Folk Culture

Posted by: | February 2, 2009 | Comments Off on Folk Culture

I enjoyed this week’s reading. I liked the Indigenous ‘legend of the singin tablets’ ,‘legend of the crystal mask’, ‘legend of the silent bell’ and ‘legends of the dancing butchers’ by Asturias. I was truly inspired by Arguedas (for what he had done) and his story is very touching especially after reading last week’s chapter which I found quite depressing. The change was very nice and well received.

 It was fun reading a story or tale that was passed down from generation to generation by Amerindians. This story however was somewhat hard to envision, but after a while I started to understand. I am not too much into indigenous legends but I would like to as I enjoy other mythology (greek). I find these stories somewhat poetic and softening like a lullaby or nursery rhyme. I also did like how detailed it was. I found it interesting that the story was based around the new year of the indigenous people. Many of these tales have more than one meaning as they are made from a mixing of cultures from Latin American past. There were only two particular stories which I found especially relevant to last weeks topic, but that is not to say the other two were not enjoyed or could be relevant. The first tale which pointed out through metaphor and medium that culture has to have been ‘created’ by large range of things to become beutifle aka rainbow is made by a mixture of all the tablets. This tries to show that mixing folk culture is a good thing. The other story that stuck out for me was the ‘legend of the silent  bell’ which actually features Jesus as an actual person in a folk culture story about Amerindian legend. This is particularly interesting because it shows what the previous story was using through metaphor but in this case much more direct.

‘The Pongo’s dream’ is inspiring because it shows uprising that one can have against oppressors. It is also good because it is a symbol for how Arguedas was a helping force in helping get the oppressed in Peru a voice. It is also good because Pongo rises up against his oppressors in a very humorous and clever way. He did this while feeding the ego of his master. This was a nice change from the tales just before this one in the reader as it displayed a lighter side to these concepts.

 

 

 


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