Long reading..didnt finish

This reading was extremely long, especially for a two day span. It was also complex where it didn't make it any easier to read and took time to fully comprehend all that i was reading. It could have definitely been shortened. However these scientist took the time to break down and fully understand how language and folklore are interrelated and can respect that. Every time i enter class i see or view another way of the folklore's i read. Now reading part of this texts shows me that their is even more to it. Folklore can be influenced by the type of language, breakdown, or sequence. I honestly just thought they were stories to explain the unnatural or mysterious situations.
To even go as far as to compare myth structure eventually to brain structure and images sounds kind of excessive but interesting. Along the lines of the brain, cognitive function brought up by Colby and Cole makes sense. They state that higher education or occupation led to higher cognitive function which in turn leads to more complex and diverse stories. I found this quit true when i read the native american folklore. There stories to me where random and uninteresting. Not to say they lacked intelligence but using what i remember from history, all natives did the same type of job. Most of them were not specialized preventing higher learning. However in other folklores most people who told the tales had a certain amount of education or were profound in there field of work.

Native American Folklore

Native American folklore brings another type of style to the table which makes it unique. However I am not a fan of it. Though folklore, myths and tales can be false, I see what i read was too far fetched. The stories were all over the place, from the cosmos, to the earth, dreams, babies, to new species. It was too random for me to find it interesting or leave my mind to imagine i wonder if this could be a possibility. Due to scientific advances many things in the readings are of course false. No human and bear can mate and no human can become a star. I rarely saw a lesson learned, if any, but I am guessing they were more of how things were created and came to be.

An example of what I mean can be Bigfoot or Dracula. examples such as these leaves room for the imagination, allowing people to question if this could possibly be real. There can also be similar stories in different parts of the world that can make such myths plausible. Weather it is real or not, we may miss facts that can increase the existence of such things. There have been sightings, creepy places, and things that are still left unknown to us. Stories like these make people wonder and go in search of. At least they leave an impression.

I didn't have much of a taste if any. However if i was born along with them, if I had no scientific understanding of how nature is I would find them interesting. However it doesn't matter if i like them or not. As long as stories and aspects of culture is preserved, all folklore have there place in the world.

Blog 3

As i read about the folklore's and traditions of Puerto Rico, i questioned how much could they possibly have. Then i thought to myself do we have that much in America? American folklore's is what i mean, not individual folklore's from different countries. It was very insightful on how folklore came about, who from and passed down. We can see the same examples in America due to the influences of natives, and immigrants from all over the world.
However, i can see alot of folklore are just made up due to coincidences. Some even seem as they were made up and just randomly passed down as new superstitions. some examples stated were lack of killing spiders or precious stones with meaning. We have our own such as don't cross a black cat or a broken mirror symbolizes seven days of bad luck. They seem as just little stories for children. However there was a great deal of similarities such as the weddings and lullabies.
The fables themselves from "Three Wishes" slightly confused me. They didn't show an obvious moral like Aesop's fables, and they lack a description of a lesson learned at the end. So i didn't know what to really make of it other than the boy was stupid, the ant persevered or seemed gullible, along with given the run around, and you she be careful who or what you marry because he or she may be some type of wicked creature. The witch story however was very similar to a Soucouyant from Trinidadian folklore. This witch or creature however took off her skin to suck blood from young children and came back before the sun came up. So i wonder if it is two variants of the same folklore that have been changed over time.

Understanding aspects of folktales

Though this reading was quite long, i have gained  understanding in the different aspects of folktales. These aspects are nothing new. However, i am pretty sure no one takes time into dissecting a folktale into parts to help explain its possible significance and creation. While reading, the breakdown of myths was very interesting because different myths and stories ran through my head which held examples in line with this writer.
A few sections stood out the most to me. The first were variations. Growing up in america with a Caribbean decent, we tend to hear many stories. However when you hear stories from other types Caribbean people  some are either similar or the same story, but a different variation. Then the thought of the origin comes to play as mentioned in this reading. One can only guess that it originated on one the islands and spread, or originated from Africa, then once brought to the Caribbean, it eventually varied in its content through the years.
Another two deals with interpretation with dreams and symbolism. It never stood out to me that when  listening to oral traditions, myths, or folktales, certain things stick out. I question, " i wonder what does that mean?" or "I have been down that street before". These little important details really stand out and captures ones attention which increases appreciation and allows the survival of it.  Depending on how significant such things are to ones life, as mentioned in this reading, determines if these myths get passed down.

Aesop review

       I found this article to be pretty interesting. It never occurred to me the reason why these philosophers and teachers would use animals in a lesson, which might be due to the fact that people during those times lived and communed with them everyday. Seeing a fox, lion, snake,ox, or bird was part of there everyday life. Watching there movements, learning there characteristics and what parts they played in society makes them very beneficial in the lessons given to explain or show human characteristics.
       My favorite part of this article had to be the importance on fables during meetings. As of today we don't use fables but human analogies and examples. We may even compare or contrast situations to machinery or other objects. We write memes or state situations to learn from. For research to show that fables were used in meetings among intellectual men showed they had a strong purpose. It was also stated that fables were most likely well known since some fables weren't retold, yet was already expected of the present men to know. One example  anyone can brings up is 9/11 or this Sunday Superbowl, we would expect the whole world to know and what occurred in some detail. Each society has there lessons, stories and teachings. Fables can definitely be a great one too. However i believe due to our technological lifestyle they wont really hold to much grounds and might be ignored or scoffed at. Either way, loved the reading.