Readings for 4/2

The first reading was titled The Protofestival: A Local Guide to American Folk Behavior. This article examined the annual turtle days festival in Churubuscoans Indiana and compared to too other similar festivals around the country. This festival originated with the apparent sighting of a large turtle at a lake in town. The local newspapers soon caught wind of the giant turtle and it soon became national news. Local townspeople used various traps and methods in attempts to capture the turtle. The entire town became overcome with turtle mania, so much so that you could not even find a turtleneck at the local clothing store. Songs were written about the turtle as well as stories about the turtle. It was such a spectacle that Churubuscoans adopted an annual festival to celebrate the turtle days. There were many types of folklore in play here. The songs that were made up, the stories the that were passed around between town members, even the material culture of the fishing nets and various traps that were used to try and capture the turtle are forms of folklore. Interestingly, this is story is common in many towns in America and around the world. Examples included the loch ness monster, the jackalope, and bigfoot.
I watched the video of Pat O'Riordan making penny whistles. He said that he went to a festival and saw a man playing the penny whistle and fell in love with it. He first learned how to play it and then became interested in making them. There are some different ways of making penny whistles and he said that he believes he uses a unique mouthpiece. He mentioned some other manufacturers of whistles and their different styles. There is individual variation depending on the manufacturer. He stated that he would really like to travel to festivals and sell his whistles rather than sell them by mail, so that he can interact with the buyers.

Questions:
1. Is it important if there was really a giant turtle or not?
2. Have you ever played a homemade instrument?

Readings for 3/19

The readings for this week focused on folk beliefs. The first reading was a collection of folk beliefs collected in Southern Indiana by Herbert Halpert and Paul Brewster. Indiana is rooted in agriculture, so not suprisingly  a lot of the folk beliefs had to do with farming and weather. Sayings that told when to plant certain crops and signs of future of weather were frequent in the article. Other sayings revolved around luck, romance, and money. Like many things in folklore, there may be a grain of truth in some of these sayings. Many of the weather related sayings surely would have come from observation. While not all of them are true, I would say that science could back up some of the sayings. I have some own personal experience with folk beliefs like these. I think everyone has heard that black cats are bad luck, or walking under a ladder is bad luck. I have heard the saying "red skies at night sailors delight, red sky in the morning sailors warning." This is a variation of the belief quoted in the reading which was similar but used rainbows instead of red sky.
The second reading by David Hufford focused on the traditions of disbelief. This article was very interesting because it the usual study of beliefs on its head. Hufford argued that disbelieving is just as much a tradition as believing. Most disbelievers will cite similar reasons for their disbelief's. The most common final statement of disbelieve is the notion that there is an explanation, it just hasn't been found yet. This way of thinking allows a better way of researching. Instead of thinking one side is right and one is wrong, everyone's opinions become valid. The disbelievers are just as legitimate as the believers.
I think that climate change is a good example of believers vs. nonbelievers. Both sides have their arguments and their traditions and beliefs form their opinions on the issue.

Questions:
1. Are their any folk beliefs that you grew up with that you did not see in the article?
2. Are you an adamant disbeliever of something?

Readings for 3/5

This weeks reading and video focused on dance and movement communities. The first article was titled "Running the Yard: The Negotiation of Masculinities in African American Stepping" by Tom Mould. As the title suggests the article examines male fraternity stepping competitions at college campuses. The major goal of stepping is to reinforce each groups identity and to show how they are better than all of the other fraternities. Each fraternity has developed certain identity traits throughout the years that are incorporated in each stepping routine. The Alpha Phi Alpa's projected sophistication and "smoothness." The Omega Psi Phi were the "nasty" fraternity and claimed to be the most manly of all fraternities. There was a party fraternity, a ladies man fraternity, and a fraternity that has yet to forge an identity. The step routines not only portrayed each fraternity's identity, but they also were a representation of the unity that existed within each fraternity. The many military style routines and clothing used portrayed a "unified toughness." Cracking is also a big part of stepping. Cracking is making fun of other fraternities to make your own group seem superior. A lot of the routines incorporated jokes about the other groups. Stepping is a performance. When the fraternities perform their routines, they may do overly exaggerated sexual movements, attempt to degrade other fraternities, or look like the meanest toughest guys around; however it's all in good fun. Many of the individual steppers say they would never do things like that outside of a stepping competition.
I think that stepping is another way for fraternities to create a stronger sense of brotherhood and unity. It takes hours of practice with the same group of people which would create a sense of community. Each group is representing their fraternity, trying to draw more membership and of course girls. Stepping is a performance art that has many social functions.
The video about the flow arts was very interesting. It examined flow arts, such as juggling or fire dancing, and their ability to reach a higher state of consciousness. Performing a repetitive physical movement like juggling can allow you to turn the rest of your brain off for a while. It is very similar to meditation. The video narrator used Maslow's hierarchy of needs to demonstrate why this happens. When we reach self actualization we can leave the rest of our worries behind and lose our ego. This can bring us to a state of "flow", where you just become part of the action with out thinking.
I can juggle alright and I totally understand what they are talking about in this video. After you juggle for a while it feels like you are meditating. You are not thinking about your hands catching and releasing the objects anymore. They just dot it. I think that the state of flow happens in a lot of areas outside "flow" arts too. Sports players talk about being in the zone. Musicians can be locked in. I think this happens when you focus your mind on one singular task and that allows everything else to be put in the back round.

Questions:
Have you ever experienced flow? What were you doing and how did it come about?
Why is stepping isolated to African American college fraternities?

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?

Reading for 1/29

The first article titled "Kentuckians" by Ronald Baker, was a series of jokes heard in Indiana about people from Kentucky. Many early Indiana residents migrated from Kentucky to the state. Northerners liked to look down on Southerners in this time period, so jokes were a good way to make derogatory comments about another group of people. Residents of Indiana did not want to be identified with the southern "hillbillies" of Kentucky, so they used jokes as a way to show their superiority over their southern neighbors. Most of the jokes were directed at Kentuckians lack of education and stupidity. This was to illustrate that Indiana residents were not rednecks like people from Kentucky were, but more sophisticated.
The second article titles Indiana Story teller by Herbert Halpert, was a series of stories recorded from a Bloomington resident named Jim Pennington. Jim had lived in Indiana most of his life and collected stories from many different people. He recalled times in his youth when the only entertainment in town was to trade stories back and forth with one another to pass the time. Many of the stories are considered tall tales. None of them have any real truth to them but some have a kind of hidden message to them. Some stories were about catching a giant fish, or killing hundreds of animals with one bullet while hunting. Many of the stories had to do with good or bad luck.
I personally feel like jokes about people from Kentucky are evolving into jokes about people from Southern Indiana. Northern Indiana and Southern Indiana are two completely different areas geographically, culturally, economically, and ethnically. I have heard many derogatory comments growing up about people from Southern Indiana much more than jokes about people from Kentucky. It's very possible that Kentucky jokes are more used in Southern Indiana than from I am from. 
The story telling article was an interesting read. People collect coins, art, music; but Jim collected stories. He could remember where and who he learned most of his stories, connecting them to a point in his life. The stories came from many other people, but became a part of Jim's identity as a story teller. The stories seemed like a way to add comedy or tragedy to normal day activities like farming or hunting.

Questions to consider:
1.  Why do you think it was necessary for people from Indiana to develop jokes as a way to make themselves superior to Kentuckians?
2. Technology is making face to face communication less and less over time. Will this cause tall tales and stories to disappear from every day life?