Look at the American Scarecrow
Creatures made of straw, dressed as elves or other dark spirit forces have long been part of American farming tradition. They were designed to frighten the intruder as culture eating birds and animals, and the thieves stealing garden produce. In some cases, it was felt that legal representation scarecrow encouraged abundance. Throughout history there have been protectors of the harvest could invite the benefits of food as the Greek god Priapus farmers. In all cases, so scary scarecrow home or had important work to do, they took care of the crops when the farmer was not there.
Historically, the bogeyman that we have here in America has strong family ties with the spirits of the scarecrows in the world. As a protector of crops has been developed on the scarecrow Slavic “spirits of the field.” Starch Polish (spirit), for example, had the reputation of using riddles and hard questions about the alleged thieves, threats of disease for which the offender responded incorrectly.
The Russian camp polevoj mind past the forest to camp at noon and punished those who found and damage crops.
Centuries before scarecrow appeared in the fields, however, the task of scaring the crows were handled by children. According to “scarecrow” (Storey Books) by Felder ground, Captain John Smith and his crew flew around the settlers of Virginia small huts woven vines and bark, perched on wooden posts. Soon it was discovered that a large children’s summer and fall work has been hiding in these houses to drum up crows and deer came into camp to eat. ”
It was noted that the children would then chase the intruder, creating a din of drums to exclude them.
Inspired by the Indians of British settlers began to hang strips of cloth and animal skins in their fields. In the 17th century, these early scarecrows, dressed in discarded clothing, began to become more human.
Thomas Jefferson mentions three of them in Farmbook, a guide published in 1826 the farm.
By the 19th century American Scarecrow began to be used for decoration and for practical reasons. creative expression is more widespread and as the modernization of agricultural techniques, such as agricultural chemicals on the horizon, those figures collected has evolved to assume a more ornate and artistic, including appearances in movies.
The best known is The Wizard of Oz. It is the scarecrow, very similar to the wheat field in Kansas that scarecrows are on the messages so they can be seen above the corn stalks, guides you lose Dorothy the Emerald City where he finds a way back home. But before that came the classic film The Scarecrow, a 1920 silent film with Buster Keaton as a scarecrow to life and turns through a machine that has forever changed the agricultural landscape.
scarecrow today is in many harvest festivals and school gardens throughout the country. Realistic dressed in the finest clothes hand painted faces and sculpted bodies over undeniably left fear in his face red and black legs or capriciously placed bike or familiar contexts, such as picnics, to create a unique garden – the porch, and in the garden – that is memorable.
