Peasant?
Landau, James
James.Landau at NGC.COM
Mon Apr 10 12:09:38 UTC 2006
Joel S. Berson [Berson at ATT.NET] quoted:
> From http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3arktrv.htm:
>The vintage Arkansas Traveler is said to have originated in the
Connecticut Valley
>around 1860 where it got its name from a peddler who "hawked" his
merchandise up and
>down the valley while telling everyone he came from Arkansas. The dance
was dedicated to
>this peddler.
>
>-- The Arkansas traveller was basically a barn dance that had twice the
number of calls
>as the other dances of the time to symbolize the peddlers travels.
During this time the
>waltz was virtually unknown to the peasant dancers. The Arkansas
Traveler is also known
>as The Essence of Old Virginia.
It is strange to see US rural people referred to as "peasants".
The term "peasant" generally refers to a hereditary caste of rural small
farmers in Europe. There is no such caste in the US, the closest thing
being "sharecroppers", who were a post-Civil War development, being rare
to nonexistent around 1860 (MWCD10 gives the surprisingly late date of
1923 for "sharecropper").
- James A. Landau
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
More information about the Ads-l
mailing list