...Insert Turtle Story Here (family story)

Growing up, my dad always had a way to make us feel better when we were upset about something. It was a little like the Cosby Show when it came to some of his "growing up" stories. I remember when I was about 8 my first cat died, she had been mauled (literally) by my neighbors dog. I was devastated. I was sitting in my room thinking about how it must have been my fault that this happened (although there was no reason to feel that way.) My dad came in and this is where is starts...
He sat down next to me and said, "It could always be worse, let me tell you about something that happened to me when I was about your age. When I was a kid I got a silver dollar turtle. I love that turtle and I used to let him out of his aquarium and watch him crawl all over my floor. One day I had him out, playing with him and my parents called me for dinner. I left him on the floor and shut the door behind me. After dinner I went back to my room, having forgotten that I didn't put my turtle back in his home. I took 2 steps into my room and felt a crunch under my foot. I stepped on him and killed him. There is nothing more sad that killing your favorite pet. So just think about that next time your sad about your cat."
Even though all of us kids are grown, at least once a year we get to hear the turtle story. Growing up we heard it much more often, at which point we would all say, "insert turtle story here"...

Family Stories

I like a few others didn't see the page turn either.

My family definitely had ground rules. Always come home when the street lights came on. My dad always did a specific kind of whistle for my sister and me when he needed us to come home. It created the idea that family was always the most important thing. We always ate dinner together, my dad sitting down last because he wanted his girls to get as much food as they wanted. As much as it annoyed me when I was younger because we couldn't start until he sat down, it really made the impact that he cared and wanted the best for my sister and me.
Like any family with young children in the nineties, by parents were petrified that we would get stolen so we had passwords. If someone said they were from my mom's or dad's office that came to pick us up, they would have to tell us the family password before we would get in the car. That situation never ended up happening, but it resonated with me as I grew up. I was always really protective about my sister, especially at parks. One day she wandered over a hill and my mom didn't know where she went, so I went running after her. I was maybe nine and she was around four, but she was walking toward a stranger and I flipped out, running up to her and grabbing her by the arm and pulling her back to my mom over the hill. So the over protectiveness really rubbed off on me. Which is probably why I'm still very over protective of the ones that I love.

Family Story

There's a lot of stories i belive i can tell; but the funniest and most embarressing one, is one from my mom. She always tells me to polite and obedient, and never forget my manners. One day i asked my mom if she followed those rules all the time and my dad replies with "ask about our first date;" then she tells me how my dad asked my Baba for permission to ask her out and she was so embarressed, my baba accepted and so my mom went. The date was going fine, they went walking around D.C. and then went to get a bite to eat at a very nice restaurant. Well come to the end of the date, they were heading towards the car and had to walk up some steps, my dad was trailing behind a couple steps, when, for the life of her, she couldnt hold it, and.....she tooted right in my dad's face. My mom frooze, and my dad laughed the whole carride home. To this day she stays embarresed and my dad called it his "love call." I still laugh evrytime i hear it, and think some things you cant hold back.

Family Story (Little Late, Didn't Catch the Page Turn)

So my family story is an origin of a tradition I have with my Dad and my brother. Especially when I was younger, my family went to DisneyWorld in Florida a lot. We generally went once a year and made it our big family vacation. Well after one particularly great week there, me and my brother, who were around 10 and 8 at the time, respectively, were not to keen on leaving. So my dad came up with the idea of going to this big tree on Main Street, all putting our hands on it, and saying how we'd be back again soon.

At the time it was just a little thing we did to make it a bit easier to leave knowing that we'd be back again soon. But ever since then, though we go to Disney less and less as we've gotten older, everyday on the last day of our trip, me, my brother, and my Dad have to go to "our tree" and say goodbye.

family story

Sorry, I was late. I did not think of seeing the next page of syllabus...

It is a story of my birth.
My mother's blood type is Rh- B. My father's blood type is Rh+ A. In Korea, Rh- blood type is very very rare- only 1% of population have that blood type.

When a woman with Rh- marries a man with Rh+ blood type, she can only give birth to the first child. From the second child, mom's blood naturally attacks the fetus because the fetus' blood type is Rh+ and finally the fetus dies. So when my mom and dad married, they were thinking of having only one child.

In 1985, when my mom was pregnant(my 2-year-older sister), she was scheduled to meet doctor. However, the hospital's schedule was mixed, so my mom's doctor was not in the hospital. My mom tried to go home and come back later, but she was so tired to come back again. She decided to meet another doctor in that hospital. That doctor was back from the U.S. 1 month before. When he met my mom, he said that "There is a new medication from America, and if you take that 3 times, you can have second child. But your case is very rare and the medicine is new, we don't have it in this hospital. I want to see that medicine, too." After that time, my father searched whole Seoul for that medicine and finally got it. Nowadays that medicine is common, but it was very rare in 1985. My mother is afraid of injection until now, but she took that injection 3 times to have the second child. In 1988, their second child, myself, was born. If the hospital's schedule was not mixed, I could not be born!

Great Grandpa's Mystery Giver

During the Depression my great grandpa didn't get laided off of work due to the fact he had at the time about 11 of the 13 children that he and great grandma were going to have.Now grandpa was walking down the street one day and needed about 25 dollars to keep his house to make the payment on the morgage. He was wracking his brain about how he was going to get this money and was very sad and depressed, when out of the blue a stranger hands grandpa 25 dollars and says to him "you need this more than I do" and walks away in the oppisite direction. Grandpa turns around, and no one is there. He is greatful for the money but always wanted to thank the man who let him stay in his home and keep a roof over his families head. This story was told to me by my dad who probably heard it strait from the source of great grandpa. It is a nice tale that lets you believe that people, or maybe something above is looking out for you.

Family Story

Sorry this is late - I thought it was due tomorrow!

My father grew up in NJ, but he likes to tell me stories about his family in Mahanoy City - his Aunt Mary and his cousins, Timmy, Tommy and Tuffy (I still have no idea what "Tuffy" comes from), all of whom apparently spoke with Irish accents. According to my father, everyone in Mahanoy City knew Aunt Mary. My dad and his father would take the train to Mahanoy City, and everyone on the streets would stop them to say hello when they were with her. When Aunt Mary died, the service was presided over by an Irish priest who went on at great length about Aunt Mary's life, with particular emphasis on the poker games she hosted at her house. My father's favorite part of the story is that at her funeral, a bagpiper played "Amazing Grace" on a hilltop in the distance. Every time he ends the story, he informs me that I need to learn the bagpipes so that I can do the same for him someday.

Family Story

I also thought this was due thursday....sorry.

When I was little we lived in India and we had our own little group of chickens that we fed and then, eventually we ate. I used to want to go play with them but my parents knew that the rooster of the group was very territorial and aggressive. We even have a picture of me trying to chase the rooster....We had a boarder on the bottom floor of our house and one of his hands was just a stump. My parents told me that his hand was bitten off by angry chickens. Needless to say, I never tried to play with the chickens again.

Family Story

Sorry this is late. I, like many of my classmates it seems, mis-read the syllabus. On with the story!

When I was a little girl, I was taught you do not sleep past ten AM in my house on weekends and nine AM at my Nanny's (grandmother on my mother's side). At my home, mom would just yell up the stairs every 3-4 seconds "Your breakfast is getting cold!" At Nanny's you were treated to a tone-deaf, squeaky rendtion of:

GOOD MORNING TO YOU, GOOD MORNING TO YOU
GOOD MORNING DEAR *your name*
GOOD MORNING TO YOU

Now, the Good Morning to You song is a household threat for late risers.

Family Story - Anelise

First of all - I am so sorry this is late, I was confused by the schedule on the syllabus and I thought this was due by Thursday.

My mother always tells me stories of my father. They mean so much to me, and I never tire of hearing them. My father died when I was four, so these stories really help me to get to "know" him. My favorite story is of their first date. My dad was my mother's boss, and she told him that if they got this certain sale that she would buy him a steak to celebrate. My dad, from what my mother says, was a huge nerd. The big glasses, booky type. My mother was quite the opposite - glamorous and outgoing. My father hadn't taken my mom seriously, and she boldly approached him and said, "I'll meet you at Outback at 7:30 on Friday." My mother says that my dad was in such shock that he dropped the file he was holding, and turned as red as the dress she was wearing. The night of their date, my mother said that my dad was so nervous that he couldn't stop sweating. His eyeglass popped out during dinner, so my mother had to ask for tape to tape the lens in! My mom says that night she laughed harder than she ever had before, and she knew that this was the man she was meant to spend her life with.

To this day, I still hear "don't judge a book by its cover" when it comes to men!

Blog 3: Family Story

My mom and dad first met on a blind date. Mom was living in Florida and had just ended a relationship with another guy. Dad was in the Marines and had just got stationed in a nearby base. They both knew a mutual couple, Dad's fellow comrade in the Marines and Mom's friend, Regina, who was engaged with that friend. Although Mom at that time was getting tired of dating, Regina managed to convince her to go on this blind date. They had a date at one of the nice restaurants in town and apparently while Mom thought he was just "a nice guy," Dad was convinced already that she was the one. He called her the next day and six months later, they got engaged at the restaurant where they first met.

(I apologize for the late post, I misread the schedule.)

Family story (a little late)

As a child my brother was the whimsical type, the type that would do anything on a whim if it amused him. It just so happened that that particular day his interest was pleasing dad. Somehow he got the idea that the way in to a mans heart is through his stomach, most likely from a cartoon show or another, and decided to impliment that plan to win dad's affection. Unfortunately for dad the only food available to my brother at the moment was a single hot pepper that was on the flood, dropped off one of my mother's many plants. My father, unknowing of what his son was feeding to him yet still happy that he was offered something, had no hesiation in eating the thing whole. Hilarity insued as my father was trying to cool the raging fires in his mouth with a kind of turbine suction. The sound of my father and his rapid air intake are something that i wont soon be forgetting for a while, not to mention avoiding things that my brother decides to give me. Even to this day i am wary of things my brother hands me "out of pure kindness"

Family Story

When my mom was little she lived in Georgia on a farm with her parents and her grandparents. They had all of the normal things like cows and chickens. She moved to Virginia when she was fairly young, around the age of seven. She went back to Georgia every summer to visit her grandmother, so even though she lived in the suburbs she knew all the things that country people know. My father however was born in New York, lived in Florida for a while, and then eventually moved to Reston, Virginia. Reston even in his day was a city, and did not have any cows or chickens. When my parents got married in 1985 they didn't have much money, so they took their honeymoon in North Carolina. However there was a problem, because at the time there were several deaths in the area due to a cereal killer. Since they were cutting the honeymoon short they decided to visit my great-grandmother in Georgia. My father was quite blown away by the cows and tortillas, and was having a good time. That night my mother asked him to go for a walk, and told him to watch out for the box turtles. As they walked along she noticed that he was jumping from side to side more often then was natural. She did not see why he was jumping over the box turtles instead of just walking around them. It turns out that my father did not know that box turtle is another way to say pile of cow dung. He thought there were actually a bunch of really big turtles in the field, and he was scared that they were going to bite him. My mother told my great grandmother and grandmother this when they got back to the house. The three of them laughed so hard that they nearly peed themselves. This white city boy thought there were dozens of huge turtles in the field that he had to watch out for.

My mother still laughs at this story twenty-three years later.

U.M.

My mother grew up in a large family. She was the fifth of eight children. As I've grown older, I have noticed that through her stories about her childhood she was trying to point out that she had a lot of freedom. She had a lot of freedom not because her parents were neglectful but because with eight children, its hard to keep tract of them all.

One day, my mothers brother, Mark, told my grandparents that he was going to spend the night at a friends house. It was a friday evening. Off he went to what my grandparents thought was school. Instead of going to school, he went to the airport and purchased a ticket for California. The exact location now escapes me. He boarded the plane and when he landed, he found his way to the Grateful Dead concert going on in that city. He spent the whole day and night at the concert. The next morning he boarded a flight back home. He got home in the early afternoon. When he walked into the house my Grandmother asked him how his night at his friends house was. She had no idea that he had skipped school, flew to California, and saw a Grateful Dead show.

Great-Grandma Welty

I don't remember by paternal great-grandmother, but I am told she was quite fond of "The Drink." I believe her favorite was gin and tonic. She used to putter around my parents' house with her glass all day, in her nightgown, and it was kind of a family joke.
My father would quietly follow behind her, cleaning up the little puddles she left on the floor. You see, she was very old, and probably quite shaky, spilling her drink on the floor as she walked.
One day, my mom noticed that Grandma Welty had made it from the kitchen all the way to couch in the living room with her glass still completely full. But my father was still cleaning up spills behind her. It was then that Mom realized that Grandma Welty had never had problems with spilling her beloved beverage. She was simply incontinent and not wearing any panties.

Folklore and My World View

Folklore is very important to my world view. I come from a politically diverse family which has influenced me to be open minded and/or to be accepting of others beliefs. My work has influenced me greatly in my view of animals. Don't get me wrong, I've always loved animals, but I grew up where there were farmers on both sides of my family. I spent many summers raising cattle and planting fields. To a certain extent animals, be they cows or dogs...etc... they were what they were and if one passed, it was just life and you move on. Now that I've been working in the vet field for many years, the folklore there has changed me into more of a pet fanatic or enthusiast. Religion is probably one of the largest parts of my folklore in life and has been a big factor in my world view. It plays a role in my decision making on life decisions, view points and choices. These are just a few examples of how my folklore influences my world view.

Just one of the stories about Great-Grandma Sylvia.

Great-grandma Sylvia, a hard-headed determined spitfire of a woman, was the matriarch of my father’s family. She did things her way. (Everyone else did too.) She outlived her first husband, and probably could've outlived her second.

Sylvia and her second husband, Saul, were in the car one day when suddenly the car stopped. It had stalled in the middle of a narrow highway in Florida. Try as he might, Saul could not get the car to move. So Sylvia took charge of the situation. She got out of the car and started directing traffic around it. Sylvia, being an expert at directing people, got the highway organized enough to allow Saul, with help, time to push the car out of the way. Sylvia, age 90, was in full command of the flow of traffic.

(Which is not surprising, since controlling traffic is nothing compared to escaping Bolshevik Russia, running the Synagogue, starting several businesses and being married for 35 years, twice.)

A trucker, unaware that this portion of the highway was under new-management, hit Great-Grandma Sylvia while she was giving instructions to other motorists. Ironically, that is how she died.

World Views

I suppose my family affected my world view. My mother is a teacher and my dad a journalism professor, so I have a love of words and learning. Raised in a very Christian environment, I still have a faith in God and keep Christian morals.
I am my own person, though, and that has taken me different ways than that same environment took my sister. Instead of seeking out other English majors and other Christians as friends, I hang out with many "nerds" who discuss electronics, video games, and science. Few of my close friends pursue any religion. Because of this, my beliefs have changed and become less orthodox, though still true to the heart of Christianity. I also think I am more knowledgeable of other groups and have more varied ideas than most people.
Finally, I do martial arts. Any martial artist will likely tell you that they are constantly measuring up those around them. Doing martial arts has made me more aware of dangers and makes me think about the statistics of a fight and other dangerous situations. It has also put me in contact with a lot of military people and their families. This has given me a deeper understanding of what it's like on ships and submarines.

My Worldview

I think that my personal folklore has shaped my worldview in many different ways. Being in the teenage folk group, I think that in many respects has made my worldview what it is. Many teenagers, such as myself, see the world differently from adults, and we create our own theories and views because of it.

Then there is my line of work. As an umpire, I see various different people with all different sorts of situations. I see rich people, poor people, white people, black people, all interacting in different ways with each other over a game. I think through this I have created my worldview, because I have seen the different people in this world, and I have recognized that there are some people in this world who are kind and good, while there are others who are not so kind and good. Though I may have known this before, personally interacting with this fact everyday has strengthened this fact and has helped me grow as a person.

Most importantly though, my family and their folk influences have shaped my worldview. Me and my dad always tent to have talks about various issues, whether they be current events, our economy, sports, cars, or other things. Due to his influences, I see the world differently. In many ways, I take what he says into greater account than anyone else and tend to see the world in a lot of the same ways he does. My family group of folklore is probably the most influential folk group that influences my view on the world.

Worldveiw

Eng 333
My father is from Costa Rica and my mom is from the Czech Republic. I'm a mixed generation of kids born in America. My parents always seem to remind me how i got it easy compared to where they grew up; that said, growing up in America made it easier for me to make friends and share common ideas since there was no racism of any sort toward any person or group. My family was strict when it came to school and work but has always been very social and open to new ideas; making it easy to see people not characteristics of a person. This upbringing carried on to me, my brother, sister and will continue to spread. My worldview therefore is very open and i express that while I'm at my work, school, or just hanging out with my friends.

Worldview

Quite simply my family has created my worldview. Many of the ways my parents see the world have become my own. You know they simply believe in equality and everyone has something to offer. Limits don't exist when it comes to what we can learn from each other. Not to sound like a Disney movie, but its very true. I can't begin to express all I've learned from friends and family who were apart of a culture different from my own. Especially when I visited one of my Dad's good friends in Spain. She's from England so learning about her culture along with that of the Spanish kids was awesome. They embraced me and I carried a notepad around everywhere. Not to mention the girls were beautiful! That made me really want to get my spanish going. That trip changed my life exposing me to something I could only dream and wonder about. I began to realize how small our world really is and how its possible to have fun with everyone. One of my friends Tony who I still send an email every now and then didn't speak much English and my Spanish was horrible, but we had an outstanding time together. Laughing it up, and using a world of hand gestures, we had a blast.

Another big event that changed my world view was spending time in Matt Karush's class. Studying dance, he began to expose us to the history of the world in order to let us know how culture works. He informed us that race truly doesn't exist and it was only created to instill a system of social hierarchy. This changed my ideas about everything! I knew something just wasn't right! I feel so connected to all people. That was such a wonderful thing to know; to tell the world! ;D

Personal Folklore - An Expression of My Worldview?

Yes, I believe that my experience -the information that I've gathered from however many sources in my little world, selected and rejected to make a neat picture and philosophy in my mind- have, in fact, influenced my worldview. The information I've gathered from the world affects how I see it.

Now, I know there has to be a line drawn between information (customs, traditions, beliefs, what have you) transmitted orally and by other means like the media. If by word of mouth, then most of what I've gathered comes from my family and friends. But when I think about it, where did that information come from? The media is a tricky thing because it is especially influential, I think. I may be wrong. But commercials can be pretty persuasive.

It's impossible to pass culture and tradition through only word of mouth. Past civilizations have only records to show us, not record machines. So what I'm trying to say is that the lore that I have received must have, in some way, been touched by the media. I live in a little world that cannot avoid the media. It's everywhere. I turn it on and I have to use it, like the tv and computer. Inadvertently, what I believe is coming from the tube or from my own judgments of what I see on the web news.

The reason why there are variants of folklore, I think -I may be wrong-, is because people use their own judgment to establish what they think is a better story, tradition or proverb, etc. If it fits them, they might be able to repeat it, verbatim. But if not, then they will tweak it just a little bit to their liking. So it all comes down to self-judgment. What I think is right or wrong, good or bad. What is right in my own eyes.

So yes, personal folklore is an expression of my worldview.

Specifically, I have grown up in a Christian family. So all my life, I've gone to church and I've learned that I have to be a good Christian and love God and everyone else as myself. "Love God with all your heart..." and "Love your neighbor as yourself" as Jesus said. I thought I had to be a good person and try to be like Jesus. But I failed. I couldn't do it. It was impossible, but I kept trying.

In reality, I was trusting in my own thoughts. Love God? Oh yeah, I can do that. Love others? Piece of cake. Actually, I thought I was doing a pretty good job of it. I never had an enemy, though, so I don't know what it's like to love your enemy. In reality, I was being deceived by Satan. My entire worldview was false. It was a lie. It was all about doing good and doing well.

My first realization of my limitations was the time of applying for college. In my senior year of high school, I only applied to one school: the University of Virginia. Actually, I had applied to other schools as well, but I didn't send them...Anyway, I got wait-listed and then rejected. I was so disappointed. I had believed in myself - yeah, I can do it, I can make it into this college. I'm smart. Movies and the media constantly tell us, if you set your heart to it, you can do it. But I found out that that wasn't true at all. Just because I want something doesn't mean I can have it. My determination is good up to a point.

Folk Groups I Belong To

When I think about it, I belong to the college age group, the guy group, the Vietnamese/Asian group and the Christian group.

A. College group
- I have no idea what to say about college life because I do not participate in it. I do not live on campus, though it does pique my curiosity. I guess there's the rumor that college people party, do drugs and drink. Is that lore?

B. Guy group
- I guess there's the stereotype that guys must be the stronger half, and accordingly, women are weak, feeble folk. Guys, if they get married, don't stay at home. They go out and work all day and then come home to good rest. I mean, that's what I read in books. My own dad is a pastor, so I wouldn't say he works all day to come home to rest at night.

C. Vietnamese/Asian group
- I find it odd actually that ethnic groups want to hang together as I am really more American than Vietnamese. I do not really feel I have an affinity to these people any more than I do whites or blacks or anyone else. Anyway, we have this word for those who still have not shed their former customs or language to embrace the new one. We call them "fobs," or fresh-off-the-boat. I think the word is hilarious.

D. Christian group
- I think everyone is familiar with this group. Going to church, listening to a preacher and hanging out with other buddies is common, I think. I have been going long enough to enough churches to see that. Baptism is a ritual that is performed without much meaning, at least it wasn't to me. I took a few Saturday morning classes and then I was baptized. Mostly, I remember that Jesus washed my sins, so now I am baptized and I am identified with Jesus Christ. Just what does that mean exactly? Also, everyone thinks they're sinners. How is that different from people in the world? Everybody's trying to be good. We just add Jesus into the mix and say He wants us to be good people. Well, so does Buddha. I guess I'm saying that though the customs may be different, still it's the same thing--trying to be good people. People are living for what they believe in, be it Buddha, Allah, or the many gods of India, just like Christians. And everyone thinks they're right. Everyone can't be right.

Anyway, these are the folk groups that I belong to (or not).

Worldviews: Open Edition

My father's side of the family is Cuban and Cape Verdean Creole, my mother's side is French. What am I? I have no idea. My parents took the easy way out and claimed "American" as our background because they felt it would be easier for my siblings and I to identify with people, which many may see as ridiculous...but it worked for them. It has made all of us extremely open minded and ready to welcome any culture even if it is one that may not be as excited to welcome ours. My personal folklore has given me the ability to be in a room of strangers, and make friends with a good handful of people before I leave.

My siblings and I were raised to accept everyone, no matter what their choices and beliefs were because at the end of the day they weren't ours. Life's so much easier when there's a friend along for the ride,

Folk groups and world view.

I think that my folk groups make me both open minded and closed minded in different ways. I would say that in regard to other cultures I am fairly open minded, but with certain cultural prejudices against regular old Americans with differing values from my groups. As a guy from a rural community I'm more likely to trust someone who has a southern/country accent or background than someone from the city. I like to be able to take my time with things and I identify that as a more rural thing than a city thing, where people seem to be more rushed.

My friends are pretty much all on the straight and narrow and don't steal or break the law and my social groups generally have a high moral code. I feel that this makes me less trusting or tolerant of people who do break the law or people who practice substance abuse.

In regards to world view, I think that I've grown more tolerant as I've gotten older, and my experiences at GMU have definitely had an effect on that. I think that when I was in high school I was much more sheltered and while I still got some amount of culture from my percussion classes or other classes, I didn't really get the kind of tolerance that I've gained in college. I still connect more with Western culture and art, but I'm definitely more open to other points of view.

My world view

I have been fortunate enough to grow up with both American and Pakistani influences in my life.  Although my American culture is more prevalent than my Pakistani culture, I have learned to adapt aspects from both to create one identity.

I grew up with a strong oral tradition of expressing "ghost" stories, depicting supernatural, religious beings with a strong affiliation to nature.  Because of the strong impact these stories had in my life, I have developed a deep appreciation to nature.  I have learned nature to be a very spiritual and mysterious element in my cultural folklore, which has taught me to respect and fear the unknown-- the darkness around me.  In a sense, this fear of darkness translates to the fear of being alone and a fear of trusting the unknown.  Never go out alone in the dark because something will follow you.  Do not welcome strangers, because they are not who they say they are.  I have learned this at an early age, and I feel because of these strong messages that were transmitted to me through my ethnic folklore, I have learned to not trust the people that are not directly associated to my folklore groups.  

What I have learned through my ethnic folklore parallels with my American views.  Although my Pakistani culture enforces family ties and community, I have learned to be an individual, being raised in America.  Individuality is a constant theme I encounter on a daily basis.  When teenagers turn 18, they typically move out.  Have your own place, have your own car, have your own career and your own life.  You are allowed to make independent choices, unlike in the Pakistani culture, where family makes the decisions for you.  Because of this driving force of independence and individuality in American culture, it emphasizes the idea of solitude that I hold within me.

Worldview

In the words of my uncle his son,my brother, and I are mutts. Mutts meaning that we have mixed backgrounds. My brother and I are Filipino,on our dad's side, and white and our cousin is Filipino and Indian (Indian from India Indian).

Growing up my brother and I were exposed to two different cultures. Our Filipino side prided itself on a sense a community. Today I still feel more comfortable around my Filipino family rather than my mom's family. There were things that the Filipino family would do that was extremely different that my other family. Here in the United States there is this constant need to be tan and have that sunkissed glow. When I was a child my dad's mom would always send me outside with a hat or something to cover my skin so that I would not get too dark or develop freckles. In the Philippines there is this obsession to be light skinned and my grandmother brought that view over with her when she came to the states. My mom's family is on the whole very tan. However, their tans come from being outside in the sun too much and they are very proud of how they look.

This is just one example of how being a "mutt" has introduced me to different worldviews on different aspects of culture.

Worldview.

At a very young age I was aware of my culture and background. My father would always tell me that I was Italian and I considered that to be my cultural identity. Being Italian in my family is where all my personal folklore originates. I have been given the opportunity to grow up learning recipes from my great grandmother and my grandmother that I still use today. All of the traditions I have are based on what my relatives did when they were in Italy and what they did once they came to the states.

In fact, it was not until I was in the first grade that I really began to encounter different cultures. Most of my time growing up was spent with family and we were all the same. Once I reached elementary school I began to see and understand how different cultures affected each other and how they affected me. Being able to see how others felt about their cultures really helped me to become more accepting because I knew what it was like to cherish traditions and all that comes with it.

Without my upbringing and the experiences I had in my life with others, I do not think that I would be the same person that I am today.

Personal Folklore and Worldview

One way that my personal folklore impacts my worldview is that I am usually a very logical and honest person, but I love photography. Photography at first I thought was a right brained activity. Very artsy, very different. Then I realized it is all about logic. It is about the equation of time you develop the negatives and then the time that the film is then exposed for. Even when you are washing the photograph you have set designated times for when it will be done. When I tried to take an art class and actually draw it backfired. I grew tired of the endless drawing and painting. I couldn't see the end or how it would turn out. With photography I already had a mental image of how it would look and my goal was to make it as good as the image in my head or better. With drawing or painting I couldn't see an image of what I was doing first. This is how I am in the rest of my life, I plan everything. Then when my plans go haywire I have a back up plan, but it still throws me completely off kilter. This is the same for my Dad. In high school I had to have a schedule for what I was doing for the next 2 weeks and give it to him, #1 because he didn't want to chauffeur me around, and #2 somehow something conflicts with everything he does. It was a constant battle, because what teenager is really going to plan 2 weeks in advance with their friends to go see a movie. For a teenager, in 2 weeks you don't know if that same person will still be your friend.
Another way that my personal folklore impacts my worldview is that my family was effected by Nazi Germany. Most people my age don't hold a grudge against Nazi Germany. Not only was I not born at that time, but neither was my father (who's side of my family is Jewish). However, his parents were very effected by what happened, and because of that he held on to it and passed it on to me. I don't think that it was intentional, because I've struggled with this feeling for a very long time now. But the other thing that most people my age do not have is a father and mother who are in their late 50's early 60's. Most 21 year old's parents are between the ages of 45 and 50. Because my parents had children late, it also means that some of their own beliefs that were not passed down by the generation after them are in me.
Finally the last one, my Dad grew up in Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexico City during the 1950's and early 60's. This was during the time of all of Central America's revolutions. So, because of that, my father in a restuarant, book store, movie theater prefers to sit with his back against the wall. So he can see everything. In Fairfax, he doesn't do it as much as he used to because he is comfortable now and knows the area, but if we go somewhere outside of our normal routine he sits with his back against the wall. This triggers a hyper sense of awareness in me because I can see what he is doing and why. So I become tense and listen closely to things he says. I didn't realize I did this until about a year ago because on of my close friends mentioned it. But it is a way in my family that we understand something is different, or out of place, and we all need to pay attention.

A dash in regard to worldview...

How has folklore influenced my worldview? It can become a bit confusing when trying to divorce the psychological units of my values, beliefs, and manners between the different forces of existence: popular culture and folklore would be two. This topic is especially tricky since my sense of accurately identifying folklore in more precise terms is not refined itself. The question is then, simply, what about my mental trajectory might I say is related to any personal folklore while allowing for a reasonable margin of novice error?
I will propose that my general outlook or mental focus on “taking action” is something that was greatly rooted in childhood folklore. To further elaborate on that generalization, my family tree seems to have placed a large stock in nurturing a sense of occupational value in its members. Most of our retold stories center on being involved in a task, career, or hobby. Even today, the first question that is brought up when talking of others is usually, “Oh, what is he/she doing right now?” Use of the verb do is, of course, referring the subject’s gainful life pursuits.
My father was possessed to develop a constant awareness for his children that bettering one’s life position (whether that is spiritually, monetarily, or skillfully) was a fair nobler use of life than other possible behaviors. He did this through stories: stories of him overcoming adversities, stories from his military service, and stories about his family’s poverty. It can also be said that there types of stories also encourage an openness, or alertness, for appreciating the current circumstances that one might find him or herself in.

I’d enjoy a discussion in regard to exactly how close a family’s tradition for political views skirts the line between indoctrination and folklore, but I am already willing to believe the answer is “quite a bit,” or even “irrelevant.” If not, I have a lot of material concerning McCarthyism to fuel my response of this question.

Worldview

I have lived in two different states, and they were both very different. Growing up in New England I lived in a small town that focused on community more then anything else. We would all gather for the town Turkey Raffle every November, and come December the town would get together again for the Christmas Pageant that almost every little kid begged to be in. We didn't have a lot of diversity however, and when I moved that part of my life didn't really change. Living in Great Falls is not the most diverse experience. Langley High School was not known for having a vast variety of ethnicity's. It was mostly white and Asian kids, and outside of that you could practically count how many different ethnicity's there were on one hand. I wasn't really exposed to a different way of life until I went to live with my Russian exchange students family, and that was truly an eye opener. Everything was different. I wouldn't take that experience back for anything though, because it opened me up to so many different possibilities. In Russian the pitch drops at the end instead of going up and down like it does in English. No matter what the Russians say I always thought they were mad, while the up and down pitch that we use is an indication of sarcasm for the Russians. Everything can be misinterpreted just because of how we speak, and that example was what drove me to take a second and step back, wondering if I was reacting because it was actually meant to be offensive, or because my upbringing makes me assume it should be.

Okay -- as soon as Miner mentioned "the river Pa-To-Mac," I was onto him! So it was kind of hard to take the article seriously after that. =) However, it did shed light on how differing cultures perceive one another.

I do my best to go to Bible study and church every Sunday, which is one example of my everyday folklore. My parents went to church when they were young, and then my parents made sure to take us kids to church each Sunday, as well. Now, I take my own daughters to church each Sunday. And believe me, it's not always easy to get them, or myself, out of bed on Sunday mornings!

So how is this an expression of my worldview? Many times I know I see things differently than others, and may or may not know why. According to Toelken, I have a particular way of looking at things that has been passed down to me, and that I pass down to my children, and in essence it's the main reason behind my personal worldview. For example, through my upbringing, my understanding of the Bible is that God commands us to fellowship with other Christians -- which to me means I'm supposed to be in church each Sunday, worshipping God and spending time with other believers. On the other hand, my husband's childhood church-going experiences differed from mine, in that his family attended several different churches, in a more sporatic fashion. He doesn't necessarily interpret the Bible in the same way as me, and only joins us in church on occasion. While it is important for me to attend church, my husband has a more laid-back approach to it and enjoys watching Joel Olsteen on tv.

While they still don't change my opinion, the articles do lend an explanation as to why differing cultures might maintain opposing viewpoints.

My Worldview

I have always known that I look at the world a little differently then the people around me. My great grandmother on my mother's side was half Cherokee, and my grandmother instilled in me those views. The first time I saw Pocahontas I was spending the afternoon with my grandmother, which I often did during the summer. I was about seven years old, and as I watched the movie I also listened to my grandmother's side comments. She believed that we would all have been a lot better off if Pocahontas had never saved John Smith. And by all I mean the Native Americans that she identified with. After that first time watching Pocahontas I never watched it again. Instead I chose the Caucasian princess movies that did not make my grandmother quite so cranky.

The simple act of my grandmother sharing her views about the movie with me shaped my worldview. When I look at a situation or a piece of folklore I identify with my Native American and Mexican ancestry.

My personal folklore expresses my worldview, because I learned both of them from my family. My worldview is based on my culture, and I learned about my culture from my parents and grandparents. Since my folklore came from the same place as my cultural identity it is easy to see the connection.

The traditional dishes that my grandmother used to cook for me were made with cheap ingredients, because in Mexico that is all her ancestors could afford. Whatever was on hand was what went into the pot. My worldview helps me to understand this and has caused me to hate it when people waste food. Some people without my worldview might have a different understanding of my folklore. Although I know most American children have heard some version of "there are starving children in 3rd world countries that would love to have the food you are wasting".

Worldview

I am from New York so from the time I was born I was exposed to all these different cultures. I think that growing up in New York allowed me to experience every culture. My high school was very diverse as well, every kid from every color of the rainbow; this allowed me to learn more about different races, religions, cultures. I think that by growing up in New York and going to such a diverse high school it allowed me to grow into a very accepting individual.

Worldview

When I was a child I was enrolled in preschool at the early age of two. I was surrounded by different cultures and people some similar to my own but some different. I learned at an early age about different places in the world, and how other people live. My mother, (also being a teacher at that time) would teach me new things about our own culture and how it impacted our family, also how we keep the traditions alive. I am half Irish, quarter German, and quarter Polish. Being this affected my worldview by not much. I saw that we are all the same. We are all unique in our personal folklore and that’s what makes us so interesting in the personalities we have and the stories that we tell. That what makes us have a link in this world. Even if we all come from a different place.

My worldview

How is my personal folklore an expression of my worldview?

After reading Toelken's text and Miner's "Body Ritual among the Narcirema", I realized that one cultule can be viewed totally different with using other lens of worldview. Actually, I could not realize that "Narcirema" designates "American" until the last part of the text. When the description of physical torture got worse and detailed, I realized that this was a despription of American society, or modern society of the civilized world.

Since I'm an Asian and lived in conservative Asian country over 21 years, I think I have very different worldview from Western students. For example, the usage of language, concept of time, openness to opposite sex.... In here, a lot of things are different from my country even though Asian countries are fully westernized now.

Toelken said that "people speaking different languages may perceive things in basically different ways." I totally agree with that. In English, people use "my" in order to represent possessive form. (my father, my mother, my teacher.. etc) However, Koreans use "our" instead of the word "my" even though the speaker has no siblings. (our father, our mother.. ) I think that is because we consider others in community very important. In my worldview, I, my family and friends are in the center. That means I care about them very much, but don't care about the people who is outside of my community much.

In addition, the concept of time is also different. I read other student's post about being exact on time, but it's okay in my country to be late for about 10 minutes. Some people even think that it is too strict to appear on exact time and come 5 minutes late intentionally. I myself try not to be late on time, but I'm compeletely okay when the person whom I will meet is late for several minutes. Therefore, I have a comfortable or somewhat lazy attitude toward time.

As I read the section of "Folklore and Cultural Worldview" that discussed our views of time, I found myself recalling more and more instances where the concept of time actually made a noticeable impact in my life. My family was always split on the issue of time - my mother and my younger sister tend to be late to everything, my father is always on time, and I am invariably early. I'm not sure how this split occurred except for my own personal philosophy, which I have realized probably comes from my being a musician. Musicians have a saying (a bit of folklore that you hear especially from your conductors) - "To be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late." As a musician I have had it drilled into my head that a professional never walks in at the scheduled rehearsal time - a professional always arrives well before the start time in order to warm up and prepare. This philosophy has crept into all aspects of my life, so that I'm almost always early.

As a product of the northeastern United States, I've always had the impression that we are a bit more frantically concerned with time than many other parts of the world anyway. The first time I had confirmation of this was during my first trip to Argentina. While I was there, I learned that the Argentine concept of time varied considerably from what I had always experienced. Time was not as linear, but instead was very fluid and relaxed. Even though we said we would meet and leave at 10, that could mean anywhere between 10 and 11:30. For me, it was frustrating to not keep to a schedule, but for my Argentine friends it was absolutely normal.

Another example (not about time) of how my personal folklore is an expression of my worldview was brought to my mind during the section of the article called “I’ll be down to Get You in My One-Eyed Ford.” Last semester I took an ethnomusicology class in which we learned about that particle song, which was part of a body of songs called 49er songs that were incorporated into the pow wow tradition. As we were learning about the song, my professor asked how many of us had ever been to a pow wow. Out of about 40 students, only 3 of us raised our hands. It startled me until I realized probably not everyone was raised by a mom who was friends with the leader of the local Native American Association and on a local park committee and raised me going to events like pow wows. I can personally identify with the pow wow tradition, but I'm not necessarily incorporated into it. However, it's an example of how what was normal tradition for me as a child my be completely different from what someone else experienced.

            Recently I have noticed how my personal folklore differs from others.  I always knew that people were different within and outside of each other’s cultures but over these past few months I have seen just how numerous and varied these differences are.  I have always thought that every culture advocated competition and working hard for a positive end result or wanting to stick to an organized schedule.  Things that I believed were results of human nature are actually products of the folklore that surrounds me in my daily life.

             I have always believed competition yielded the best results whether it was in business, school, sports, etc.  That is definitely a way I express my personal folklore that I have been taught from my family and even from the ideals of this country.  I think that competition makes people work harder and be more effective in what they do.  Some other cultures do not see competition as such a great thing, and may see it more as confrontational rather than efficient.  We may disagree, but neither one can really say each other is wrong because we perceive reality differently which is a product of our folklore.

            One thing I found interesting about Toelken’s writing was the part about how differently cultures perceive time itself differently.  I never realized that I saw time in such a linear way but I do.  Everyday is a continuation of that line, and when one thing ends another begins.  There is no deviation or lapse.  I also thought most cultures saw time similarly to each other even if they were different in many other ways; I assumed it was a universal idea. But Toelken’s writing shows that is not the case.  So I guess the way I view time is another way my personal folklore expresses my worldview. 

Blog 2: Personal folklore and worldview

How is your personal folklore an expression of your worldview?

Reading Toelken's eye-opening article definitely impressed me when I learned how folklore and tradition help form our perceptions and cultural worldview. According to the article, even the physical shape(s) of the environment we primarily live in will in turn "shape" our perceptions about how the world should be. For example, the Western American world is a world of lines, corners, squares, rectangles, etc. These shapes suggest to us an orderly world dictated by a linear timeline that has a beginning and an ending. But this is just one version of reality for one culture. Toelken then contrasts this perception of "reality" with the Navajos, who see a "circular" environment that is in harmony with the family, the community, and nature.

Of course, no one is destined to live in a certain shaped reality forever. While for the most part, I still see the same as I used to when I was younger, I feel more open to accepting another person's perspective than before. I grew up in a small family that was religious, but worldly and encouraged curiosity about the world and people around us. All the schools I've ever attended were filled with kids from diverse backgrounds, and I could not imagine living in an area with only one "type" of community or folkgroup. It was by no means perfect or grand -- wherever there is diversity, there seems to be prejudice, which is passed around within the folkgroups against others, as though we were all in some kind of competition to prove which one was the best. That still happens now, but I'm more aware and sensitive to it so that I don't depend solely on my own mind set. 

PFWV

Before I read Miner's article, I was unable to think of folklore in my life that affected my worldview. While explaining how the Nacirema people would brutalize there bodies through ritual just because as children they learned that it was right, I finally understood the role folklore had played in shaping my worldview.

The folklore of my life is drastically less interesting than the folklore of the Nacirema. My worldview was substantially developed both by my father and my mother. My mother, being a physical therapist, worked with children who were handy capped. She was constantly coming home and telling us stories of these people's hardships. She told us stories of children who couldn't walk, but would try so unbelievably hard to just be normal. She mostly worked with lower income families who were struggling to put food on the table, let alone pay for the physical therapy of their child. These stories effected me from an early age. I remember befriending a girl in middle school who had cerebal palsy. I had friends who heckled me for talking to her, but I could never get the stories of the children my mom worked with, and their constant longing just to be viewed as normal. So, I payed no attention to my friends and really tried to engage people with handicaps as humans, and not cripples. I have always had a interest in children. Because of this, I took up a job as a camp counselor. My second summer at this job I was placed in a location just outside of Richmond city, which was historically very poor. These children would come to camp with just a piece of bread for lunch or no lunch at all. Looking back on these situations, I can only say I sacrificed my lunch for these children almost everyday because of the stories my mother would tell me when I was a child. These families were not trying to treat their children like this, but they literally couldn't afford to send them with anymore food.

My father affected my worldview as well, but he affected it in a much more interesting way. My father was very unconcerned with time. We would constantly be late for baseball games, birthday parties, and school. I would get so angry at him because of this that I have never since been late. I would much rather get somewhere an hour early and have to burn time than to arrive late or even on-time because it makes me anxious. From this, I have developed a view of people who are constantly late. I think them to be very disrespectful and inconsiderate. It they used there time more effectively they could be on time.

My folklore definitely affected my worldview. From my mothers stories to my fathers traditions of being late, they all had an effect of on how I act and view people in this world. Having never thought through this before, I would hesitant to attempt this blog. I could not think of any folklore so substantial as to really shape my views. But, looking back after the readings and this assignment, I can see that every view I hold is rooted in folklore.

Worldview

In Tolkein's reading, he brings up in the beginning the example of Hope children using different sides of their brains for different languages. Also that people who speak different languages tend to have different worldviews. In the same way, people growing up in different families with unique kinds of folklore, will have all kinds of perceptions of the world. Growing up in a large family with very strong family values and traditions, my siblings and I had a complete understanding of each other and the world around us that our peers did not. I can easily make the comparison between our own "language" that we had and that of everyone else with the Hopi children who understood their own language differently than English.
We grew up with the traditions of eating dinner together every single night and having movie nights with pizza every friday night. When we would leave our little world at home to go to school or work, I would switch gears and change my mode so that I could fit in with my peers at school and participate in that part of the world. I perceived things differently than the other kids who had 'dysfunctional' families and those who had no siblings. My work ethic came from my family folklore where we all worked hard in school so that we could be as educated as possible, unlike our grandparents who never had the same opportunities and struggled through life. Once we returned home at the end of the day, my siblings and I would share our day with each other and communicate the difficulties we faced and how we dealt with them. It was always so comfortable and relieving to discuss these things with people who I knew understood me.
Now that I am setting out to start my own family, I carry these ethics and folklore with me so that I can teach them to my children so that they may benefit from them as I did. In regards to my 'worldview', it is a complete reflection of the way I was raised in such a big and close family. Even living at such a distance from my family and the world I grew up in, I bring my own values of family dinners and movie nights to my husband and our family.

How to Be "Clean"

The thing that struck me most in the Tolkein article was the section about how man regulates nature instead of letting it be. The story about how German bombers were told to bomb anything in a straight line reminded me of how I used to get in trouble as a kid for leaving my toys out. I wish I had been able to come up with an excuse like "Well, y'know, Mom... Nature isn't neat and put away. Do you want me to be...unnatural?" Of course, I probably would've been spanked for my mouth, but it's cool to think about anyways.

Keeping things neat and clean and orderly is one of those things that was drilled into me as a child. While this practice corresponds directly with Tolkein's assessment of American lifestyle and is widely considered to be a good thing, I believe it to be a type of folklore. Everyone has their own stories about what their homes, or homes of their relatives, looked like when they were growing up. These influences are many and varied. We see what our own homes look like and subconsciously compare it to those of our friends and relatives, and form our own conclusions about what cleanliness is, and what level of cleanliness we would like our homes to have. We learn by example, and we teach these values to our children on a personal level.

For me, this chiefly meant the combination of my own very busy and very crowded household with those of my grandmother and late great-grandmother. Their homes were always immaculate: not a speck of dust in sight, not a pillow out of place, perfectly parallel vacuum lines on the carpet. My own was never that...unblemished, but my mother tried her best to teach us what a house SHOULD look like, as she had been taught. Even though the common areas of the house where almost never that clean, we were instructed in how to keep our rooms clean, and they were expected to stay that way. These lessons were not only family folklore, but they influenced our view of cleanliness in the rest of the world as well.

Does anybody really know what time it is?

Did anyone else know, before they read Toelken’s article, that the “real” length of a year could be anywhere between 354 and 365 days long? Was anyone else bothered by the fact that we have no way of really knowing which one is “right”?

I mean, I expect reading from my classes to present me with challenging ideas and make me think, but the notion that we do not and cannot truly know what time it is, bothered me. This provocation led me to consider an aspect of my worldview that I hadn’t before: the way I view time. I know worldview, as defined by Toelken, is a term used to encompass much more than the “passage of time”, but of all the aspects of folklore and worldview that he mentions, this was the one I found most striking.

I have been taught that to be late is both disrespectful and disadvantageous. Now this isn’t an earth-shatteringly controversial opinion. Generally, people in the western world consider it rude to be late. There are plenty of examples where this reinforced in our culture: if you’re late to practice you run laps, in middle school and high school tardiness equals detention, if you’re late to work to many times you get fired. The list could go on and on. Perhaps this is more “folk-way” than folklore, but the rule in my family is “early” is on-time, “on-time” is late and “late” is unacceptable. It’s family tradition to be on-time (which means everyone is early). Toelken’s point about the socially constructed idea of “time” makes me realize that this family custom, no matter how helpful and healthy, is entirely dependent upon an un-natural practice: knowing what time it is.

I mean, ancient-man didn’t ever “clock-in” to work; he never set a timer to keep dinner from burning or an alarm-clock so he wouldn’t sleep too late, and my guess is ancient-man never got scolded by his parents from coming home past curfew. Yet, ancient-man still made calendars. I’m sure he didn’t calculate the exact number of seconds that separate the lunar year from the solar one, but he did keep track, despite having nowhere to be late to. That means something; I think the way we view our time defines how we view the world. Socially constructed or not, what my faith and my family (and what I guess is folklore of my life) tells me is that the concept of time is valuable. If there is a meaning in the larger grander idea of time, then there is (or should be) a purpose in the way it has been and is being spent.

My personal folkore as an expression of my worldview - Anelise Lemon

I found both of these articles to be completely fascinating! It is amazing how much of this information I already knew and was familiar with, but I had never realized it. Every day I come into contact with the “my ideas and ways of doing something are right, yours are wrong” mentality. It is human. The natural response to another’s worldview is fear - fear of the unknown and the unfamiliar.

As mentioned in the “Cultural Worldview” article, family has varied in its definition over time, it continually changes and is seen differently for different folks. Personally, family is second in importance to our faith. My family daily “meets” together, if only for a few minutes to discuss our day and just see each other. We never allow ourselves to be too busy, to just see each other for a minute. We sit in a circular pattern, as to see each other’s faces. We also strive to eat meals together, and we pray together nightly as a family. None of the kids have their own room, and honestly I could not imagine having one. When I finally just recently got my own bed, it was weird for me. I told my mom I felt like a twin away from her other half. Personally, birthdays and holidays in my family are viewed as “family-time”. We may have a birthday party, but it is never on our actual birthday and it is completely different than the celebration with family. Therefore, family is a very important part of my life and my worldview. I also believe marriage to be a union of a man and a woman; however today this seems to be a view that is quickly becoming “old-fashioned”.

I found it extremely interesting the concept of the lineal time, and order versus chaos. I am very interested in Greek mythology and it is amazing the views they had about order dominating chaos are still extremely influential and imperative today. In society, those who go against the norm are considered rebels, radicals, protesters, savage, and just “wrong”. However, “normal” is a very difficult word to describe - it seems to be more subjective rather than objective. Does it even exist? All of this reminded me of a poem I love by Emily Dickinson - “Much madness is divinest sense”.

In one of the previous articles we read about defining folklore/folklife - it mentioned that the creative ways we express ourselves through decorating our world can include tattoos on our bodies. I thought this was interesting because when I got my second tattoo, my mom was like: "why do you want another one?" I told her I did not just get one to "get one", but because my body was a canvas of my self-expression. The two tattoos I have, and the ones I plan to get in the future, all have important meanings to my worldview.

Technology had an interesting part in this article. America seems to be a country that is becoming more and more obsessed with technology - particularly new forms of technological communication: Facebook, Twitter, texting, and so on. As a country we want fast, easy, convenient, and often impersonal ways of communication. Perhaps it is just me, but a facebook comment is so much colder and less personal than a phone call. And forget mailed letters, as those are a thing of the past; however, I can’t help but remember how good it feels to get a letter in the mail. In addition, our focus as a world on more and better and new has led to more pollution, waste, and energy being spent which has led to increased global warming and harm for the planet.

I completely agree with the point made in this article that if we were to listen, learn, and try to understand versus judging and believing we are always right - the world would be more peaceful.

I have become aware that this is a topic that I could discuss in depth, and it has made me very interested in other cultural worldviews. I will end with this and I look forward to reading everyone else’s entries!

Personal Folklore and How it Affects my Worldview

Until reading Tolkein's piece about worldview, I did not think much of folklore influencing how I perceived life. But a few key phrases really jumped out at me:

1. The individual who wants to get along in American society is therefore encouraged to plan the future, not to daydream.

This is so very true. In high school theatre students were sneered at and told this class would never lead to a reliable career. It never seemed to matter that taking oceanography as an elective would not lead to a reliable career either because it was perceived as cerebral, not imaginative like theatre. People will ask children the minute they learn to talk: What do you want to be when you grow up? As if this child could possibly know—that is not the point; their point is to discourage unlikely career choices like being superwoman or a ballerina.

2. When we want to indicate that someone else is crazy, it is often by making a gesture directly opposed to the linear perspective, that is, by making a circle around the ear with the forefinger. This well-known gesture may be one of the most important examples of the issues raised in this chapter, for it is the conscious employment of a folk gesture in a “different” pattern to indicate not simply disagreement with another per- son but total negative evaluation of the other person’s approach or behavior.

Gestures like this fill up my life. Such as making a rolling motion will in the car to indicate someone should roll down their window (despite the fact very few cars have manual windows). When angry with a person I snap my hands from my chest toward nothingness as a literal representation of getting the person away from me. This idea of circular motion representing non-linear, "different" people fascinates me. We get this idea of crazy across in other ways to: we cross our eyes, we screw up our face—we make ourselves look "different" and therefore not correct.

3. If an Arab (coming from a culture that encourages close body contact among people of the same gender in conversational situations) approaches an American (who comes from a culture that discourages physical body contact except under amorous or sports conditions) each one will feel something has gone wrong.

I know this feeling all too well. At my job a lot of Europeans come through and approach me with questions. This would be fine except they stand exceptionally close to me. They smile, they are cordial, their breath does not stink but still I am uncomfortable. I wonder why they feel the need to be, as I like to say, "all up ons".

My personal folklore and my worldview are much tighter knit than I previously supposed. I am not comfortable in a bar full of men because tradition indicates I am going to be hit on lewdly. If I am in a classroom that has no clock, I am annoyed and continue to look to the back of the room (where the clock is inconveniently placed for students) for the time out of habit. I find it bizarre when people face the "wrong way" on elevators despite the fact there is no sign indicating which way to face. These are just minor examples of how tradition has affected my worldview, but this is the first time I've actually stopped to think about it.

True Folk Group

Being a military brat I have always traveled a lot and never stayed in one place too long. I have always had good friends, our foundations simply growing into something more due to the simple fact that we enjoyed each others company. I would not group any of us into a category because they have always been so different. I've even felt different in my very own family. But they don't look down on me for it. I can't recall a time where I didn't maintain an open liberal mind, long for art and constantly fight to explore imagination. This has never stopped or hindered me in any way, but it has had its challenges. I think this made it difficult for me to fit into specific groups. I take things from everywhere and put them together to create who I desire to be.

The only true folk group I can wholeheartedly say I belong to is my family. Not that we aren't all different, but we are bonded by unconditional love and the power of everyone coming together for traditions and rituals. My entire family always gets together for the great holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving. We constantly chow down on Grandma's wonderful meals. Thanksgiving we all share turkey and all sorts of dressings and side dishes, from macaroni and cheese to mashed potatoes. Christmas morning we all huddle under the Christmas tree to open presents, the night before the kids laying out cookies for Santa Claus and the adults eating them that very same night. We all go to soccer games as a family, my brothers and I all playing seriously from a young age into high school. We have family get togethers and gatherings where we just eat, drink, laugh and have a good time. Not to mention we go on trips from anywhere to Disney world to San Diego's Wild Animal Park. My family is the only folk group I truly feel I will never grow out off or change to much to be apart off. And I love that. Because although I love change and can't stand to be confined to a group or category, I stand proud to be a part of my family, my complete true definition of a folk group.

folk group

I belong to different types of folk group, but of those folk groups, the most prevalent type of folk group that I identify myself with is through my family and region. Although I was born and raised in Virginia all my life, my parents moved here from Pakistan in the early 70s. When they moved here, they brought all their beliefs and customs here, and growing up I learned all about Pakistani Folklore. I admit, however, that although I do not practice several of these traditions, I grew up learning about this, and I am very appreciate of the rich customs of Pakistan, and I feel that I am associated with this folk group because of that.

I learned a lot about Pakistani culture through the folklore that I grew up with, which was nice because even though I was growing up in America, I had a strong connection to the same foundations that my parents grew up with. I grew up with religious rituals and celebrations, such as fasting during Ramadan and Eid. Growing up, there was a strong emphasis on oral tradition, in which I can recall dozens of stories shared by my family, which served as a tool to teach moral beliefs and customs of Pakistani culture. Also, folk music and folk dance were very common aspects in my life.

A few other traditions include the mendhi that are drawn on women's skin for wedding celebrations, or the sacrificing of goats as a form of appreciation to Allah. Food is a strong component of Pakistani folklore, as well, as there are distinct flavors and recipes used for certain celebrations. Religious motifs are also prominent, as they are used for decorative purposes in the house, but also as a mechanism to protect against evil spirits. Another interesting ritual is to splash Holy water in each of the rooms in the house, also used to protect against evil spirits, which there seems to be a lot of in Pakistani folklore.

Folk Groups: Funnel Cakes, Piano, and Santa Edition

Living in the town of Farmville, I guess it would be safe to consider all of the other inhabitants a part of my folk group; I'm apart of a regional folk group. Due to the local university the town is diverse [demographically], but everyone pretty much has the same goal: liberate themselves from forced conservative ways. The town is actually located in the center of VA and we all take pride in being the Heart of VA. The large 24-hour, 6-block festival is every first Saturday in May and concludes with fireworks at the local airport and is the most important thing to the town. The festival is so important, the council members and community starts planning for the next year the day after the festival is over. Whether it be vending, offering free parking, or performing, if you're a town native you will incorporate something. As for my family, every year my dad's band closes out the festival with a two hour show...other family members contribute one way or another, whether it be running the sound board or backing up a singer. Overall, it's all a great time, and for the town it means tourists, funnel cakes, culture exhibitions, pony rides, glow sticks, pop guns, and fireworks.

As far as my family folk group, my family has to be the most unconventional traditional family I know. By the age of three it will be determined whether you are a musician, singer, or both. I turned out to be both, but insist on being rebel without a cause and no longer embracing it. Now my singing, isn't as great as it used to be. The family eat, sleeps, and breathes music and you've probably been to every state to see a performance by the time you're seventeen.

In our family holidays and birthdays are extremely important but have a twist. Every birthday, you hear how you were conceived[or at least where] and the story of your birth. The birthday person wears a Santa hat or three birthday hats to try and look like a triceratops. The birthday meal will always include cake, ice cream, and crab legs. Entertainment ranges from a clown on a stripper pole to the elder members of the family singing karaoke songs about heartbreak or power ballads by Whitney Houston. That celebration in particular is a family only event and must be celebrated ON the person's birthday. If they want to celebrate with friends they must pick a day before or after. The day ends with all immediate family members playing a game[video or board].

During the Christmas holiday, Christmas music is played from whenever the first person wakes up to the time the last person goes to bed. Everyone wears a Santa hat...no matter what they're doing. My dad cooks the largest meal of lasagna, macaroni, garlic bread, sweet potato pie, dinner rolls, honey ham, country ham, turkey, and peas all from scratch. My mom makes rice pudding because it's the only think she can make... Everyone [friends and family] comes to our house to eat every day during the week of Christmas, playing video games and whatnot. My dad also cooks chitterlings just so we can smell them mixed in with the pine from the tree we chopped down and decorated because it's not Christmas in our house without the smell of chitterlings and pine... As far back as I can remember, my little sister and I have slept in the same bed on Christmas Eve...we have to. Last year we tried not to, but it didn't feel like Christmas so that didn't work out. We set out alarms to go off every hour after midnight so we can annoy ask our parents to let us come out to see if Santa arrived and ate his cookies and Jack Daniels. There are so many more traditions, but those are just a few of the important ones.

My Folk Groups

Originally, I never really thought I was part of to many folk groups. To me, a folk group was very old timey and just stuff I was never really into. After reading Chapter 3, not only did I realize that folk groups were very different from what I thought they were, but I also realized I was a part of many folk groups. 

I am a part of groups such as my age folk group and my gender folk group. I am a teenage male and therefore am automatically in those folk groups. I understand many ideas that may only make sense to teenage males. My favorite folk groups, however, are ones where I can draw stories from. If you asked any of my friends, they know that I always have a story of some sort, and many of my stories revolve around 2 things: my time playing/umpiring baseball and my family. 

Baseball has always been a huge part of my life. I've played since I was 6 and have been an umpire since I was 12. To me, this is a folk group because of the amount of stories I have gotten out of it. I could go on for days about experiences, and even some "legendary ocourrences" I've experienced through baseball.

Then there's my family. Through them, and especially my Dad, I have even more traditions and stories to tell, for example, our various Christmas traditions. My family also has introduced and immersed me in my Italian culture, bringing a lot of tradition out for me, such as pasta every Sunday night for example. 

So for a guy who didn't think he was part of any folk groups, it turns out I'm in a lot, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I hope that I'm doing this right...

There are several folk groups that I think I belong to, the two categories that they fall into being territorial folk groups and social folk groups. My social folk groups include my family and friends. Within my family there's my Mother's side and my Father's side of the family. Both sides have their own unique set of stories and jokes which have become a part of my concept of our family. My Father, Mother, Sister and I all have a common history and there are things that we share that make us a folk group.

My friends are another folk group with the sub-categories of college friends and high school friends. My college friends and high school friends are distinctly different groups, with a different set of histories and common experiences. Different things are of varying importance to the different groups, for instance, basketball is more important to my college friends while football is more important to my high school friends.

The territorial folk groups that I consider myself a part of are Virginian, Ohioan, New Englander, Californian, and Irish. My Mother's side of the family is from Ohio, my father's side from New England. I was born and raised in Virginia but I consider myself a little Californian because we spent about a year of my life in California on trips with my Father because he had a job that was based out there. Most of my relatives are Irish, with the exception of a German grandfather and a little French and English mixed in there. The first four locations are of more recent importance to my family and me, the ancestral folk group is still important to me because there are Irish traditions that I have learned, but they are somewhat less important when compared with the first set of locations.

The different places that I consider myself tied to affect me in different ways. I think that the most obvious way in which these places affect me is my manner of speaking. I notice that when I'm around different members of my family I speak differently depending on where we are. For instance, when I'm in Loudoun County, I speak differently than I do when I'm visiting my cousins up in Ohio and use different colloquialisms.

Folk Groups?

Determining the folk groups to which I belong is surficially difficult for a few reasons. However, identifying folk groups that I have had connections with is much easier.

I don’t have any current ties to communal or geographically oriented folk groups since I am still a relatively new resident to northern Virginia. On the other hand, people such as me who spent their childhoods in Williamsburg tend to identify with a very rich reservoir of beliefs, mannerisms, and oral traditions. Admittedly, that may just be a fancy way of embellishing upon the vast amount of ghost stories, urban legends, and superstitions that a lot of Williamsburg residents slowly absorb. These pieces of folklore naturally originate from the colonial history of the area. The softly-spoken attitude of most residents that they somehow carry the responsibility to proudly represent the nation’s birthplace probably comes from the ease with which one slips between the dusty unpaved boulevard of the old governor’s mansion and more modern amenities such as a Baskin Robins a few blocks away.

I am between jobs though my occupational history and my largest hobbies keep me firmly seeped in the folklore of the IT, or information technology, industry. Techies, nerds, and even gamers draw from similar veins of language, jokes, and behavior that surround digital technologies. Anyone who has ever worked a “helpdesk” relishes the opportunity to share the “horrifying” stories that accrue from having to deal with tech laymen, or “users.” For example, everyone has had to deal with that one person who paged you to fix his or her computer even though the “problem” related to not having the terminal plugged into an electrical source. Although that is such a commonly heard anecdote, it never ceases to be retold due to the personal circumstance, or spin that occurs with each person’s experience. Would you believe that a NASA researcher with multiple PhDs did not realize that he needed to press the power button in order for his PC to turn back on after a complete shutdown?

Perhaps my own family doesn’t necessarily count as a folk group in a more obvious way such as cultural identification, but I like to think we qualify for no other reason other than for being our own storytellers. In retrospect, I would submit that the habit of constructing past events for retelling in the form of bona-fide “stories” is itself a strong tradition from my mother’s family tree although some of her relatives tended to blur the line between truth and fiction. As I try to justify the basic nature of my family’s “stories” as folk lore through reminiscing, I am encouraged to find that almost all of the most infamous stories carry inherent lessons or explanations for major shifts of our family’s behavior. For example, one will never find any of us drinking Gatorade due to one disastrous road trip to the beach involving a hot summer, and an old Oldsmobile with a broken AC unit. Consequently, I am confident that this particular story will be retold for many generations to come as a family fable warning against obstinacy and poor planning (or decision-making). I’ll save the part about the oyster and the hotel elevator as a punch line.

Folk Group

As I read Chapter 3 I noticed that the term “folk-group” was a flexible one. It was surprising to me that so many of the activities and groups in which I participate could all be categorized as folk-groups, despite being so different from one another. My family is the most complicated folk-group I belong to because the different branches of it have different regional affiliation, religious customs and ethnic traditions, which according to Chapter 3 are all different folk-group types, but in this case they exist within one larger folk-group. That being said, the Rowing team is the most obvious example, from my life, of what a folk-group is and does.

There is a culture that is part of being on the rowing team that is distinct from other groups. There are certain words, phrases, and styles of dress that are particular to being a rower. Those who don’t row don’t spend the same amount of time in spandex. Those who don’t row won’t know what it means to “hang your catch” or the difference between “scull” and “sweep”. There are rhythms to the way things go at the boathouse. These patterns become general rules of conduct. For example: if you’re a port you get the oar, if you’re a starboard you take it back and if there is a water-bottle on an Erg, that Erg is taken. (If you don’t row, chances are you don’t even know what an Erg is.) If you’re an under-classmen on the team the only way to learn these subtle social-quirks is to observe carefully or have an upper-classmen explain them. This happens one-on-one and informally. Although practice itself is group instruction, coaches individually teach each rower the stroke. Real rowers share a sense of pride in the blisters and calluses that result from the hard work, in being able to cope with the ridiculously early practice-times, and have an all-or-nothing-regardless-of-conditions approach to race-day. I could write pages and pages trying to describe all the different customs, processes, and traditions that are part of the practices surrounding a regatta (race-day) and are so intrinsic to the regatta itself, but in the end I think it is something that needs to be experienced to be understood.

Folk Group

I am now feeling a little better after reading other's posts about not really being able to think about folklore and how it relates or is incorporated into to my life personally. After reading this chapter I feel like I may have a little to offer. =)

I have been bartending in a restaurant for five years and I can say that the people that work in a restaurant are definitely a special kind of group. For example, when I first started working there and a table would be sitting way too long or was really rude and you just wanted them to leave the thing to do is crush a little salt in your hand and as you walk by the particular table causing you trouble throw the salt on the ground. Its a common myth and honestly nine out of ten times it works. About five minutes later they always tend to get up and leave. We also have secret code names for attractive people of the opposite sex that come in to eat. Everyone who works there knows these terms, but to customers ears they would just assume we are talking about some random food item. Another example is when someone is really busy and flustered and just plain freaking out we call that term being in the "weeds."

I honestly could go on and on about stories in relation to my family. We make up so many different nicknames for one another, relate songs to certain occurrences in our lives, and have a lot of traditions that are special to us. I am a military brat who moved around quite a bit. During the car rides my mom, dad, and I who were all driving separate cars and following each other would communicate through walkie talkies. We had decided to make up nicknames for one another which ended up being from the movie Top Gun. I was Goose, my Dad Maverick, and my Mom Iceman. To this day we call each other that and it all stemmed from those long car rides joking around over walkie talkies.

Folk Groups

Folk groups were, at first, very hard for me to understand. I was having a hard time stepping back from my circumstance and looking at where I belong on the spectrum of folk groups. If I think about other people’s families and compare their customs to my family’s, I can decipher the differences much easier. For example, a neighbor for Thanksgiving has all 20 relatives come into town and they will be up to all hours of the night playing Pictionary or Scrabble. While I have my immediate family and it is just a big dinner for all four of us.After reading Chapter 3 I now understand what kinds of folk groups there are, as well as, the folklore that normally is attached to those folk groups.
Personally, I think I am in a regional group called NOVA,Northern Virginia. In this group we tend to differentiate ourselves from the rest of Virginia. We are a more compact community (of over a million), we do not have southern accents, and we look down on the rest of Virginia. We do this not always thinking about the rest of Virginia, but about how we want others to perceive us; as educated and knowledgeable people. Growing up in Northern Virginia, and then traveling outside of it, people will ask you if you have a farm or why you don’t have an accent and that is another reason why will differentiate ourselves from the rest of Virginia. Within,Northern Virginia we have our own folklore about certain areas of NOVA. Most people in the Burke area know where Bunny Man Bridge is and why it is called that, as well as, the crazy neighbor runs out when people pass his house to look at the bridge. Also, most people call Woodbridge, "Hoodbridge". There are problems about NOVA folklore as well. One example is that people will drive drunk around here as if nothing will happen to them. No matter if they hear the police will be out that night or someone just recently passed away from drunk driving people feel that NOVA is a bubble and nothing will burst it.
Another folk group that I belong to is the ethnic, nationality, and religious group. I am a reform Jew which means that I practice Judaism when I want to and mostly on the High Holy Days, (Rosh Hashannah, Yom Kippur, Channukah, and Passover). All Jewish congregations do many things that are different from one another. From the way a service is run to the spelling of words; i.e. Rosh Hashanah or Rosh Hashannah, Channukah or Hannukah. Even though many things are handled differently food in Jewish households is always important, especially after a death. At many markets in Jewish neighborhoods there are "Kosher Plates" that feed up to 35 people and they all of Smoked Whitefish and Smoked Salmon or Smoked Tuna. They also have vegetables and a dip as well as crackers. Smoked fish is always a staple at most conservative Jewish homes to begin with, which is why most delis will sell it.
Just recently my grandmother passed away and she had lived in Baltimore, Maryland her entire life. As my family and I started going through her things I realized that she had a very different experience with Judaism than I will ever have. She grew up on a street that was only two miles long, but have 17 synagogues. I have only seen that kind of numbers with churches. It was astonishing to me to see the support that we received from her neighbors who knew our customs of sitting Shiva after the death and how open everyone was. It was an eye opening experience because I never grew up in a Jewish community.
Overall, I have been able to look at my life and start to categorize it into folklore and folk groups. Folk groups seem to be where the stories originate from, where they are most influenced, where they grow, and how they connect the group together as one.

Folk Group

"Oh my gosh, this one time, at band camp...!" 
Who hasn't heard this (in)famous line?

Well, the first folk group that I find myself associated with is The Band Geeks. Back in high school, this title both enfuriated and entertained those of us in band. On the one hand, we knew that non-band kids meant the term as an insult, or at the very least a joke. On the other hand, though, we would laugh amongst ourselves, because we "band geeks" maintained the highest group GPA in our school. Some of us even maaged this while playing in another sport during marching season. 

Our "folklore," as one may call it, consisted mostly of the (in)famous band camp stories. Since our band traveled to Orkney Springs every year to live, eat, drink and breath band practice for a week without air conditioning, there was never a shortage of stories to tell. 
Example: 
"Okay, this one time at band camp, we were doing the Pirates of the Caribbean show, right? So we're all in the shape of a pirate ship (well, most of us), and I guess Dr. Newton thought it looked bad, because she stopped us and shouted over the microphone, 

"Fix the ship!"
Of course, we all thought that she had said, "Fix this s**t!" so we just stood there staring up at the tower until she realized."

The second folk group that I am a part of is that particular group of guys collectively referred to as "the video game nerds." Despite what you may think, we're not all guys. Our conversations are limited, at least while playing, and the tales we tell often detail a spectacular play in Madden NFL or an unbelievable kill in Halo. We're more likely to quote a video game character and then test each other by daring the others to name the character who spoke and the game he/she came from. 

The final folk I consider myself part of is the Events Production team on this campus. Our groups' age range is from 19 to, let's say, 35, and we're all pretty good friends. Jokes can be cracked with little hesitation, and we spend our off-hours watching television and listening to music, much like any other group of friends. The best thing is, we know that when we need to get work done, we can undoubtedly count on anyone amongst our group. 

Our lore is just as specific as the band group's lore, but in our case we usually laugh over the most ridiculous client requests or the most interesting event happenings (read: mishaps). It should be noted that most of the latter stories fall into the category of "Stuff You Laugh About, But Hope Never Happens to You."