GER 1502 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Franz Boas, Ethnocentrism, Promiscuity
25 Jan 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Dundes Reading
Intro
o He was a teacher, scholar
o Encouraged:
o Childre’s learig ia folklore, espeiall stories ad for kids
o Use of hildre’s lore to sho their rialr, relatios, ad pueset feeligs
o Folklore as the best way to describe oneself and as a teaching tool for cultural
understanding
o Believed folklore is constantly being recreated, it is not a relic but an expression
o “uggested irror oept Fraz Boas is igger tha origiall pereied: sols ithi
performance are a result of folklore serving the function of a socially sanctioned outlet for
suppressed ishes ad aieties pg.
o A way to upset power relations between parent/child, hierarchical society
Folklore as a Mirror of Culture
o Lore is a vital teaching/learning skill, as it is the orator’s or people’s self-description,
intentionally or not
• Some elements of culture are singled out, on display, given special emphasis which
is/a e tellig of a people’s alues; “eeig ulture fro the iside out pg.
o Looking from outside in and othering cultures impedes any better understanding via
ethnocentrism
o Folklore when used [extremely] to preserve nationalism traditions and heritage becomes an
isolation tactic instead of a way to bear similarities internationally and cross-culturally
o Gri’s used oiatio of atioalis ad roatiis to ostrut a trul Gera stor
catalog before the Teutonic scene dissolved by re-writing classics from Europe
• Thigs ritte are take to e geuie folktales pg. 56) and not of the vulgar illiterate
which has equated folklore to falsehoods and ignorance, discouraged by educators
▪ Myth is a genre of folklore, not an error
o Variation should not give way to thoughts of superiority but respect
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