Author Archives: Carly

Cold Remedy

Main Piece:

Participant – “If you’re sick you put… you get hot water…. And then put honey in it and you put like a quarter of a lemon and you squeeze the lemon but then you also put the lemon in it and then a little bit of cayenne pepper and it gets rid of your cold. It actually works, I mean it doesn’t actually work but… it works… it makes you feel better.”

Context:

Participant and I were sitting in her dorm, sharing random personal home remedies.

Background:

Participant was born and raised in Mill Valley, California and is currently a second semester freshman engineering student at the University of Southern California. Participant was given this advice from her mother who has always made this for her when she was sick as a child. Now the participant makes this for herself and her friends to help them feel better.

Analysis:         

I have heard many home remedies similar to this one in order to help sooth someone’s throat while they are sick. Although the recipe varies slightly from person to person as everyone puts their own spin on it, many people, especially online, claim this folk medicine works.

Acne

Main Piece:

Participant – “Mix apple cider vinegar and water in a little bottle… and then put it on like the little cotton pad thing and rub it on your face like a toner and it gets rid of your acne”

Context:

This was collected after the participant and I were with our friend who began complaining about her complexion, the participant offered her this piece of advice.

Background:

The participant was born and raised in Mill Valley, California and is currently a second semester freshman engineering student at the University of Southern California. This acne remedy was passes on to the participant by a friend from home.   

Analysis:

Acne cures are another large sector of the folk medicine category. Though many of them are not recommended by real dermatologists, they are extremely popular and often attempted anyways. These remedies can often be completely false and randomly made up by someone that ended up spreading it around, or they can occasionally have some sort of logical scientific basis.

Carrots for Eyesight

Main Piece:

Participant – “My mother told me as a kid that I should always eat all my carrots so that my eyesight was fantastic, but she probably just told me that because I had terrible eyesight just like everyone else in my family.”

Context:

The participant was having a discussion with me about what we liked to eat as a child and what we refused to eat. This led her to bring up the ways her mom would influence her to eat her vegetables.

Background:

The participant was born in and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana and is currently a second semester freshman at the University of Southern California. She is a Law, History, and Culture major with a minor in Art History.           

Analysis:

This is another common phrase told to many children in order to get them to eat their vegetables. I was also told this as a child, as were most of my friends. Although eating carrots does not directly improve one’s eyesight, there is some scientific basis behind this belief. This is often how folk medicine and folk beliefs comes to fruition, they stem from some place of truth and develop into something more elaborate.

Fraternity Seal

Main Piece:

Participant – “In fraternities, you cannot step on the seal that’s painted on the sidewalk until you are initiated because it’s disrespecting your elders and there’s a superstition that you’ll get kicked out of the fraternity” 

Context: 

The participant, I and a few of our friends were discussing Greek life an all of the interesting rules that people have to follow in order to be a part of the house. The participant then shared this superstition with us. 

Background: 

The participant was born in and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana and is currently a second semester freshman at the University of Southern California. She is a Law, History, and Culture major with a minor in Art History. Both of the participants older brothers are in a fraternity and they informed her about this superstition.          

Analysis:

Within Greek life there are often many random superstitions and traditions which houses uphold as part of their fraternity’s culture. In many cases, braking these traditions can result in severe consequences. Even though most people know that logically stepping on the house seal would never directly cause you to be thrown out of the house, many of the uninitiated members will still avoid stepping on it at all costs. Superstitions often defy logic but are followed simply out of a fear that it could possibly be true, people often see superstitions with a better safe than sorry mentality.

Three Times a Bridesmaid

Main Piece: 

This is a conversation recorded from a participant. She is marked AS, I am marked CM.

CM: “Tell me about your superstition”

AS: “which one… the three times?”

CM: “yeah”

AS: “um, three times a bridesmaid, never a bride. Basically, if you’re a bridesmaid three times that means you’ll never actually have your own wedding”

CM: “Where’d you hear that from?”

AS: “My mom, I don’t know, she always said it because she was joking the other day that I’m going to be asked to be a bridesmaid and it’ll be my third time”

CM: “Oh and then you’ll never get married”

AS: “I’ll never be a bride (laughs)”

Context:

The participant in this situation is my roommate, I overheard a phone conversation in which her mother was telling her about another one of their family friends engagement. Her mother then joked with the participant that it will be her third time being a bridesmaid. After the phone call ended I asked her what her mom meant by that and she informed me about this superstition they have in England.

Background:

The participant is originally from England and just recently moved to the United States as an international student. She is a second semester freshman at the University of Southern California in the Cinema and Media Studies Program. This superstition is common where she lives and was originally told the her by her mother.

Analysis:

It is very common to have superstitions that go along with major events especially weddings. In this case the superstition is not focused on the success of the bride and groom’s marriage but rather the future of the bridal party. This is similar to the common superstition where whoever catches the bouquet will be the next to get married but in this case, the superstition leads to them not getting married. Being a bridesmaid three times would have no correlation to you getting married, yet many single women still fear being a reoccurring bridesmaid.