Monthly Archives: May 2011

Baganda Proverb

Nationality: Baganda
Age: 26
Occupation: Youth Association Director
Residence: Kampala, Uganda
Performance Date: April 1, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Luganda

Wokuba engoma enyo, bulyomu awulira

You play drum loud, all people hear

Spoken in English: When you beat the drums loud, everyone hears.

I heard this from a friend from Uganda, and also saw it in a Ugandan newspaper article pertaining to corruption. A previous article describing the increase in Uganda’s rank among corrupt governments compelled a government official to downplay the media and public’s reaction by essentially stating that the Ugandan government was not as fraudulent as the masses believed, but had rather suffered from persistent media speculation which merely emphasized and dramatized what idiosyncrasies did exist within the government. The proverb he used to describe his argument was the aforementioned. I asked one of my friends from Uganda what this meant to him, and he responded that it means that whatever is fussed about will eventually be noticed.

I feel that the primary message here is to exert caution, for constant noise and persistence will emphasize any cause to accumulate support of others. At times this can be a useful tool, yet it can also attract unwanted or even detrimental attention to an idea, event, or group of people that would otherwise benefit without the publicity. However, as an example of the proverb in a more literal application, there is a general trend occurring in Uganda in which women are increasingly likely to play the drums, a once entirely male activity. Thus, their performance on the percussion instrument can be interpreted as an act of agency, and this is mirrored with recent political development in Uganda such as the banning of female genital mutilation (circumcision) and the implementation of a quota system for women in all levels of local and national government. The proverb conveniently applies to this phenomenon, showing that playing drums can perhaps literally draw attention to whatever the issue might be. While difficult to show, it would be fascinating to see if this proverb developed as a result of or in conjunction with the women playing drums. Conversely, it is interesting to think if women began playing drums because of the proverb and the message it contained. A similar one I have heard before in the U.S. but cannot locate is “the truth is what gets the loudest applause.”

Butagira, Tabu. “Corruption Worse in Country.” The Monitor, November 15, 2010. This is the news article containing documentation and contextual usage of the proverb.

Mennonite Joke

Nationality: White
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Diego, CA
Performance Date: 4/23/11
Primary Language: English

“Why do Mennonites not believe in pre-marital sex?

Because it could lead to dancing.”

The informant is a student living in San Diego, California.  He attended a Mennonite Middle School and now attends a Christian university. The informant learned this joke from another friend in his social group.  He finds it so funny because the Mennonites do not believe in dancing. The informant said the joke should be shared when you are with a bunch of Mennonites or other people who understand the culture and beliefs.

The humor in this joke is based on the backwards thought process it exemplifies.  According to the joke because Mennonites dislike dancing so much they, in turn, also do not believe in pre-marital sex; whereas in most Christian denominations dancing is appropriate behavior while pre-marital sex is sinful.  The expected answer for this joke is something like “it is sinful nature”, “it could lead to pregnancy”, or “it could lead to an STD”.  I think this joke is funny because the answer is unexpected yet very stereotypical of the Mennonite community.  I also like the fact that Mennonites can be self-deprecating and are able to poke fun at themselves.

Proverb

Nationality: African American
Age: 52
Occupation: CEO
Residence: Fresno, CA
Performance Date: April 23, 2011
Primary Language: English

“It is better to live a coward than to be dead as a hero”

My informant said that this proverb is best explained by another proverb that he heard growing up which is “Cowards live to fight another day”.  In the environment that my informant grew up in, these proverbs were said a lot by the adults in the community. There was a heavy gang population in the area where the informant was raised. A lot of racial tension between black people who were poor and those living in middle class neighborhoods and also a lot of tension between the black gangs and the Mexican gangs across town. There were deaths often and many times young kids between the ages of 11 and 14 would get caught in the middle of gang fights and end up dead as well. When my informant was a teenager these proverbs annoyed him as he felt that there was nothing worse than cowardice, but now he can understand why the adults in the neighborhood tried to paint cowardice in a semi-positive light.  These proverbs say that sometimes your pride isn’t worth being killed over.  As long as you don’t die you can live to fight for that pride some other time. Of course my informant admits that’s much easier said than done. I found my informant’s explanation very informative and have nothing to add to it.

Dirty Joke – American

Nationality: Slovenian/Mexican
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: University of Southern California
Performance Date: April 4, 2011
Primary Language: English

The informant says she heard the following joke from a student at the University of Southern California: “I heard this one on, um, a—a hiking trip I went on . . . and it was a nighttime hike and we were looking at the stars, and the guides were telling astronomy stories and stuff, but one of them, uh, he told this dirty physics joke.”

The joke follows: “It’s uh, based on the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, which, uh, I guess states something like, ‘If you know something—object’s position, then you can’t know its velocity and vice versa, if you know something’s velocity you can’t know its positions.’ So the joke is, uh, ‘Why was the physics, uh, the physics student, er, um, bad in bed? Because every time he found the right position he didn’t have the right velocity, and every time he had the right velocity he couldn’t find the right position.’”

The informant likes to retell this joke to people she knows are studying math.

She finds the joke funny because it makes light of a serious and unfortunate situation.

The joke is clearly intended for an educated audience; to understand the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, even with an explanation, requires some small knowledge of atomic structure. The Principle refers especially to electrons, which are so small that they’re hard to place. The telling of the joke might even be seen as somewhat of a status symbol—if you get the joke, you’re “in.” The joke of course has a terminus post quem of the proposal of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.

Tombstone Chopsticks- Chinese Custom

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Diego, CA
Performance Date: 4/14/11
Primary Language: English

“In general, a Chinese custom.  When your eating out of a bowl and you want to stop eating.  You can’t leave your chopsticks in a bowl. Its rude and bad luck because it looks like a tombstone.  So you have to rest them on the edges of the top of the bowl or in the chopstick holder.”

The informant heard this when she was studying abroad in Beijing, China.  She was with her Chinese language partner.  The custom is commonly known and people are brought up know this.  She says that she only would follow the custom to be polite and make the people feel comfortable but did not believe it to be true in any way.

Chinese culture has a lot of customs and superstitions regarding death.  I would never think it to be superstitious to leave my chopsticks in a bowl, but many Chinese would see that as a bad practice. The concept of death transcends into a majority of Chinese folkloric practices.  I find this to be very interesting because I feel like eating and chopsticks has nothing to do with tombstones and death.  But, this is a superstition passed down from generation to generation and people do not want bad luck.