Folk Groups

Now, onto official business. What are folk groups and to which do I belong?
Folk groups are creators and performers(folk) of traditions (folklore) that are categorized into several groups. These groups are not designated by political or social factors, rather by their "distinctive folk speech and other traditions," (51). The six groups areas follows: occupational, age, family, gender-differentiated, regional, and ethnic/religious.
It is very likely that everyone will find a place within each of these groups, but I am going to limit mine to those I feel are more specific to me.

On my short list of defining me is "student." This has not changed from day 1; school comes first. But with such an occupation, the age group is also relevant. The reading mentioned some specific folklore for these groups surrounding fraternities and sororities. These institutions are shrouded in folklore, which remains one of the drawing points. One particular that I have heard from sources young and old (I myself did not take the Greek route) is about a tradition known simply, as I understand it, as "The Toaster." I won't repeat the whole thing here, because it is bound to offend someone. Let's just say it involves fraternity and sorority "cooperation."

Another interesting factor about these groups is its heavy reliance on New Media and digital communication. Now, it is common to ask a neighbor a question through Facebook rather than just knocking on the door. Not because we're all lazy, it has just become customary. There is a whole set of lingo and processes that go with this too. On Facebook alone there are many interesting occurrences. There is the "Poke", which refers to a simple notification to a Facebook friend that says nothing more than "You have been poked by..." However, it quickly became custom that guys can poke girls, girls can poke guys, and girls can poke girls, but guys should not be poking other guys (I'm bringing gender-diffentiated groups into this behemouth of a paragraph too). This silly little practice quickly found a way to mirror the host society's (I am familiar with U.S. practices, though it is probably different abroad) ideology on physical contact. Had Facebook referred to this activity as somehting that does not connote physical contact, would this still have been the case? Would if it were to connote aggression; then would it be ok for guys to "Headbutt" other guys, but not girls?
Worth considering nonetheless.

My place in many of the other afforementioned groups is rather unextroadinary. However, there is something mentioned early in the chapter that is not described in detail. The book says that groups can be defined by other factors such as blindness and deafness. I took courses in American Sign Language over several years and became pretty familiar with the ways the culture operates (both big "D" Deaf and little "d" deaf). There are stories and traditions that are learned in Deaf culture, mostly through the experiences in the boarding schools that many deaf* children attend. I can't recall any off the top of my head and I don't have those former materials. However, if I turn them up I will be sure to post them. My place in all this is that by working to learn ASL I am gladly excepted into Deaf culture. I was to invited events and dinners on several occasions. Those who are not a member of the Deaf culture (including those who recieved cochlear implants) or were not learning sign were often not part of these events.

Anyway, that is my place in the grand scheme of things.



*Big "D" and little "d" only referred to when discussing culture, not individuals.

Jokes

Before I jump into the homework, I had a bit of a revelation (well, just recollection actually).

We kept bringing up jokes in class, but I really couldn't think of any examples of this at the time.

But just a month or so ago there was a "South Park" episode that described the impact and travels of a single joke.

Obviously, the "Fish Stick" joke becomes incredibly overblown and ridiculous, but it is interesting to see this portrayed. As an added bonus, after the episode just about everyone in the group that frequently watches "South Park" began reciting the joke. Not because the joke is extremely funny, because it isn't, but because of the hilarity that ensued on the program made the viewer anxious to repeat it.

Corinne Boutin HW 5/18

Folk Groups...
From the reading, I gained that folk groups are basically people or ideas that are sorted into different groups (not based on culture or race, but based on occupation, gender, or age) that share common folklore within that group. The six groups are: occupational, age, family, gender-differentiated, regional, and ethnic/religious. I think that almost everyone will belong somewhere within each of these groups, based on where they fall in the folklore time scale.
For the occupational folk group, I am a full-time college student attending George Mason University, but I am also a part-time Administrative Intern working for a company called General Dynamics. I'm not sure if this would count as folklore- but I always heard that when people did internships, they never got paid for it. I used to think I would have to do an internship during my college career and not get paid for it. This proved untrue, however (at least in my case). Now that I write that out, it doesn't seem like folklore at all...
Within the age & family folk group, I consider myself a young adult. I am 20 years old and in college, but not fully out on my own yet. Within my family, we have many traditions. When I was younger, my family and I would drive down to South Carolina for Christmas. It was tradition that on Christmas Eve, everyone came over and we all opened our gifts. This happened every year until my Grandma died. Then, if my family and I weren't coming into town for Christmas (we were always the ones living in another state), then no one else saw the point of gathering on Christmas Eve to open gifts. Though we still open gifts on Christmas Eve every couple of years, the tradition is slowly dying out.
For the gender folk group, I am obviously a female... From what I gathered from the reading, this group seems to talk about occupations that are specifically for males or females, or things that are specifically attributed to being a male or female. The most common, I believe, is that many people thought women were evil, and hence witches who cast nasty spells on everyone. The Salem Witch trials is a prime example of this. So is "The Crucible".
Within the regional folk group, I would be Virginian/Eastern Coast-ian. I don't know any folklore for Virginia off the top of my head, but as mentioned below, there is the legend of the Bunnyman Bridge. Someone told me the story once, but I can't remember it, and then they tried to get me to go there.
And lastly, I am French/Native American/White. There is probably a wealth of folklore within those ethnicities alone, but I don't know my family history well enough to describe any of it.
That was probably way longer than it needed to be..

...Is this where I post?? Jessica Tibbs' HW 5/18

Okay...so, Folk Groups! From what I understand from our reading, a folk group is a group that's comprised of members who create and perform traditions, which then get passed (folklore!) There are six major kinds of folk groups: occupational, age, family, gender-differentiated, regional, and ethnic/nationality/religious groups.  

We all fit into different types of folk groups...my folk groups (for each of the six varieties) would be: student (occupational), young adult (age), female (gender), Virginian or Eastern? (regional), and caucasian/American/Jewish (ethnic). The only one I'm confused about is the family group. I don't really know how to define that one. I have a family...does that count?

Within each folk group, there are specific folklore, for example there's the age-old Bunnyman Bridge legend of Northern Virginia (though I don't really remember the story all that much). In Judaism, one example of folklore is the hiding of the matzoh at Passover. The adults would wrap a piece of matzoh in a cloth and hide it somewhere in the house. The kids would race to find it, and whoever found it would win a prize. Usually just some extra chocolate coins; it was a pretty lame game, but folklore nonetheless. 

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