Chapter 7 reflection question... Tattoos

If I could go anywhere to study some element of folklore, I would not go very far to find my subject of choice. For the past few years, the idea of tattoos body art has been of particular interest to me. For some reason, the idea of permanently altering the appearance of one's body is extremely fascinating to me. If I were to begin a large scale project that attempts to find the underlying purpose permeating all decisions to get tattoos, I would first begin at the origin of tattoos to attempt to understand the mindset of the original tattoo enthusiasts. Once I had acquired this information, I would use it in the attempt of drawing parallels to the more modern tattoo-bearer, which would be my main target group. As far as accomplishing this task, I would begin in my own surroundings in order to keep the data collected on an "every day" level. I could see myself collecting data simply by setting up a small table or kiosk with the phrase "talk about your tattoo" in big letters on the front. I would approach it this way because for most people, tattoos are visible and have some sort of meaning associated with them. Other places I would attempt to collect data from would include highly populated metropolitan cities in a variety of countries as well as interviewing indigenous groups of people. I would visit churches, temples, mosques, tattoo parlors, malls, grocery stores, and a variety of places in which the "every day" exists and to find as many "types" of people as possible. Once encountering a willing participant, I would have them show the tattoo they have, when they got it, why they received that particular image, and why they put it where they did. It is my hope that gathering data in many different types of environments would help me to gather as many types of answers as possible and thus, help me to find an idea or ideas that seem to permeate most or all of the responses I receive. The reason I feel that this type of study is important or would matter is because tattoos are one of the most bold non-verbal expressions that a human being can display on their bodies. Tattoos are a man-made element that we choose and allow to become part of our being forever. If folklore is the study of how people within cultures and societies express and communicate with on another, how could a study on the purpose of tattoos in present times not be conducted?

Chapter 6 Reflection

Chapter six of "Living Folklore" presented us with a variety of ways in which modern day folklorists have approached the problem of accurately defining and categorizing different types of folklore. It is amazing to me just how difficult and meticulous of a task it is. There are millions and millions of types of folklore in existence, and each of them has its own unique connection to the culture from which it was born. Even more detailed is how it relates to the person who created the piece. As I read, I felt that just about all of the strategies of analyzing different elements of folklore had useful approaches to the problem. The main approaches the book described included a Functionalist approach, a Structuralist approach, a Psycho-analytical approach, and Post-structural approaches. I feel that benefits offered by the Functionalist approach and the Structural approach cover the most ground as far as classifying goes. Functionalist approaches help to understand the purpose of certain elements as it pertains to the particular group who employs them. For example, the book takes a glance at a particular folk tale such as "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" and shows how Functionalism attempts to discover for what purpose the story was created and why it is used. The structural approach is beneficial as well because it looks at underlying characteristics that seem to permeate a broad range of related folk elements such as stories. However, each approach to the analyzing of folk elements do have disadvantages and major problems associated with them, so I feel that the best way to approach the problem is by using methods of combining several strategies together to best understand the pieces of folklore that we study.