What do the American hot dog, Japanese jokes, antique irons, finches and medieval animal images have in common?
They are all the subjects of unusual research by Chicago-area professors. For example, Bruce Kraig prefers to taste American history rather than read about it. ``I`m a glutton,`` he said with a laugh.
Kraig, a history professor at Roosevelt University, recently returned from a six-month sabbatical in which he traveled the country sampling hundreds of hot dogs. In the evolution of the hot dog, Kraig sees the social history of America.
His training as an anthropologist, with an emphasis on prehistoric food rituals, led him to present a paper on food taboos at Oxford University in 1985.
``The paper centered on why we don`t eat dogs in America,`` Kraig said.
One thing led to another and, when Kraig was invited back to Oxford, he gave another paper on the kind of dog Americans do eat. It was such a success that Kraig felt he was on to something. He did more research by visiting hot dog manufacturers. Finally, after several publishers expressed an interest, the university offered him a sabbatical in spring 1990 to write two books on the hot dog, which he expects to publish in 1991.
``Hot dogs are a mythical food,`` he said. ``Everybody likes hot dogs. To say you like hot dogs is to say you are an American.``
Methods used to manufacture and distribute hot dogs demonstrate the evolution of American industry, Kraig said. The first hot dogs were homemade ground meat by German and Hungarian immigrants in the 1850s. They were sold by pushcart vendors on street corners and at sporting and social events.
``Hot dogs were America`s first fast food,`` he said.
As Americans developed a taste for hot dogs, early manufacturers such as Chicago`s Oscar Mayer Food Corp. around the turn of the century began mass producing the hot dog. The company distributed them locally, regionally and, as their popularity grew, nationally.
With the advent of the supermarket in the 1950s, hot dogs became a family food that was eaten by every ethnic group. ``Hot dogs are a social-leveling food,`` Kraig said. ``They symbolize the democratization of America and, at the same time, individualism.``
Individual expression is offered by the variety of hot dogs and toppings that developed in neighborhoods, cities and regions of the country. ``Every region loves its own kind of hot dog and won`t eat it any other way,`` Kraig said.
The traditional Chicago hot dog is highly seasoned and steamed or boiled. Toppings include mustard, ketchup, lettuce, tomato, relish, onions, hot peppers and sometimes celery salt.
New Yorkers call the Chicago hot dog the ``dirty water dog.`` But Kraig said he thinks that the Big Apple`s hot dog is rather heavy on garlic. It is grilled, and its condiments are mustard and sometimes onions and sauerkraut.
The hot dog`s glory years have passed, Kraig said. Although Americans consume more than 5 billion hot dogs between Memorial Day and Labor Day, the market is at a standstill, he said.
``Hot dogs are no-nos for today`s health-conscious yuppies,`` Kraig said. ``The dogs are full of fat-30 percent or more.``
Although hot dogs probably will never be a health food, Kraig predicted that they will be around for a while. ``We continue to eat hot dogs for nostalgic reasons,`` he said.
While Kraig is sampling hot dogs, a Lake Forest College professor is gathering, observing and recording jokes.
Pack Carnes, professor of folklore and Japanese culture, has been studying jokes for about 20 years. He has turned his attention to the differences between American and Japanese jokes.
``About 15 years ago, the narrative joke-a story that took about 45 seconds to relate-was the most common type of joke in America,`` Carnes said. ``Today the emphasis has gone to one-line riddle jokes-like the `light bulb` jokes or `elephant` jokes-where the answer is the punch line. They take less time to tell and have more impact, which is important in today`s fast-paced society.``
In Japan, narrative jokes are still the most popular. Americans tell more ethnic jokes, although in Japan, ethnic jokes-particularly directed at Americans or Koreans-are becoming more common.
``You can tell a Japanese person a dirty joke, but most of the time, because of cultural differences, he won`t think it is funny,`` Carnes said.
Carnes lived in Japan for six years in the 1960s. He spends summers in Japan visiting the family of his Japanese wife and ``hanging out`` with his Japanese colleagues. He has taught Japanese language and cultural classes at Lake Forest College since 1986. ``My students are lucky because I tell them a new joke every day,`` he said.
The mystery of jokes is how they originate. Carnes doesn`t know. ``Jokes start anonymously and spread faster than any disease,`` he said.