Folk Art as it is

“Folk art” is a form of art that expresses a culture.  Members within a culture express not only their culture but also their selves. Folk art is more over looked than regular folklore.  I didn’t realize all the things folk art pertained to until I read this article.  In the article they explain that something as little as young kids drawing pictures is a traditional form of art within a folklore group.  There is a wider range of miscellaneous forms of folk art sculptures; quilts, paper ornaments, and baskets all are considered a form of folk art. Normally these forms of artistic expressions are passed down from generation to generation and have some type of historical and personal meaning.  While reading the article I became curious about a few things. For example in the old southern culture they produce quilts as a form of traditional and educational folklore.  Each peace of the quilt symbolizes something that is significant to that specific culture.  Today many cultures continue to make this significant pieces of folk art, but bedding companies also make them.  Can a store bought quilt still posses the same cultural symbolism as a handcrafted one even if the members choose to pass it down from generation to generation?  Even though all the folk art originated from the members of the culture there a lot of outsiders that either enjoy the product or enjoy creating the form of art for their own personal entertainment. A create example of this is in the African culture they make pottery and carve symbols that pertain to their culture and their experience.  They then use the pottery to make their lives more convents.  In America many Americans who are unfamiliar with the meaning behind pottery make and sale it to outsiders for decoration or house hold task.  Art and crafts are embedded within a folklore group.  It is also interesting to know that many cultures relate certain forms of art with gender roles.  In many instances females make things such as blankets’, quilts, jewelry, and baskets while the males make weapons, arrowheads and more strenuous complicated forms of art.  There are some things that both men and woman create such as painting, sculptures, and pottery.  Americans normally share the tasks among gender roles opposed to other more strict cultures.  Many forms of art produced where produced for a certain purpose and with the resources that were provided.  Even child hood toys are a form of folk art. Things such as whistles, rattles, and fiddles were produced by children and or their parents.  These products are still made and passed down to children for entertainment.  Woodcrafts and pottery are two of the most universally used forms of art all cultures use and create a large variety of these products.

An Insider

Brunavard who started off being an outsider of the Navajo tribe adapted to their culture and declared himself an insider.  He made close relationships, married a Navajo woman, and engaged in Navajo duties.  He even gave tours to the Americans as if he new everything about the area and was a true member of the Navajo culture.  As he began to feel comfortable within the culture it came to his attention that he had not mastered the language, which is the most important part of the culture.  Not knowing the language set him back to the stage of being an outsider.  Eager to learn the language he received help from a Navajo graduate student.  During this time Brunavand became the interviewer all over again he asked questions and recorded every thing that was said so that he would miss anything.  One thing that I observed from reading the article is that when interviewing and recording people you have to abide by the rules of their beliefs and culture out of respect.  In the article the graduate student was reluctant to tell Burnavand the tales that were to only be told in the winter in concern that Burnavard would repeat them at an inappropriate time.  Burnavard promised to obey the rules of their culture and agreed to not even replay the recordings of the stories unless it was in the winter.  Brunavard was very intrigued to learn everything about the culture and language, him asking so many questions would have made him looked suspicious of witchcraft to any other Navajo member.  Witch Craft was a very serious issue in the Navajo culture.  Even though it was not easily understood by outsiders it had a huge impact on the members within the culture. Witchcraft can cause death, poverty, insanity, poor health, and isolation.   Another thing that greatly confused Brunavard was the purpose and the meanings of the coyote stories.   As an outsider it is hard to grasp the main moral of the coyote story.  In the begging of the class when we began to observe the writings of Tolken and Brunvand we observed that the coyote stories where told as a form of education to educate the children about how natural occurrences and features happen.  For example the story about the coyote getting sap in his eyes, we took the meaning of that story to describe to us why coyotes have brown fur around their eyes but the Navajo tribe not only uses those stories for those meanings but for life long meanings.  These stories are way beyond children stories they are told to people of all ages at appropriate times.  In most stories the coyote possess characteristics of selfishness, self-destructive, foolish, and gluttonous.  All of these characteristics lead to destruction and wont allow you to prosper.  In the article the Navajo graduate continues to tell Brunavand the coyotes story about how he killed and cooked the prairie dogs that insulted him.  I believe that the Navajo graduate continues to tell Brunavard this story in hopes that he will be cautious in what he says so that he will not insult the other Navajo members on accident, while trying to collect his findings.