Lore: body of traditions and knowledge on a subject or held by a particular group, typically passed from person to person by word of mouth? (Oxford English Dictionary)
The other night I was speaking with a friend on the subject of community and the break down of community and the topic of lore came up.? I mentioned how important I thought it was for parents and communities to pass down the particular lore of their family and group and how much lore was constantly being lost, because of the break down of families and communities.
How many times have you heard someone say something like this:
“I can’t cook. My mother never cooked and I just don’t do anything but open cans and reheat things. If we want something really good we eat out.”
“Do you know how to sew? I’m not even sure how to put a button back on.”
“The baby has a fever and seems so uncomfortable, I gave her some medicine but I wish I could do something else.”
Each of these is an example of the lack of practical lore. In each case knowledge that had existed in earlier generations has been lost. Our grandmothers and great-grandmothers knew these things but their knowledge was either considered so common that they didn’t make a point to pass it down or their children thought it obsolete and failed to remember what they were taught.
There are also many examples of lore that are not so practical and that are also being lost. One friend told me that she knew a great deal about some of her mother’s relatives but almost nothing about others. Some of them where legends in the family or were treated as legends without their exploits ever being explained. Now her mother’s generation has died and that family lore is lost forever.
Lost lore is both a symptom and a cause of breaking communities and families. It is a symptom in the sense that communities that are broken often have very little lore left, and it is a cause in that lore gives community members a body of commonality.? Think of clubs or fan groups you have belonged to; didn’t they often have a body of knowledge, of little phrases and sayings that non-members didn’t share? Those were important markers of who belonged to that group and who didn’t. They set boundaries. Now that “insider knowledge” can and often is used harmfully to exclude and devalue non-members but it also serves a useful purpose of giving place and identity to members.
Think of your family. What lore do you share with your siblings but not your parents? I know that there are things we did that my parents still know nothing of. That is our unique lore, and it helps to place us, as a particular sibling group within our extended family. We share some lore with our parents and grand-parents, and also share some lore with our cousins. That shared lore grounds us as members of this extended family.? The unique lore give us our individual identity and the shared lore connects us to one another. Who would we be without it?