Morel Tales: THE CULTURE OF MUSHROOMING [Paperback]

Gary Alan Fine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2003

Drawing on the observations of three years spent in the company of dedicated amateur mushroomers and professional mycologists, Gary Alan Fine explores the ways in which Americans attempt to give meaning to the natural world, while providing an eye-opening look inside the cultures they construct around its study and appreciation. A landmark work of environmental sociology, Morel Tales is an engaging and instructive examination of a thriving community, one with its own language, ceremonies, jokes, narratives, rivalries, and social codes. Fine also provides a detailed discussion of the American phenomenon he calls "naturework" - that is, culturally constructing one's own place in the natural environment through communities with shared systems of assigned meaning."Naturework", Fine observes, is something we all do on some level - not only birders, butterfly collectors, rock hounds, hunters, hikers, campers, and outdoor enthusiasts, but all of us who construct community through narrative and nature through culture. "

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"How nature is interpreted is not 'natural,'" argues sociologist and author Gary Fine. "Nature is a cultural creation...." Interested in how humans make meaning out of nature through culturally grounded images and interpretations, Fine has coined a new phrase for his study--"naturework." But if it's all so much mind play, what is the point of this deconstructionist preening? In his introduction, Fine parades lengthily phrased, teasingly conceptual theories, positing them against the range of contemporary environmentalist thinking.

His three-year study of mushrooms and the people who love them (the Minnesota Mycological Society) utilizes his own field observation, interviews, surveys, and document analysis. He covers such topics as the history of mushroom collection and the mythology they have inspired ("The fact that mushrooms can literally appear overnight makes them seem a gift from the divine"). Indeed, the writing becomes engaging when Fine risks relinquishing his academic pose and offers simple statements tied to experience. His account of a foray on a crisp day in autumn is quite wonderful--the extrapolations are more grounded; the speculations more attuned to a layperson's curiosity. Reports and stories of the mushroom collectors themselves illustrate our human moral-and-meaning-making apparatus.

"Mushroomers place faith in the judgments and advice of peers," Fine notes, "and under some circumstances, risk their lives, without little worry. Much trust and confidence in the competence of others characterize the mushrooming community. Yet this community also depends on competition in finding mushrooms, and this leads to secrecy. How is secrecy compatible with the equally visible trust?" Fine's book is, above all else, an astonishing tenacity of focus. --Hollis Giammatteo --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Reviews from earlier edition "In a way that has come to characterize his work, Fine ... gets serious without losing his sense of humor. As with the best of good sociology, we are quickly persuaded that by studying seemingly esoteric behavior, mushroom hunting, we can learn about basic social processes." -- Robert Bogdan, in Contemporary Sociology Many gushing reviews exist, see file

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (March 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 025207131X
• ISBN-13: 978-0252071317
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,015,171 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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