[Sca-cooks] Corn dollies.

[Sandra J. Kisner]

I suspect this making of rough human figures may be the original use of the term "corn dollies," but when I first saw it what came to mind was plaited and twisted/arranged stalks of grain (usually wheat straw these days), many of which were not human.  They are identified as "traditional," which of course does not necessarily mean period.  The Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_dolly seems to have examples of both types.

Sandra

-----Original Message-----
From: sca-cooks-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org [mailto:sca-cooks-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org] On Behalf Of Aruvqan
Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2014 6:40 AM
To: Cooks within the SCA
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Corn dollies.


On 5/3/2014 10:27 PM, Stefan li Rous wrote:
>
> Although I'm most familiar with corn dollies being made in North America and of maize leaves, they probably had a predecessor. Was that just carved wooden dolls? Or perhaps wheat or other grain leaves/waste?
>
>
I have to think [and this is pulled right out of my arse, honestly] that corn dollies originated in handsfull of grasses and the straw found after harvest being twisted into little people to amuse small kids that are being tended by the sides of fields while the harvest is going on. 
Perhaps out of the scattered stalks of wheat or whatever grain being gleaned by the aunties and grannies asked with watching them.

People make twists of stalks to bind sheaves when manually harvesting grains, and it makes perfect sense to me for whomever is tending a bunch of kids to make impromptu toys to amuse them.

They also could have been made originally to replace live sacrifices, to be made, dressed and thrown into harvest festival fires. It is not a great jump from this:
http://www.drieddecor.com/images/medium/products/wheat-bundle-1lb_MED.jpg

Without the grain heads, to being dressed in fabric scraps and used as a doll for kids to play with.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8hfyP3kULww/TGHOgYTq-cI/AAAAAAAAALk/SwpsiOzBobg/s1600/IMG_0116.jpg

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