Tag Archives: life cycle

A Saying on the Nature of Life

Informant Info:

  • Nationality: Mexican
  • Age: 50
  • Occupation: N/A
  • Residence: Los Angeles 
  • Primary language: Spanish 
  • Relationship: mother 

Text:

EP provided me with the following folk speech in Spanish, “La vida está llena de lágrimas y ricas.” The literal english translation is, “Life is full of tears and laughs.”

Context:

EP immigrated from Mexico to the united states about 23 years ago. She brought with her all the sayings, folkspeech, and proverbs from her culture. The informant first heard this saying from her mother. She emphasizes that her mother always repeated this to her because she recalls that her mother “sufre mucho.” Sufria mucho means that she suffered a lot. Growing up in her household, EP remembers her mother saying the proverb when there was family problems or when someone would die. EP said, “Ahora te estas riendo con esa persona, y mañana ya esta muerta.” This means that today you can be laughing with a person, and tomorrow that person could be dead. 

Interpretation:

I, myself have grown up hearing this saying as well, and I was first introduced to it by my mom. When she first told me it, I remember being in a crisis and it was her way of telling me it was okay. I interpreted this proverb as meaning life is full of ups and downs. There will be moments of suffering, but also joy. It is a way of accepting that life comes with difficulties, but we must also remember all the good moments. I know that this folk speech is typically said amongst Latin-x communities. The phrase is usually told during moments of hardship, mourning, or sadness. 

Proverb: A Gift Horse

Text: “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”

Context: G is a 20 years old Animation and Digital Arts major from Birmingham, UK. He is a junior at USC and has been living in the area for 3 years.

This text is one of a few proverbs G could remember, but he believes he first heard this proverb when he was given a hand-me-down article of clothing and was “being ungrateful” about it. He remembers an older family member, likely a grandparent, telling him this.

Interpretation: After being provided with this text by my informant, I asked my roommate (a self-proclaimed ex-equestrian), if they knew anything about the proverb, as it’s quite popular. They confirmed that looking a horse in its mouth isn’t just a silly part of the saying. You can tell a horse’s age and other facts about its health quality by its teeth. The proverb is saying that, if you receive a horse as a gift, you shouldn’t check its mouth for its age or how its cared for – if you are given something as a gift, you shouldn’t try to find fault in it. I find it particularly interested that this is something my informant initially heard when he was younger, in childhood. He specifically remembered it being a hand-me-down, which is worth discussing because he found fault with something used. As a child, he wasn’t initially grateful for something because it was technically a gift, but he also didn’t know that society would expect him to see the used clothing as a gift. An older family member being the one to tell him this proverb is fitting with what we know about proverbs; it’s a piece of advice coming from someone with more life experience. It also speaks to the fact that society teaches humility and gratitude as a kind of obligation to children – as something not instinctual that dictates how we all should behave.

Proverb about Wasting Time

Text: “Don’t watch the mule go blind, load the wagon.”

Context: K is a 21 year old junior at USC. He is from Palmdale, CA and is majoring in Computer Science.

He says he’s never really used this proverb, but that it came to mind when asked if he knew any. He also noted that he remembered it because he found it funny.

This is one his grandpa used to say, and he warned me before telling me that it “wasn’t very cultural” – he seemed to expect that it should be because it came from his grandpa.

Interpretation: When asked what he thought the proverb meant, K simply said “stop wasting time doing stupid things,” to “just do the work.” The implication of the proverb is that you would rather sit and watch a mule go blind rather than do necessary work. Upon further thought, the proverb seems to also mean that you shouldn’t worry about things you cannot control when preparing for something, to just do what you can. It’s also relevant that this proverb was told to him by his grandfather, as it falls into the apparent trend that proverbs are for older people. This one in particular seems like a kind of warning from someone further in life to someone who still has a lot of time – to not waste that time on things that are either meaningless or out of our control and to instead focus on the task at hand.

Luddi

The informant is one of my Pakistani friends who has lived in many different countries, yet is very attached to the culture of his heritage and is very involved in the rituals, ceremonies and overall traditions that are tied to his roots in Pakistan.

Dance:

The informant describes this dance, the Luddi, as a “circular formation that people dance to”. This dance entails the “clapping of their hands and spinning in circles as they are still moving in a circle.” Although the dance is not usually performed for a certain scenario or moment, it is “usually done at celebrations and ceremonies like weddings and dinners with the family” who are brought together and dance to specific songs that link to the informant’s culture. He describes his times watching the Luddi as a “coming together when [they] have not seen each other in a long time” and celebrating the family or a certain event happening at the time. It is always performed in Pakistan when the entire family joins, his family always visits to “celebrate their cousins, aunts, uncles and all the elders that have given us the privilege we have” conveying the importance of the dance in Punjabi culture.

Context:

The Luddi is typically done with “the group of women in the family that are important to the celebration or occasions” and this can range from “family of the groom or bride in a wedding or the parents and siblings of the birthday person.” The joining together of the women in a circle gives them a chance to “celebrate in a space without the men involved”. Although it is usually performed by older women in the family, younger women around the age of the bride and/or person of significance are able to join the dance and “learn the significance of what it means to become an adult woman” in the family that has their culture embedded into their daily lives. Luddi is msot typically seen in the winter and spring when all the family members come back from their travels for the wedding season, therefore, it allows the women to not only celebrate the occasion but also the family and other women.

Analysis:

The formation of a circle as part of the dance highlights the cycle of their culture and the generations that come together to form a chain that connects. It is creating a personal connection between the women of the family in that certain moment, growing as the girls grow and join the dance to celebrate each other. The clapping of their hands emphasises the celebration of the occasion and also creates a unified sound that the woman can sing and dance to, establishing their heritage and Punjabi culture in the form of performance and expression of their joy into feelings. The incorporation of this dance at weddings, which is also presented to be an important and momentous part of the culture in South Asia, highlights how the family is the base of their culture and even the women have their own traditions and rituals that create unity. Furthermore, the circle growing highlights the chain of Punjabi women in the family growing and the representation of the elders teaching the younger traditions to keep the culture alive.

Judgement Day (Yawm Al-Qiyaama)

Original Text:

“يَوْم القِيامةِ”

Transliteration:

Yawm Al-Qiyaama

Translation:

Day of Judgement (Rising)

My informant has been raised in an Islamic pillared family in Lebanon that has not entirely followed all the beliefs that are enforced but has been taught the knowledge about the religion and the information regarding faith and the afterlife.

Narrative:

Judgement Day is known to be one of the most feared moments in Islam as it is also referred to as “The Day of the Rising”, “The Day of Regret” and “The Striking of Calamity.” My informant has stated that this is “the end of all life in our world when the living is stopped, the deceased come back from the dead state they resided in and are put on trial for their time on earth to decide whether they should be sent to the heavens or hell. Some signs of the day of judgement coming are when events such as “phenomena in the Qur’an, the book of Islam, coming to fruition and if satanic entities or ‘the jin’ were to appear on earth.” This allows Muslims to prepare to be judged for their sins and determine whether they are faithfully good. ‘Allah’, otherwise known as their god, will decide if those who are dead will live in everlasting torment and “if those who have performed his tasks may live freely to fulfil their own duties without punishment” for their sins. It is a day that they “fear, but must accept as it the way that god had intended for the world to progress and end” This is depicted as the beginning of the end in Islam and is the moment that all Muslims stay faithful for as it plays a role in whether they will continue to be blessed for their efforts or punished for their sins.

Context:

It is believed that Judgement Day within Islamic culture and religion is a pivotal part of their upbringing. Although it is “one of the most important parts of our religion and is an extremely important and heavy topic, [they] usually tell the children of the family when they reach a certain age to begin to teach them about Allah and how to be a devoted Muslim” They have also described that this topic is not brought up amongst other adults much unless “it is in a religious setting or during prayer, to remind [themselves] what [they] are performing good tasks for” as it is seen as a religious conversation that exists within every individual’s mind but is not spoken. They must remember that they are living to be a good person and will be punished otherwise, therefore, the children are taught at a young age to understand the complexity of the event and the importance that is tied to being a good person. 

Analysis:

Although the day of judgment is a religious sacrament and piece of information that exists in texts centuries old, it plays a pivotal role in not only children but adults’ thinking and actions. It allows each individual to perform in a morally good and generous manner that benefits their culture and the way they interact with the rest of society as a whole. The manner in which it is presented may be harsh and present divine and satanic work, but it gives humanity the chance to present themselves in a moral manner to live out the rest of their lives in prosperity and hope that they gain the judgment of a good being by staying faithful to their god and the entirety of society. The idea of those rising from the dead appearing as well brings the concept of ‘nobody is safe’ as it is a state of vulnerability that they are placed in on the day that wreaks havoc, crushing any hope for those whose sins have outweighed their good. It presents the idea of gratitude and allowing those who are fortunate to be grateful for their privileges, which can also be seen in other Islamic holidays such as the month of fasting of Ramadan when they do not eat to be more empathetic to those that are less fortunate and do not have the privilege of eating comfortably.