blog #3

This week we were introduced to rituals. “A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers (Wiki).” Rituals symbolically communicate ideas and values to both participants and observers. In the documentary, “Guardians of the flutes,” the people of New Guinea have an unusual ritual. The young boys of age 7 to 10 must
be initiated into adulthood through a certain rite of passage ritual. The boys
are taken from their mothers permanently and are not allowed to return to the
village until they are ready for marriage. The boys are thrashed with sticks
and it is said that the pain lasts for hours. There are many practices
representing the female menstrual blood and it is important to cleanse the boys
of anything related to the women because it will make them weak. It seems that
the men are afraid of the women; they fear that women make them weak. The men
must defend their village and be on guard at all times from ambushing tribes. The
men must do everything they can possibly think of to keep them strong. The boys
cannot produce their own seamen; they must get that strength from the warriors.
The boys must suck the seamen from the warriors in order to be able to make it
themselves. Seamen represents strength. The boys eat seamen and the women eat
seamen so they can be strong. The boys must become warriors and the women must
have babies.


This was not the first time I
watched this video, so it was not as shocking for me. I have had a few years to
think about this concept. This video is what really got me interested in
Anthropology and why I am an Anth minor. The concept of removing yourself from
your own societal norms and beliefs and looking at a culture from their
perspective is a very noble ability. You really have to try to be open-minded.
I feel that some of the students in the class are not even trying to
understand. That is quite annoying. If you have grown up in that society then
it makes complete sense. This way has worked for thousands of years producing
unstoppable warriors.

blog #2: genre

There are three major genres when it comes to the study of
folklore. They are verbal folklore, material folklore, and customary folklore.
Before I started this course, I thought folklore was just stories written or
verbally passed down through generations. This breakdown of verbal, material
and customary makes the topic easier to understand; it also allows you to see
that folklore exists today in every person’s life.

Verbal folklore refers to spoken customs and traditions. Verbal
folklore can be apply to certain dialects, naming practices, traditional
phrases and sentences, jokes and stories, and folksongs to name a few. For example,
one topic we discussed in class is the fact that in California we call
Coca-Cola “soda” whereas in the south people call it “pop.” These differences
are region specific. One important aspect of verbal folklore, just like other
forms of folklore, is that they are learned informally from your family or
peers.

The next genre of folklore is material folklore; this refers
to material objects. These objects have a special meaning to the group of which
they are from. Architecture, food, and clothing are examples of material
folklore. Some foods are region specific. New Orleans is famous foe jambalaya, crawfish,
shrimp, gumbo, and other Cajon dishes; on the other hand San Francisco is
famous for Dungeness crab and chippino.

Customary folklore refers to shared and accepted customs or
behaviors. Shaking hands is a common way to greet someone in the United States,
but in Japan you would bow to someone. The signal “shaka” or “hang loose” has
an association to Hawaii, but it may mean something slightly different if used
here.

In my upcoming project for this course, I am focusing on
child folklore with an emphasis on material lore. My subjects will be my
nephews who are only two and not quite talking yet, I will not be able to
interview them, only observe and maybe participate as well. In our society,
children as young as two obtain an insane amount of material possessions. Most of
the items are unnecessary; when watching two two-year-olds play together they
almost always converge around the same object. This age is when you first learn
about sharing. You are able to see what meaning the objects have to the
children.

blog #1

            I found it very interesting to hear about all the various folk groups in different high schools. There was much more variety than I would have expected. We heard from people who attended both public and private schools, as well as people who lived in different countries. High schools have great ability to demonstrate folk groups. No matter where you live around the world, teenagers seem to gravitate to people similar to themselves. Even in private schools where the authority tries to make everyone appear the same, you see small differences that set people apart. All teenagers are trying to find their identity. “The term folk can refer to any group of people whatsoever who share at least one common factor (Dundes).” We identify folk groups into two categories: emic and etic. Identifying folk groups using emic categories refers to the insiders’ view while etic refers to the outsiders’ view. The example of the high school folk groups is an emic perspective. The titles are meaningful to the members of the distinct groups; the students themselves use these titles to categorize their own world.

            I grew up in Pleasanton and therefore my high school consisted of about 90% white kids. Ethnicity didn't play a huge role because there were so few students who were not white. First of all, the students were divided by class; you rarely saw a freshman hanging out with a sophomore or any other combo. The only exception to this rule was maybe if they were on a sports team together. This brings me to the next large division: all the students involved in school sports congregated. Then race played a part. Example: all the senior basketball players sat together. This group included all 8 of the 10 black kids in the senior class; the other two black seniors hung out with them. I bounced around from group to group, never really feeling wanted until I finally found a group of people who made me feel good about myself. Those are the friends I still have today. My biggest issue with fitting in during high school was that I was a swimmer, but all of my swimmates were older than me, so therefore I didn’t feel like I belonged with them.

            The four years of high school are the hardest four years of a lot of people’s lives. We place ourselves into emic categories to better make sense of our world. We want to be with others who are similar to ourselves. This brings comfort to our hectic world.