Morel Tales : : The Culture of Mushrooming / / Gary Alan Fine.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter HUP eBook Package Archive 1893-1999
• VerfasserIn: Fine, Gary Alan,
• Place / Publishing House: Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2022]; ©1998
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (336 p.)

In this thoughtful book, Gary Fine explores how Americans attempt to give meaning to the natural world that surrounds them. Although "nature" has often been treated as an unproblematic reality, Fine suggests that the meanings we assign to the natural environment are culturally grounded. In other words, there is no nature separate from culture. He calls this process of cultural construction and interpretation, "naturework." Of course, there is no denying the biological reality of trees, mountains, earthquakes, and hurricanes, but, he argues, they must be interpreted to be made meaningful. Fine supports this claim by examining the fascinating world of mushrooming. Based on three years of field research with mushroomers at local and national forays, Morel Tales highlights the extensive range of meanings that mushrooms have for mushroomers. Fine details how mushroomers talk about their finds--turning their experiences into "fish stories" (the one that got away), war stories, and treasure tales; how mushroomers routinely joke about dying from or killing others with misidentified mushrooms, and how this dark humor contributes to the sense of community among collectors. He also describes the sometimes friendly, sometimes tense relations between amateur mushroom collectors and professional mycologists. Fine extends his argument to show that the elaboration of cultural meanings found among mushroom collectors is equally applicable to birders, butterfly collectors, rock hounds, and other naturalists.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- CHAPTER ONE Being in Nature -- CHAPTER TWO Meaningful Mushrooms -- CHAPTER THREE Sharing the Woods -- CHAPTER FOUR Talking Wild -- CHAPTER FIVE Organizing Naturalists -- CHAPTER SIX Fungus and Its Publics -- CHAPTER SEVEN Naturework and the Taming of the Wild -- Notes -- Index