Group by D Noyes
Summary:
The article starts off with a small incident happening at an Italian Festival. A group of boys are trying to reach the top of a pole which is slathered in pig's fat to reach some goodies. These leads to the author discovering how these American-Italians handle unwanted participants - and that the rules aren't as concerte as they may seem. They do not want a girls of their own race or an asian man to partcipate but allow a black kid, who is their friend, to help. The girl is more kindly dealt with, but it showed the author that some relationships aren't alwasy as clear as they should be. he theorized that becuase blacks are helpful to the Italian community, they were more welcomed then the asian 'outsiders' who were new to the area. He goes on to explore several other ideas in his article, including social networking theory which reminds me strongly of my socio-psych class, especially the bit about multi-demensional/stranded relationships. The intergratitiy section also reminded me of the same class, as in that class we talked about how people often have a battle between keeping their own culture alive or choosing to loose their culture and accept the american culture as their own. This takes us to the next section which explores how 'insiders' exclude or dislike the outsiders, and how they wish they'd stay out - much like current America and Mexicans really. One apparent way is to ask forigeners to pronounce tongue twisters - rather clever in my opinion. The last two sections details how cultures and therefore performed/imagined themselves to be a community, or a 'group' as the author keeps using the term and how that works in their current, local setting. His closting statement, about how netowrk is trying to reach community, is rather poetic.
Response:
this was the most interesting article we've read to date in my opinion. i feel this is mostly because i could tie a lot of into my psychology field, and therefore felt i had a better grasping of the happenings then other stand alone articles which i feel jumped all over the place and had no real meaning to me. as i read the bullent points on relationships, i found myself applying several theories we had learned in my ethnics and social-psy classes. this made the article a lot more relevant to me personally, and much more interesting.
Q&A
He noted in the last paragraph that he had returned to the market he mentioned again in 1994 to see more...intergration of the locals. How is that section doing now in 2013?
Is the intergration of different cultures a good thing? Is the 'melting pot' theory good or bad?
As more culutres mix, does that mean their traditions fade out?
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Locating the nation: football game day and American dreams in central Ohio by Lindquist
Summary:
the article begins by mentioning how national news did make the papers, but the more local news about the football game was the obvious focus of the paper. he counties on to talk about how football isn't a feeble folklore traditions, citing 'school spirity' as a diety. the following paragraphs focus mainly on rebutting Laughlin, who apparently isn't as impressed by football as our author. he then proposes that football can be seen as an identity for a group, much like a flag or a national symbol. he goes on to talk about how football is particularly organized and very festive in its characteristics, including "food, costume and license" and how this is particularly true on game day. He also mentions that tame day involves multipul folklore generes such as "ritual, estival, spectcale, drama, game or cermony." The author then goes in the historicals about football in the more modern perspective. More notiably, this section focused on footballs rising popularity and it's modern rise to become the hoopla it is today. This section touches on a lot, from fan loyalty, to jokes, to fan costuming, and even finacial support. The remander of the article talks about the actual game day in columbus, (one of the first articles that talks about the marching band!) which included: game day traditions, who buys tickets, attendance, food (buckeye candies sound wonderful!) local participation, and the actual cermony itself, which begins with 'skull session' with the band and ends with a musical performance of Hang on Sloopy. He conculsion restates his stance in support of football as a true folklore tradtion, and even an identifier.
Response:
This guy uses a lot of quotes, doesn't he? I find football pretty boring, but I managed to hang on through this article becuase it didn't focus only on football. It talked about the band, the local community, the fans, the school, the food (I reaaaaaaaaaally want to try a buckeye. peanutbutter and chocolate? yes please!), the costuming and the traditions that surround it. This place also wasn't crazy obsessed with thier football, but more just happy to have a reason to celebrate.
Q&A
Serious, where can I get a buckeye?
Really? Sloopy? I hated playing that song, why is it so popular here? To even have a limit on it...
While there's an 'offical' game end, what is the town like after the game?
