Monthly Archives: April 2011

Fountain Run

“A tradition for graduating seniors at USC is to run through all 29 fountains on campus. And although I don’t think too many people actually do this, you’re supposed to have a shot in each fountain. People can either buy shirts from the Facebook group or make their own. Some people wear goggles, or floaties. A few like to climb all over the fountains and stuff. Uh, yeah, so basically I think this means that you’re graduating and saying goodbye to campus, so you’re seeing the landmarks one last time with your classmates before you disperse into the world.”

I completely agree with the analysis and would just add that it is a liminal stage of transition to being an active, educated member of society. People employ such a tactic in order to also act against authority one “last” time by participating in a festivity that would ordinarily have a certain degree of ramifications. It is altogether a way of ending an era, remembering it, and preparing for the life ahead.

Tattoo- Ojibwa Proverb

“No tree has branches so foolish as to fight amongst themselves.”

The informant had this Ojibwa Proverb tattoo onto her ribs.  She decided that she wanted this tattoo because she believes in the message.  She says that the message share such truth.  She believes that we should live in peace rather than in a constant state of war.  The informant believes in this proverb is so powerful that she had it tattooed onto her body.  She says the saying stood out to her amongst the other sayings.  The informant had the tattoo done while she was studying abroad in Greece.  She choose to include the olive branch to symbolize both Greece and peace.

I agree with the informant on the value of this proverb.  This proverb is taken from the Ojibwa tribe and promotes the ideals of peace and harmony.  The informant’s idea of utilizing a olive branch to compliment the quote is fitting as the olive branch is the folkloric, cultural, and biblical symbol for peace.  In the Bible, Noah is given an olive branch from God after the flood symbolizing the end of the flood, which represents turmoil.

This proverb is quoted in several blogs and articles.  However, I found that it also is published in a song called “Luminous” by Stratovarius.  The verse with the proverb is as follows:

No tree has branches so foolish
As to fight among themselves
We share the same biology
We are one
We are luminous

This song maintains the message of the proverb and promotes the idea of peace.  We are a part of mankind, like branches are a part of a tree.  And the branches do not fight, so we must not fight as well.

Tolkki, Timo, Timo Kotipelto, Jari Kainulainen, Jens Johansson, Jörg Michael, and Riku Niemi. “Luminous.” Stratovarius. Sanctuary, 2005. MP3.

The Selkie

This is a version of the Scottish selkie legend that Christabel remembers her father telling her when she was small.

” The story is that the selkie is a kind of creature that lives in the sea and looks like a seal, and at the full moon it can shed its seal-skin and turn into a human. This one selkie-girl came up onto the shore one full moon and turned into a human, and a fisherman sitting on the shore saw her and fell in love with her. They talked, and the selkie loved him too, but she put her skin back on and went back to the sea. She came back at the next full moon, and the one after that, and they both fell completely in love, but she always put her skin back on at the end of the night and went back to the sea. Then one night, the fisherman distracted her and stole the seal-skin away so she couldn’t go back to the sea and had to stay with him, and hid it in his chimney. The selkie stayed with him, and had two children, and almost forgot the sea, but every full moon she would go back down to the shore and look out to sea. Then, after a very long time, she found the seal-skin hidden in the chimney, and she was so angry with the fisherman that she cut two pieces out of the skin and wrapped her children up in them, and put her skin back on and took them back to the sea, where they lived as selkies for the rest of their days. ”

There are several theories as to the origin of the selkie story- mostly notably the idea the ancient Scots encountered nomads who were clad in seal skins and began to formulate legends about seal-people (similar to the way that centaur legends formed when Native-American cultures like the Aztecs encountered conquistadors on horseback). The Selkie is a kind of liminal being, existing in-between the sea and the land.

What is fascinating about this particular incarnation of the legend for me is that it features a woman forced to choose between her nature and her love and when the choice is taken away, she reverts to her nature and brings her children with her. It seems a little like Medea with a happier ending.

Annotation: The film The Secret of Roan Inish directed by John Sayles features a selkie story very similar to the one above.

Chinese Belief- Hell

The informant is an eighteen-year old student from Los Angeles. He was born in Taipei and received schooling in America. He had been studying in Taipei before moving back to the United States for university. He speaks Chinese and English and will be referred to in this transcript as “GS.” This paraphrased account details the Chinese belief of Heaven and Hell.

GS: In Hell, there’s a district attorney who will judge you in court when you’re sent to Hell, and based on what you say, he’ll decide which level of hell you go to. There are eighteen levels of Hell, the eighteenth’s the worst level of Hell. Sometimes parents will scare their children that if they keep doing bad things, they’ll go to the 18th layer of Hell. One of the interesting punishments is called Knife Mountain and the oil pot. If you do bad things and go to Hell, little ghosts or demon things will make you walk on Knife (or Blade) Mountain and then after you go up and down Blade Mountain, you’ll get thrown into a boiling pot of oil.

GS goes on to explain that this process is repeated through all eternity. As he says, repetition is a key part of the punishment, as the person will have to suffer through the same punishment without end.

Though he glossed over the use of the story as a morality warning, I feel this is the most important part of the story. GS does not literally believe in this vision of Hell. However, he states that it is used to keep children from behaving badly. Indeed, this portrayal of Hell involves very physical forms of punishment: In fact, they relate to cooking and the kitchen (Knife Mountain and boiling oil). As a child, the kitchen may be the most dangerous place they will encounter on a daily basis, particularly around cooking time. Thus, the threats presented in this version of Hell are made to be very relatable to the dangers of a kitchen for a small child. This makes the threat a tangible one, and thus far more scary than any abstract concept of suffering. As an exaggerated form of pain possible in the mortal realm, it effectively can be used to scare children into good behavior.

Sea Shanty

This is a folk song that Gabi, who grew up in Rhode Island learned from the “Provincetown Portuguese” side of her family.
“Cape Cod girls they got no hair.
Look away! Look away!
They make their hair with codfish fins,
We are bound for Australia.

Hey-ho, my Billy-billy boys,
We are bound for Australia,
Hey-ho my Billy-billy boys,
We are bound for Australia.

Cape Cod girls they got no combs.
Look away! Look away!
They make their combs with codfish bones,
We are bound for Australia.
(And so on it goes, replacing more and more obscene parts of Cape Cod girls with bits of codfish)”

Research reveals that sea shanties were developed as a way of occupying sailors as they toiled long hours on the seas. One aspect of them that this particular song reflects aptly is the fact that, because up until the early 20th century the American Navy did not allow female sailors, it was easy for the men to sing bawdy songs about females, reflecting a gender divide that existed for a long time in much of military culture (and can still be found in some long-standing traditions like the bawdy song).
The song could also be reflective of a rite of passage, with the sailors leaving home behind for the wilds (and wilder women) of Australia.