Author Archives: Olivia Gardner

An Iranian Engagement

Informant:

Ariana Hazery, 18, is a senior in High School.  Her self-identified ethnicity is Persian.  She recently went back to Iran to visit family and made the following cultural faux pas.  I collected it from her over coffee while she was visiting USC.

Text:

I went to Iran last summer to visit my aunt and uncle.  They own a silk farm.  It’s kind of cool actually.  Anyways, uhm, the craziest thing happened!  My sister, Leila, and I were talking with our two cousins, and they’re both boys.  They’re a little older than us, but not much.  So, uhm, we’re talking with them in the living room, and its getting noisy, so we ask them if they want to come upstairs with us.  Leila and I were sharing a room on the second floor, so we figured we could go hang out in there until dinner was ready.  So we do that.  Well, when we come back, my aunt has this huge smile on her face, and she gives me this big hug, and then she goes, “We are so happy with your choice!” [imitates accent].  Uhh, what?  Excuse me?  Leila and I have no idea what’s going on.  Well, eventually we put the pieces together.  In Iranian culture, you only show your room to a boy if you are engaged to him!  So my aunt thought that we had gotten engaged to her sons!

Analysis:

While taken from the perspective of an outsider breaking in, this story is revealing about some of the practices regarding engagement in Iranian culture.  Also, it is not entirely uncommon for fist cousins to marry, still, so the aunt had more reason to take this act seriously.  However, it is interesting that showing the bedroom is associated with engagement, and not marriage, in this particular region.  The Iranian family lived in a tiny, farming town that specialized in producing silk, so distance from major political, religious, and cultural centers in Iran may have contributed to this more relaxed attitude towards male and female interaction.

To Nelson’s Blood

Informant:

Janet Kinnen, 53, works in corporate intelligence and is self-identified British.  She learned the following story while she was dating a Navy officer in London.  I collected it from her during a dinner conversation with my family.

Text:

You’ve hear the phrase, “Drink to Nelson’s blood,” haven’t you?  You haven’t? That’s a pity.  There’s a really great story that goes along with it, although I don’t think now is the best time.  Don’t want to spoil your appetite.  Alright.  Nelson was a Navy admiral, probably one of the best of all time, if you ask me.  But he died during the Battle of Trafalgar, hence Trafalgar Square, which is named after that battle.  You know, that place with all the blasted pigeons right in front of the British museum. Although, I dare say, there a few jolly good pubs right around there.  But Nelson hated the sea, which is bloody weird seeing as he was a bloody Admiral in the Royal Navy.  So, his final request, he asked to be buried on land.  And then he died.  This left his officers in an awful mess.  How were they going to preserve the body long enough to get it back to England?  So, they came up with an idea, which was to stuff Nelson’s body into a casket of rum and then they just told the crew not to drink from that barrel of rum.  Of course, they didn’t tell the poor fellows why not, so when they got back to England, they rolled out the barrel with Nelson’s corpse in it, opened it up, and found there was no rum left!  So, ever since then, for good luck, you drink to Nelson’s blood.

Analysis:

This bit of meta-folklore puts a new spin on an old saying of drinking to Nelson’s blood.  It adds a slight horror effect, completely disgusting the audience by implying that the crew drank the rum which had been storing Nelson’s presumably bloody body.  Consequently, it has a somewhat cannibalistic theme to it, dealing with issues of drinking a person’s blood.  The behavior is excused by saying that the crew simply did not know what was in the barrel of rum and so just assumed that it was simply rum that the officers were trying to withhold.  It also begs the question, if they had known, would they have acted differently?  The initial response is yes, reinforcing certain taboos in our western culture.  Nelson’s blood has in many cases also become synonymous with rum, so this story would also have connections to that phrase.  To Janet, this story is meaningful because it shows the effects of a lack of transparency in an organization and because it is associated with a good time at the bar.

http://www.pussers.com/t-nelsons-blood-flagon.aspx

http://www.therumelier.com/id70.html

http://www.nelsonslocal.co.uk/nelsons_blood.htm

http://www.cruisingworld.com/destinations/chartering/a-flotilla-for-sailors-who-drink-nelsonrsquos-blood

 

Every Crazy has his Theme

Informant:

I had a conversation about proverbs they had learned from their families with three female employees at a local taco shop during one of the less busy times of the day.  Mercedes Rodriguez, 42, Maria Lopez, 23, and Rosalba Valdez, 18 each consider themselves Mexican.  Rosalba was the only one born in the United States, though she is a second generation immigrant.  Rosalba’s mother would use this proverb whenever two persons were talking, but each one only spoke about what interested themselves instead of the other person’s interest.

Text:

Cada loco con su tema.

Transliteration: Every crazy person with his theme.

Translation: They are talking past each other.

Analysis:

This proverb likens obsession with an interest, to the point of being able to engage in someone else’s interests, to insanity.

Like a Lantern that Sparkles at Night Only

Informant:

I had a conversation about proverbs they had learned from their families with three female employees at a local taco shop during one of the less busy times of the day.  Mercedes Rodriguez, 42, Maria Lopez, 23, and Rosalba Valdez, 18 each consider themselves Mexican.  Rosalba was the only one born in the United States, though she is a second generation immigrant.  Rosalba’s father uses this proverb to describe her.  She tends to be quiet during the day but is energetic at night.  It is generally used to describe a person who is very quiet and inactive during the day, at school or at work, but has a lot of energy and is ready to go for excitement at night.

Text:

Eres como la linterna, nomás de noche brillas.

Transliteration: You are like the lantern that sparkles at night only.

Translation: You are a night owl.

Analysis:

This proverb actually paints being energetic at night, though at the cost of productivity during the day, as a good quality that “sparkles.”

The Cemeteries are Full of Good People – And Gluttons

Informant:

I had a conversation about proverbs they had learned from their families with three female employees at a local taco shop during one of the less busy times of the day.  Mercedes Rodriguez, 42, Maria Lopez, 23, and Rosalba Valdez, 18 each consider themselves Mexican.  Rosalba was the only one born in the United States, though she is a second generation immigrant.  When Mercedes would over eat as a child, her mother would cluck her tongue and tell her this proverb.

Text:

De límpios y de tragones están llenos los panteones.

Transliteration: Of the clean and of the gluttons the cemeteries are full.

Translation: The cemeteries are full of good people – and gluttons.

Analysis:

Mercedes came from a relatively impoverished, working family.  Consequently, within the family unit, greed and taking more than needed was looked down upon as a sin.