Main Piece: “My mom use to tell me this story every night. So, there once lived a spider named Anansi. And his wife was a pretty good cook. But Anansi loved to taste food that other people in his village made for themselves and for their families because he was kinda greedy.One day, he stopped by Rabbit’s house who was his best friend. He wanted the rabbit’s food but he knew if he would stay he would have to do jobs that the rabbit would do. So Anansi said he would spin a web and told the Rabbit that when he was done to tug on the web so Anansi would know. Anansi made 8 different webs cause he could smell all the food like a dog in the village from other animals and made the same deal with them as well. But all the animals finished making their food at the same time so they all tugged on Anansi’s legs so hard that they became thin and he wasn’t able to move so he was salty.  So, to this day, Anansi the Spider has eight very thin legs and he never got any food that day at all.

Background Information: The informant, who has an African American background learned this story through his mom who would tell it to him every night. The informant said that the main lesson he learned from this story was to always be humble and not ask for more than you can’t take because it will hurt you in the long run. The informant says that this is a lesson he takes with him for the rest of his life.

Context: In the informant’s house

Thoughts: The Anansi stories are typical in African culture and is trickster who tricks other characters into getting what he wants which is evident from the story the informant said. It is interesting that this story is still alive in America with people who don’t have direct African heritage (I learned this story in kindergarden).