MAIN PIECE: Informant: So my grandma does this a lot and I actually just asked her for clarification about it, but… A lot of the time when I was younger, and especially now, I’ll like wake up and the house will smell like… Smoke… It smells like burnt popcorn, almost? And it’s not like a… Continue Reading »
Main Piece: What does Pui Pui mean? “It’s like ‘get the words off your lips,’ kind of a purification thing, but it’s also about spitting. It’s like when you don’t’ want to jinx something, like ‘I hope I start feeling better soon, pui pui pui.’ It’s so the evil eye… to get rid of the… Continue Reading »
Main piece: The idea that you don’t talk about it (the baby). You don’t talk about it, you don’t bring the furniture in the house, buy the furniture but can’t open it, or put it together until the baby’s born. You come home from the hospital and have to put the crib together. In the… Continue Reading »
Informant Context: Stella is a traveling ICU (intensive care unit) nurse who currently work in Atlanta, Georgia. Transcript: INTERVIEWER: You seemed really excited to talk about [laughs] superstitions. STELLA: Mhm! INTERVIEWER: Do you have any particular ones you had in mind? STELLA: Yeah like, nurses are really superstitious. Um… especially like, in the ICU. Um…… Continue Reading »
Description of Informant NV (75) is a retired school teacher born in Abadan, Iran. She went to boarding school in England from 1956-1963, moving to American for college afterward. She always remembers her arrival in the states, as it was the day before Kennedy was assassinated. Currently, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area,… Continue Reading »