Posted
on January 7, 2015
I
like the sound of Zola Neale Hurston! She is an author (one of the
best jobs in the world, in my opinion, but I think that partly
because I'm one, too), an anthropologist (the study of humans is
always fascinating), and best of all a folklorist!
A
folklorist is someone who studies (not surprisingly) folklore—which
is the traditional customs and stories and perhaps beliefs of a
community or culture. It's the stuff that is passed down through the
generations by word of mouth.
Born
in Alabama on this date in 1891, Hurston called Eatonville, Florida,
“home.” She moved there when she was just three years old, and it
was one of the first all-black towns incorporated in the United
States.
Unfortunately,
Hurston's mom died when she was still just a young teenager, and her
dad remarried and sent her off to boarding school. But at some point
he stopped paying her tuition, so the school expelled Hurston. She
had to work and ended up lying about her age to be able to enter a
cost-free high school and earn her diploma. She went on to attend
multiple universities and earned a BA in anthropology at age 37.
So
what do anthropologists and folklorists do?
They
travel. They talk to people and immerse themselves in local culture
and customs. They write about people's traditions and beliefs, and
they right down the songs that they sing and the stories that they
tell.
Hurston
did all this traveling and talking and listening and writing in the
Caribbean and in the American South.
Also
on this date:
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ahead:
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out my Pinterest pages on:
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