Folklore is universal, and, while seemingly juvenile, is an important aspect of all communities. It serves as a conduit for transmitting cultural values, knowledge, and collective memory from one generation to another. This concept of shared stories and imaginations expands past oral storytelling and lends itself to the creation of a community as a whole.
Some cultures exhibit folktales based on magic and higher beings, and other cultures set their stories around more tangible concepts. While folklore is not always based on truth, it is one of the bedrocks of culture; informing religious beliefs, the arts, and daily life.
Historians can document the size of a population or the boundaries of a kingdom, but how does one explain the distinctive and somewhat idiosyncratic characteristics of a community that exists only in the memory of those long deceased? How is it that the first written word appeared around 3,400 B.C., yet we understand the culture and histories of those that existed some three or four million years before then?
The answer is within the stories passed between generations by way of mouth– from mother to daughter to neighbor to brother. Lore which was then solidified in written word, and later expressed through other cultural outlets such as artwork or music or ceremonies or institutions or the entire basis of a modern civilization.
In a contemporary understanding of folklore, the intersection of lore and society is referred to as multiculturalism, cultural adaptation, and syncretism. While modern societies have largely evolved past their fables, this lore is often integrated into everyday matters.
Upper Arlington is bound by more than a shared zip code and tax bracket– but rather the histories of individuals and their relationships with those around them.
Around 800 B.C. to A.D. 1, Upper Arlington was inhabited by the Adena culture. In the 1700s the land was occupied by the Native American Wyandot tribe, and by 1800 it was part of the United States Military Lands. Over the next century a number of farming families settled the area, then comprising the southernmost part of Perry Township. The city of Upper Arlington was developed by brothers King and Ben Thompson in 1913, and grew rapidly in the century since.
All that to say, within the 9.7 square miles of land that Upper Arlington currently occupies are centuries of rich and culturally dense folklore, if only we wish to embrace it. But why would we not? In the end it will only aid us in strengthening our community.
