This is going to be sound like a really strange rule. My dad made it a point to always tell me, "Never swing at the first pitch." Obviously, this made complete sense. He was my baseball coach and I was one of the better hitters in the league, largely thanks to his guidance. And he was a good person to listen to. When he was 12 and 13, he led Northern Virginia in batting average and nearly won the triple crown both years.
And this advice worked until I could no longer play baseball due to injury. But, I don't think it was meant to apply only to baseball. My dad is at once a sage and a connector and he knows me well. That advice says take advantage of a situation through patience and observation. See how the ball (life's many choices) is thrown. How fast, what location, what signs does the pitcher show before a given pitch? With the world seemingly moving faster than ever, each individual is standing at the plate at young age. It is important that they are ready. Through an unusual and seemingly casual ground rule, I have always been prepared.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Defining Drinking
My family likes to drink and there are several stories that tell of this, but two in particular define how the family drinks. My great grandfather was named Pop Corn and he owned a grocery store. Unfortunately, he was a tea totterler and the idea that I get from how my family elders tell the story is that he was not a good husband or dad. He liked to partake in the booze and strange woman. Therefore my grandfather would never drink in excess, but my grandmother liked cocktails in the evening, no more than two or three a night. Now there was an uncle, Sid, that loved to drink and party. He would always try to get my grandmother to have a few more drinks when the families got together up north for vacation. On one occasion, my grandmother did have a few too many. The result was a terrible hangover and a mad grandfather (her husband) who had to cook breakfast and take care of the kids the next morning. These stories are in a way a guide to the family drinking norms.
Doctors & Nuns
During the Korean War, my grandfather served as a doctor. He was stationed at an American Base in the country and my grnadmother would tell me stories that they had a trench inside the base and every so often they would have alarms that would go off in the base which meant they were being attacked they would have to escort the patients into the trench. My grandmother would say my grandfather was afraid at times because they would give him a gun, but he had no training in combat. However, the story I want to tell is this one which makes my grandmother and I still laugh to this day. Once my grandfather was asked to care for a Mother Superior(Higher Ranking Nun)that was very sick at a small house. When my grandfather went to the house he was greeted by two nuns at the door who only spoke french. Unbeknownst to them my grandfather spoke perfect french and could understand their conversation. They questioned whether or not he was actually a doctor and that he could actually help the Mother Superior. They also had some very insulting things to say, until my grandfather spoke a french sentence to them. Both of them jumped up and became so red with embarassment. Thus, they let him inside. Now the Mother Superior was really sick so they had to call an ambulance to help her and because she was a big woman, they had to get several men to help her down the stairs.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
We are public servants.
My maternal great grandfather was the director of a welfare agency. As part of his job, he lived with his family in a big house called Hillcrest, a house that would hereafter figure prominently in nearly all of my grandmother’s stories of her childhood. The house was situated on the grounds of a government youth facility, which was under my great grandfather’s jurisdiction, and this facility included an orphanage and two reform schools, one for boys and one for girls. On the grounds there was also a classroom facility where all of those children went to school, and a huge playground where my grandmother and her brothers, and later my mom, her sisters and her cousins would play. There was also an old deserted orchard on the grounds from which my grandmother and her siblings would collect crabapples and other fruits to make preserves. Everyone in the family loved living there, probably for a variety of reasons, and it was really sad when they had to move out because my great grandfather retired. Many years later it was torn down, inducing further fits of nostalgia and sorrow in everyone in the family who had ever visited the place. In family stories it has become this sort of hallowed land of milk and honey, which brought everyone who lived there so much joy and happiness. But one important thing I think it reinforced in everyone who lived there, and in particular the children, was the importance of public service. Living right there at their father’s work place, seeing the work he did to help these people and how much it meant to him no doubt made a huge impression on my grandmother and her siblings, and also reinforced to a great degree the belief in public service and education already running through the family. As a result, all of the children ended up working in public service, and most of the grandchildren as well. I think it is particularly revealing that many of the people who tried to work outside of the public sphere soon gave up. For example, my Great Uncle Johnny is a geologist, and for a time he tried to make a lot of money working for a big oil corporation helping them to find oil deposits all over the US. But after only a few years, he left the job and returned to teaching as a university professor, saying how much he hated working for the corporations. I find this hatred of working in the private sector to be particularly interesting, because I realized recently that the thought of working in the private sector had never really occurred to me, and even now I can’t really imagine working for some company. My mind automatically associates the private sector with instability, corruption and a vague idea of “selling out” .
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Competitive Public Speaking Group
As a member of the George Mason Forensics Team, we travel primarily across the country for competitive public speaking competitions, through this extra-curricular event that Mason provides, we are subject to unique acronyms and vocabulary that someone outside of our group may not understand. For example, we use the term "breaking" meaning that we advance from the preliminary rounds to the out rounds. So its not uncommon to hear someone ask the question, "Did you break?" meaning "Did you advance?". Because a lot of the events are so long winded, we create acronyms for on the circuit. Another example would be one of the events P.O.I. which is spelled out Program Oral Interpretation.
Finally, one of our unique events is held towards the beginning of April. Everyone from across the country those we have seen and those we have not all come together for one last major national tournament at the end of the season called the American Forensics Association National Individual Events Tournament or AFA-NIET for short. This tournament rotates from college campuses all across the country every April that its held. In 2009, it was hosted at the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio. In 2010 it will be at the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire.
Finally, one of our unique events is held towards the beginning of April. Everyone from across the country those we have seen and those we have not all come together for one last major national tournament at the end of the season called the American Forensics Association National Individual Events Tournament or AFA-NIET for short. This tournament rotates from college campuses all across the country every April that its held. In 2009, it was hosted at the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio. In 2010 it will be at the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire.
My Folk Places and Events
When I generally think of my personal folklore, religious traditions are always the first that come to mind. Although I was educated in private, Catholic schools, my family has always associated with the Baptist church. When my brothers and I were much younger, we attended Sunday school and church every week and always participated in volunteering and community events. Though my family no longer attends church every Sunday, the people we met and places we went will always remain an important part of my family's personal folklore. From the time that I started kindergarten, I have remained friends with a very close-knit group of people that are still in my life today. Together, we have created a number of traditions that remain personal to our friends and family. Ever year, we always take a beach trip to the Avon, North Carolina and eat at a restaurant called Dirty Dicks. Since we have all been away at college, we decided to meet at least one night every holiday break in Old Town, Alexandria and exchange gifts. Although Starbucks is hardly considered unique in our society today, my best friend and I consistently meet at the same location in Alexandria every chance we get. We have become very friendly with the employees and sit in the same spot in the cafe every time we go. Although we have only been doing this for 5-6 years now, I believe that it will always remain a personal tradition for as long as the location exists.
Monday, May 25, 2009
My unique events and places
The only event I can think of that is truly unique to my family or social group, is this thing we have every year around New Year's called the "Big Meal." Essentially the meal is a 16 course meal prepared by my brother and a few of his high school friends who still live in the area. The meal is split up into 4 categories: soups, appetizers, mains, and desserts with 4 of each. At the end of each Big Meal, ballots are cast on people's favorite dishes from each category and the winner is carried over for the next year.
As far as special places are concerned there was this place in Sedona, Arizona about an hour's walk into the desert where a friend and I hid a 4-foot Bong we labeled the "bazooka" at a place we called the "magical kingdom."
As far as special places are concerned there was this place in Sedona, Arizona about an hour's walk into the desert where a friend and I hid a 4-foot Bong we labeled the "bazooka" at a place we called the "magical kingdom."
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Worldview
I suppose my personal folklore is an expression of my worldview because it can influence the way I approach things. I may toss salt over my shoulder if I spill any and even though I doubt this does anything, it’s a habit I learned from my grandmother and thus, I repeat the ritual because I don’t need any more bad luck. My mother once told me that it is important to respect your elders because when you do not, when you age, you can become a person who no one respects. While this is clearly not the case and I have met some truly nasty persons of age, I still try to be respectful to them. My family also passes down several foods that we believe either give good luck or heal during certain holidays. I feel empty or as if something is wrong if I don’t eat these things during those times and so I do make efforts to always have those foods. These small things seem silly and maybe slightly irrelevant, but they do shape the way I behavior in certain situations.
Nationalism
Military folklore has shaped my views by instilling a unwritten code of values, ethics that bond between members a team and accomplish missions. Yes, these things are taught in manuals but can only be learned in reality from the examples of superiors, interaction with peers, and experience. In addition, Military folklore is steeped with nationalism. For instances, a US soldiers greatest honor is to fight for and defend their country. Have we not all heard the similar line "We are fighting to defend freedom and democracy."(Whether the US uses soldiers to defend democracy or for other reasons is another debate).The point is that the military creates a very United States ethnocentric worldview, a we are the "best" sort of mentality. Hence, the soldier thinks he is fighting for freedom and the good cause. The folklore of a US soldier as a champion for democracy is a very interesting topic and probably can be traced back to the revolution where we fought for our freedom. It is almost a "Do not tread on me" concept. But I believe that breaking down ethnocentric nationalism is a positive step in creating a more intelligent world view.
Worldview
The idea of my experiences and worldview being shaped by the culture in which I grew up is very familiar to me because of classes in anthropology I have taken in the past, however the Toelken article was very interesting in how it suggested the effect of extremely specific aspects of our surroundings on very specific aspects of our worldviews. I agree that surroundings have a great influence on perception, however I think that in Toelken is at some times a bit extreme with his (her?) analyses, and his(her?) references to Freud and Jung in my view undermine the significance of some of her statements: for example her belief that mothers can have particularly potentially detrimental effects on the child are particularly revealing of her/his Freudian viewpoints. I think he/she fails to acknowledge that there are certain similarities between humans cross-culturally, but I suppose that this partially indicative of the time perid in which the article was written.
5.20 Worldview
Worldview comes from a personal perspective once you open your eyes to new and different things that the world has to offer which builds ones character and personality and individual person--from beginning to end. We are always learning new things and it affects our outlook and reaction to the world. For me, coming from a hispanic background I have a cultural influence that helps me see the world in more than one perspective in which I can compare and contrast family and friend perspectives.
Worldview
Worldview, in Tolkein's eyes, is shaped through one's upbringing. My worldview has been formed by my family and how I was raised. The people who surround you throughout your early years definitely help influence what you believe and who you become as a person. In my case, I was fortunate enough to have parents and family that had a vast knowledge of the world. This has helped shape my world view.
Personal Folklore and Worldview
Worldview:
I have soaked up influences from a blending of cultures, but my Italian traditions are my foundation. My personal Italian folklore is an expression of my worldview. My Italian great grandfather came to America for economic opportunity. He believed that ambition and hard work was the key to a good job. I incorporate his philosophy, in conjunction with a good education, as I aspire toward my career goal.
My Italian folklore toward money is very conservative. The Italian family is not big on the stock market and not too trusting of many investments, and most hard-earned money is invested in products backed by the government. I have also been influenced by this view of handling money.
My Italian roots are very family-centric. Family is always helping family, whether to babysit, set up a blind date, help find a job, taking care of the elderly relatives, etc. Family remains very close, even if someone moves to another state. My worldview incorporates the Italian folklore of the importance of family.
Everyday Life:
My family usually kiss when they meet at holidays and celebrations. It’s also common in Italy for male relatives and close male friends to embrace each other. I greet my other sides of the family in the same manner, which at first seemed strange to them.
Having wine with my dinner is carried over from my Italian traditions. My Italian great grandfather used to have his own wine cellar and always offered a glass of wine before starting a meal, and made a toast ( salute!) before drinking. Although we don't have a wine cellar at home today, my family and I still have a glass of wine with dinner. We strive to have mealtime together as well.
Dinner always has some kind of pasta, however, it is now made with low-fat cheeses and whole wheat or whole grain pasta.
Christine Watkinson
I have soaked up influences from a blending of cultures, but my Italian traditions are my foundation. My personal Italian folklore is an expression of my worldview. My Italian great grandfather came to America for economic opportunity. He believed that ambition and hard work was the key to a good job. I incorporate his philosophy, in conjunction with a good education, as I aspire toward my career goal.
My Italian folklore toward money is very conservative. The Italian family is not big on the stock market and not too trusting of many investments, and most hard-earned money is invested in products backed by the government. I have also been influenced by this view of handling money.
My Italian roots are very family-centric. Family is always helping family, whether to babysit, set up a blind date, help find a job, taking care of the elderly relatives, etc. Family remains very close, even if someone moves to another state. My worldview incorporates the Italian folklore of the importance of family.
Everyday Life:
My family usually kiss when they meet at holidays and celebrations. It’s also common in Italy for male relatives and close male friends to embrace each other. I greet my other sides of the family in the same manner, which at first seemed strange to them.
Having wine with my dinner is carried over from my Italian traditions. My Italian great grandfather used to have his own wine cellar and always offered a glass of wine before starting a meal, and made a toast ( salute!) before drinking. Although we don't have a wine cellar at home today, my family and I still have a glass of wine with dinner. We strive to have mealtime together as well.
Dinner always has some kind of pasta, however, it is now made with low-fat cheeses and whole wheat or whole grain pasta.
Christine Watkinson
Worldview
As Toelken believes, my worldview began formation in my infancy. This being true, my worldview has been marked by extreme change and variation, and the adaptation to such things. I would say that these experiences have helped shaped my worldview dramatically, and I am very much perceptive and open to change in my everyday life.
Worldview
“Cultural Worldview” by Toelken Barre conveys how folklore and culture have different meanings in various parts of the world. People around the world have different perceptions that make up their mindset. A person who came from a broken home and grew up in Southeast D.C. will have a different mindset than a person who came from a wealthy family and grew up in Orange County, California. The person from D.C. will have a mindset that is focused on survival and the person from Orange County might be easy-going and a free spirit. Their stories and experiences help strengthen a person’s outlook on life. Another component to cultural worldview is culture and meaning. As children, our parents embedded thoughts and concepts that will become a part of our everyday lives. Also, the contact we have with our parents depends on how we interact with other people outside the household. These “facts of life” include the roles of men and women. Children are taught that men are the providers and that women are the nurturers and caretakers. Worldview demonstrates that there are multple ways a person can percieve and interpret things.
Worldview from a religious foundation
As the Toelken reading suggests, family is the foundation that shapes your worldview. By being introduced to folklore in the home throughout your early years, you develop a unique perspective which affects how you react to your environment and situations, as well as how you analyze the actions of others. My foundation was highly religious in a strict household, thus my worldview differs from those I know whose family did not place an emphasis on religion and/or discipline. I believe my worldview has been further impacted by 15+ years as a military wife. As a result, I find myself rejecting anyone who appears to lack integrity, and have difficulty accepting the path that our society has taken (however, I am not naïve to assume or believe that our society is unique in this respect, as “progressive” thought is present everywhere).
Worldview
My worldview has been formed mainly through my family (folkgroup number 1!!) and environment. It is very interesting that when one has siblings how different the worldview can be between siblings. We were brought up by the same parents, had the same lessons are related to the same people but we do not always view the world in the same way. I have a positive, overall, view of the world. My religious beliefs have impacted how I view others, how I treat others and the world in general. I am also a happy person overall, through all the things that one survives in life I think it is important to remain positive and happy about the world around us. I learned this through watching my parents, friends, going to Mass.
My grandmother was a child when women received the right to vote, as a result she made sure she fully appreciated this right and voted in every election, it was not important that everybody she voted for won but it was very important to vote. She instilled this into her children who instilled it into their children, this has also helped form my particular world view.
My grandmother was a child when women received the right to vote, as a result she made sure she fully appreciated this right and voted in every election, it was not important that everybody she voted for won but it was very important to vote. She instilled this into her children who instilled it into their children, this has also helped form my particular world view.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
My Folklore and Worldview
1. It is a fairly common event at my house to have my friends come over with whom I cook large meals together with. There is no traditional meal prepared, but rather the process is exploratory, involving the browsing of numerous cookbooks and online recipes to find what sounds like the best option. This is folklore because the tradition is flexible and ever-changing, not in anyway set in stone. I believe it reflects my worldview in signifying a kind of openness I have to trying new things and not needing to stick to just what I know.
2. About a year and a half ago I bought a big screen TV and hooked it up to a computer which allowed me access to a seemingly infinite amount of mass media and entertainment. While it now provides an easy solution for my entertainment needs, it certainly has also negated some of the other aspects of my social life. I tend to go out a lot less these days, instead opting to play video games or watch movies. This represents somewhat of a dissipation of folklore in my home as technology has come in and taken over. However, when group activities are scheduled around the TV and it becomes a social act rather than just a staving off of boredom, then in these cases I suppose it could be considered folkloric along customary lines. My worldview is represented by my affinity for technology. Generally speaking, I enjoy new gadgets and gizmos and I tend to keep myself informed of the latest technological innovations. However, my acceptance of technological improvments has its limits and the boundary is that point where I recognize the loss of other important cultural norms.
3. Over the years I have traveled a lot, and in these travels one of my main goals was to come back with good stories to tell. Now these stories are told about me fairly regularly and I struggle to escape from having to hear over and over again about my more humiliating indulgences. This is very much like folklore because they are very personal stories that are often told in different versions by different people. These stories are often humorous and reflect a general optimism I can associate with my worldview.
2. About a year and a half ago I bought a big screen TV and hooked it up to a computer which allowed me access to a seemingly infinite amount of mass media and entertainment. While it now provides an easy solution for my entertainment needs, it certainly has also negated some of the other aspects of my social life. I tend to go out a lot less these days, instead opting to play video games or watch movies. This represents somewhat of a dissipation of folklore in my home as technology has come in and taken over. However, when group activities are scheduled around the TV and it becomes a social act rather than just a staving off of boredom, then in these cases I suppose it could be considered folkloric along customary lines. My worldview is represented by my affinity for technology. Generally speaking, I enjoy new gadgets and gizmos and I tend to keep myself informed of the latest technological innovations. However, my acceptance of technological improvments has its limits and the boundary is that point where I recognize the loss of other important cultural norms.
3. Over the years I have traveled a lot, and in these travels one of my main goals was to come back with good stories to tell. Now these stories are told about me fairly regularly and I struggle to escape from having to hear over and over again about my more humiliating indulgences. This is very much like folklore because they are very personal stories that are often told in different versions by different people. These stories are often humorous and reflect a general optimism I can associate with my worldview.
Corinne Boutin HW 5/19
From what I’ve gathered, a worldview is a paradigm through which someone views or associates with the world they live in. When I think of my personal folklore, I think of the way my parents raised me, and the traditions and beliefs they’ve instilled in me since my childhood. Looking through my worldview, I see it all through my upbringing. The value of truth, morals, and goal setting taught to me as a young girl is what I view my world through today; I apply these concepts to present, real-world situations. I treat others as I would like to be treated, I put others before myself, and I try to go through tough or pressuring situations with a level head on my shoulders. Though I know not every one thinks the same way I do, or sees the world in the same way I do, it is always how I’ve approached the people and world around me.
19 May 2009 - Cultural Worldview
According the the article by Tolkein, our world view is shaped from our infancy by the people and things that are included in our environment. This creates highly individualized and complex personalities with distinct ways of viewing their environs meanwhile sharing elements of a common discourse. Thus, according to Tolkein, though my siblings and I grew up in the same house, with the same parents, and the same religion, in a setting where there were few variables, such as the number of people that filled it, these same variables caused a small change and therefore created a slightly different perspective. As we leave our home and continue to be confronted with different experiences and exposure to other people and things the personal worldview of myself and my siblings begins to diverge. This explains the difference between, for example, my sisters body of folklore as compared to mine. She married early in life and moved to Utah where there are all kinds of Mormon folk traditions such as scrapbooking and other forms of genealogy. She learns different forms of memory preservance from parties with other women. I, on the other hand, have become deeply immersed in the Salvadorian culture and have learned to make pupusas and tamales from my good friends. Though we share certain elements of the greater worldview of Anglo-Saxon America, and more specifically that of the Palmer household, our world views have diverged as our life experiences do. Because our world view is shaped by the daily absorption of information and ways of being and living, our daily contact with people, from all different types of folk groups, enriches our personal store of folklore. In this manner my worldview is like a pair of glasses through which I interpret my experiences, stories, anecdotes, traditions, and practices, or folklore which then affects and alters my worldview in return.
Lauren Bourque-Worldview-5/19 HW
Culture and the way we grew up in our culture has a huge affect on our perception of the world and our reality. Growing up in a largely European family I learned many things that helped me to perceive and understand my reality. My family was very big on working for your money and being very independent. I always had chores even at a young age and learned that I am the only one that can improve upon my life and that I have the power to be what I want to be. Our family instilled these thoughts in everyone and we are all very independent people because of it. From the reading, (I'm not sure if am understanding correctly) but it seems as if the term "worldview" is our reality and how we live life? So my personal folklore is an expression of my worldview through the lessons and knowledge I have gained through my parents and grandparents which were passed down to them through our culture.
Our culture is also strongly Lutheran. I have grown up in the Lutheran church with many of my family members Lutheran pastors. This has helped me to stay out of trouble and to stay on the right path by doing well in school and graduating from college. The Lutheran church and the strong religious ways of my family have engraved good morals in my mind.
Worldviews
From what I can tell, a worldview is a person's way of viewing and thinking about the world, according to their own experiences and teachings from within their folk group. In other words, everyone has specific ways in which they function in and react to the world around them, and this depends on how they were raised, or how their folk group influenced them. When I try to think about what my own worldview is, I think of how I was brought up, and what values my parents instilled in me. What comes to mind first is acceptance. I was brought up to know that people are diverse, and that everyone deserves to be treated with kindness and equality. I am technically half Christian, half Jewish, and when I was young my family would go to Universalism Universalist church. The UU congregation consisted of people of all faiths (like my family), and the church focused on nurturing individual spirituality and practicing kindness in your life, not necessarily any specific religious beliefs or practices. As a kid at UU, we had a class called Holidays and Holy Days, where we learned about a different religion and their holidays each week. The experience of going to UU let me gain a lot of knowledge about many cultures, religions, and beliefs. Combined with my parents' teaching me to be a "good person", my time at UU was a big influence on my worldview, and how I lead my life. Nowadays, I consider myself Jewish because that part of my heritage has been the biggest influence on me and I identify with it more. Judaism is big on practicing morality and values in life; good deeds and our actions are more important than our beliefs. This has impacted how I think about the world and my own life. I guess I could say that my world view is this: I might not always be a "good" Jew, but I try to be a good person, and I think that's what counts. This ideal definitely has its roots in the many influences I've had in my life, most specifically being a part of the UU and Jewish folk groups, as well as my own family folk group.
Folk Groups
Class 2 Questions: What folk groups do you belong to? What types of folklore are typical in your folk groups?
Until beginning this course, I never really knew how many different folk groups I've become a part of both in college and in my free time. Foreign language has always been a passion of mine so I have joined several organizations dedicated to mentoring children who are learning english as their second language, study abroad groups, and organizations that promote cultural diversity. I believe that in these particular folk groups, all of our members share the desire to delve into the traditions and customs of other cultures as well as improve our understanding of foreign language and communication.
Folklore and Worldview
Toelken claims that worldview, in the case of folklore, "refers to the manner in which a culture sees and expresses its relation to the world around it," (1). These worldviews, or perceptions of reality, are strongly influenced by the culture in which they are cultivated.
In relation to folklore, research has indicated that the line between folk culture and formal culture is extremely blurry (as we have quickly found in our class discussions).
That the author decided to point this out quickly caught my interest and put him up a notch in the legitimacy category in my book. Mainly, this is because how I feel on the subject. And I have debated similar terms in the past. A topic that invigorated me in high school was the line that distinguishes art from everything else. There are many theories on the topic. Some say anything with utilitarian value can't be art; others place value on an item that hinges upon the time it took to produce it. But I was fascinated by modernists. When the modernists first came onto the scene the popular subscription was to a line which had "high art" cherished and left everything else in limbo. Modernists told them to shove it. They would open an art gallery with one of the items being a toilet entitled "The Great Equalizer." They decorated the museums with toilet paper (on the outside AND the inside). They pushed the question of "What it art?" further than anyone had ever done before.
Is folk culture, one that depends so heavily on informality, going to rigidly stand by a definition of folk culture? What is there now has always been and always will be? If the merchants of capitalism capture a folk trend and popularize it for as long as it is profitable (which probably won't be long); will it always fall to the wayside, never to be acknowledged by folk culture again?
Or is folk culture nothing more than the spirit of frontier living and all of its advantages and consequences? Whatever can be done without the need for industry and press; done with the bare hands and the naked brain will be accepted as folk?
I think the latter is an attractive concept. Everyday life for some and guilty escapism for others. It is not looking back at a glorified past. It is the simple need to make the present seem like safe space. Space in which tools that folk culture provides can produce a endless number of frontiers for posterity to enjoy.
In relation to folklore, research has indicated that the line between folk culture and formal culture is extremely blurry (as we have quickly found in our class discussions).
That the author decided to point this out quickly caught my interest and put him up a notch in the legitimacy category in my book. Mainly, this is because how I feel on the subject. And I have debated similar terms in the past. A topic that invigorated me in high school was the line that distinguishes art from everything else. There are many theories on the topic. Some say anything with utilitarian value can't be art; others place value on an item that hinges upon the time it took to produce it. But I was fascinated by modernists. When the modernists first came onto the scene the popular subscription was to a line which had "high art" cherished and left everything else in limbo. Modernists told them to shove it. They would open an art gallery with one of the items being a toilet entitled "The Great Equalizer." They decorated the museums with toilet paper (on the outside AND the inside). They pushed the question of "What it art?" further than anyone had ever done before.
Is folk culture, one that depends so heavily on informality, going to rigidly stand by a definition of folk culture? What is there now has always been and always will be? If the merchants of capitalism capture a folk trend and popularize it for as long as it is profitable (which probably won't be long); will it always fall to the wayside, never to be acknowledged by folk culture again?
Or is folk culture nothing more than the spirit of frontier living and all of its advantages and consequences? Whatever can be done without the need for industry and press; done with the bare hands and the naked brain will be accepted as folk?
I think the latter is an attractive concept. Everyday life for some and guilty escapism for others. It is not looking back at a glorified past. It is the simple need to make the present seem like safe space. Space in which tools that folk culture provides can produce a endless number of frontiers for posterity to enjoy.
Friendship & Folklore
According to Barre Toelken, a worldview is “the manner in which a culture sees and express its relation to the world around it.” For me, my worldview is very basic: Treat others the way you would want to be treated. I believe that you as an individual have a responsibility to not just yourself, but to your peers as well. Do your part to help them and don’t ask for anything in return. I think unconditional love for your friends is the most valuable gift you can give to anyone. A piece of personal folklore that I have is when I was younger around 8 or 9, I would travel a lot with my dad via Airports and he taught me how to read the signs to know where I am going and look at the departure and arrival screens and make sure to give myself enough time when checking in and going to my gate. Other than actual traveling, my dad was teaching me responsibility so that when I’m with a group of friends, I will be able to help them in situations if we get lost or so. My folklore is an expression of my worldview, because it helped me take care of myself so that I can take care of others afterwards. If I can help people in the best way possible, it will put a smile on my face.
Folk Groups
Folk groups I belong to: nationality/family, occupational, and age.
Nationality/Family Folk Group: I am European American with Italian, Czechoslovakian, French, English, Irish, and German heritage. However, the dominant folk influence I have is from the Italian side of my family. The Italian side has remained close and connected, while the other sides of my family have disbanded over the years. I actually know very little about the cultural traditions of the other cultures that comprise my family tree. The Italian side of my family is rich in oral, customary, and material folklore. My Italian grandmother tells lots of stories about growing up in an Italian neighborhood in New York City. For instance, she tells about packages of figs mailed from relatives in Italy and by the time they arrived in New York, they were rotten. Another story she tells is when she hurt her arm and her mother took her to a woman they called the "witch doctor" who lived in her building, and the woman put herbs and oil on her arm and massaged it. There are many other stories she tells, such as how her mother saved a neighbor's life, how her parents were introduced by "Piasons" (Italian friends), or historical stories regarding WWII, the Great Depression, and working at the First World's Fair in 1939. Certain Italian phrases have also been passed down.
Customary traditions include the hand gestures that my grandmother and others on the Italian side of my family use when telling stories.
Material folk traditions include the traditional foods such as eggplant parmasean, bowtie cookies, Easter Bread, homemade tomato sauce and bracciola, meatballs, and ravioli.
My Czechoslovakian grandmother also makes a traditional poppyseed pastry. I don't know very much about her side of the family. All I know is that her parents immigrated to Pennsylvania from Czechoslovakia and that she moved to D.C. to get a job. I don't know anyone on her side of the family and she rarely speaks of them.
Occupational: I work as a substitute teacher and I have had teachers jokingly say to me "It's true what they say, you can't smile until December." This proverbial expression explains that if you want to have a well-behaved class, then you have to be firm.
Age: I am a college student. Some of the customs associated with college students include spring break in Miami and Mexico, and irresponsible drinking.
Christine Watkinson
Nationality/Family Folk Group: I am European American with Italian, Czechoslovakian, French, English, Irish, and German heritage. However, the dominant folk influence I have is from the Italian side of my family. The Italian side has remained close and connected, while the other sides of my family have disbanded over the years. I actually know very little about the cultural traditions of the other cultures that comprise my family tree. The Italian side of my family is rich in oral, customary, and material folklore. My Italian grandmother tells lots of stories about growing up in an Italian neighborhood in New York City. For instance, she tells about packages of figs mailed from relatives in Italy and by the time they arrived in New York, they were rotten. Another story she tells is when she hurt her arm and her mother took her to a woman they called the "witch doctor" who lived in her building, and the woman put herbs and oil on her arm and massaged it. There are many other stories she tells, such as how her mother saved a neighbor's life, how her parents were introduced by "Piasons" (Italian friends), or historical stories regarding WWII, the Great Depression, and working at the First World's Fair in 1939. Certain Italian phrases have also been passed down.
Customary traditions include the hand gestures that my grandmother and others on the Italian side of my family use when telling stories.
Material folk traditions include the traditional foods such as eggplant parmasean, bowtie cookies, Easter Bread, homemade tomato sauce and bracciola, meatballs, and ravioli.
My Czechoslovakian grandmother also makes a traditional poppyseed pastry. I don't know very much about her side of the family. All I know is that her parents immigrated to Pennsylvania from Czechoslovakia and that she moved to D.C. to get a job. I don't know anyone on her side of the family and she rarely speaks of them.
Occupational: I work as a substitute teacher and I have had teachers jokingly say to me "It's true what they say, you can't smile until December." This proverbial expression explains that if you want to have a well-behaved class, then you have to be firm.
Age: I am a college student. Some of the customs associated with college students include spring break in Miami and Mexico, and irresponsible drinking.
Christine Watkinson
Folkgroups: So many groups, so little time
The readings lead me to believe that folkgroups are made up of persons whom share common interests, traditions, heritages, characteristics, and other bonds. It is difficult to nail down exactly what constitutes “common,” but I think that those who belong in each folk group should be able to relay a few reasons for why he/she belongs to that group. There is a specific tie. The reading indicates that there are 6 types of folkgroups: occupational, age, family, gender-differentiated, regional, and ethnic. Because these groups are so broad and encompassing, it is difficult to list each group I belong to, as there are dozens. So, in an effort to be concise, I have listed some of the important ones that I feel help define me.
Occupational: Student
Age: Adult
Family: This one is tricky AND long. So I’ll go with the one that I most interact with-my sisters and I.
Gender-differentiated: Female
Regional: Another tricky one, so I’ll go with the one which most helped shaped me, Hawaii
Ethnic: I am 3rd generation Irish-American
Each of these groups has extensive folklore associated with them. I’m going to focus my efforts on my Irish roots. I recently was fortunate enough to visit Ireland for the first time. In no time at all I was part of the landscape. While I was in the airport even strangers would ask me how to get somewhere or something about local culture. To their great disappointment I would reply in my American accent that I had no idea. It was understandable that they asked me such things, as I am 5’4”, freckled, redheaded, and pale. That’s what’s Irish right? My great-grandmother used to tell me in her thick Cork accent that I was kissed by Eire because I had red hair. Folklore says that the goddess Eire (founder of Ireland) had beautiful, flowing red hair. And those who have red hair bear her mark and are blessed. You are said to be ‘kissed’ or ‘touched’ by Eire and you will be surrounded with good things. The second part of this tale, which my great-grandmother left out, is that those who rub the head/hair of someone with red hair will be granted good luck for a time as well. SO I became well aware of this part of the folklore once in Ireland, because in almost every pub I went to complete Irish strangers would approach me and begin to rub my head without asking my permission, and many times, without even speaking to me! Thanks for the heads-up Grandma.
A Whole New Way To Think About Folklore!
This topic seems to cover such a broad amount of information and groups of peoples/traditions/etc, I felt it would be easier to break it down this way.
Folk Group: a group that conforms somewhat to a theory, practice, tradition, or other form. This group may be large or small and there may be slight variances in the way they follow or carry out these traditions, but they are largely recognized by members of the group. For example: certain sayings, traditional meals served at certain times, etc. Things that may differentiate these groups from other types of groups are that they are not based on laws and are individualized to suit the characteristics of that group.
Folk Groups I belong to: American, Southern, Woman, British descendant, Irish descendant, Scottish descendant, college student, Caucasian. I’m sure there are many more but at the moment I just can’t think of any more!
Typical Folklore: many food traditions, including eating shrimp new years eve, pork and saurkraut on new years day, and corned beef, red potatoes, and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day.
There are also clothing traditions, ex: wearing something green on St. Patrick’s day, wearing dress clothes on all holidays, etc.
Lastly there are verbal folklore where stories of the family were retold after meals with the family members around the table.
Folk Group: a group that conforms somewhat to a theory, practice, tradition, or other form. This group may be large or small and there may be slight variances in the way they follow or carry out these traditions, but they are largely recognized by members of the group. For example: certain sayings, traditional meals served at certain times, etc. Things that may differentiate these groups from other types of groups are that they are not based on laws and are individualized to suit the characteristics of that group.
Folk Groups I belong to: American, Southern, Woman, British descendant, Irish descendant, Scottish descendant, college student, Caucasian. I’m sure there are many more but at the moment I just can’t think of any more!
Typical Folklore: many food traditions, including eating shrimp new years eve, pork and saurkraut on new years day, and corned beef, red potatoes, and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day.
There are also clothing traditions, ex: wearing something green on St. Patrick’s day, wearing dress clothes on all holidays, etc.
Lastly there are verbal folklore where stories of the family were retold after meals with the family members around the table.
We are all unique
It seems as though an excellent way to actually determine your uniqueness is to consider the various folk groups to which you belong. Certainly just about anyone you meet or know may share at least one folk group with you, but how many are you acquainted with who could claim to belong to every one that specifically identifies you? In my case, for example, as far as the major categories of American folk groups, I am a female (gender-differentiated group) in my mid-30’s and therefore beginning to experience wrinkles and grey hair (age group) who is a fulltime student amongst so many who are fresh out of high school (occupational group) and wife/mother (family group) who is originally from Texas (regional group) and whose ethnicity is a combination of Italian and Anglo-Saxon (ethnic or nationality group).
Additionally, my husband has been in the navy for 15 years, and during that time we’ve lived in four states and one foreign country. From living in Japan, we developed an appetite for sushi (something we had never previously considered). While there, we chose to live off-base in a Japanese cho (neighborhood) in order to better experience a culture different from our own.
Being raised in rural Texas by a Catholic, Italian mother from New York and a Protestant father of Anglo-Saxon descent, meals were often interesting. Fried chicken, fried okra, salad with homemade Italian dressing, and wassail were the norm. A meal of lasagna and corn-on-the-cob was a favorite. A chili and garlic bread combo was always greeted with smiles. Irish stew also made its way onto the table, courtesy of the influence of my mother’s Irish grandmother. But not once did any of these meals make me pause and reflect on the obvious blending of folk groups.
I had never really considered that, by partitioning my identity in this manner, I could further emphasize my individuality.
Additionally, my husband has been in the navy for 15 years, and during that time we’ve lived in four states and one foreign country. From living in Japan, we developed an appetite for sushi (something we had never previously considered). While there, we chose to live off-base in a Japanese cho (neighborhood) in order to better experience a culture different from our own.
Being raised in rural Texas by a Catholic, Italian mother from New York and a Protestant father of Anglo-Saxon descent, meals were often interesting. Fried chicken, fried okra, salad with homemade Italian dressing, and wassail were the norm. A meal of lasagna and corn-on-the-cob was a favorite. A chili and garlic bread combo was always greeted with smiles. Irish stew also made its way onto the table, courtesy of the influence of my mother’s Irish grandmother. But not once did any of these meals make me pause and reflect on the obvious blending of folk groups.
I had never really considered that, by partitioning my identity in this manner, I could further emphasize my individuality.
Brenda's Folk Groups
First, I would like to say that so far everybody's posts are very interesting! All of us have a very diverse folk history.
As this is the first time I have thought about folk groups, imagine the surprise when I started to figure out just how many I have!
Occupational:
I believe that former jobs will hold here, they have all shaped (and to a degree twisted) me into who I am. I am a former transportation (logistics) worker. On the surface I might not think that there is much folk lore there, however!, there is. The sense of humor required to do this kind of bands us together, as does the adaptability to working overnight. There are stories that are handed from worker to worker to learn how to handle situations as well as anecdotes that are passed on. Additionally, how you celebrate a holiday while working a job that is essentially 365 days a year and 24/7 is kind of unique.
Age Groups:
Well this is just not fair. Starting tomorrow I get to join the new age group of 40 year olds. It is unique enough to be attending college (another occupational group!) but to be an over 35 year old and full time college student has got to be its own folk group! I am still figuring out the folklore there.
Family Groups:
As the family historian, I am in charge of a large amount of our family folklore, for both my small family unit and our larger one - with all the aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. I have the scrapbooks and photos and I am in the process of recording the stories. One of the benefits of being a history major is that I have an interest in our history, and I truly like the every person history aspect. I do not think you can know a country's history if you do not know about its people, not just the wealthy, male ones! Our family has certain little things we say that are only common within us, I think. Additionally how we celebrate Christmas is just slightly different, we celebrate on Christmas Eve with presents from family and on Christmas morning with Santa - no matter how old we are (although it is easier now that most of my generation has kids) this stems from my mother's family coming from Ireland (apparently it was a custom to celebrate Christmas Eve more there) and my father was brought up in a military family where his father would be at work on Christmas.
Gender differentiated groups:
I belong to the female group and I truly appreciate it! I have received stories and recipes as well as learning certain arts that I would not have learned had I been a boy. In history women have been overlooked for so long and we are finally getting some interest, and alot of women's history has been passed down through as folk lore.
Regional Groups:
I belong to the "born in western Massachusetts but escaped to the South as soon as humanly possible as it is too bloody cold in the north" group, some of my folk lore from that group includes the love of the Boston Red Sox - yes there is lore there, it is also a family tradition.
Ethnic, nationality and religious:
On one side of my family it is all Irish all of the time, this is a fun folk group. There are stories and traditions that are passed, including music - dance, recipes, stories. The other side is unique - Polish and Russian on one side - great recipes there too! and the other side has been in the US since before the Revolutionary War. That side has some great folk lore as it is also centered in Eastern Tennessee so there is the Southern aspect as well as the been here a long long time aspect. Recipes, family traditions, canning, music, quilting, farming all are on that side. The religious group I belong to is the Roman Catholic one and that group is quite full of rite and ceremony that has been passed on for 2000 years.
I know that the chapter ends there but there are a few other folk groups. More social ones. I belong to the ballet moms group - there definitely is one! Our lore includes stories of productions and performances, it includes make up and hair techniques too. I am also a Girl Scout leader, there is lots of lore there as well.
I hope this made sense! I am looking forward to exploring this topic in class!
As this is the first time I have thought about folk groups, imagine the surprise when I started to figure out just how many I have!
Occupational:
I believe that former jobs will hold here, they have all shaped (and to a degree twisted) me into who I am. I am a former transportation (logistics) worker. On the surface I might not think that there is much folk lore there, however!, there is. The sense of humor required to do this kind of bands us together, as does the adaptability to working overnight. There are stories that are handed from worker to worker to learn how to handle situations as well as anecdotes that are passed on. Additionally, how you celebrate a holiday while working a job that is essentially 365 days a year and 24/7 is kind of unique.
Age Groups:
Well this is just not fair. Starting tomorrow I get to join the new age group of 40 year olds. It is unique enough to be attending college (another occupational group!) but to be an over 35 year old and full time college student has got to be its own folk group! I am still figuring out the folklore there.
Family Groups:
As the family historian, I am in charge of a large amount of our family folklore, for both my small family unit and our larger one - with all the aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. I have the scrapbooks and photos and I am in the process of recording the stories. One of the benefits of being a history major is that I have an interest in our history, and I truly like the every person history aspect. I do not think you can know a country's history if you do not know about its people, not just the wealthy, male ones! Our family has certain little things we say that are only common within us, I think. Additionally how we celebrate Christmas is just slightly different, we celebrate on Christmas Eve with presents from family and on Christmas morning with Santa - no matter how old we are (although it is easier now that most of my generation has kids) this stems from my mother's family coming from Ireland (apparently it was a custom to celebrate Christmas Eve more there) and my father was brought up in a military family where his father would be at work on Christmas.
Gender differentiated groups:
I belong to the female group and I truly appreciate it! I have received stories and recipes as well as learning certain arts that I would not have learned had I been a boy. In history women have been overlooked for so long and we are finally getting some interest, and alot of women's history has been passed down through as folk lore.
Regional Groups:
I belong to the "born in western Massachusetts but escaped to the South as soon as humanly possible as it is too bloody cold in the north" group, some of my folk lore from that group includes the love of the Boston Red Sox - yes there is lore there, it is also a family tradition.
Ethnic, nationality and religious:
On one side of my family it is all Irish all of the time, this is a fun folk group. There are stories and traditions that are passed, including music - dance, recipes, stories. The other side is unique - Polish and Russian on one side - great recipes there too! and the other side has been in the US since before the Revolutionary War. That side has some great folk lore as it is also centered in Eastern Tennessee so there is the Southern aspect as well as the been here a long long time aspect. Recipes, family traditions, canning, music, quilting, farming all are on that side. The religious group I belong to is the Roman Catholic one and that group is quite full of rite and ceremony that has been passed on for 2000 years.
I know that the chapter ends there but there are a few other folk groups. More social ones. I belong to the ballet moms group - there definitely is one! Our lore includes stories of productions and performances, it includes make up and hair techniques too. I am also a Girl Scout leader, there is lots of lore there as well.
I hope this made sense! I am looking forward to exploring this topic in class!
Monday, May 18, 2009
Identity
For this post, starting small and then working big seems to be a good idea. The reason being is that in class I saw that one factor of folklore was identity. If I am not going too far out on a limb, I think that folklore defines us and supports our identity along with aspects of our cultural groups. Therefore, I would like to think my identity can first be found in my family, the smallest folk group for which I belong. In this family group we mostly practice oral folklore. We have stories of relatives past, and we revere them by telling of their lives. It is from the stories told about them that my identity has some sort of base. The next group would then be my occupational group. I don not know yet what the folklore of a student is, but I can take a gander at it having to do with the relationship between student and professor and school ceremonies. Are these interactions guided by unwritten customs and traditions? Is graduation a form of customary folklore? The third group for which claims me would be regional. As a youth, I was raised in Virginia near the Blue Ridge and then after many years was drawn back to the mountains, which are about ten minutes from my present house. With a little alcohol, some hillbilly dialect may appear, and I also have a pension for bluegrass music, which when coupled with country slang can be justified as oral folklore components. Lastly, I would say that Anglo-Saxon is my ethnic group. Incidentally though, Jan Brunvand states in her book, The Study of American Folklore, that “ the United States is a prime multicultural meeting ground of foreign folklores and thus provides an ideal arena for observing the survival of old traditions and the assimilation of new ones” (62). I feel that ethnically when it comes to things such as beliefs, customs, arts, food, sayings and songs that I am an Anglo Saxon carrying around bits of the old that have been assimilated with bits of the new. Before I wrote this or read about the six major kinds of ethnic groups or pondered the “many definitions” of folklore, I did not think too deeply about folklore. At least now I can start to examine the groups I belong to and began to understand the folklore within them by breaking down the particular oral, customary, and material components that define them as folk groups.
Lauren Bourque: HW 5/18 Folk Groups and Folklore
Folklore comprises are every being. It surrounds us everyday and we and live it and breathe it on a daily basis. Not only are we continually making folklore to be remembered and told about for years to come but previous folklore told by close family members, ancestors, friends and so on affect and heavily influence our present daily lives everyday. Folklore helps us to understand our traditions and to remember our history.
After listening to today's discussions about what defines "folklore" and what can constitute, as "folklore" I realized that there is a lot more folklore that I take part in my life that I never even knew was folklore. Folklore can be either verbal or non verbal and can be written in books. IT must be consistent however, and is often repeated. I also learned from the book that folklore does not consist of movies or comic strips or even daily conversations between people. Daily conversations are not folklore because they are not passed on through entire communities and repeated over and over again as does folklore. Folklore is traditional and is passed on either from word of mouth or written stories from one person to one person to generation to generation. It is not kept in secret between persons it is repeated many times throughout communities, groups, regions, and generations.
Another topic in Folklore is the topic of Folk Groups. Folk groups, as defined by the book, are essentially the creators of folklore. It is the creators and performers of the traditions that make up folklore. According to the book there are six major American folk groups: occupational groups, age groups, family groups, gender-differentiated groups, regional groups, and ethnic or nationality groups. Here is how I am categorized into each of these six groups:
Occupational Group: I am a full-time George Mason student.
Age Group: College and University age group 18-25. Folklore consisted in this group is things that happen in college, partying etc. (not sure if that is right).
Family Group: My family has tons of folklore described by the book. We use whistles in the store when trying to find each other, we all use familiar nicknames and words throughout the family name that we know what it means but others outside the family wouldn’t. My family is also very big on scrapbooks and albums which we always look through and gather all of our folklore. We also have many family reunions on my mother’s side, which consist of many Estonian traditions since that side all migrated here from the country Estonia.
Gender-Differentiated Group: Female. There is a lot of female folklore such as published books on how to get a man, or how to get married, shopping books and cooking books. There are also many female email chains that have been passed on and on to other fellow women warning them of certain situations to avoid (crime related) etc.
Regional Group: I can see Northern VA describing itself as it's own folk group. Since people from NOVA like to clearly define themselves away from the "other" part of VA.
Ethnic Group: Native American and Polish on father’s side and Estonian on mother’s side. As well as being Lutheran. We practice many Estonian traditions on my mothers side for holidays and daily life in particular the types of foods we eat, what we perform on holidays, our language we speak, the way we act in front of elders, the traditional stories we tell. The stories my grandparents tell of migrating here to the US.
Folk Groups
I found the discussion of folk groups to be very intriguing, because having taken a very fun anthropology class last semester, what the book described as a folk group sounded to me like a code word for culture. In anthro, the term culture was used in a much broader way than I think people often think about it: it meant roughly a group of people who shared some common characteristics, ideas, beliefs, livelihoods, etc. and formed communities connected to those characteristics (which could then be studied by anthropologists). As a result I found the references to folk groups to be a bit annoying, because it felt like I had to translate them to get at their actual meaning. Now I realize someone may object to that substitution, but I really couldn't see any major differences.
Now as to what "folk groups" I belong to:
For occupational groups, I belong to several. I am perhaps first and foremost a student, both of GMU and my home university. I am also an employee of several different work places, making me a member of folk groups of those various occupations.
For age group, I am a young adult, but because I am very recently out of high school and still interact very much with people in that age group, I think that I straddle the boundary between teenager/high schooler and young adult, particularly when I come home for the summer and interact again with all my high school friends. Even when at college, I think my friends and I act in ways that can meander back and forth across the boundaries of age groups, and we still retain some of the trappings of the younger age groups folklore.
For family group, I am a member of my family. However I think that this category can apply in other ways as well. For example, next year I am going to be sharing a house with a number of my close friends, and although I haven't experienced it yet, I wouldn't be surprised if we become a family, although the structure is more fluid than the traditional family structure.
For gender-differentiated group, I am female. I don't often think about this particular folk group and what it means to me, but I think that is because it is so ingrained into me that I just don't really notice it. Whether or not we believe that females are freed from past restrictions and societal constraints, we will always be very much defined by our gender, and be a part of the folklore of that group.
For regional group, I am from Northern Virginia, from Arlington, and from DC (or the DC Metropolitan area). While separating out all these different regions may be a bit extreme, I think it is legitimate, because depending on where you are at a given time, any of these groups can mean something and you can find connections with people from these regional groups. For example, while when I am in Northern Virginia, being an Arlingtonian might seem the most relevant, because I'm not really from DC, and don't really consider myself to be a part of that culture, when I am away at school (in another state), finding other people from the DC Metropolitan area can feel very significant, even though we might have fewer things in common, because relative to my relationship with someone from Texas, I will feel a lot more connected to someone from Bethesda, MD.
For ethnic group, I am American, and have a heritage that is a mixture of German, French, Irish, Danish, and Italian. Because I am so mixed, and I am many generations American on both sides of my family, we have not retained too many of the traditions from our original ethnic groups, so as a result I think I would consider my ethnic gorup to be more American than anything else.
Now as to what "folk groups" I belong to:
For occupational groups, I belong to several. I am perhaps first and foremost a student, both of GMU and my home university. I am also an employee of several different work places, making me a member of folk groups of those various occupations.
For age group, I am a young adult, but because I am very recently out of high school and still interact very much with people in that age group, I think that I straddle the boundary between teenager/high schooler and young adult, particularly when I come home for the summer and interact again with all my high school friends. Even when at college, I think my friends and I act in ways that can meander back and forth across the boundaries of age groups, and we still retain some of the trappings of the younger age groups folklore.
For family group, I am a member of my family. However I think that this category can apply in other ways as well. For example, next year I am going to be sharing a house with a number of my close friends, and although I haven't experienced it yet, I wouldn't be surprised if we become a family, although the structure is more fluid than the traditional family structure.
For gender-differentiated group, I am female. I don't often think about this particular folk group and what it means to me, but I think that is because it is so ingrained into me that I just don't really notice it. Whether or not we believe that females are freed from past restrictions and societal constraints, we will always be very much defined by our gender, and be a part of the folklore of that group.
For regional group, I am from Northern Virginia, from Arlington, and from DC (or the DC Metropolitan area). While separating out all these different regions may be a bit extreme, I think it is legitimate, because depending on where you are at a given time, any of these groups can mean something and you can find connections with people from these regional groups. For example, while when I am in Northern Virginia, being an Arlingtonian might seem the most relevant, because I'm not really from DC, and don't really consider myself to be a part of that culture, when I am away at school (in another state), finding other people from the DC Metropolitan area can feel very significant, even though we might have fewer things in common, because relative to my relationship with someone from Texas, I will feel a lot more connected to someone from Bethesda, MD.
For ethnic group, I am American, and have a heritage that is a mixture of German, French, Irish, Danish, and Italian. Because I am so mixed, and I am many generations American on both sides of my family, we have not retained too many of the traditions from our original ethnic groups, so as a result I think I would consider my ethnic gorup to be more American than anything else.
Southern Roots
While my last name is Fruge,' typically meaning that I come from French roots, the folk group that I would like to talk about would be the Acadians, who were the descendants of the original French settlers. My mother's last name was Aucoin who was part of the original Acadians that were deported from Acadia which is now part of Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. After being deported by the British many of the Acadians settled into Louisiana where they would become known as Cajuns.
One of the most famous types of Folklore found within Acadian history is the love story of Gabriel and Evangeline during "The Great Upheaval" (coined term of the deportion). The story follows their separation during the British removal of the Acadians. Evangeline then travels across North America in search of him, but can never seem to find him. It is when she has finally reached old age that she is reunited with Gabriel who is among many that have been stricken with disease. He dies in her arms. This piece of folklore was actually turned into a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Because they were an isolated people, the Acadians did indeed have a strong sense of community. They were also quite skillful in creating dykes. When a young couple would marry within the village. the citizens would come together to help build a house for the new couple. It was a great opportunity, for work, celebration, and food. Some of the musical instruments that were provided consisted of fiddles and jaw harps.
They were also crafted in unique cuisines such as Acadian Buttermilk Pie, Fish Chowder, Chicken Fricot, and Molasses Cookies. Here is the link to those recipes if anyone would like to try them.
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/j.josse/AcarianRecipes.htm
In case anyone is interested, you can find more information on the Acadian lifestyle via the following links:
http://www.francoiseparadis.com/thebook.html
http://museum.gov.ns.ca/arch/infos/infoaca1.htm
http://www.umaine.edu/canam/k-12outreach/acadia/culturefocus.htm
One of the most famous types of Folklore found within Acadian history is the love story of Gabriel and Evangeline during "The Great Upheaval" (coined term of the deportion). The story follows their separation during the British removal of the Acadians. Evangeline then travels across North America in search of him, but can never seem to find him. It is when she has finally reached old age that she is reunited with Gabriel who is among many that have been stricken with disease. He dies in her arms. This piece of folklore was actually turned into a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Because they were an isolated people, the Acadians did indeed have a strong sense of community. They were also quite skillful in creating dykes. When a young couple would marry within the village. the citizens would come together to help build a house for the new couple. It was a great opportunity, for work, celebration, and food. Some of the musical instruments that were provided consisted of fiddles and jaw harps.
They were also crafted in unique cuisines such as Acadian Buttermilk Pie, Fish Chowder, Chicken Fricot, and Molasses Cookies. Here is the link to those recipes if anyone would like to try them.
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/j.josse/AcarianRecipes.htm
In case anyone is interested, you can find more information on the Acadian lifestyle via the following links:
http://www.francoiseparadis.com/thebook.html
http://museum.gov.ns.ca/arch/infos/infoaca1.htm
http://www.umaine.edu/canam/k-12outreach/acadia/culturefocus.htm
Folklore and Folk Groups
Based on the readings I came to the basic understanding that a folk group is made up of individuals who share an acceptance of traditions, group tastes, and values. The book outlines six general kinds of folk groups; occupational, age, family, gender-differentiated, regional, and ethnic or nationality groups. Each person can belong to more than one folk group at any given time, which is to say that you don't necessarily have to be an indigenous person living in the rain forest to belong to a folk group.
Based simply on the six general kinds of folk groups, I would say that I belong to all six. My occupational group would be considered to be a full-time student. My age group could be generalized as 18-25 consisting of a school folklore age range. My family folk group would obviously consist of myself and my immediate family; including folklore like holiday celebrations, scrapbooks, etc. My gender-differentiated folk group believe would consist of my many different roles as a female; daughter, granddaughter, aunt, girlfriend, and sister. Each role with its own unique folklore. Finally, I could say that my regional folk group could be defined as a Northern Virginian, or simply a Virginian or keep it national with American.
An example of different types of folklore in one of my groups would probably include the following; scrapbooks and/or photo albums, old favorite bedtime stories, my grandpa's jokes and his stories from growing up, would all encompass my family group.
Based simply on the six general kinds of folk groups, I would say that I belong to all six. My occupational group would be considered to be a full-time student. My age group could be generalized as 18-25 consisting of a school folklore age range. My family folk group would obviously consist of myself and my immediate family; including folklore like holiday celebrations, scrapbooks, etc. My gender-differentiated folk group believe would consist of my many different roles as a female; daughter, granddaughter, aunt, girlfriend, and sister. Each role with its own unique folklore. Finally, I could say that my regional folk group could be defined as a Northern Virginian, or simply a Virginian or keep it national with American.
An example of different types of folklore in one of my groups would probably include the following; scrapbooks and/or photo albums, old favorite bedtime stories, my grandpa's jokes and his stories from growing up, would all encompass my family group.
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