Dan Ben-Amos (; September 3, 1934 – March 26, 2023) was an Israeli-American folklorist and academic who worked as a professor at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
,
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
, where he held the Graduate Program Chair for the Department of Folklore and Folklife.
Early life and education
Ben-Amos was born in
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...
(then in
Mandatory Palestine
Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine.
After ...
) and grew up in
Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva (, ), also spelt Petah Tiqwa and known informally as Em HaMoshavot (), is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv. It was founded in 1878, mainly by Haredi Judaism, Haredi Jews of the Old Y ...
.
[Ben-Amos, D. (8 December 2015). Personal communication.]
Before starting his studies at
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...
, he served in the
Nahal Brigade of the
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...
, and in the course of his service he was in a unit that guarded the first prime minister of Israel,
David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion ( ; ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary List of national founders, national founder and first Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister of the State of Israel. As head of the Jewish Agency ...
, until he retired to
kibbutz Sde-Boker in the Israeli Desert. Upon discharge he was a member of Kibbutz Yiftaḥ where he was a shepherd.
At Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he initially
majored in
Biblical studies
Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible, with ''Bible'' referring to the books of the canonical Hebrew Bible in mainstream Jewish usage and the Christian Bible including the can ...
and
English literature
English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...
. During his
sophomore year
In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. In ...
, dissatisfied with his academic major, he switched to pursue a degree in
Hebrew literature
Hebrew literature consists of ancient, medieval, and modern writings in the Hebrew language. It is one of the primary forms of Jewish literature, though there have been cases of literature written in Hebrew by non-Jews, mostly among the Arab cit ...
with an interest in
folklore
Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...
, studying with
Dov Noy. He received his
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...
from Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1961.
Under advice from Professor Dov Noy at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Ben-Amos continued his education in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
at
Indiana University Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, IUB, or Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana Univer ...
, which at that time was the only folklore
Doctor of Philosophy
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...
granting institution in the United States. When he arrived at Bloomington, Indiana, and walked toward the campus, he wondered at the sight of the corn-pipe smoking hoosiers that were swinging on their porches and wondered whether they were his future professors, but when he reached the campus he realized that Bloomington was a university town after all, and (although originally turned off by the town of
Bloomington) he decided to stay, and he received his
Master of Arts
A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...
in 1964 and Doctor of Philosophy in 1967 in folklore.
[Lee, Linda (2015). "Ben-Amos, Dan (1934–)." ]
Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore
'. Eds. Raphael Patai and Haya Bar-Itzhak. London: Routledge. p. 74. At Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Bloomington, Ben-Amos was trained in the comparatist tradition.
Towards the end of his education and beginning of his career, Ben-Amos, along with other young folklorists,
Roger Abrahams, Alan Dundes, Robert Georges, and Kenneth Goldstein, became affectionately labeled "the Young Turks" by
Richard Dorson
Richard Mercer Dorson (March 12, 1916 – September 11, 1981) was an American folklorist, professor, and director of the Folklore Institute at Indiana University. Dorson has been called the "father of American folklore"Nichols, Amber M.Richard M. ...
, prominent folklorist and teacher of Ben-Amos. Although
Richard Bauman was not originally included in this group, his work has come to be associated with that of the Young Turks; these young folklorists broke with traditional perspectives of folkloristics, which focus on the text and its content. Collectively, they focused on context in an effort to better understand folklore and the way people use folklore.
In his influential essay “Toward a Definition of Folklore in Context” (1971) Ben-Amos promoted a new way of defining folklore based on its context.
With its focus on context, Ben-Amos's work helped to usher in a new performance based perceptive in the field of folkloristics.
Professional career
Before beginning his Assistant Professorship in Anthropology at the
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...
, which he held from 1966 to 1967, Ben-Amos conducted folklore research in Nigeria on the oral tradition of the Edo people in Benin City and its rural surroundings. He arrived in Nigeria for the first time on January 15, 1966, the day of the first military coup.
[Ben-Amos, D. (9 December 2015). Personal communication.]
In 1967, Ben-Amos began teaching at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
,
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
, serving as an assistant professor for three years and associate professor for seven. He became professor of Folklore and
Folklife
Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as tales, myths, legends, proverbs, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also includes materi ...
in 1977, holding the title for 22 years.
["Dan Ben-Amos CGS'97". ''The Pennsylvania Gazette'' (alumni magazine of the University of Pennsylvania)]
Sep/Oct 2023
p. 76. In 1999 he joined Penn's department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies; after the split of the department into sub-specialties in 2004, he became professor of
Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.
He also served as Chair of the Graduate Program in Folklore and Folklife.
Ben-Amos's scholarly interests included
Jewish folklore
Jewish folklore are legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales, stories, tall tales, and customs that are the traditions of Judaism. Folktales are characterized by the presence of unusual personages, by the sudde ...
,
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
n folklore, humor, the history of folklore, and structural analysis.
Ben-Amos served on the executive board of the
American Folklore Society
The American Folklore Society (AFS) is the United States (US)-based professional association for folklorists, with members from the US, Canada, and around the world, which aims to encourage research, aid in disseminating that research, promote t ...
from 1977 to 1980. He was an associate editor from 1981 to 1984 and book editor from 1988 to 1990 of the
Journal of American Folklore
The ''Journal of American Folklore'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Folklore Society. The journal has been published since the society's founding in 1888. Since 2003, this has been published at the University of I ...
. He also served as the general editor to the Indiana Press series Translations in Folklore studies and, from 1996, as the editor of the Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology (Wayne State University Press).
Dan Ben-Amos's articles appeared in translation in the following languages: Chinese, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, and Turkish.
Death
Ben-Amos died on March 26, 2023, at the age of 88.
Awards
2006
National Jewish Book Award
The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1943, is an American organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature. The goal of the council, as stated on its website, is "to promote the reading, writing and publishing of qual ...
, winner in the Sephardic Culture category for ''Folktales of the Jews. Volume 1: Tales from the Sephardic Dispersion''
2006 National Jewish Book Award, finalist in the Scholarship category for ''Folktales of the Jews. Volume 1: Tales from the Sephardic Dispersion.'' Edited with Commentary (Dov Noy, Consulting Editor). Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2006.
2014
American Folklore Society
The American Folklore Society (AFS) is the United States (US)-based professional association for folklorists, with members from the US, Canada, and around the world, which aims to encourage research, aid in disseminating that research, promote t ...
Lifetime Scholarly Achievement Award
Fellowships
1972–1973
American Council for Learned Societies
1975–1976
John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship
1980–1981
National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
Books
*''In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov'', editor and translator, in collaboration with Jerome R. Mintz. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1970.
*''Folklore: Performance and Communication'', ed. in collaboration with Kenneth S. Goldstein. Approaches to Semiotics, 40. The Hague:Mouton Press. 1975.
*''Sweet Words: Storytelling Events in Benin''. Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1975.
*''Folklore Genres'', ed. American Folklore Society Bibliographical and Special Series, Volume 26, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1976. (Reprint of 1969a with an 'Introduction' and a "Selected Bibliography")
*''Folklore in Context: Essays''. New Delhi, Madras: South Asian Publishers. 1982.
*''Cultural Memory and the Construction of Identity'', ed. (With
Liliane Weissberg), Detroit: Wayne State University Press. (1999).
*''Folktales of the Jews. Volume 1: Tales from the Sephardic'' (2006). Volume II: 1970, In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov, editor and translator, in collaboration with Jerome R. Mintz. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. (Paperback edition, 1972. 2nd paperback edition, New York: Schocken, 1984; 3rd edition Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson, Jewish Book Club, Main Selection, January 1994).
*''The Diary, The Epic of Everyday Life, with Batsheva Ben-Amos. Bloomington: Indiana University Press (2020).
Relevant literature
*Juweng Zhang. "Dan Ben Amos (1934-2023)". ''Western Folklore'' 83.1:111-134.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ben-Amos, Dan
1934 births
2023 deaths
Jewish folklorists
American folklorists
Israeli folklorists
University of Pennsylvania faculty
Israeli emigrants to the United States
Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni
Indiana University Bloomington alumni
People from Tel Aviv
People from Petah Tikva
Jewish American academics