Defining Terms

Since our group has been assigned to blog about the topic of rhetoric, with a particular emphasis on eloquence and philosophy, I thought I'd do a little background research on what these terms actually mean before I tried to write about them. I went to the library, found some great information (in a REAL book!!), and figured I'd share. Keep reading to find out what I learned and hopefully get some context for everything we've been (and will be) talking about in our blog posts this week and next week!

From Paganism to Christianity

The Anglo-Saxon use of philosophy and eloquence to effect others was largely changed and affected by the shift from paganism to christianity with the arrival of christian missionaries in the 6th century to the germanic tribes in Britain. The philosophical concepts of "Fame" and "Fate" brought on by heroic traditions were contradicted by christian beliefs and the poetic tradition in germany was losing its value as an oral tradition. To understand the great change this shift had to their oral knowledge and ability to use philosophy and poetry to communicate, we first must analyze the basis for poetry and philosophy in the Anglo Saxon germanic tribes.


After rebelling against the Christian Britons, the Anglo-Saxons set up Germanic kingdoms, thus beginning the The Anglo-Saxon era of England which lasted from approximately 450-1066 A.D. Each kingdom was ruled by a certain lord. In the new Anglo-Saxon society, the closest relationships were between a lord and his kin. The Germanic clan or "Comitatus" consisted of men who followed their lord with strong loyalty and sacrifce. The comitatus held their duty to their lord as their most important task in life and believed it to be the greatest loss to be separated from lord and kin. This sorrow from loss can be seen in the Anglo Saxon poems "The Wanderer" and "The Seafarer". "The Wanderer" describes a man that has been exiled from his lord and clan, and must wander aimlessly. The man speaks of how horrible it is to be separate from his clan and lord, considered to be the worst punishment and dishonor:

"When friendships are no more. His fortune is exile,
Not gifts of fine gold; a heart that is frozen,
Earth’s wisomeness dead. And he dreams of the hall-men,
The dealing of treasure, the days of his youth,
When his lord bade welcome to wassail and feast.
But gone is that gladness, and never again
Shall come the loved counsel of comrade and king."
(II. 27-34)

Similarly the poem "The Seafarer" describes the same horrible loss and misery of a sailor who is isolated at sea, he describes his loneliness as “Wretched and anxious, in the paths of exile/ Lacking dear friends, hung round by icicles.” (II. 14-15) He has truly lost everything, his kin, lord, and duty.


When the Germanic Tribes came to Britain in the fifth century, they brought the language of Old English with them. They also brought this tradition of poetry that was usually mournful, conveying the suffering and loss of the burdened and miserable lives of the people who wrote them. The Anglo-Saxon poems, “The Wanderer,” and "The Seafarer" convey how this tradition of eloquence captures the culture’s philosophical concepts of "Fame" and "Fate" and the importance of a Lord to the Germanic tribes. The Anglo-Saxons did not believe in an afterlife, only the idea that they are assigned a certain fate that could be good or bad depending on the hero's circumstance. If one had the courage to fight his fate and create "Fame" than he would be remembered and spoken of as a hero in poems following his death. This was the goal for peoples of the germanic tribes, as seen in the famous poem Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxon culture saw Fame as a worthy and honorable objective: “So fame/ Comes to the men who mean to win it/ And care about nothing else!”17 (II. 507-509)


Once the Christian missionaries came to Briton in the 6th century, they began converting the Anglo Saxons to christianity. Christianity introduced new concepts such as an afterlife of heaven and hell and the cause and effect pattern of our actions on earth resulting in where we go in the afterlife. This contradicted the pagan beliefs of the Anglo Saxons and their main philosophical foundation of "Fame" and "Fate." This would cause the poems such as "The Wanderer" and "The Seafarer" to lose value and change the oral tradition of using poetry and philosophy to pass down pagan beliefs. The use of eloquence and philosophy in the Anglo Saxon culture would change forever after this point. This shift conveys the importance the pagan beliefs and philosophies of the Anglo Saxons were for their basis of knowledge that could be communicated through their rhetoric to convince others of their view on life.

So why do you think the Anglo Saxons placed such great importance on Fame and Fate? How does their poetic tradition show their ability to use language as a way to communicate philosophical ideals?

Medew Netcher - the divine speech

(I have to apologize in advance - the formatting was confused on this post. I fixed most of it, but it's still a little skewed.)

"Life is too short to devote years of study to learning that what went on with the ancients was just more of the same. It is too short to let us live both our lives and theirs from day to day unless they have something to add to the story, something we do not have, something quite wonderful and unexpected. Of all people the Egyptians are most likely to supply us with such matter." -Hugh Nibley, from Abraham in Egypt

The Old Kingdom is the term for the Egyptian dynasties between about 2686 BC and 2181 BC. It is known as the Age of Pyramids, when the great Architect, Imhotep,

was a servant to the Pharaoh Djoser (For a very interesting theory about Imhotep's

relation to a well-known biblical prophet, see this link).

It was also an age of religious change for the Egyptians.

The Egyptian religion was hugely complex, and had already gone through several

changes in what or who was worshiped, the qualities of the gods, and even in who was said to have created the universe. It is believed that the original pantheon of

gods was compiled from various tribal myths and local religious traditions, which were

then reconciled by the 'official'

priests in order to make them all conform. During the Old Kingdom, the change was different than any before.

This new shift in their religion involved mainly one figure: the sun-god, Ra.

That's him.

Ra was said to be the king of the gods, the ruler of earth. This was a departure from

the previous incarnations of religion in Egypt,since before there had been no

discernible ruler of the gods.

In some ways, he was made to be analogous to Zeus or Jupiter, though with a major difference - he was the Sun-god rather than the god of the sky, since the Egyptians believed that the sun was the source of knowledge and power for the earth. (source)

Along with this shift, and possibly serving as the reason for it, was a change in attitude towards the Pharaohs. The royal line was declared to be descended directly from Ra, and so presumably worthy to inherit power over his creations on the earth.

From this came the interesting fixation with the afterlife - since they were descended from gods, the Pharaohs wanted to make sure that they were in good standing with their 'relatives,' especially upon their death.

From this came what is known as 'pyramid texts.' On the walls of the burial chambers and hallways of the Pharaoh's pyramid or grave site, they would write down words and phrases to be sung or spoken to the gods during the final portion of the king's burial ceremony. The language addresses each deity individually with nearly the same requests or speeches,both of which attest that the Pharaoh is worthy of joining the gods in their abode. In fact, they seem to be attempting to convince the gods to accept him(see here for an example translation of one pyramid's wall inscriptions for the Pharaoh Unas).

These inscriptions provide an excellent example of Egyptian persuasive speech and writing. We can see the use of the rhetorical idea of pathos, or a petition to the emotions of the audience.

Here's an excerpt that shows an appeal to Ra:

"He [comes] to you, O his father, he comes to you, oh Re [(Ra)], he comes to you, O his father, he

comes to you, O Overthrown One, he comes to you, O his father,...he comes to you, O Wanderer."

-From the east wall of the sarcophagus chamber in the pyramid of Unas

Their two main techniques are pretty clear here, in my opinion. Not only do they appeal to Ra emotionally, reminding him that Unas is his 'son' and therefore should be accepted by him, but they also make use of repetition, an even bigger tool they enjoyed using. It's far too long to put it all here, but you can check out the lengthy, repetitive appeals to each god in the link I gave above.

The repetition in the priests' recorded speeches reminds me of ancient Hebrew writings, like the Bible: the most important points would be emphasized by repetition to impress them on the audience.

Here, the only difference is that the ones they were trying to convince were not mortal, and were believed to be in charge of deciding the fate of their king's eternal soul. A lot was at stake for these priests to invoke the gods well on the pharaoh's behalf.

Who knows, maybe if they did it wrong, this would happen:

Just kidding. But seriously, they were under a lot of pressure to do their best to implore their pantheon on behalf of the Pharaoh, and they probably used the best techniques of speech that they knew. In my opinion, that's why these pyramid texts are so revealing about how the Egyptians of the Old Kingdom used their rhetorical skills.

Just on the fun side, I really enjoyed researching this topic, and I learned a lot of new and interesting things.

For example, the above is my name, transliterated as near as I could get it into ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics.

And as a bonus, here's a short video about how the uni-lateral symbols of the Egyptian "alphabet"

work. Enjoy!

The Harmless People

The zhu twa si, or the harmless people, are the Kalahari Bushmen of South Africa. This people, along with the Hottentots, are the earliest race in Southern Africa, and they still exist today, an ancient race preserved in time. This people possess a great sense of distance from the rest of the world. They have their own unique religion, folk knowledge, and language. The language, contained in the Khosian language group, consists of a series of pops, clicks, and breath implosions. They also prefer to be very specific in the small things. For example, the Bushmen have names for the inside of their elbows and the back of the knee.

Chinese Rhetoric

As a continuing intro into the new unit, I thought I would define a few terms and set the pace for the coming weeks.

We are going to be studying rhetoric. What on earth does that even mean? Here is what Webster's says: "The art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing". Our sub-focus is eloquence and philosophy within various civilizations and how knowledge was passed down through this medium.

Rhetoric varies from civilization to civilization and as such, has different values associated with it. I read part of an article that explains some of these differences. I am still trying to wrap my mind around the subject matter, but I will do my best to explain coherently some of the things that I learned. In rhetoric, the speaker appeals to three different principles: ethos, pathos, and logos. In Western rhetoric, most appeal to ethos, trying to appear as a person of good will and good character. If one can do that, you have a much greater chance of convincing your audience of your position. Western thought says you can win a debate and sway people to believe your side of the issue. In Confucian thought and rhetoric, there is much more of a peaceful feeling. In ancient China, the rhetoric would persuade through values such as "rectitude, sincerity, and consideration and respectfulness". Here is a great quote from the source that illustrates this point perfectly. "Argumentation is a process that involves not two opponents that are engaged in a contest to determine a victor but a co- operative enterprise between concerned and responsible parties that are attempting to arrive at some conclusion". How different is that from what we see in our world today? Everyone is out to get their piece of the pie and nothing else. As long as we get what we want, the world can keep turning. Confucian thought and rhetoric differs dramatically from that. I think we could have a good discussion as a group about the different styles of rhetoric between our various civilizations.

I feel that we can even see this today. The Asian cultures are very hospitable and peaceful. We in the West can be set in our ways and determined to make others believe the same. It was interesting to me to learn about some of these differences in thought and rhetoric. I will continue to research the rhetoric of ancient China and you can bet that I will have more to add!

Source

Segway to Oral Knowledge

As we began our unit on oral knowledge in class today, I couldn't help but think about how language itself is really a form of folk knowledge. And it's one of those things that we learn without even realizing that we're learning, tying it in perfectly with the discussion in Sam's post from Tuesday about how we just seem to automatically absorb some knowledge.

Who's an expert?

I wanted to make a quick post about a cool connection I made this evening.

When I got home from school, my housemate, Melissa, was making enchiladas for dinner group. She was running a bit short on time, so I suggested that she make enchilada casserole instead of rolling the individual enchiladas.

What does this have to do with anything??

I just made enchilada casserole for the first time last Sunday (with lots of guidance over the phone from my mom) and then here I was four days later showing Melissa how to do it! And I acted like an expert (which I had to, because compared to her, I was the expert)!

It reminded me of Dr. Burton's post about learning to crochet from an "expert" who had learned the day before.

The cool thing is that if I weren't taking this class, I don't think I would have thought twice about this process of suddenly becoming an expert through the process of sharing knowledge. It's exciting to recognize it happening in my everyday life!

Oh! As an extra tidbit: I don't use a recipe for the casserole my mom makes, but if you want to get an idea of how it's made, check out this link!

image source

Priesthood Blessings

So I decided to shift focus a little bit from domestic folk knowledge to a little bit more religious context. I think an intriguing religious aspect of our life is priesthood blessings. Whether you are the one with the ability to give blessings or not, both men and women of our age have been present for enough of them to understand what they mean and how to give one physically. I know that there is a certain amount spiritual guidance that one must have while giving a blessing or ordaining someone to a position. But i believe that some part of ordination and blessings is a folk knowledge we as members gain from being in the church all our lives and seeing priesthood holders exercise this amazingly important ability.

I hope it isn't too sacrilegious to say that a part of knowing what to say in a blessing comes from the Lord, but also from the great examples we have had in our lives of worthy priesthood holders. These men could be fathers, bishops, ward members, missionaries, or complete strangers, it doesn't really matter. What matters is that have seen a model of how this knowledge is not only taught orally in church, but actually lived out by someone. I think the really only way we are able to pass down this folk knowledge of giving a religious blessing or ordination is by example and modeling it to others. There is not some manual or set of instructions that tells you what to say (or if there is I haven't been diligent in studying it...).


I also don't want to be exclusively speaking about the Mormon church either, although that is the church I have had the most experience with, I believe that other churches exercise priesthood and other blessings that can be deemed as folk knowledge. I am sure for some religions there may be some sort of code or guidelines, but it really does comes mainly from the heart, god, and examples they have had of men modeling this knowledge. I hope that I can take from the great examples and models I have had and be able to combine there knowledge passed down to me with the spirit I feel in the moment.


Food for thought!: After reading this post, think about the examples you have had in your life of men giving a blessing, and try to come up with how they may have learned that folk knowledge and combined it with the spirit to ordain someone or give a blessing.

Trailing Light

I was walking around campus after dark tonight.

I needed some time to myself, and anywhere indoors just wasn’t going to work this time.

I passed through a courtyard and sat down on a bench for a while. I was so absorbed in thoughts and worries that I didn’t even register an interesting phenomenon: when I had walked past the little waist-high lamp posts that ringed the courtyard, they brightened noticeably beyond their original light. I only realized what had happened a moment later: one of them turned back down to its previous level, but the one nearest to me had stayed brighter, as if detecting my presence. Which I suppose it was, on an un-sentient, electronic level.

I tested my sudden intuition about the lights by moving towards the post that had recently dimmed. As I approached, it quickly grew brighter again, welcoming me back into another circle of light. Each post I passed did the same, and by the end of the courtyard the first had dimmed again, so that their light followed my path like a fading afterimage to show that someone had been there.

Now, I’m sure you’re reading this and thinking ‘Nice story, but what does it have to do with folk knowledge?’

Well, I’ll tell you.

Of course, seeing those lights, I remembered hundreds of lessons, talks and metaphors that could apply to that situation, especially spiritual ones. We use the concept of light an awful lot in our speech and teaching. And I wondered for a while why that was.

We need light to see, to make our way in the unknown. We learn, perhaps unconsciously, to fear dark places and what they might hide. This seems to me one of the more lingering so-called 'primitive' or 'natural' instincts possessed by people from all backgrounds. Light is so fundamentally connected to our psyche as a people that we cannot separate ourselves from using it to teach.

Light is the source of all life on the Earth. This is true both literally as science understands 'light', and spiritually as we understand Light, as in the Light of Truth, the Light of the World. Cut off from light, everything would soon fade and die; cut off from Light, the same thing happens to our spirits and our faith.

The quest for light of both kinds, conducted by mankind in general throughout all our thousand years of life on this planet, can be seen in our constant drive to banish the night from our houses and cities. In ancient times we used candles and fires; in modern times, we use floodlights, headlights, and neon lights.

I mean, we automatically know, watching Star Wars, that the guy dressed all in black (darkness) is probably not someone that you would want to hang out with too much. Did anyone teach us that? Did your parents ever tell you "Always remember: guys wearing black are more likely to be criminals."? Probably not. It's just one of those things that we pick up almost as soon as we can follow the plot of any movie. Why is the dichotomy of light/dark so deeply ingrained in us, even in a society where we have cities that never sleep, roads and cars that surround us with glistening lamps, and even campus walkways with automatic lightposts? Shouldn't we have moved on to more realistic types of fears, in a way?

To me, it shows the effect of all those years before, all the ideas and themes of past stories that lingers on even today. Stories even from very ancient times associate darkness with danger, suspense, or the unknown:

"amid the Scyldings a scathing monster,/

dark ill-doer, in dusky nights/

shows terrific his rage unmatched..."

Source

Literary proof shows that the idea of light associated with danger and so on can be traced back to almost the earliest texts we have. By contrast, light is also an important symbol, even in the Bible: "Let there be light" is probably one of the most famous statements from the Old Testament.

In fact, that is probably the reason that Light is so significant in metaphor, analogy, and parable. Light is always understood by the learner or listener to be good, a desirable thing, associated with purity, holiness, happiness, safety, and so on. Therefore, we use it to describe those things that we consider to be good. This old fixation on light is seen in our language as well: English especially has so many words for light, illumination, brightness, glow, luminescence, shine, and so on, that I couldn't ever be sure I knew them all. We use the idea of light in everyday turns of phrase and idioms (seeing the light, in the dark, etc.) and even jokes (how many BYU students does it take to change a lightbulb? A: I don't know. If you have a good one, put it in your comment).

My main point is that it's no coincidence that we seem fixated on the idea of light. Light has always been important to our survival, and Light always will be. Through the years the ideaof both kinds has been cemented in our minds; through society's views in general, and through the lessons we learn from those we come into contact with, even if those lessons are learned unconsciously, and even taught unconsciously.

Such is the power of folk knowledge, passing down through time to help each new generation learn the truths that their fore bearers knew, if only through metaphorical means.

I Pledge Allegiance

The Pledge of Allegiance. It has inspired men to give their lives for their country, immigrants to journey to the United States, and thousands to stand at the sight of a passing flag. It has strengthened our country, united us under one cause. Everyone, from the small, innocent child to the wizened elders know it by heart. This is perhaps the strongest oral tradition that exists today, passed down from generation to generation of patriotic citizens of the United States of America.

I pledge allegiance the flag of the United States of America,

And to the republic for which it stands,

One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 

Aghios Vassilis? Mos Craciun? Any Ideas?

You may not have recognized it from the title, but the man mentioned is world famous. Though rarely seen, he has quite the following. He lives in a remote part of the world. He rocks boots and a nine "horsepower" ride. Any ideas?

In England he is known as Father Christmas. In Russia he is Grandfather Frost. To us, he is Santa Claus. Welcome to one of the best folk stories every told.

The legend of Saint Nicholas is much older than I ever knew! In 280 A.D. in modern day Turkey, Saint Nicholas was born. He was well known and highly regarded as a generous man who sold all he had to help the poor and the needy. Over the years, the kinds acts continued and the legend grew. St. Nicholas became known "as the protector of children and sailors". (Source)

The legend of St. Nick has grown to fill the world and is now a central theme of celebrating Christmas. As we think about Christmas time and all that it encompasses, I am sure that happy memories flood our minds as we ponder on the traditions that we have in our families. Those traditions are passed on to us and we will most likely carry those with us to our future families.

My grandma is from South Africa and she brought some traditions with her that have become a part of our Christmas celebrations. Two weeks before Christmas, we line our shoes by the fireplace in hopes that the elves, who have been watching us throughout the year, will fill them with sweets and treats. If we received candy and treats, it was a good omen for what was to come for Christmas Day.

I could spend hours sharing about my family traditions surrounding Christmas-time. I absolutely love Christmas at my home. I know that as I begin my own life, those are days that I will greatly miss. The magic and happiness that surrounds Christmas is hard to compete with. The folk knowledge that is involved with that holiday is immense. It ties us to our families and brings us closer together. What are some of your favorite traditions? I would love to know.

Folding? Don't worry, this time it's okay!

Anybody know what "oru" means in Japanese? How about "kami"? And what on earth do you get when you put them together? "Oru" means fold, while "kami" means paper. Put them together and you get what we know as origami, a paper folding technique used to create intricate and beautiful shapes.

In the ancient days, homemade paper was considered a "luxury" item in China and Japan. As such, paper folding was stictly reserved for ceremonies, some of which were religious. As paper became a more widely accessible resource, origami became more widespread as the instructions for the folds were printed on paper.

Modern origami has developed today into a widespread hobby that features many folds and even many pieces of paper combined to form a single shape.

As my teaching part of this project I decided to teach my fiance how to make the traditional origami crane/swan. For our reception I have to make about 200 for decorations, so I thought this would be a productive teaching moment! It doesn't seem like too much of a task to fold paper, I know. However, when you don't have much space left and you are folding a tiny little piece of paper, it can get pretty tricky. My favorite part of the crane is that, when you are done, if you pull the tail and the home at the same time, it appears to be flying. Here is a video you can check out if you are interested in learning how it's made.

It was a lot of fun passing on folk knowledge because you can find something in common with another person that you both enjoy. I obviously don't have kids, but I imagine that it will be fun to pass things on to them that I enjoy and to then be able to do those things with them. As we have studied folk knowledge, I have felt more and more that that is a purpose or result of it. I feel strongly that it can bring us together as we share something with someone and they take it and run with it. You are connected because you will, in their minds, always be the person that taught them that thing. There is a lot of value in teaching others what we know. Both parties are edified.

Trees with Ease

Me teaching the other Jenna the tree pose

For my teaching of folk knowledge, I decided to show two of my room mates, Jenna and Kieren, a few Yoga and Pilates moves. Yoga and Pilates share many similarities, but while Yoga is more spiritually and mentally based, Pilates is based more on working out. So, I enjoy doing a mix of the two. First, I made a short, fifteen minute workout routine consisting of basic Pilates moves such as the Pilates 100 and the single leg stretch, as well as some basic Yoga positions of Warrior, Cat, Cow, and the Tree pose.

Kiss My Ace!! Teaching Tennis!

In 1873, the first form of the sport tennis was invented. Since then, the sport has evolved into an intensely athletic and powerful game popular in all corners of the world. I have loved to watch and play this sport since a young age and consider myself pretty skilled with a racket. But what I learned today is that their is a big difference between mastering a folk knowledge such as playing tennis, and being able to teach someone that folk knowledge. Today I taught (or attempted to teach) someone how to play tennis. In the process I learned that teaching a sport takes patience and, more importantly, the ability to transform your complicated knowledge into basic knowledge so that a beginner can learn enough to be able to enjoy the sport and want more.


I first explained to James a brief history of Tennis and told him who the best players in the world and arguably history, Federer and Nadal, are blessing us every grand slam tournament with amazing matches full of incredible points and shots. Many view them to be the best of all time although a new up and comer named Novak Djokovic is emerging into the spotlight at the moment, challenging the two tennis greats. Above is a video of the highlights of arguably the greatest match of all time. It was played by the two greats Nadal and Federer in the final of the biggest and most prestigious tournament of the year: Wimbledon. It seems as if every point is match point, that's how intense these guys are. I gave James this brief Tennis history and player recap before we actually hit the courts just so he had an idea of how popular and historic the sport has become.

I taught James the basic shots of tennis and how it was scored and we got to the point in which we could play a full game without stopping which I was very happy about. But it was frustrating at times trying to get someone to mimic what came so easily to me. In this way I realized how in many cases the best teachers and coaches are not star players with natural talents (not that I'm saying I'm a star, well actually I kind of am...) but rather they are the ones that work hard and strategize to become good at their sport. This is how folk knowledge of any sport is passed down to others, through the ones who can explain it best and teach the natural talents of each generation the wisdom of the veterans. This realization came to me as I tried to teach this kind of folk knowledge myself.

Here is a list of the skills I considered teaching, I went with tennis because James asked me too and I love it the most:
- Rock Climbing
- Rubix Cubing
- Longboarding
- Throwing a frisbee
- Magic Tricks
- Swimming
- Knot tying
- Teaching tennis
- Teaching basketball
- Teaching golf
- Table tennis

Weight Lifting...for Runners

I like learning! It doesn't matter if it's cooking, or some kind of craft, or even a new study method - I rarely hesitate to try something new. There's one area I'm definitely not so comfortable with, though, and that's the realm of kinesthetic learning. Sports, secret handshakes, dancing...anything that requires some level of coordination between brain and limbs is rough for me.

So I decided that weight-lifting would be a perfect "out of my box" form of folk knowledge to learn for our class assignment. Initially, I had ambitious plans: go to the Smith Fieldhouse, find some guy lifting weights, and ask him to just show me a lift or two. Not that big a deal, right?

Wrong, at least for me at this point. My courage failed me, and I turned to at least a more familiar source to learn this unfamiliar skill from.

Luckily, I have a wonderful housemate, Melissa, who is really into staying in shape and knows a lot about that kind of thing. She's currently training for a marathon, and by my measures, she's an expert on anything that has to do with running.

This ties in because she actually lifts weights to improve her running form! I thought this was fantastic because running is something I do - this skill could actually be really useful to me.

Melissa didn't have a lot of time to spend teaching me (I didn't have all that much time either, for that matter!), so we decided to do it right at home!

She started out just showing me the hand and arm movements - I won't go into detail here, because it doesn't work so well with words, but there was one that looked like running and then several variations of lifting my arms up. I did some practice with Melissa watching me, feeling very silly as she gave hints like, "don't lift your arms above shoulder level for this one" and "make sure you go slow for that part." But I learned it!

Now I have a new option for my morning exercise routine, which has been rather dull of late. And the best part is that we discovered together that cans of food make great hand weights, so I can practice my new skill any day, right at home!

Camping

I'm going to Yellowstone National Park this weekend!

I've never been, and I am so excited. What I'm also excited for is the chance to do some camping.

When I was growing up, my family had a tradition of camping for Thanksgiving. I have so many good memories of helping set up camp, watching my dad build big fires, and taking hikes in the woods. It's been a couple years now since I've been camping, so I am stoked for this weekend!

Hence...I can't help but want to write about the folk knowledge of camping for my blog post this week. Please humor me.

One of the first things I wondered about camping was how in the world I could address it in terms of our history learning outcome. In its current form, it's actually a relatively new thing. The "invention" of camping as a recreational activity is credited to Thomas Hiram Holding who wrote a handbook about it in 1908. Yes, the knowledge was recorded and thus came out from the realm of pure folk knowledge, but bear with me because Holding's own history is a great example of the transmission and transformation of folk knowledge.

Holding developed his passion for camping as a 9-year-old when he crossed America's plains with his parents as part of a wagon train. You can read more about his life and contribution to camping here, but what I love most about his story is that he found pleasure in the skills that he learned as part of everyday life - how to cook, sleep and perform other essential tasks outdoors - to that point that practicing those skills became a form of recreation for him later in life.

I don't think anyone can deny that camping is a lot of work. Today, we don't learn the skills that it requires as part of our everyday life, but instead enjoy them as a specialized type of folk knowledge that allows us to challenge ourselves and enjoy nature. I know that's what I'll be doing this weekend! And who knows what new camping skills I might pick up along the way?