Readings for 2/25

The first article for this week titled "Locating the 'Nation': Football Game Day and American Dreams in Central Ohio by Danille Christenson Lindquist, studied the rituals and traditions associated with college football at Ohio State University in Columbus Ohio. The article portrayed many of the rules, rituals, and traditions of football at Ohio to many values and traditions of America. The article first looked back at the history of football. Football really began its popularity after the civil war, when Americans need something to bond them together. By making rules different than rugby, football emphasized the athletic abilities of individuals to achieve success. More rules meant more strategy meaning that intelligence had  a lot to do with success along with physical abilities. These features of football mirror the American work ethic. Americans believe that hard work leads to success. Skill and determination yield success.
The article then began discussing the certain rituals that are found specifically at Ohio State games. The Buckeye, their mascot and emblem, is used as a way of identifying as a native from Ohio and bonds fans together. To outsiders, the Buckeye is poisonous, but to locals it brings good luck and was once used for certain medicinal purposes. The food served in the parking lot is emblematic of the German heritage in Ohio. People most often grill bratwursts or Polish sausages. A lot of time was spent discussing the band at Ohio State. The band is steeped in tradition and ritual. The perform a skull session before each game to thousands of fans to warm up. They have the same entrance at every game and at each halftime they spell Ohio and dot the I with a sousaphone player.
Many of these rituals and traditions are similar to the American ideals of bureaucracy and hard work. There are very defined rules that must be followed similar to the laws that govern our country. If you follow the rules, work hard, and are intelligent you will have a greater deal of success both on and off the football field.
The second article had to deal with group and networks. It discussed how we view our world from our groups. There was as story about an Italian festival where kids were trying to climb a light pole to get to an envelope of money. Other kids, including a girl and an african american boy, came to help. Even though they were not Italian they were still accepted as part of the group because they were neighbors and attended school with the other boys. When an Asian man came and climbed the pole, they viewed him as an outsider who did not belong. This was due to the newness of Asian immigrants at the time this article was written. People form groups through networks. More affluent people have more networks than middle class or lower class people.

Questions:
What type of group would you consider yourself a part of?
Are there any other sports teams that have specific rituals and traditions?

Reading for 2/19

The first article, An Experiential Portrait of a Woodcarver by Simon J. Bronner, analyzed an older gentleman from Indiana named George Blume. Mr. Blume lived a long life as a farmer and as a worker at a furniture factory in Huntington Indiana. He began wood carving during his retirement. His carvings included all sorts of objects from his life, but he enjoyed carving wooden chains most of all. The carvings were a symbolic representation of Georges past experiences and his values. He valued "the old way" of doing things. He did not like the technological advancement that was occurring. Mr. Blume valued working with his hands. The carving were a way for him to escape from loneliness and depict his emotional feeling. Mr. Blume did not like getting older. His wife and friends had all mostly passed away, his physical health limited his abilities, and he feared death. The wooden chains symbolized all of his angers and fears of confinement and death. They also illustrated his skills at woodworking.
The article shows us that a person's creative output can be viewed as a window into that person's life. You were able to tell a lot about George Blume just by analyzing his carvings. As you got to know him more personally, you understood why he made the carvings and what they said about him. Folk art gives us valuable information about individual people and communities.
The second article focuses on two covered bridge builders from Indiana. Park County Indiana has many different covered bridges. The article explains why covered bridges are considered a folk item. The bridges were constructed by master carpenters. Each carpenter utilized unique techniques to create variation in every bridge. The carpenters learned their trade mainly from their fathers or other craftsmen. Technology has caused many of their talents to be lost forever. The passed on knowledge, variation of each bridge, and the lost art of building a covered bridge makes these bridges a folk item.

Questions:
What other types of items or structures could be defined as a folk item?
What are the functions of folk items?

Readings for 2/12

The first article by Jennifer Eastman Atteberry analyzed the storytelling by rural Indiana native Homer Spriggs. Homer Spriggs had many stories and told them all in a specific style and diction. "Mr. Spriggs stories are remarkable in their narrative detail and dialogue, both of which work towards a clear story line, a carefully located setting, and character presentation." (Atteberry, 52) Mr. Spriggs told his stories in a very specific deliberate manner. His stories moved from action to action using very little adjectives to describe the setting. He used repetition by using the word "and" to move through the story creating rhythm. When a character spoke in his stories, he took on their persona and said their lines. These techniques made it more entertaining to the listener and allowed Mr. Spriggs to tell stories quickly.
This article illustrates the fact that storytelling is an art. We all have friends that are terrible story tellers. Their stories take 15 minutes to tell and meander back and forth in time and plots. A good storyteller like Mr Spriggs is able to tell a great entertaining story that is quick and to the point. You are able to get a sense of the character, the setting, and the plot in a matter of minutes. He does this, as said above, in very specific ways. This is an art that was passed down to him from his father, which according to him had many more stories than he has.
The second article by Gary Alan Fine gives us a look inside the world of amateur mushroom hunters. Mushroom hunters are a folk group. One way that they are a folk group is their use of personal narratives to create a community bond and separate themselves from people not in their group. The first set of stories were esoteric stories. They mainly told of certain trips hunting for mushrooms. The stories can be categorized as "fish stories." Many of the stories were competitive. They told of finding the biggest mushroom, or the best spot where many mushrooms grow. These stories held meaning to those that are in the group, but meant little to an outsider who may hear them. The other set of stories were exoteric stories about people outside the group that differentiated mushroom hunters from the "normal people." The stories were based on the ignorance of most people to the treasures that grow in their yard. They also differentiated amateur mushroom hunters from professional mycologists. The professionals took the fun out of mushroom hunting by being too techincal.
This article shows how personal narratives can be used in a folk group to strengthen its identity. The stories formed bonds between members of the group, and created separation from people outside the group.

Questions:
1. Do personal narratives have to be 100% true? If not, what makes them different from legends?
2. Why do think so much competetion existed between mushroom hunters? What purpose does it serve in terms of a folk group?