Tidbits

Lefthanded Folklore

"Folklore is not only tall tales and ghost stories: folklore includes the habits, practices and expressions of ordinary folk, passed on without benefit of formal written record.
The study of folklore, seeks to identify the variations in those habits, practices, and expressions that suggest what we all have in common through the differences we share. "
..so...what has been and what must eventually be, may come together with fluid but deliberate momentum. ~mlw

I am seeking Lefthanded Folklore including, but not restricted to,
data regarding taboos, Left handed proverbs, physical influences, legends and stories,

one example; in the German language the word for Left is “Linke”

In search of sinister dominant folklorists:
Who are they; where are they; and what made them like that?

This idea was forged at a lunchtime session on “Left Handed Folklore” during the American Folklore Society Conference in Albuquerque October of 2003. Having been left handed all my life, and a folklore enthusiast the last half of that life, I decided to sit in.

Among the half a dozen people attending were folklorists affiliated with schools from Scotland, New England and the Upper Midwest. I am sure there was a Californian present, but I can’t recall the school. Of course when it came to my introduction they wanted to know what the “independent” on my name tag meant. When I explained it was because I wasn’t affiliated with any College or University, I felt as if I were living the lyric from the Arlo Guthrie tune of Alice’s Restaurant where in he told his cellmates he was declared “4-F” for littering -- they all kind of moved away from me, there at the conference table.

Surviving the introductions, conversation turned to activities -- of what I gather is a rather new focus group among the American Folklore Society sub-groups. Initially, while trying to decide which of the eight or ten different lunch meetings -- that day -- to sit in on, I wondered whether the Left Handed Folklorists were folklorists that were left-handed, or whether their Folkloric focus was left-handedness.

Of course, the answer was...both.

“Bound and determined” (now what’s the actual origin and meaning of that phrase?) to maintain my quarter in the field research, to promote the collection of all and any folklore and data related to left-handedness.
I would very much like to make discussion of the data collected a regularly submitted feature to the future Kansas Folklore Society and Missouri Folklore Society newsletter(s.)

If this seems neither sinister nor gauche to you, and appeals to your right brain, feel free to email your input or submissions to: lefthandedlore@bigfoot.com

Guidelines for submission would be a reminder to be true to research standards for bibliography; pursue sources were sources can be pursued, and give credit where credit is due or can be done. I am one lefthanded folklore enthusiast who ALWAYS has been -- and will continue to be -- open to the advice,knowledge and experience of others, when honestly and sincerely offered.

Did you know among Native American Kachina traditions there is a lefthanded kachina?

The first research topic I suggest is to identify folklorists (don’t look now) who are left-handed and a brief bio of their formative environments. Aw, go ahead and look now -- for those folklorist people dependent on the left hand, or who are southpaw's (left hand dominant). ~kawyotee