Mind-maps and focus

In order to crystallize the topics I discussed in the previous post and select a clear path I organised my thoughts using mind maps.

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Therefore I found that the essential part of this project was to treat the folktale as part of a new system but trying to salvage it’s old roots.

When reading Karl G. Heider book on producing an ethnographic film I came across the therms “behavioural contextualization” and “landscape contextualization” which at first seemed to be worlds apart from my proposed subject, but actually they closely relate to any theme that emerges from the beginnings of a civilisation.

The people who created the legends, myths and tales we read until today had a purpose more greater that entertainment in mind. These stories are based on spiritual values, social hierarchies, natures’ cycles, old teachings and life lessons passed down from generation to generation by the old and the wise. They were meant to educate, inform and propagate essential teachings to insure the development of future generations on the same path their forefathers took. Thus the tale was directly linked to the persons and their behaviour and beliefs. Behaviour is also dictated and shaped by the surroundings we find ourselves in. There is then no surprise that the descriptions of nature and landscapes plays such an important role in setting the tone of a folktale.

The beginning of every story is set in a world so young and magical no one remembers it, but it has some elements still somehow safeguarded in the memory of the storyteller. The physical world is was vast as the magical realms and the creatures that live in both go beyond our imagination. Placed in meadows, in deep forests or deep oceans our characters seem to cope with any hardship and become immersed in their surroundings.

This is a lesson so valuable that I have to underline at this point – the folktale teaches us many things and especially that coping with change is good and there is always a way out of a difficult situation. Thus I call upon another concept found in Heider’s book “holistic ethnography”  where  “things end events must not be treated in isolation as they have meaning only in context”. Therefore I must treat the folktale as a part of our culture and find it’s place in the modern society without stripping it of it’s essential traits.