Renaissance Woes

The European renaissance brought about a strange phenomena referred to by scholars as “the discovery of the individual” (Martin 1311).  What I find is so strange about the dawning of man’s ascent into his own self-fashioning is that at a time when Indigenous societies throughout the new world and beyond were enjoying their mastery of architecture, medicine, engineering and sophisticated modes of self-government, Europe was in the inception of self-defining themselves as a people.  Basic concepts of sincerity as something that stems from within, the layered self, and the self in relation to the greater universe were challenging for them at the very least.  From this discourse erupted the notion of prudence that extended itself to the idea of great individual reserve to the point of masking oneself, for no one was to be trusted (Martin, 1997).  Ultimately, a treatise of the humanist evolved; one that functioned more as a monologue; one that carried over into colonial practices that perceived of and defined the idea of the Indian and how such a people (Riley, 2007) should be managed.  

Of course, I have to look at these readings from an Indigenist perspective and critically evaluate where the massive deficits in historical global discourse began.  The"folk", seem to have erupted from the dark ages of Europe and from there, perhaps, the notion of folklore as a strategic method of dividing the better from the lesser is in some ways a struggle to complete the ascent.  I am struggling to find a point of entry into this idea of folklore.  From all angles, it just continues to declare itself another hegemonic tool to manage cultures and classes.  As a storyteller from the Great Plains, I struggled to find entrance into the mainstream of so-called folk storytellers.  Their criteria was ambiguous and unsettling, at times wanting a one woman performance, at other times wanting more language diversity and so, I just departed from the folk angle and continued with the traditional ways of telling as my grandmother, my father and his father passed on to me.  It seems to me that to be of the "folk" may require one to redefine themselves as Staub suggested.   That explains why so many of us do not find a venue through the humanities (where folklore is most often associated), but rather, stay in the field of arts where definition of the self remains a sovereign decision.