Celts and War--

The Celts were people of war. They charged into battle naked, dyed themselves (all of themselves) blue, and screamed like Comanches. They cut off heads of their foes and stuck them on their walls or belts. It would make sense then that much of Celtic oral tradition follows the triumphs and falls on the fields on battle.

The Gothic Language

When I received the assignment to write about the functions and systems of the Germanic gothic language, I was excited! But turns out, there is little information about the specific functions and systems of the gothic language. Here are some things that I did find out…

The gothic language, part of the Indo-European language family, has been extinct since the 8^th or 9^th century, though it was declining well into the mid-6^th century. It survived as a domestic language in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain, Portugal) until the 8^th century.  This decline in the gothic language can be attributed to a couple of things. One of the reasons is the military defeat of the gothic people by the Franks. Goths were also removed from Italy. In addition, gothic speakers were geographically isolated. In Spain, the gothic language lost its function as a church language when the Visigoths converted to Catholicism in the 4^th century. The reasons for the decline of this language are not out of the ordinary when compared to various languages that have lost their prominence. For instance, refer to Alyssa’s post on the Roman Republic and its Latin language. 

Codex Argenteus



Lacking any modern descendants, the gothic language is one of the earliest to have written text available. Most of the language is known from the Codex Argenteus, a 6^th century copy of a 4^th century translation of the bible made by a Visigothic bishop (see picture).

Since many languages are influenced by those around them, it was no surprise to me when I read that the gothic language assists in understanding the transition from the various Indo-European Germanic languages and their structures.  

My brother in law served a mission in Germany and is now studying German Literature here at BYU. I asked him to see if there were any similarities he could see by looking a a Gothic translation of the Book of Matthew.


This is what he said: "I included the German words I know with what I think they correspond to. It would be a lot easier to tell if I could hear the words, but from what I can tell I'd say the languages are definitely related, but they've drifted apart quite a bit. I think there's also some Italian or Latin influence in the Gothic which isn't in the German (words like minnistono)."

15 ... ak ana lukarnastaþin· jah liu teiþ allaim þaim ïn þamma garda·       
16 swa liuhtjai liuhaþ ïzwar ïn and wairþja manne/männer ei gasaihvaina/gesehen ïz wara goda waurstwa jah hauhjai na attan ïzwarana þana ïn himina/himmel:lg     
17 Ni/nicht/nie hugjaiþ ei qemjau gatairan witoþ· aiþþau/abbau praufetuns-propheten·ni qam gatairan ak usfulljan/ausfüllen:ld     
18 Amen auk/auch qiþa ïzwis· und þatei usleiþiþ himins/himmel jah airþa/erde· jota ains aiþþau/abbau ains striks ni uslei þiþ af witoda unte allata wairþiþ:le     
19 Ïþ saei/sei nu gatairiþ aina anabusne þizo minnistono· jah laisjai swa mans minnista haitada in     þiudangardjai himine/himmel ïþ saei/sei taujiþ jah laisjai swa· sah mikils haitada ïn þiudangardjai himine/himmel·       
20 qiþa auk/auch ïzwis þatei nibai mana

Sources: 1, 2, 3

Uriah?

     To pick things up with our Oral Knowledge unit and also focusing on the topics my group has been given, I'm going to start of with a knowledge test...of sorts.

     We are going back to the early Bible times on this one...hypothetically speaking, lets say you were a descendent of Heth, which would make you part of the second tribe of the Caananite nations. You live in a place called Anatolia (see map for general region) which is basically the present day Lebanon and your culture was eventually dissolved into a variety of others as your empire crumbled and your language is now obsolete. 

     If you could tell me what the name of your civilization is or i guess what it was, then well....you deserve an A i suppose!

Read more to find out if you were right...

Slavic/Russian Epics

I don't believe I have ever studied the Slavic peoples in school, other than the people from 20th century Russia. For those of you who are also unfamiliar with this group, it includes not only Russian people, but Ukranian, Czech, and Polish people as well as a variety of other groups. Russia appears in the school curriculum briefly at the beginning of the 20th century and disappears at the end of it. No one else shows up ever, because apparently none of them ever did anything important, except helping us in WWII, and coming up with communism:

I say this ironically, of course (meaning, don't get mad at me). Slavic culture, like any culture, is a rich tradition full of interesting things, which is why I was excited to learn about it, and am sad I don't know more about it to start with. Turns out, though, that it is dang hard to research about, partially because so many Americans don't care, and partially because the Slavs didn't really write much down until the 1700s-1800s. Still, I was able to find out a few things.

Response: Dactylic Hexameter

I already commented on Alyssa's post yesterday, but I also wrote this and was going to post it as another comment, but it got a bit long, so I thought I would put it here. As Alyssa mentioned, Dactylic Hexameter is certainly the meter of epics--Homer, Virgil, and Ovid all wrote in it, as well as many not-as-famous people. I've studied it before (with my mother--I think I've mentioned before that she likes ancient Greek and Roman stuff), but I didn't really remember what it was, so I wanted to look it up. I think it is interesting information, so I am posting it.

Preview of the Roman Republic

"The Roman Republic" existed from 508 BC when the Romans overthrew their monarchy and 27 BC, when Octavious became "Imperator Ceasar"-- the first Roman emperor in the Roman Empire.

      This civilization thrived under their Republic. Rome expanded and became the unquestioned master of Italy by 201 BC--shown in the map by the  green area. In just 100 years the Roman Republic expanded even further, shown by the orange area.

     Part of the legacy set forth by the Roman Republic was their government. The Monarchy was replaced by two "Consuls"--magistrates who were elected by the people and advised by the Senate. Checks and balances, anyone? This new form of government gave more power to the people to be involved. In theory, Roman citizens were sovereign,  but as the Senate wielded more and more power, the flaws of this new system of government became apparent.

  Our government today reflects the legacy of the Roman Republic with the idea of separate branches and civic duty, but Roman language could be considered as having had more effect on the rest of the world than did their government. Latin was their language, which evolved into the Romance languages (including French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, and others) "Romance" comes from Roman! Maybe I'm the only one who didn't connect those two...

    Ovid's Metamorphoses, written originally in Latin, was not completed until A.D. 8. In it, Ovid traces the history of the world from its creation to the Deification of Julius Caesar using 15 stories of transformation. Written in dactylic hexameter, the meter of the epic, Ovid invited comparison between his work and Virgil's The Aeneid. Beginning with the ritualistic "invocation of the Muse," Metamorphoses tells transformation tale after transformation tale, each story connected by the theme of metamorphosis and love. Ovid's work was apparently very popular--over 400 original manuscripts have survived up to today. A lot of Ovid's stories are borrowed from Greek Mythology, which supports many scholars' belief that there is no such thing as "Roman mythology", only Greek mythology with a Roman flair.

   Metamorphosis was preserved by manuscript, but the stories and morals themselves existed for centuries via oral tradition. Epic poems are better preserved on manuscript because unlike counting-out rhymes (which are highly stable forms of oral tradition and can be passed on for centuries without alteration), exact words were not always remembered perfectly. Plot, character and place description, usually remain pretty stable, but exact words did not.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Celtic Language: Origins--

Modern day Celts

Since we just got our assignments for which culture we are to study, I thought I'd do some background research into the language of the Celts in Ireland. The transfer of oral knowledge comes through language, so a thorough understanding of how the language works will hopefully give me a nice base for future blog posts on the Celts as well as a base for studying the functions and systems of language as it relates to ancient Ireland.

Bedtime Stories and Songs

The idea of oral knowledge is still sort of confusing to me as types of knowledge are not things that I learned in high school- but anyways… I figured I might as well start with one of the first types of oral knowledge I learned. Bedtime stories and songs.

Got Prayer?

Mom- "We are thankful for the day"
Child- in hushed voice- " Thankful...the day"
Mom- " We ask thee to bless our family"
Child- "Bwess my family"
Mom- "Please bless the food"
Child- "Bwess food"
Mom- "We are grateful for the prophet, Thomas S. Monson"
Child- "Prophet Thomas S. Monson"
Etc, etc, etc....

Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles

Since we are starting our unit on oral knowledge soon, it made me think of maybe one of the most famous examples of literature that used to be oral, namely, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. The epic poems, believed to date to around 800BC, were orally performed, possibly for hundreds of years before they were finally written down. Bards memorized the basic stories for the poems, but probably composed a lot of it as they went, using a variety of stock phrases in order to get the correct meter. This is why the Odyssey so often uses the phrases "grey-eyed Athene," and the Iliad tells the whole putting-on-armor process many times. Repetition like this is often seen as a bad thing in current written work, but it wasn't when poems were performed orally. Repetition helped the listener to keep track of what was going on with the poem.

After researching the history of these epics, I wondered how to relate it to my experience today. The poems are still popular today, but only seem to have influence in college classrooms and a few scattered cultural idioms. I personally have read the Odyssey and much of the Iliad, but people nowadays do not go to performances of bards singing their own individual, memorized version of these stories. Then I realized that, for me at least, the connection is a different, much less structured kind of oral knowledge. I read the Odyssey for the first time when I was fourteen, but it was not the first time I had heard the stories contained in it. I already knew the story of when Odysseus had his men tie himself to the mast of his ship so he could listen to the sirens, and the story about the cyclops and how Odysseus escaped by holding onto the belly of a sheep. I knew that at the end of the Iliad, Achilles is shot in the heel, and Hector, the truest hero, is killed and his body dragged behind a horse around the city of Troy. I knew this because when I was a child, my mother told me these stories. She studied Latin and Greek in college, so it makes sense that when she thought of things to tell her children, the stories she had enjoyed and studied not too many years before came out. I don't know how many of you had the oral tradition of ancient Greece passed to you along with stories of Santa Claus and the three little pigs, but it was passed to me, and although I have never listened to a full recitation of Homer in Ancient Greek, the stories are still part of my personal oral heritage.

Midwifery

My first home! Davis County Hospital!

       Last weekend I returned to Davis County Hospital in Layton, Utah-- the hospital I was born in!  It was pure accident, I was driving back to Provo from Salt Lake and I got really lost, but I recognized the name from my birth certificate and said to myself "Hey! That's where I was born!" So I had to stop in and pay a visit.

Martial Arts- Go to a school to learn them

Martial arts have been around a long as civilazation has been around. With humans living in close proximity of each other there has been a need for self-defense. There are basically two schools of thought for martial arts, the Western and the Asian. The Asian martial arts depend mainly on form, quickness, and agility (judo, karate, etc.) while the Western focuses on strength and direct force to conquer an opponent (boxing, wrestling).

Wrestling has been used by many countries. But perhaps the most famous country for wrestling is Greece. The Greeks were famous for their wrestlers and at the Olmpyics people would travel from around the ancient world to see them. The Greeks taught in a specific gymnasium called a xystos. Athletes were frequently taught by former champions.

Karate began in China by the Pechin class of the Ryukuans. After China-Japan relations had been established some of this class moved to Japan and began teaching Karate. Karate and most Asian martial arts were taught by professionals who formed there own schools. That is how martial arts basically are taught to the rising generation. Professionals compete and fight until they retire and then they form their own schools and teach students who are interested in them.

Krav maga- Hand Combat

I apologise for the late post but this was the only time the person I could teach was available. I've been racking my brain all week about what I am good at so that I could teach someone. And then I remembered: I have been taking Krav maga classes for quite a while, and even though I'm not being taught now I still teach myself. And it is folk knowledge. I never really considered martial arts folk knowledge but it is. You can learn out of a book but you will always learn better from an instructor.

Now what is Krav maga? Krav maga is Hebrew for "hand combat." It was developed by the Jews in eastern europe when the Nazis took over as a means of self-defense. After the country of Israel was created it became even more important as terrorist attacks increased. Krav maga is an integral part of the Iraeli army, and since every citizen must serve for at least two years every citizen knows Krav maga.

I started teaching my roommate by showing hime the proper fighting stance. It's important that you don't clench your fists as this tenses your mucsles so your reaction time is increased.

This in the proper fighting stance. (This in not a video.)

I then taught my roommate how to get out of front and back choke holds, how to block knife thrusts, and how to disarm people with guns. Since giving a description of the moves would bore people this video clip shows what you can do with Krav maga. This video is intense and I enjoy watching it a lot. Enjoy!

To be a master--

squirt squirt

2 Be a Master. I racked and racked my brain for something I could successfully teach to someone else that included a portion of folk knowledge, and finally came to the conclusion I only qualify as a TRUE master in one thing: Pokemon. In this one area have I successfully climbed to at the very least a high regional level. And so it was that a seed began in one of my dear roommates, Brad.

Midterm

Hey guys! So from what I understood from the email from Dr. Burton is that in our discusssion- the following questions need to be answered:

How have others helped me to understand folk knowledge?

How have others demonstrated progress towards the outcomes?

I wasn't quite sure how to prepare for this midterm discussion, so I printed out everyone's blog posts so I could take notes on how you guys have helped me understand folk knowledge and how we have demonstrated progress towards the learning outcomes of this class.

How are you all preparing? Any other approaches? Not sure what else to do...


-Amanda

Hiragana

Since I utilized my mother and my younger brother in order to do my last post, I figured it would be a good idea to use one of my two remaining family members for the teaching experience. Actually, it was mostly because all of my friends and roommates are crazy busy and never there to teach, but my older brother seemed like a good choice anyway.

This is Joseph. He got back from a mission the Saturday before school started. He also doesn't like having his picture taken, so yes, that is a mission picture that I stole from the facebook account of one of his companions.

I had a hard time thinking of something to teach. Joseph has done pretty much all of the same things I have done, which would make sense since we grew up together. We also did many of the same activities in school, had many of the same friends, and the reason I took the ACT for the third time was in order to beat his score. We are like that. He has, however, been talking a lot to me recently about how he wants to learn Japanese so he can talk to me when I speak Japanese. I decided that I would begin his Japanese studies by teaching him a little bit about the Japanese written language.

Honestly, I'm not sure if this really counts as folk knowledge. I learned it almost entirely from tutorials on the internet, so it obviously can be learned without being taught in person. Then again, so can most of the things people have been blogging about. I have learned how to do a surprisingly large amount of things from the internet. My roommate claims to have learned most of what she knows about doing hair from the internet, and she's obviously good at it, since her hair looks perfect all the time.

But when I taught my brother, I did teach like I would teach folk knowledge. I gave an explanation. I demonstrated to him how to write the symbols, and what they are supposed to look like when they are done. I watched him try writing them himself, and gave instructions on how to do it better. The rest of the work may be simply memorization, but he will do that by himself.

Japanese has 3 different "alphabets" so to speak. One consists of formerly-Chinese characters that have meaning and can be pronounced one of about 4 or 5 ways depending on context. The other two are phonetic, meaning the symbols stand for sounds. One, called katakana, is exclusively for foreign words. The other, hiragana, is the one I taught my brother. It originated in about the 5th century AD, and was a simplified form of certain cursive-style Chinese characters used for pronunciation (The picture is of this kind of Chinese character). Hiragana was mostly used by women at first--men used all Chinese characters--so it was called "women's writing." Modern Japanese script uses all three systems mixed together.

Oh, and here is a (partial) list of my skills, because it is apparently important:

I can sew clothes, design patterns for clothes, quilt, crochet, knit (almost), cross Stitch, play the violin, play the piano, read music, sing in parts, follow a recipe, make up a recipe (but only if there are only about 4 ingredients), cook a darn good apple pie, read Japanese, read English, speak English, tell where commas are supposed to go in a sentence, take a test well, etc.

Next stop....Wimbledon!

I’ve always loved sports and have played them throughout my entire life. Another thing that really enjoy as well is teaching, I think I fully realized this during my mission. So I was excited to hear that we had the opportunity to teach something to someone and frankly I knew what type of thing I wanted to teach but I wasn't sure of the what specifically.

Provo Ink

Me before my tattoo training-- for your eyes only!

Timeless Image Tattoo...
aka the only place in Provo to get ink'd. Properly.
   
     I began my apprenticeship at Timeless Image yesterday afternoon with Luis and Randal . "Could you tell me everything there is to know about giving someone a tattoo?" I asked Luis at the front desk when I arrived. After one long, awkward stare, Luis, confused, asked "Like an apprenticeship?" "Yes," I said, "A one hour apprenticeship." He laughed a little, agreed, and took me to the back room. This is an account of my experience at Timeless Image Tattoo.

      Randal was in the back room in the process of giving a girl a tattoo on her back. Luis told him I was there to watch and learn the process of giving someone a tattoo. Randal said that was fine as long as I got my own tattoo at the end of my tour. Haha.....

Randal letting me watch

   Randal asked me what I knew about tattooing, I told him I didn't know very much. "Tattoos have been around forever," he told me, ten years ago archeologists found a cave man covered in tattoos.

     When I got home I looked up what Randal was talking about. "Ötzi the Iceman" was discovered in 1991,  his body is dated around 3300 B.C. Ötzi had over 57 carbon tattoos on his body, little dots and lines. Clearly, the history of the tattoo is long, and as diverse as the people who get them.

   

Randal's cave man

    Randal was using a tattoo gun to cut into his client's skin to inject the ink. "Your skin has seven layers, but to give a tattoo the deepest we go is the third layer." Ancient tattoo artists used sharp bone needles to pierce the skin and inject pigment, according to archeological finds in Europe. Some Indian cultures of North and South America simply scratched the skin and introduced ink to the wounds. In New Zealand, ancient people used wood carving tools to cut the skin. 

Ancient tattoo tools. A visual history of tattoo tools here!

  
 I asked Randal how long it took him to get trained as a tattoo artist. "Six months of formal training and a lifetime of doodling." Luis told me if I practiced my drawing I could apply for a formal apprenticeship and start tattooing by next year. "Drawing ability is an important part of tattoo design, but you don't have to be able to draw well to get into tatooing." Randal showed me the transfer they used on their client to put the design on her back. "It's like carbon paper, or a stencil." Luis told me. Even though you really just follow the lines of the transfer on your client's skin, you still need a lot of practice. 

    To practice tattooing you have two options: practice on your own skin or go to the butcher and buy pig skin to practice on. I asked Randal if I could try on his client, he said no. I asked Luis if he had any pig skin, he said no. Both men told me the only way I could touch the gun was if I was going to try it on myself. Good joke, guys. 

Randal dipping his tattoo gun into the ink well

     Randal and Luis proceeded to show me the tattoos they had given themselves in training. Luis had a spider on his wrist and a Catherine Zeta-Jones look-alike on his calf.  Randal had an 8x13 inch cross on his thigh.  I told them there was still no way I was gonna give myself a tattoo. Ever.

   Luis showed me the design gallery where clients picked out what tattoo they wanted, if they didn't come with their own idea. Ancient tattoos found on the mummified remains of Scythian people depicted game animals and totem. Tattoos in ancient China, however, were first used to mark criminals. 

All the different colors Randal showed me!

   Tattoos or "dermal pigmentations" are a type of body modification.  In ancient cultures as well as today, they are used either as a decoration or as a way of branding. Because I believe, as a Latter-Day- Saint, that my body is a gift and not a medium of expression, I don't support the tattooing industry. My informal training in modern-day tattooing, however, was an interesting experience from a learning-about-folk-knowledge point of view. The history of tattoos is much too vast for me to cover in this blog, but I do hope I highlighted the fact that tattooing in ancient cultures isn't much different than it is today. People today are as interested in expressing themselves in nonverbal ways as they were in ancient Scandinavia, China, Japan, etc. To see how all cultures have a history with tattoos look here.  Or here. I think it's evidence of the fact that we share more in common with our ancestors than we realize. 

Mind your Manners--

Four Sticks of Butter

 Inventory of my (teachable) skills:

• Cooking. My "specialities" are as follows:
• crepes
• my Grandma Rhea's eclairs
• cinnamon rolls
• brioche
• soft pretzels
• apple pie
• roasted chicken
• homemade almond roca (it is DIVINE)
• french bread
• scalloped potatoes
• I think it's obvious that I like to cook...
• playing the piano
• cleaning (apparently my mom thinks so...)
• organizing
• all types of shopping (that has to be a skill, right?)

Let them Eat Cake

As an avid baker and consumer of bread (my freezer currently houses four loaves—I kid you not), I decided to make a blog post on the evolution of bread. After all, virtually every culture  since the ancient Egyptians provides us with an insight on this staple food.   

Primitive forms of bread were first produced by Neolithic cooks and progressed from there as ingredients became more readily available and as technology improved. The earliest forms of bread were unleavened and resembled naan or tortillas. Yeast was discovered by Egyptians as early as 4000 B.C. Soon enough, bread became a staple in the lives of Egyptians. Evidence of this are the rolls and loaves that were found in ancient Egyptian tombs.


Preserved bread found in Pompeii.



In 3000 B.C., the art of baking bread became a coveted skill in Egypt. The closed oven was invented and bread continued its rise on the ladder of “culture sustainability” as bread was used instead of money.

Britain eventually caught on to the rising popularity of bread around 500 B.C.

What surprised me most through researching the history of bread were the social implications surrounding bread and the consumption thereof. Starting in 150 B.C., the privileged Romans insisted on consuming only the more exclusive and expensive white bread. A person’s social status was determined by the color of bread they ate. The darker the bread, the poorer the person was as white flour was much more costly. However, around the end of the 20^th century, this was reversed as more and more people caught onto the healthy benefits of whole wheat. Now, there is a negative association between white bread eaters and those ignorant of nutrition. Whole wheat bread is now more expensive than the traditional air-filled wonder bread often encasing Kraft singles and bologna.  

Harvesting grain in Egypt. 2650 B.C.

References to bread are also found in the Bible. In the Lord ’s Prayer includes the phrase: “give us this day our daily bread.” During sacrament across the Christian and Catholic sects, bread is symbolic for the body of Christ-as Christ is (like bread) entirely vital to our livelihood.  Bread is one of the few foods that sustained the poor through the Dark Ages. Bread was so important in the diet of the French people that riots during the French Revolution were thrown in demand of it.

Just as any other practice that has been around as long as bread making has been; it failed to squeeze past the view of technology and commercialization, especially during the 20^th century and beyond. This kind of makes me sad because I love a beautiful loaf of handmade bread- such as the one that was graciously brought to class a couple of weeks ago.  The additives and oxidants included in commercialized bread have allowed commercial bakers to imitate artisan loaves of bread that were formerly exclusively made by small artisan shops.

As for how this knowledge has been preserved and passed down? It was, and is mainly preserved through families. A Bakers' Guild was formed in Rome around 168 B.C. The college did not allow the bakers or their children to withdraw from the college to pursue other trades. Bread making was somewhat of an art. Because of this, bakers' held their secrets tightly in order to prevent other people from making their own business.

In 1910, bread production was no longer done by hand. Machinery took over and less and less people were making their own bread at home. Due to the convienence and ease, the volume of bread made in homes has decreased greatly as sliced and bagged bread became all the rage starting in the 50's.

While still somewhat popular, homebaked bread is not the main source of our bread intake anymore.

In my family, the art of making bread was something my mother, aunts, and grandmother all passed on to me. I was never really taught per se, but they helped spark my interest. I have called my aunt on numerous occasions to ask her how the bread should look when it's done or how I know when I've added enough flour. 

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

Quarter Catching--

Justin doing his thing

Immediately when I heard what our next assignment was going to be, I thought of my good friend that actually attends BYU with me. Justin Egbert is a master of circus tricks and random, "useless" trades that might look weird but end up being really cool. Things like juggling, origami, and making large structures out of K-nex all are right down his alley.

When I texted him about teaching me one of these tricks that he's mastered, he said that he'd be glad to teach me something called "quarter catching". You can find a rather humorous video that shows the basic concept here.

Hair

Earlier this evening, the learning opportunity that I had set up fell through. Then my backup plan fell through. I didn't have a second backup plan. This made an already troublesome assignment even more troublesome, so I called up my conveniently located mother to see if she had any of the brilliant ideas that she generally has.
Hesitation on the other side of the line... "Do you want to cut your brother's hair?"

So I ended up with a lesson in cutting boys' hair, which I had never done before, but will probably end up doing a lot more times in the future if I ever end up having sons.

This is a my brother. He is fourteen and a freshman at Timpview high school. He was very cooperative, although he could not resist sharing a handful of insights about just how frightening it is to have your older sister waving scissors around your ears.

So we sat him down and wrapped a towel around his neck to theoretically prevent the hair from getting all over his clothes. Then my mother got out the buzzer and the scissors and the comb and we set to work. We wanted a spray bottle to keep his hair wet, but we couldn't find one so we did without.

My mother showed me how to first take a section from the top of the head and cut it to the desired length, then use that section as a guide to know how long to cut the rest of the sections. She then let me try it, helping me when necessary, which was a lot of the time. My brother's hair is thick and wavy and utterly does not do what is told. I used the buzzer to clip the back of his head, then finished up the sides with the scissors. I evened the whole thing out, then she showed me how to make the neck, sideburns, and bangs look neat and straight.

When I was done, we looked at the finished product. My mother informed me that I should probably go do my blog while she fixed what I had done. I agreed this was probably the best course of action. In my defense, it really was my first time. I didn't even have that awkward experience as a child when I tried to cut my own hair. While the demonstration was infinitely useful, I still need a great deal of practice, which I think is true of most types of folk knowledge. You can be taught things, but a lot of the time, a big component of learning things is doing something and figuring it out for yourself.
He is probably laughing in the picture because he also thinks I didn't do a very good job.
Maybe when if I have sons, they will have hair that is easier to work with. Or I will marry someone rich enough to pay for professional haircuts on three-year-olds. That would be nice.

Field stripping a M16

I'm in Army ROTC and I'm on the marksmanship team. There is a competition every year at Fort Benning, Georgia where teams from all over the country compete. BYU placed 6th last year. My instructor taught me how to field strip the m16.

There are two pins above the trigger which come out which allows the low end of the gun (the part with the handle) to seperate from the upper end (the barrel). For me that was the most difficult because the pins were stuck on very tight.


If you go to this link www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgVOj0Dznfw it show you how fast you can field strip a m16. (For some reason I can't post the video here).

Zee French Manicure

    Combien Beau! Zee French Manicure :)  For non-nail painters (Don't feel like I'm alienating you, I used to ignore my nail beds too...) the French Manicure is a nail design that mocks unpainted nails, glamorizing the natural look of a fingernail. The nail tip is painted white while the rest is painted a pink or shade of nude, making your fingernail look whiter, shinier, and cleaner than humanly possible!

      Yes, I admit that I have always found French tips to be a bit ridiculous (are we in denial that dirt gets under our fingernails? We can't come to grips with the fact that our nails are naturally off-white and dull?) but they can be no more ridiculous than mascara or high heels or lipstick or any of those wonderful things! So, despite the fact that French tips are totally unconvincing, I have completely converted to the French way of thinking :)

It's all about the Flip

Well this last weekend I got to spend the morning in spain! Obviously I wasn’t there literally, but I did get a “taste” of what it would be like.

I don’t know exactly why, but I was never in the cooking scene that much growing up. I imagine it was mostly due to my lack of interest and also the fact that my Mom is a fantastic cook and that there was always food available to eat. I served a mission stateside that was filled with members who were incredibly supportive and gracious which again, didn’t yield me many opportunities in which I needed to cook for myself.

Do you know....Do you know

So if thoughts of Enrique Iglesias came into your mind and you started humming the tune to his extremely popular hit from about 4 years ago then congrats, you’re on the right track! Well, Kind of…

I actually don’t want to dive into the history of his music or any music for that matter, instead I’m rather anxious to feature the sport that this very same song performed by Enrique later was also known as…can you guess it? Yup, The “Ping Pong Song”.

Crocheting with Megan


(Let me preface this by saying I didn’t read Dr. Burton’s example posted prior to completing this assignment…)


Megan teaching me to crochet.



Since I am now fortunate enough to live next to family (seventeen months in Arkansas without my older sister wasn’t always fun) I asked Megan to teach me how to crochet or knit (as she is an avid knitter and crocheter). At that point, I had no idea there was a difference. They both screamed “old lady” to me.

Megan came over to my dorm on Sunday night and she taught me how to make a crocheted swatch (see picture for evidence).  As she helped me get started, I struggled to hook the right loop or to stop pulling the yarn too tight or too loose.  Like a young child learning to write, my sister guided my hands as she demonstrated the movements needed to make the stiches. In total, I attempted to make the swatch (that my sister labeled “wonky”) about five times. It was a pathetic endeavor, but I tried. Although the result was less than perfect, my sister was able to (attempt) to transmit the knowledge of how to crochet- something she enjoys doing. 



The beautiful (ha) result.



 This experience of learning from my sister about an art that I previously labeled “FOR OLD PEOPLE ONLY,” reminded me of a few other, but nonetheless valuable pieces of folk knowledge that I tend to ignore or pass up the opportunity to learn about. Indexing, gardening, and canning come to mind. Those are all wonderful things- but I tend to associate them with old people- and I haven’t fallen into that category just quite yet. There have been numerous occasions that I could have learned how to index from my grandfather and grandmother or canning and gardening from my aunts and mother, but I haven’t because of this lame excuse: “that’s for old people.” I guess learning how to crochet from my sister negates the “old people” excuse I tend to lean on when faced with a day of (woo—hoo) canning tomatoes!!!! I think the reason there is such a disconnect with “old” people and us eighteen years olds is that we are unwilling to step into their lives and learn about what they like to do. That’s when people connect. They connect when they are able to share their passions and talents with one another.



Burial Practices

Humans have been burying their dead for more than 100,000 years. Burial of some sort is found in nearly every culture on earth. It is said by some scientists to be the earliest evidence of human religion. It is so widespread, in fact, that I wonder if a large part of it isn't simply instinctual. Burial is a practical solution to a dead body as well as one that makes sense emotionally. The customs surrounding the burial, on the other hand, are certainly learned.

Probably the most famous example of unique burial customs is ancient Egypt, where important people's bodies were preserved in a process called mummification, then placed in large and elaborate tombs that were meant to be useful in the afterlife. But Egypt wasn't the only culture to have elaborate customs, nor the only culture to mummify remains.

The Chinchoro tribe of South America started mummifying remains about 2000 years earlier than the Egyptians did. Unlike the Egyptians, the Chinchoro didn't just mummify the remains of the rich and powerful. They mummified everyone, even miscarried fetuses. The methods of mummification were also quite different from the Egyptian method. In the earliest method, the Chinchoro would completely take apart the body, removing the internal organs, skin, and flesh. Then they would reinforce the body with sticks and plants and put soil and leaves in the body cavities to fill the volume. The facial features were reconstructed with clay, and the whole thing was painted black.

It is impossible to tell just quite how this knowledge was passed from generation to generation, but it certainly was. The practice continued for thousands of years. I imagine it was probably passed on like most things. As children grew up, they would witness the mummification of their elders as the elders died, and they would come to assume that the same thing would be done with their own bodies at their own death. Some children would be trained to carry out the mummification themselves as they got older, probably from watching and assisting an older, more experienced person.

We in LDS culture have our own unique customs surrounding death, which I have learned both from experiencing them and hearing of others' experiences. When someone in our culture dies, they are embalmed by running preservation fluids through their veins, arranging their facial features to look lifelike, and dressing them, before placing in a coffin. Friends and family members are invited to first a viewing of the body, then a funeral service. The funeral service consists of musical numbers (which likely have been hastily thrown together by the more musically inclined of the person's grandchildren), and short, often emotional, and usually hopeful talks about the person's life. Then the grave-site is dedicated, and the casket is buried and covered with a commercially prepared headstone. While there are always people crying at such events, the mood depends a lot on how old or ready to die the person was. My great aunt, for example, died about a month ago at ripe old age of 90. Although we loved her and were sad she left us, the funeral was so cheerful that the talks about her made us laugh so hard we nearly fell out of our seats.

Sources: http://artslivres.com/ShowArticle.php?Id=211, http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/chinchorro/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinchorro_mummies.

Medicine

The emergence of the Indo-European peoples (mainly Greece and India) began a new era in the history of medicine. Yes, these civilizations had their archaic magic and weird rituals for "healing" people, but what separated these cultures from the more barbaric Thracian, Illyrian, and Scythian cultures (having relatively low levels of civilization from what I understand) of the time was their use of the scientific method--they used experimentation to look for "universal laws" when they treated sick people.

Your breath stinks, Dude! Did you brush your teeth?

All right. You're about to go to your date's house to pick her. You look at yourself in the mirror. Hair: check. Clothes: no wrinkles. Socks: clean. Face: You just shaved (looking good, man).

You're ready. You drive over to her house, nervous but fairly confindent. You knock, wait, the she opens the door. "Hi" you say. Her face turn from excited to unbelief and disgust. You cast about in your mind for the problem. You checked everything before you left right? Oh great, I forgot to brush my teeth! You decide to simply grin and bear it until its over, and then you will be a hermit living in Antarctica with no contact with humanity, especially women, and especially that girl.

Hopefully this scene has never happened to you, but it does bring home the point of the importance we put on clean teeth and nice smelling breath. I can't even remember when I never brushed my teeth. I can only remember as a kid my mom telling to brush again if I failed her inspection and my parents horror that we were in a public place and that I had food in my teeth.

The toothbrush seems to have its origins in the chewing sticks of Babylonia as early as 3500 BC. Ancient Greek and Roman literature discusses the use of toothpicks. The toothpick evolved into the chewstick, which was about the size of a pencil. The ancient Chinese chewed one end of the stick until it became brushlike, the other end was pointed and used as a toothpick. The twigs used for this were from aromatic trees and freshened the mouth as well.

As long ago as 5000 BC the Egyptians were making a tooth powder consisting of powdered ashes of ox hooves, myrrh, powdered and burnt eggshells and pumice (can you imagine ash and eggshell in your mouth, ugh!). The Greeks, the the Romans "improved" toothpaste by adding abrasives such as crushed bones and oyster shells. They also added powdered charcoal, powdered bark and more flavouring agents to improve breath. (Just a thought, how good would your breath smell if used bones and charcoal for toothpaste? Maybe someone should try that out for a date, some girls like a rebel.)

Keeping clean is something the elite can do much easier than the poor. While rich Egptians were using costly toothpaste and twigs, the poor used there fingers to spread around cheap ill-made toothpaste. The ancient elite also had the time to brush more frequently while the poor only did it ocasionally, if at all.

Some folk knowledge is hardly in use and is mostly in use as hobbies. People deplore the fact that few people sew or bake. But I've never heard of anyone complain that we don't make toothbrushes out of sticks or make toothpaste out of bones and charcoal.

Mesopotamian Music Musings--

Welcome to the cradle of civilization. Cue music.

In our day, booming stereos, the radio, and iPods always seem to be on a continuous repeat during every second of the day. Music has the potential to be a pick-me-up, a chance to get pumped up for a workout, or even a righteous tune that is "a prayer unto me". (D&C 25:12) Good music is able to suppress our deepest fears and satiate our largest desires.

When I was five, my parents and I got together to sing a song about Joseph Smith in sacrament meeting. I sang a part about being a little child and being scared about Joseph leaving me. It really kick-started my love for music. My parents both were avid singers and instrumentalists -my dad sang in several a capella groups, while my mom sang throughout high school. Singing became a hobby of mine that I developed only through my parents love for it. Singing the hymns in church, then progressing to sing alto and tenor and bass was just part of being a Chandler. Music wasn't just something passed down orally or through writing; music was passed down to me through the traditions of my family.

As large of a part of our society as music is, it's no wonder that it dates back all the way to the beginning of early civilization. Mesopotamian musicians are frequently depicted in terracotta plaques, revealing music's role in even ancient society. They generally played lyres like the song you're currently listening to, but other instruments like the "oud" (a sort of precursor to the lute) were also played. The songs that were adapted almost always were dedicated to the cultural religion and their gods. There is evidence though that just like me, these ancient people also grew up in households where music was a prevalent part of their daily lives. The way of the song was not taught in a school or in a dark secluded room, but in the bounds of a family in which music enriched the living experience.

Under Pressure... Gotta Shave them Legs

Weird topic, right? Well, it’s a big part of my life every Sunday during the winter or every day during the summer. When I was 11 ish or so, I saw other girls were shaving their legs and I wanted to join in too. My mom showed me the basic method- don’t shave your legs dry, be super careful by the ankles and behind the knees. There is this unspoken rule about leg shaving among women in the western countries. If you don’t do it, you’re looked at as an uncleanly person. Not until the early 1900s did the concept of regularly shaving one’s legs come full circle. This is not a new idea however, as 3,000 to 4,000 years ago, women were removing body hair- for aesthetic and health reasons. The media also played a major role in marketing the idea of shaving “objectionable hair.” Also, as skirts shrunk in length, the practice of shaving became more and more popular among women. Not only are women seen as unattractive or hippy-esque or exhibiting traits of “bra-burning” feminists if they don’t shave their legs at least semi-regularly, the societal pressures of shaving one’s legs (or one’s anything, for that matter) add another to-do (or must-do) on a woman’s list. We even go as far as spending thousands of dollars on painful laser hair removal treatments to appease our desire to live up to society’s standards.

Canned Goods

On average, I wouldn’t say this is something I think about a ton, but i’m sure that due to moving away from home and being on my own again, it has been brought to the forefront of my mind. What might that be? Well, it’s my mother’s cooking :) and something in particular that I wanted to focus on, is a knowledge that I feel is pretty common amongst members

of the church (that may be a sheltered view, but it’s how I feel)...and that would be canning or bottled goods.

The time of canned goods dates way back into the 18th century and was inspired, we could say, by the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. He didn’t come up with the idea, but he put the word out that something needed to change in the aspect of food and war. The actual driving force of canning goods came about as a military strategy of all things. The French were in great need of a better way to increase and also maintain a regular food supply which was not an easy task...especially for large armies. Hence why a reward of 12,000 francs (a lot of money) was offered for whomever could achieve such a task. It wasn’t until about 15 years later that Nicholas Appert formulated the idea of preserving food in bottles. From that time on, it was adopted by many other countries and continued to develop and remain in high demand in countless wars around the world. In fact, it wasn’t until many, many years later that the act of canning or bottling goods actually became a common household activity.

Now I don’t profess myself to be a canning enthusiast, but it is something that I have learned over time as i have spent time around my Mom and helped out with the task.

Undoubtedly, i am extremely grateful for this knowledge and especially the instant access to canned beans, pickles, salsa, peaches, and many other homemade items. These are some things I really do enjoy about home! Now I have not yet had to try it out by myself, but for 3 of my siblings who now have families of their own, canning goods is an annual event that they participate in...thanks to the the knowledge that they acquired through my mom and other canning buffs in the area and of course, through practice and hard work.

Although we didn’t have to can food for an army, sometimes it would seem that way when there is not a inch of kitchen countertop insight due to the lavish amounts of jars EVERYWHERE. What once was a tactic to winning a war, now has become an essential aspect of a lifestyle and health for my family and many others around the world.