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Fig. 7. Carved stone in facade of Spring City schoolhouse.
Folk Material Culture of the Sanpete-Sevier Area: Today's Reflections of a Region Past BY R I C H A R D C. P O U L S E N
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/ \ R E C E N T L Y READ A S T A T E M E N T by anthropologist Clifford Geertz that began a revolution and a rejuvenation in my perception and understanding of folk material culture. According to Geertz, "meanings can only be stored in symbols." 1 When applied to folk material culture this suggests that the meaning and significance of folk artifacts lie beyond what we normally perceive as history; that u, the discrete items of folk material culture have meaning outside the historical mainstream that produced Dr. Poulsen is assistant professor of English at Brigham Young University. 1 Clifford Geertz, "Ethos, World-View and the Analysis of Sacred Symbols," Every His Way, ed. Alan Dundes (Englewood Cliffs, N . J . : Prentice-Hall, 1968), p. 303.
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