Folk Knowledge: Fundamental for all Knowledge Mediums

First, I began writing this post in the MN airport where I quickly realized that because I was packing while sick and dead tired (thus this late post), I managed to grab 2 pieces of paper that I thought were my salon notes, but really were not. . . On that note, I am feeling a lot better. I will do my best to remember what we discussed in class, but will not use direct quotes from the salon as I don't have those resources. . .

For my post I am focusing on how folk knowledge--especially familial knowledge--is foundational to social solidarity and preservation of knowledge.  Ultimately folk knowledge is necessary for all other forms of knowledge to spread.

Notes Reflecting on Honors 201 Experience

Unit 1: Folk Knowledge

• Self Directed Learning:
• At the start of the semester, I didn't know what to blog about as there were near limitless possibilities with little structure. I based these posts off of my personal family experience and did little outside research, as it was difficult to connect something so personized. I felt unskilled at blogging and dappled in my family's history in Mexico and my recycling habits. However, my posts didn't feel connected. My self-directed learning improved as the semester went on.
•  Others' blogging:
• It was fascinating to see other's insight into everyday life. I especially appreciated how they managed to connect their personal experiences with history. My peer's posts inspired me to do better.I was impressed with their insights and desire to do extra research: such as Brenda's response post on trumpets.

Going the Traditional Route Academically

 It is 8:31pm and I have finished my research paper! :)

Although my annotated bibliography was a general overview of the subject of woodcutting and illustrations, I was grateful for my annotated bibliography and that I had taken the time to write down notes that looked interesting to me. When we were given this assignment, I took the time to go back and review my notes looking for a common theme that might interest me. There, I discovered multiple notes on the social impact of woodcuts for artists and the illiterate. This immediately sparked my attention as I am a sociology major, so I decided to do more research on the subject.

Thesis in Progress

"Transitioning from the Medieval Age to the Renaissance changed the book from an institutionalized, text-limited tool, to an individualized, illustrated public opportunity for all to read and view.
With the Renaissance came the use of the print woodcut illustration, which left its mark not only on how books were shared and emphasized, but also on society. Woodcut illustration expanded access of ideas to the illiterate and increased the social status of artists."

Let me know if you have any suggestions and ideas. I have written my complete paper and probably should have posted this earlier, but I didn't think about it until class today.

Thanks for your input!

The Bible: Truth. . . IF Translated Correctly. . .

I explored the exhibit .The Life and Legacy of the King James Bible at the Harold B Lee Library. However, as I experienced the exhibit, the title seemed misleading. In reality, this is not only the legacy of the King James Bible, it is the legacy of the competition of preceding bibles such as the Geneva and Bishops bible. However, the name makes sense as this is the bible that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints endorses and the exhibit is in honor of the 400th anniversary of the translation of the bible. Thus, the exhibit has a nostalgic title.
Reading Jared's post reminded me of the importance of being aware of errors I thought more critically about the quality of the text and content I saw. Going to the exhibit left me with less confidence in the various bible translations as I saw the various differences in the different bible translations.

History of Printed Illustration and Woodcuts: Brianne Burraston, Annotated Bibliography

I started my bibliography with a general search in the library related to printing, unsure of what I first wanted to research. My search on printing lead me to section ZE on the fifth floor of the library where I found a plethora of material on the printing press. I opened a book and flipped through the pages to find a subject that interested me. However, due to the obscurity and specificity of the subject, I had difficulty creating a bibliography. Thus, I decided to go back to the shelves and browse and came across illustrations and woodcuts. This caught my attention and inspired this bibliography.




1. Chappel, Warren, A Short History of the Printed Word, The New York Times 1970 (Found through browsing the shelves at the HBLL)

• This author discusses the origins and techniques of printing from medieval times through the twentieth century. Focusing on his chapters regarding wood cuts, he discusses the history of wood cuts and the impact wood cut illustrations had for artists and social status, and the economic benefits of wood cuts. He provides background on how wood cuts were made in the sixteenth century and also discusses how illustrated books changed the emphasis to the art rather than the text. 

2. Goldschmidt, Earnst Ph. The Printed Book of the Renaissance, Cambridge University Press, 1950 (Found through browsing the shelves at the HBLL)

• This book goes through the history of print illustration beginning with the medieval era, where non-print illustration originated. It traces the history of illustration prints and how they increased their efficiency with the woodcuts. He discusses how woodcut printing was practical knowledge acquired through technical experience and how this intentionally limited the use of wood cuts until artists and printers began to sell them to other cities and countries and it became a large economic business.

3. Lewis, John, Anatomy of Printing, Watson-Guptil Publications, 1970  (found through online HBLL search)

• In Chapter 4: "The reformation and the printing press: artists take an interest in the printed illustration," Lewis discusses some of the unexpected benefits of the printed illustration. For example, the printing press accelerated ideas not only through words, but through illustrations. He discusses the social benefit of illustrations that allowed the illiterate to understand ideas through pictures. He also addresses the economic benefit to printers of using the same illustration for multiple works. 

4. Morrison, Stanley and Jackson, Holbrook. A Brief Survey of Printing History and Practice, New York, 1923 (found through browsing the shelves at the HBLL)

•  This source offers a brief history of woodcutting and illustrations in the sixteenth century Europe. He discusses the use of the printer's trade-mark as an illustration used to distinguish works and continues to discuss the evolution of the technology regarding printing and illustrations through the mid-twentieth century.

   5.  Gascoigne, Bamber. How to Identify Prints : A Complete Guide to Manual and Mechanical Processes from Woodcut to Ink Jet (found with through online Google Scholar search, then searched and found on HBLL webpage, and then read in person in the HBLL)

• This book gives a thorough history of the printed illustration while covering the technical vocabulary. It details the print illustration techniques used throughout the years. The illustrations in the book itself aid the reader in understanding a more technical understanding of the history and process of the printed illustration. Wood cuts were at their peak use in the sixteenth century, declined, and then began to be used again in the eighteenth century when a more efficient technique was developed.

6.  Cole, Richard G. "The Use of Reformation Woodcuts by Sixteenth-Century Printers as a Mediator Between The Elite and Popular Culture", Journal of Popular Culture, Bell and Howell Information and Learning Company, 2000 (Found online through google search and HBLL search, then read in person)

• This article offers sociological insight into how woodcutting and illustration affected social roles in society. It discusses various insights into how the printer of the sixteenth century served as a mediator between the elite and popular culture through using both " early modern" and early folklore images in their prints.

7.Eichenberg, Fritz, The art of the print: masterpieces, history, techniques, Harry. N. Abrams, Incorprorated, 1976 (found through bibliography of How to Identify Prints then read in person)

• This book details the world history of print and illustration from early Chinese prints to modern day. He discusses the simplicity of the wood cutting technique and how its popularity spread. He then details the specific technique of early wood cut artists complete with illustrations of their works.

Rosetta Project: My Maya Akkadian experience (Part 1 and 2)

First, this post is a compilation of both the first half and second half of my Rosetta learning experience. Some parts are labelled and specifically discuss on part of the project. Others are mixed.

Akkadian is tedious. When I found out we were assigned Akkadian, I found some basic information online regarding the grammar and symbols Source, but not enough to make sense of the lines and triangles on the clay tablet. Thus, I enlisted the help of Dr. Stratford, a BYU Professor and expert in Akkadian. I set up a meeting with him, and Erin met with him as I was unable to go at the time that worked for him. He provided as valuable information, informing us that the group had written the text in the wrong direction and gave us a guide of the symbols, which helped us to efficiently translate the cuneiform Akkadian, to the syllables, to English when we met as a group that night. These symbols then represent other syllables that have to be translated to English. Did I mention tedious? I wish we had included the syllabic translation of Akkadian on our Rosetta Stone, because it added another complicated dimension. The second half of the project Holland, Erin, Mike and I met at Mike's apartment to put all of our information together and resources together into the lovely "Rosetta Stone" pictured above.

I learned many things during this experience:

•  Make sure your source is accurate. If not, it will add additional complications.


• It fascinates me that these lines and triangles actually communicate something as it just looks like geometric configurations to me.  However, if these triangles are misplaced, it doesn't actually mean anything. If you are unfamiliar with the language, it can take a while to realize this. 

We not only had to deal with an unfamiliar language, but also with the mistakes of the group who wrote Akkadian. (This is understandable as it was a learning experience for them too.) Erin shared with us that Dr. Stratford had told her that the cuneiform text should be written horizontally–left to right. However, the Akkadian group had written their word vertically, top to bottom. . We wrote it correctly on our Rosetta Stone. I wonder how many mistakes and misinterpretations have been made throughout history. . . ?

Handle Your Medium with Care: 
The tablet broke while in class moments after we got it. Thankfully we had the modern technology of photographs and the internet so that we did not have to carry our broken slab of clay around throughout the entire translation process and risk losing this valuable information. This photo was an effective way to share the tablet so that we could all work on the translation process simultaneously in different places. Imagine how little information we would have today if the mediums were as fragile as this piece of clay. . .

This is the Akkadian clay tablet we received to translate. Notice the faint crack on the right hand side.
Yes, it broke into two pieces. Thankfully, it was still legible. Lesson learned: Some mediums need to be handled with more care than others.

Marriage: Man, Woman, and a piece of paper

 An elaborate penned (not printed) marriage certificate from Germans in Pennsylvania mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. 

I know this post is short, but I just got engaged last night. :D  Thus, I have been distracted, but managed to do some research. . . 

Marriage certificate from 1875

Because I just became officially engaged last night (yay!  :D), I have marriage on the mind and thus want to learn about the history of printing marriage certificates and licenses. Marriage used to just be a private contract between 2 families (ie arranged marriages). However, around the 16th century, the government began regulating marriage though marriage licenses.

Creating My Maya Signature

Sticking with the ongoing signature theme, and because I am in the Americas group, as a preface to the project this week I decided to do some more in-depth research in how to write in Maya. I realize it is quite complicated and will be a challenging project.
I learned there are multiple ways to write syllables and sounds. Thus, people could often have a unique style in writing their name. For this post, I am going to attempt to write my name in Maya.
I got my syllable glyph information from Famsi.org
The Mayas used what is called a "syllabrary", like an alphabet, but with syllables. This means that consonants and vowels are paired together. The phonetics of the vowels in Maya are similar to Spanish.

My name is "Brianne".  Based on what I read, in Maya, this would translate into the syllables Ba-Ri-an-ne and would be meshed as one glyph based on the number of syllables.
However, because there is NOT a hieroglyph that represents R I use the L+i sign. (According to Famsi.org). Thus, the Maya syllables I will use are Ba-Li-An-Ne.
 I used this image showing compilations of glyphs based on syllables in another post. However, now I actually know what it means.

The first half image is an example of a simple In the latter half, glyphs are numbered. Glyphs change shape, significance, and position depending on the numbers of syllables in a word. Each number represents a different glyph that represents a syllable. Because my name has 4 syllables in maya, I will use the structure with only 4.

Maya Stela 5: Mormon Myths, Misconceptions, and Methodology

Izapa Stela 5

Today my post is a response to a presentation by Dr. Mark Wright that I attended yesterday at the Religion Symposium regarding Izapa Stela 5 (pictured to the right). As I reflected on his presentation, what I learned helped tie together written knowledge and the misconceptions that can occur when one misinterprets the written word of another culture or worse, takes it out of its cultural context. If these misinterpretations are then spread through both modern oral folklore and written knowledge, it becomes especially difficult to learn the truth as one's judgement's becomes trained to see what they want to believe.  
Dr. Wright is an expert in the Maya Hieroglyphs and has spent many field studies studying the Maya. He is particularly interested in correlations between the ancient Maya people and the Book of Mormon. 


Many experts have their theory about Stela 5. Some LDS scholars think that it depicts Lehi's Vision of the Tree of Life as found in the Book of Mormon in 1 Nephi Ch 8.  I have heard this Mormon myth before and was excited to learn if it had any validity.


Wright's objective was to demonstrate the importance of having good data and good methodology in order to have the most accurate conclusions that are not biased by one's assumptions regarding the interpretation of Maya hieroglyphs. 

Cursive? Old-fashioned or worth reviving? (A Response to Alex's Post)

Alex's post (In the Know(ledge): Miscellaneous Mesopotamia) got me thinking about different forms of handwriting and the devolution of handwriting in the United States. Our letters haven't changed, but the style in which we write them has changed. Think back to the formality of the calligraphy used to write the Declaration of Independence and John Hancock's classic, lavish signature. . . Now think of your own signature. . . Are they of the same quality? Probably not, but does it matter?

Community ?'s and Answers

I was exploring gadgets to enhance our blog and came across Community Answers. We can use this as another medium for discussion to ask and discuss thought-provoking questions related to our class and specific unit. Who wants to give it a try?

Intro to Maya glyphs

This serpent is a hieroglyph at the Maya ruin Uxmal. I took this picture during a light show,
Thus, it's lit up and easy to see the snake on the Maya ruin wall.

When I went to Mexico,  I saw their hieroglyphs first hand, preserved after thousands of years. . There are hundreds of hieroglyphs. The Maya can write anything that they can say. Hieroglyphs consist of logograms (to express meaning) or syllabograms (to denote sound values), and are used to write words, phrases, and sentences (Source).



I found this fantastic reference online that goes through the different Maya glyphs. It's interesting that their structure of writing was so advanced that they have slightly varying hieroglyphs to represent different tenses of verbs.

Class Recitation of King Benjamin's Speech

Great job group 1, and great job class! This was a really cool experience, once we overcame intense levels of anxiety and stress.

The Power of Religious Dialogue

I have my interview with Dr. Allen Christenson set for early next week, so this post is related to another topic related to oral knowledge.

As I've previously mentioned, I've been working as an extra in the church's New Testament movie. The scriptures are coming to life for me as I get to witness the dialogue and and different rhetoric techniques the actors use. I missed class on Tuesday to shoot the scene where apostles Peter and John preach to a multitude of people after Christ's death. They are interrupted mid speech by Roman guards who then arrest them. However, I could feel of their urgency as they finished preaching to the people the message they had prepared. There is power in dialogue, especially in religious speeches/sermons.  I got to hear the dialogue 20+ times as I was standing right behind the apostles and it took hours of repeating the same scene to get everything in the scene to the director's desired perfection of expression. This experience has increased my desire to visualize the setting of the scriptures and truly place myself in their day as I study them. Memorizing King Benjamin's speech, provides another opportunity to begin to place my self in the scriptures, giving my understanding another dimension as I fervently recite my verses out-loud.

While filming our group discussion after class yesterday, I began to think about the process of preserving King Benjamin's speech. Someone literally had to record every word as he spoke it with a booming voice across the crowd. They did not have digital recorders back then. I imagine paper was limited too, and the listeners would have to pay fervent attention in order to learn and remember this sacred speech. I have taken this speech for granted as I have read it so many times in the scriptures. However, it really took place as a speech first, and then was written down to share with the people present and preserve for thousands of years for our dispensation to study and learn from today.  Amazing.

Popol Vuh Preservation and Modern Maya

I went to the HBLL today and learned that there are 36 books on the Popol Vuh--most of them being different translations and editions of the book. I checked out one in English and one in Spanish from 1905 (the oldest edition I could find) 1954, (bonus: I speak Spanish :) ) and have been studying them to learn more about their oral tradition and preservation. Books can't be translated perfectly from one language to another without losing some of the savor of the original meaning of the text. For example, the Popol Vuh was translated from Maya, to Spanish, to English, and other languages.

What originated from an oral, fluid tradition is now locked into words on a page. Words can change from edition to edition, but they don't have the same fluidity as speaking.

In my research I've learned that the Popol Vuh originated as part of an ancient oral tradition and consists of a collection of traditions that are based in a mix of historical fact and mythical interpretation. It makes sense that the mythical interpretation came about from passing the history down through stories. Eventually, these stories were written down (in the 1500's) to be preserved.  Maya hieroglyphs could record any idea that could be spoken because it is a phonetic language rather than a pictorial form of writing (Source). 

The Mayas valued knowledge and the scribes--who kept the records--were among the most valued people in their society. 

The Popol Vuh frequently uses the mnemonic device of parallelism within the stories to connect ideas and increase fluidity. This Quiché tradition has its roots in using parallelism in speech oral tradition  Parallelism was often used so that the storyteller could easily connect from one part to another and have key words and phrases to help them remember and tell the stories orally. (Source)

Hosanna! Preserve the Feelings of Oral Knowledge

        This is a bonus post that does not have to do with my ancient culture, but as we were talking in class today about history as it is experienced and history as it is written and interpreted, I thought about an experience I had yesterday relating to this. Thinking about the disconnect that happens between the reality of the past and interpretation of the past, much is lost. Regarding a religious, sacred experience, I believe the most important thing to preserve is not the finite details, but the feelings.  

          I had the opportunity to spend a day in Jerusalem in the days of Christ yesterday as an extra in the Church's new New Testament movie. I participated in the scene of Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem with the task of embodying a young Jewish woman rejoicing to witness and worship her Savior. 

          In preparation for this experience, we were asked to read the passage depicting the account of this event in the 4 Gospels. Reading them in the King James version, I notice these are not identical accounts. I realize this consists of oral knowledge written down years later, so it makes sense that two people preserved the memory differently. In just expressing one sentence to describe what people said, you lose the finite details, especially individual experiences, but as long as you capture the actual feelings you want people to remember, does it matter? The biblical accounts are written in a formal language that reflects the sacredness of the experience in one concise sentence and fits into the institution of the bible for a medium of knowledge. 

Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. (Matthew 21:9)

 Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. (Luke 19:38)

The Maya: Preserving History through Oral Knowledge

I have been given the Maya civilization--specifically focusing on the Popol Vuh,  regarding language acquisition and preservation. I am familiar with the Yucatan Maya, but not with the Quiche and thus did some background research to learn some more about this specific people and the Maya in general.

photo of modern Quiche Maya

“The five subfamilies of Mayan languages are:        

• Ch'ol-Tzotzil subfamily
• Huastecan subfamily
• Yucatecan subfamily
• Chujean-Kanjobal subfamily
• Quichean-Mamean subfamily

The Popol Vuh falls under the Quichean Mamean subfamily.

It consists of oral knowledge--cosmogony, mythology, traditions, and history-- written down and preserved for generations and civilizations yet to come to learn. Even today, The stories from the Popol Vuh continue to be told by modern Maya as folk legends, passed down orally.

Also, I would imagine that only the most elite could read and write during this time. Thus, I would imagine oral knowledge served as a way for the common people to learn stories about their origins of life, beliefs, values, etc. 

In this brief research,  I realize that oral knowledge can’t just be spoken if you truly want to preserve it for a thousand plus years to come. What happens if one's civilization is wiped out? Or even just those who know the stories die or flee? I guess it depends on one's purpose for preservation and the value in the stories.

I think all oral knowledge that one wants to preserve must be written down, to prevent outside influences or even memory loss, from tampering with the pure knowledge passed down from one generation to the next. Also, in extreme circumstances, keeping a written record of oral knowledge increases the likelihood that at least some material will survive if one's civilization is wiped out.

I can check out the Popol Vuh at the BYU library today, and read from a manuscript derived from a translation of the original manuscript itself, which I plan to do so I can learn from the original source itself.

Email Comments?

In class we talked about receiving an email every time someone comments and/or posts on the blog, so we can have more active discussions without having to check the blog every few hours. As an admin, I can add email addresses if you want to be emailed every time someone comments. Just let me know.

Revamped Blog

I just revamped the blog to give it some more color and pizazz. What do you think of the new design? Comments, suggestions?