Where We Come From

It's all different. The places we say we come from and the places we know we come from, or the places that others tell us we come from. But who is right? Is the anthropologist right, your geographics, or is your grandmother right? For many people it's not an issue, or more like it's not a care. We European American's have the idea that we are American's with European heritage, but a lot of us simply pass it by and don't pass it on. We are left in a rut of the never ending I have some of this and some of that...but we rarely have ancient traditions passed on to us that we can pass on to the next generation.

Take for example myself. I know "who I am"...Lisa Hiller, I have two older brother, and two parents, who have siblings and parents of their own. I grew up in La Crescenta, CA where I played soccer, rode bikes, hiked, surfed, fished, and laughed. That's about it. Apparently my ancestors didn't have stories memorable enough to pass on, or a catastrophic event happened to the story and never made it to the 21st century. What i have learned is basic my family originated in Scotland on my mother's side and Germany on my fathers side. But beyond that We are lost in the rest of the Emigrants stories.

It is strange to think that I have little to say about my European Ancestors and where they came from, but even more strange to say that I know even less about my ancestors that lived on the same soil I am living on now than I do about my European Ancestors. The idea that a culture can be lost in a matter of generations forever if people do take the time to preserve it is sad and discomforting. I only hope that once I am passed on to whatever lies beyond this life that my future family will have a story to help them know where our family comes from.

class notes...

Due to my current condition I have not been able to take the notes for the test on Wednesday.
BUT I do have a personal note taker now, and you can find all the information here:

http://erinoraltraditions.blogspot.com/
Thanks Emo.

My Semester Paper

Native American Oral Traditions.
I'm thinking of looking closer into the tribes of Central/Southern Oregon and Northern California. The Klamath Tribes have had a rich history filled with creation stories, and other essential oral traditions to keep their clans heritage alive through the years of white settlers. If anyone has any suggestions, or knows anything about these tribes please share the wealth of knowledge.

There are so many places to start from, I'm thinking of looking at two different tribes (The Klamath, and Modoc) from the same area and comparing their creation stories. They have creation stories of Creator Lake, The Klamath River, Tule Lake, and many other places around this region.

Nicknames

Growing up, I was dubbed many nicknames where only few managed to stick for much longer than a day. However, I was given one nickname during a family members wedding that I will never live down. Now, at every family reunion, someone always seems to bring up this moment of humility and embarrassment. Since I know i will never live it down, I realize it probably won't be much worse to share it with thirty more people. My older cousin Lila was getting married and my Aunt Jane asked if I could say a few words at the reception. Since I was only 18 I was a little worried because I had never really given a toast before, but I was completely up for the challenge. My Aunt handed me a glass of champagne to bang on a bit before I made my toast, but I do not think she meant for me to drink some of it. Anyways, I made my speech and raised the glass to make my toast, then took a nice big sip of it... since I had never had champagne before the bubbles took me by suprise and I ended up accidentally squirting the champagne out of my nose and hitting the person sitting in front of me!!! The entire room laughed at my expense, and from then on out, my nickname at family affairs is now squirt. So, when you said we should think about the most memorable nickname given, I would say that this one constitutes as a horrifically memorable experience.

MY BIG 50 ( I know, impressive)

On Monday I delivered my 50 items and must say I am very relieved to have it all out of the way. Im sure that you are all very excited to learn how I managed to memorize these designs in the sky, so I will reveal to you my secret. I began by looking at all of the different signs and where they are located in the sky in relation to one another. Then, all over my apartment I taped pictures of them onto my ceiling in relation to where they would be in the actual sky. Now my apartment looks like Mysteries of the Sky 101 class. I have always been interested in astronomy because my father would always take me to the beach when I was young and point out all of the different constellations. I am excited to show him whats up next time I come home, and suprise him with my new found knowledge. So now, not only do I know the names, but I also know where the constellations are, and what they look like, and I will continue to hopefully share this knowledge in the future!

Freestyle on the streets of Brooklyn

So today Dr. Sexson asked Carly what she hears on the streets of Chicago. "Gunshots" she says. Though it's an all too realistic sound people from cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Austin, and New York hear, and though these gunshots do drowned out many of the colorful voices on the streets, there are a few that make themselves louder. When I hear street voices and freestyles there is a handful of videos I see playing over in my head. They all are raw and extremely colorful, so if you have a problem with some colorful language, phrases, cliches even, it's cool you don't have to watch.
Biggie

Mos Def-giving a shout out to Biggie (Chris Wallace)

Snoop Dogg back in the day with Death Row

Eminem

memorize this

For my 50 items to memorize i have chosen the night sky. Constellations have been around before the technology of writing, and is such a strong part of oral traditions it just seemed like the perfect idea. There are actually 88 different constellations in both the northern and southern hemispheres. I am going to attempt to learn them all, which i don't see being that hard seeing as how i already know many of the one's in the northern hemisphere all thanks to my childhood obsession with the night sky, and my fathers knowledge about the stars.

Each constellation has a story, while some are connected to other constellations in the sky; such as Cassiopeia the queen of Ethiopia, is the wife of Cepheus and their daughter is Andromeda. The connections behind each constellation is in depth and full of oral traditions. They each connect us back to a time of memory, and rich tradition.

I am fascinated by the night sky, it reminds me of my childhood, and the stories my father would tell me about the stars, as well as the stories i would create about the constellations. These stories are burned into my mind with the image of each night time figure that i have memorized so far.

Now these are the ones I have searched so far and found, and I think it's a accurate list of the night skies residences.:

Andromeda
Antlia
Apus
Aquarius
Aquila
Ara
Aries
Auriga
Bootes
Caelum
Camelopardalis
Cancer
Canesvenatici
Canis Major & Minor
Capicornus
Carina
Cassiopeia
Centaurus
Cepheus
Cetus
Chamaeleon
Columba
Coma Berenices
Corona Australis
Corona Borealis
Corvus
Crater
Crux
Cygnus
Delphinus
Dorado
Draco
Equuleus
Eridanus
Fornax
Gemini
Grus
Hercules
Horogium
Hydra
Indus
Lacerta
Leo
Leo Minor
Lepus
Libra
Lupus
Lynx
Lyra
Mensa
Microscopium
Monoceros
Musca
Norma
Octans
Ophiuchus
Orion
Pavo
Pegasus
Perseus
Phoenix
Pictor
Pisces
Piscis Austrinus
Puppis
Pyxis
Reficulum
Sagitta
Sagittarius
Scorpious
Sculptor
Scutum
Serpens
Sextans
Taurus
Telescopium
Triangulum
Triangulum Australe
Tucana
Ursa Major & Minor
Vela
Virgo
Vulpecula.�