Burping, Mama, and good manners

Sorry everyone, I have been having some troubles here, getting access to the blog, deleting my post, twice. Hope no one was too inconvenienced.still couldn't get the jump break to work. sorry.

Who, when they first discovered that burping was a sign of respect in Polynesia did not try it, only to be disappointed that this mere cultural knowledge did not make it polite to Mom?

Music Makes The World Go Round.

Everyone is affected by music on a daily basis. It penetrates you using the mediums of silence and sound. You hear it in elevators, in your car, in restaurants, and at the grocery store. It's everywhere and it's unavoidable. But where did it come from?

It is believed that music was expressed orally before the written language was even developed, but the earliest documentation of musical lyrics that is known dates back to 1400 BC and is inscribed in Sumerian cuneiform. The earliest prehistoric musical instruments are thought to be percussion instruments, such as drums, which provide rhythm. However, the oldest instrument discovered to date was found in a Slovenian cave and is a flute made out of bear bone. 

Slovenian flute

how to create a link within a comment

I outsmarted this website!

Here is the HTML code to put a link in your comment. Simply type this out and then replace the URL with the linked site's URL and then replace TEXT with the display text to click on within the comment to navigate to the linked site...

¿Which Doctor?

Even though we usually think of medicine as a "science" and as something that should be standard, medicinal practices vary from culture to culture and even from family to family.  All of us inherit beliefs from our parents about what causes what illnesses and what to do to cure them.  In my family, for example, my parents taught  me from a young age to always wash my hands to kill germs, which are a main cause of disease.  They taught me that we should cook our food well to prevent it.  That to cure a sickness the best thing is rest and to be well hydrated.  When we are sick our have a surgery there is always ice cream.  I vividly remember sucking on mickey mouse popsicles when I got my tonsils out as a child.

We're food folk.

(Sorry guys, this is a long post. I promise I’ll make my next few posts extra pithy to make up for it.)

Recently Married... No, Not Me!!

So, I am just learning how to blog for the first time, so I apologize that this took so long to get up and serviceable. I think learning how to blog is some sort of folk knowledge in and of itself....
My oldest brother just got married to the best sister-in-law EVER this past August (dancing in picture at right) and my oldest cousin got married last year around this time too. I was personally really involved in both of those weddings and since they are the first ones in my family to get married it has kind of been a big deal to me. Then something quirky about me is that I love traditions, traditions about anything (I think I suffered a lack of celebrating traditions in my childhood...). Being good Latter-day Saints, both of these couples got married in the temple and their opportunity (and inclination) to participate in the traditional wedding was limited. I plan on participating in a temple ceremony as well, and so I am kind of crazy in that I like hearing about and learning about all the traditions and symbols that I WON'T get to participate in.
One of my favorites is the rhyme "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue and a sixpence in her shoe" (partly because I love poetry too... the third language from Le Guin anyone?). Now there are wedding companies and advertisers all over the world who have chronicled the "meanings" of the items in this lucky wedding list in order to profit off of some of them (here's one from Ireland). However, because the tradition was originally just folk knowledge, their explanations are mostly common-sense guesswork. The rhyme is thought to originate in England in the Victorian Era between 1837 and 1901.
Something old for the bride to remember her family by and to remind her of where she has been that got her to this great and happy day. Something new to represent her new family and household that she is beginning with her new husband. Something borrowed is a more tricky meaning, but is commonly agreed to be borrowed from a woman who is already happily married and is supposed to borrow some of that luck for the new couple. Something blue is based off of the belief that blue symbolized purity, modesty and love, and was actually the common color for wedding dresses before the Victorian Era (when it changed to white because of the fashion of the Queen's wedding). Then finally the sixpence (a British coin, minted from 1551 to 1967) represented wealth, of both money and happiness, for the bride and groom, and was most lucky if placed in her left shoe.
I hope you enjoyed this bit of wedding folk knowledge as much as I did! :-)

Dating! (Mayan style)

My home is situated far from the cultural center of the church in a suburb just north of the bustling city of Chicago. This cultural distance combined with recently returning from a mission in Los Angeles has caused me quite a culture shock here at BYU. Not surprisingly, the biggest part of this culture shock is the overwhelming marriage atmosphere here in Provo. Everyone knows that marriage permeates the air we breath here in such saturated levels it could quite possibly be dangerous to the unexpected tourist. It is fairly obvious that this folk knowledge of marriage comes from years of informal and informal schooling. From church to the home, many LDS members have grown up with a future marriage and homemaking at the forefront of their minds. You could say the Provo marriage obsession traces its roots all the way back to Sunbeam class.

A rich deposit of learning potential can come from examining (at a cautious distance mind you) this new culture I find myself thrust into here at school. As part of this examination, I take you along the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico and through Guatemala to compare Mayan marriage and dating practices to those found closer to home here in Provo.

Unlike most LDS children, thoughts of marriage usually started around the age of 16 for males and 12 for females at a ceremony called the "Descent of the Gods" (shown in the painting to the right). In this ceremony the adolescents would ceremoniously remove clothing- white beads for males and a red shell belt for females that represent their virginity.

The main drive behind marriage in both cultures is primarily: to provide a healthy, strong and large family. Despite this similarity, Mayan parents were more involved than LDS parents in their children's dating and marriage life. We are used to many "marriage/dating talks" or the varying amounts of pressure to date. Instead Mayans went a step further and practiced arranged marriages. The method of these arrangements was through a professional atanzahab (matchmaker). He would read the prospective couples' horoscopes to determine compatibility in such areas as birthdays, names and among the gods. After this time the bride to be's father would agree on a price for his daughter and once in agreement the groom to be would work for him. This process could take as long as five to six years to complete. Throughout this whole arrangement process it is highly likely the marriage couple to be would not so much as engage in a single conversation. I laugh as I compare this Mayan custom to the stories we here in Provo that shock us involving a total time elapse of one month from first meeting, then dating and finally engagement and marriage.

After this deeply entertaining and interesting study of Mayan marriage and courting practices, it makes me think of what marriage should be based on. I also wonder simply what marriage means at its core to me and to all of us as members of the LDS Church. Personally, I know I prefer the methods many of our parents use to keep this particular piece of folk knowledge alive and vibrant by (might I go as far to say?) brainwashing us from a young age. I will pay the price of some cultural discomfort as I adjust to life here in Provo in exchange for a marriage based on profound love and the true Gospel and not simply a negotiation made between my parents and her parents. I do not judge the Mayans seeing as the distance between their culture and time period to Provo is much greater than Chicago's is!