltration into schools.
• Consumption, Everyday Life, and Sustainability
  A research programme from the European Science Foundation (ESF) initiated in 1997 by Elizabeth Shove & Michael Jacobs (Lancaster University, U.K.), Gert Spaargaren (Wageningen University, The Netherlands), Hal Wilhite (University of Oslo, Norway), and Inge Ropke (Technical University of Denmark). The site contains papers presented at a series of workshops held at Lancaster University (UK) on the subject of consumption and sustainability. The papers provide excellent starting points for discussing the environmental damage inherent in consumption patterns in the culture of capitalism. The site also contains links to the websites of relevant institutions; academic networks relaties to issues of consumption, everyday life and environmental sustainability; and to the personal websites of the programma participants.
• Cronk, R.
  Consumerism and the New Capitalism
  An essay on the growth and consequences of consumption in America. This is how it starts: “The traditional cultural values of Western society are degenerating under the influences of corporate politics, the commercialization of culture and the impact of mass media. Society is awakening from its fascination with television entertainment to find itself stripped of tradition, controlled by an oppressive power structure and bound to the credit obligations of a defunct American dream.”
• DemographicsNow
  A very rich source of consumer information on the United States. You will find information on segmenting and positioning for strategic marketing decisions, consumer trends for business leaders, tactics and techniques for information bases maketers, a newsletter of demographic trends and business forecasts, and many research tools.
• European Consumer Associations
  Austria | Belgium | Denmark | Finland | France | Germany | Greece | Ireland | Italy | Luxembourg | Netherlands | Portugal | Spain | Sweden | 
  United Kingdom
• Frugal Corner
  A comprehensive list of anti-consumer and "live lightly" web links, and practical information on cutting waste.
• Global Consumer Culture
  Resources for the study of the consequences of the expansion of the culture of capitalism. Included is an introductory article written by the editor, Richard Wilk on "Emulation and Global Consumerism".
• Health and Food Safety (SANTE) - European Union (EU): DG XXIV.
• National Consumer Law Center (NCLC)
  A nonprofit corporation committed to addressing the legal problems commonly faced by low-income and financially distressed families. It provides accurate information regarding issues of consumer fraud, debt collection abuses, home improvement frauds, usury, and utility terminations.
• Overcoming Consumerism
  Consumerism is a pattern of behavior that helps to destroy our environment, personal financial health, the common good of individuals and human institutions. The site describes ways that you can help defeat consumerism, save money, work less and lead a more satisfying and environmentally benign life while helping to restore the economic self-sufficiency of your community. It also contains resources and references that can help you become an educated grass-roots activist starting from anylevel of commitment and knowledge.
• Section on Consumers and Consumption
  American Sociological Association (ASA)
• Slater, Don (Dept. of Sociology, Goldsmiths College Univ. of London).
• Sociology of Consumption Research Network
  European Sociological Association (ESA)
• Sustainable consumption and production (SCP) - United Nations 
  SCP is about the use of services and related products, which respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life while minimizing the use of natural resources and toxic materials as well as the emissions of waste and pollutants over the life cycle of the service or product so as not to jeopardize the needs of further generations.

Postmodernism

• Baudrillard, The World of
  An extensive annotated bibliography on Marxian postmodernist Jean Baudrillard. Covers his works and the works of those who have discussed them.
• Everything Postmodern
  A comprehenvise listing of postmodern thought on the WWW. Includes links to postmodernist thinkers (Adorno, Barthes, Baudrillard, Deleuze, Derrida, Foucault, Lukacscs, Rorty), FAQs, zines, and newsgroups. Editor: Gregory Broquard.
• Fegan, Michael
  Postmodernism
  A very un-postmodern attempt to give an all encompassing definition of postmodern theory. “Postmodernism calls into question enlightenment values such as rationality, truth, and progress, arguing that these merely serve to secure the monolithic structure of modern capitalistic society by concealing or excluding any forces that might challenge its cultural dominance. To counter this hegemony, postmodernism draws upon the poststructuralist understanding of representations or signifiers as embedded within a matrix of differential relationships to other signifiers (rather than as standing in a correlative relationship to actual objects) in order to open up space for difference within and against the abstraction and uniformity of modernism. Thus the postmodern attitude tends to value heterogeneity over purity, diversity over unity, the local over the universal, and popular over elite culture or high art.”
• Hartman, Paul V. (Univ. of Georgia, USA)
  What is "Postmodernism"?
  He defines the postmodern era by “the emergence of the postindustrial information economy, replacing the previous classes of aristocracy, middle class, and working class with the new paradigm: information elite, middle class, and underclass.” A supprising ‘class analysis’ which has to be true, because “postmodernism itself is, of course, True”.
• Jameson, Fredric
  • Bibliography - Duke University, USA
  • Bibliography & Critical Texts - Stanford University, USA
  • [1991] Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism |
    Society of Social Research Page, University of Chicago.
  • Homer, Sean (Centre for Pychotherapeutic Studies)
    Fredric Jameson and the Limits of Postmodern Theory
  • McPheron, William
    Fredric Jameson
• Morningstar, Chip
  How To Deconstruct Almost Anything
  A postmodern adventure. This “vulgar engineer” allowes himself to break a lot of the rules that people in the humanities usually have to play by, since nobody expects an engineer to be literate. s. For Chip it is clear to me that the humanities are not going to emerge from the jungle on their own. He thinks that the task of outreach is left to those of us who retain some connection, however tenuous, to what we laughingly call reality. "We have to go into the jungle after them and rescue what we can. Just remember to hang on to your sense of humor and don't let them intimidate you."
• Postmodern Culture (PMC)
  a An electronic journal of interdisciplinary thought on contemporary cultures. PMC offers a forum for commentary, criticism, and theory on subjects ranging from identity politics to the economics of information.
• Postmodern Culture MOO
  Conference center and theme park.
• Postmodern Thought
  A large collection of links on the theoretisation of postmodernism from the School of Education, University of Colorado at Denver.
• Wikipedia
  • Postmodernism
  • Deconstruction

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