Reflection On Traditions

Chapter Three of the book Living Folklore gives an accurate definition as to what exactly a tradition is, as well as the importance of a tradition in the way one identifies themselves with a group. One of the most important concepts in understanding a tradition is the idea of continuity. The longer a tradition is practiced and appreciated, the more attachment and importance that tradition has on our lives. Many traditions have been going on for a very long time, but now seem to lose importance or disappear. One example of this would be the high school senior prom. I cannot speak for everyone, but I have noticed a disappearance in the importance of the high school senior prom. In my high school, we did not even have a senior prom…we had a junior prom. And everyone just looked at it as another excuse to party. As some traditions fall off, others only get stronger and more central to us. One tradition that is increasingly central to me is my family Thanksgiving. I have written about my family and this tradition previously, so I don’t think I can explain their importance to me any more than I already have. My family has a specific routine every Thanksgiving that’s continuity adds to the significance of this event. One tradition that I have participated in that has a relevance to Indiana University is the Little 500. I have gone to Indiana University to participate in the Little 500 weekend events twice. While I cannot tell you the winners of either of those races, I can’t stress enough the importance of those few days to the city of Bloomington. This has been a response to the Chapter Three reflection question for Folklore F-121 World Arts and Culture.

Encounter with a rondavel

Architecture is one of the most important aspects of not only folklore, but life in general. Buildings are used for a number of uses running from the very practical use of providing shelter or a place of business, to providing a unique form of art for people to admire. Vernacular architecture deals with buildings that are built in a specific way according to a culture’s traditions. There is a “recipe” for building a certain style of building, and the steps to do so are rooted in a culture’s past. One example of vernacular architecture is the rondavel. A rondavel is a traditionally built style of house common in the southern parts of Africa. It is a relatively small, circular house that is constructed from materials easy to find in their raw form. The walls of the rondavel are made from stone and stacked up in a circle about five to six feet high. The mortar, which is used to hold the stones in place, is made up of either dirt or sand which is then mixed up with dung to keep the mortar thin and smooth. The floor of the rondavel has to be made very smooth so a different mixture of dung and sand is made the make the floor. Branches from nearby trees are cut down into equal lengths and set-up in a conical shape on top of the stones to make a skeleton of the roof. The actually roof is made out of a thatch of grass that is tied down to the branches with the use of rope. The thatch is the most difficult part to make and is usually made by a talented artisan who has done this for years in order to master the skill. The thatch has to be waterproof, so depending on how talented the thatch-maker is, this process could take as little as a couple of days, or as long as a year. This specific type of vernacular architecture found in the southern parts of Africa is very interesting. Many skills and talents are passed down from family members to children at a young age so they can master the skill and teach it later on in their lives. The skill of building a rondavel is learned more on an apprentice-master basis in which one learns under a teacher until they eventually become the teacher. The rondavel, along with many other types of vernacular architecture, are very unique traditions that would serve no purpose or sentimentality if people began to use modern machines to make the labor easier. It is the labor and unwillingness to change that make this one style of house special to a culture, and different from all others. For anyone interested in more about rondavels, I got most of my information from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rondavel as well as www.britannica.com/eb/topic-509086/rondavel.
This is my post for the second encounter assignment for F-121.

Chapter 2 Reflection Question

Chapter 2 of Living Folklore discusses the true nature of folk groups. Just like folklore, there exists no universal definition of folk groups. This book simply defines a folk group as any two or more people that share a common folk. Each folk group portrays the many genres of folklore that have been previously discussed in this book as well as in class. The most important folk group in my life is definitely that of family. My family is the single most important thing in my life, and as I begin to understand folklore more and more, I can begin to truly understand the roots and make-up of my own family. My family raised me with certain morals and traditions that make us different from any other folk group. Chapter 2 also says that to be a member of a folk group you must possess special knowledge of its language, behavior and rules. This does not mean that you have to pass a test to get into a folk group, but rather emphasizes that folk groups are based around people with the same interests, traditions, rituals, and much more. For my family, we have many traditions that I have practiced for my whole life that define my family as a folk group. Every year at Christmas my grandmother takes the honor of giving out the first present which is always a Christmas ornament that she has hand selected to give to each child to hang on the Christmas tree. The second most important folk group in my life consists of the people in my social life. Ever since my first day of school in kindergarten, I have been associating myself with people who have similar interests and beliefs as I do. Whether it has been kids I play sports with, kids who laugh at immature jokes as I always have, or just kids who have been labeled into the same groups as me…my whole life can be told in chapters of folk groups I have either been placed in or have placed myself in. I think that folk groups are an essential part of life. No matter who you are or what you see yourself as, human nature always tends to link ourselves into groups with people just like me. I think that going through life with people like yourself makes everything more enjoyable and is essential to living. Chapter 2 closes by saying that it is only within groups that folklore has meaning. Groups bring folklore to life and, in a way, make everything worth while. This entry is my response to the Chapter 2 reflection question.

Peer Review #1

After reading many of my classmates’ posts on their encounter projects with the world, I have been able to settle on one that I especially liked. On “Alex’s Blog” I was able to read about her encounter with a joke that her boyfriend told her to make her feel better when she was sick. I thought that this post was an excellent example of what folklore is and how it affects us. This joke goes something like this: A guy walks into a doctor’s office with celery in his nose, and carrot in his ear and a banana under his arm. He tells the doctor that he does not know what is wrong with him. The Doctor tells him that he knows what is wrong with him, and that he is not eating right. I found this joke very amusing mostly because it hits on multiple levels. One, the guy is eating improperly by missing his mouth…that one is obvious. The other level is that many people get sick because they do not eat healthy. I thought Alex did a great job with this because improper eating is a big problem for college kids because we do not have out parents’ to feed us anymore. The joke that her boyfriend told her is also a great example of folklore because her boyfriend heard it from his dad. This shows how we learn and hear jokes…they are passed down to us through word of mouth. Who knows how many generations that joke has been passed down until she was able to hear it? And now she has shared it with our class, which will in turn lead to our class telling it to various people we know. It is amazing how the phenomenon can occur so quickly, and the easiest way to understand just how this happens is through the study of folklore. This is my first response for the peer review post in my Folklore F-121 class.