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.
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