Americans have a penchant for the future and tend to disregard the past.

I have a great advantage over many of my colleagues inasmuch as my students bring with them to class their own personal knowledge of national, regional, religious, ethnic, occupational, and family folklore traditions.

In my introductory course, Anthropology 160, the Forms of Folklore, I try to show the students what the major and minor genres of folklore are, and how they can be analyzed.

Life, it seems, is nothing if not a series of initiations, transitions, and incorporations.

Ancestor worship, or filial piety so characteristic of Asian cultures, for example, does not really resonate with Americans who favor children, not grandparents.

Americans have a penchant for the future and tend to disregard the past.

Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.