Monthly Archives: May 2011

Nigerian Proverb

Nationality: Nigerian
Age: 28
Occupation: Chemical Engineering Student
Residence: Nigeria
Performance Date: April 23, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Pidgin English, French, Conversational Arabic

“When the lizard falls from the tree, if no one praises it, it praises itself.”

According to my informant, lizards in Nigeria often quickly bob their heads up and down, a motion that looks like a mix between a head nod and a bow. This gesture, in Nigeria, implies self-congratulations and makes the lizard look as if it is continually praising itself. Lizards, however, are not seen as intelligent creatures. My informant says that they try to jump from tree to tree, but more often than not they miss the trees, and land on the ground. After taking this embarrassing tumble, the lizard gets immediately to its feet and begins bobbing again, seemingly praising itself.

My informant first heard this proverb when he was very young. Generally, the proverb is used to talk about someone who is not present, although occasionally children will say it to tease each other. In most situations, people use this proverb to chastise someone indirectly for being unnecessarily arrogant. My informant says that the proverb refers to people who think highly of themselves, even if no one else does and even when they fail, just like the lizard that fails when he doesn’t reach the second tree. When someone praises or congratulates themselves and that praise is undeserved, someone else will say this proverb to a third person. My informant believes that proverb means that arrogance is blind, and cannot tell the difference between a praiseworthy act and something unworthy of praise.

Chinua Achebe records a variation of this proverb in his book Things Fall Apart. At the beginning of the book, the main character, Okonkwo, needs help with his yam crops. Unlike most young men in his Nigerian village, Okonkwo has never been able to rely on his father to provide food for the family, and cannot ask his father for yams to plant. Instead, Okonkwo always had to work for himself and provide for his family, even as a young boy. In the third chapter, Okonkwo decides to ask one of the other men in the village for some yams on loan, rather than rely on his own father. Before presenting evidence to prove his own worth, Okonkwo says, “The lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no one else did,” (1994: 21). He then continues by praising himself, saying, “I began to fend for myself at an age when most people still suck at their mothers’ breasts,” (1994: 21).

While my informant’s version of the proverb and the proverb in Things Fall Apart use the same image, a lizard praising itself after jumping from a tree and landing on the ground, the implications of these proverbs directly contradict each other. For my informant, praising oneself is a consequence of arrogance and thus a negative quality. Okonkwo, on the other hand, must praise himself because he has no one else to vouch for his dependability, and thus no one else will praise him. These different usages stem from one of main verbs in the proverb: “falls” versus “jumps.” Whereas “falls” implies that the action was unintentional and thus a failure, “jumps” implies intentionality and success. Perhaps, then, my informant’s proverb criticizes undeserved praise, rather than general arrogance.

Annotation:

Achebe, Chinua 1994 Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor Books, A Division of Random House, Inc.

Blanket Party Ritual

Nationality: African American
Age: 52
Occupation: CEO of manufacturing company
Residence: Fresno, CA
Performance Date: April 24, 2011
Primary Language: English

A blanket party is when a group of soldiers kidnap one of their peers while he’s sleeping. They cover him with a blanket and beat him up, then put him back in bed.

My informant spent a few years in the Marine corps in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Blanket parties were done whenever the entire platoon was punished for something that was the fault of one soldier. For example if one guy was running extremely slowly and the DI (drill instrustor) made everyone an extra 5 miles because of it. My informant said that Blanket parties are brutal, but they proved to be very effective in making the platoon move and behave as a team. Even the most ornery soldiers became easier to work with.

This ritual is similar to a rite of passage on the Marine base that my informant was stationed, because almost everyone has caused problems for the rest of their group by messing up or making an obvious mistake.  A balnket party is a punishment to remind the person being punished that they are not in charge and not to do anything that would purposely cause the rest of his platoon anguish. After more time has passed and the soldiers get to know each other, a mistake made by a soldier probably won’t result in them “getting a Blanket Party”.  This practice is not only a rite of passage ritual, but it also unites the soldiers under the same identity.

Folk Belief

Nationality: American
Residence: Northern California
Performance Date: 11 April 2011
Primary Language: English

My informant, who grew up in Northern California learned this fortunetelling rhyme from her late father (1922-2005), the first American child of two Irish immigrants.

“Gift,
Friend,
Foe,
Sweetheart,
Journey to go.

“The idea is that if you have a white spot on your thumbnail, you’ll receive a gift at about the point in your life when the white spot reaches the edge of your nail. Similarly with index finger nail and friend, middle finger nail and foe, ring finger nail and sweetheart and little finger nail and journey to go.”
She went on to add:
“I have yet to encounter anyone else who’s heard of it, possibly because it doesn’t seem to have any actual usefulness for fortunetelling.”

While internet research did not turn up any other versions of this song, it bears similarity to another fortunetelling folk song for children which goes:
Monday’s child is fair of face,
Tuesday’s child is full of grace,
Wednesday’s child is full of woe,
Thursday’s child has far to go,
Friday’s child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child works hard for a living,
But the child who is born on the Sabbath Day
Is bonny and blithe and good and gay.
The “Monday’s Child” song is not as arbitrary as the fingernails, as there are both underlying and overt religious connotations- “Wednesday’s child is full of woe” could possibly be a reference to the Wednesday preceding The Last Supper, when it is believed that Judas Iscariot accepted payment to betray Jesus, and the Sabbath Day is regarded as a day of joy among Christians because it is the Lord’s Day (and because it is a commonly accepted belief that Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday).
The rest of the days seem arbitrary though, in the style of the fingernail rhyme, although the middle and index finger connotations do reflect two American traditions. Holding up the middle finger is an obscene gesture in the United States and would be reserved for “foes” while the ring finger is so named because it is the finger that wears the wedding band, thus it would be the “sweetheart” finger.

Monday’s Child is actually included in the Roud Folk Song Index with the number 19526. http://tinyurl.com/5r9kjdd

Folk Speech – Oklahoma

Nationality: American
Age: 24
Occupation: Actor
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 26 March 2011
Primary Language: English

Kylie Sparks grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma and began traveling to Los Angeles to pursue acting when she was 13. She moved to California permanently when she was 17 and graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in Theatre in 2010.
When asked if she had any regional phrases (“Oklahoma-isms”) that she could share, she provided some of her favorites with an example of each.
“Naked as a jay bird.”-When someone is totally naked. Example: “Little Luke just decided to take his clothes off and he was as naked as a jay bird running around the yard!”

“How the cow was going to eat the cabbage.”-telling it like it is.
Example: “Ruby was the kind of dog who didn’t just bark. She held a conversation and told you EXACTLY how the cow was going to eat the cabbage!”

When asked if she ever had to explain what these meant in California, she replied, “I always use them and no one ever understands me until I explain them.”

Analysis: Oklahoma has a much stronger agricultural based culture than California does. While there is agriculture in California, it is largely restricted to rural and sparsely populated areas. Thus, it makes sense that regionalisms about cows and cabbage would not register with Angelenos.
As for “Naked as a jay bird,” the saying appears to stem from the observation that baby Jays are born with with very little down, thus leaving them essentially naked. Again, although Jays are native to most areas of the Unites States, California included, this phrase is unlikely to be understood by someone in a city like Los Angeles unless he or she had heard it from someone else. [http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1954982/where_does_the_saying_naked_as_a_jaybird.html?cat=60]

Rape Steps, Tufts University, Onomastic

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: German Student
Residence: Essex, Massachusetts
Performance Date: March 17, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: German

“The Rape Steps”

“Someone made it their project, I don’t know if it was an engineering student or what, but basically they wanted to design a set of stairs that would be easier for a woman to climb up than a man. Something about a different gait length, or something, I think it’s bullshit. They’re really obnoxious to walk up. Essentially, people race up them, but every time the guys won. So either they’re very poorly designed or some giant conspiracy. They’re called the rape steps because they don’t actually work. They’re supposed to prevent rape, but since they don’t work, the name works either way.”

Samantha and I were walking back to her dorm at around 1:00 AM after buying French Fries at an off-campus pizza shop, when we came upon “The Rape Steps.” “The Rape Steps” are built into a hill and, despite their awkward length and height, provide a short cut between the Tufts University campus and Boston Avenue in the town of Medford, Massachusetts. Trees surround the steps, creating a dark, secluded pathway, although a campus parking lot and streetlights are visible. As we climbed “The Rape Steps,” I questioned Samantha about their ominous title, and she responded with the above story. The story left me slightly freaked out, and a little nervous about the man we had seen a little earlier walking alone. Samantha, however, was not fazed by either the incident or the name of the steps.

The next day, Samantha and I again went down the “The Rape Steps” to get into the town. Since I am relatively short (about 5 feet and 2 inches tall) and Samantha is relatively tall (about 5 feet and 11 inches tall), we decided to test out the theory behind “The Rape Steps.” Running down the steps, we were both able to keep a quick, steady pace, with neither girl outrunning the other. As we ran past a group of students walking up the steps, we overheard them laughing and gleefully saying something similar to “do you remember when we tried out the Rape Steps?” Between that experience and stories that Samantha has told me, “testing out the Rape Steps” seems like a fairly common practice at Tufts University.

The steps do not have an official name, so Samantha believes that the name arouse out of necessity. According to her, the steps are an important landmark on the campus, and first-year students learn the name “Rape Steps” shortly after arriving on campus. She does not remember when she first heard the name or the story, but does not believe that there was a specific context, such as at night, in which students first learn about “The Rape Steps.” She thinks that the title itself is an ironic one, implying that women are more likely to get raped if they are near these steps than other places on campus. The steps are seen as a “failed project,” since it is commonly accepted and proven through trials that the steps are not easier for women than men to run up. In fact, one online compilation of “Tufts University Urban Legends” claims that, “an empirical study will show that men can run up these steps twice as fast as women.” The name, Samantha believes, reflects Tufts’ students’ expectation of excellence, or at least competence, and the humor produced when the University blatantly does not meet those expectations.

Looking at variations in the legend surrounding “The Rape Steps,” reveals an additional explanation for the onomastic. In an article for The Tufts Daily a female student wrote about the “usability” of the steps, or the lack thereof, as an escape route for female students. While the article itself aligns with Samantha’s explanation of the creation of “The Rape Steps,” an alumnus responded to the article with a different creation story. The alumnus stated that when he or she attended Tufts University, an engineering professor had told him or her that an engineering class, as assignment, designed the steps to “[conform] to the contour of the hill.” For the purpose of this collection, it does not matter which story is “correct” or “the truth,” but dominance of the title “The Rape Steps” despite contemporary legends about the steps that are not connected with rape or assault suggests that the onomastic may not have resulted from the steps intended use, but rather their actual use. Samantha told me about the steps at a time when fear of assault, sexual or otherwise, was reasonable. Despite the steps benign quality during the day, the name “The Rape Steps,” and the legend that goes with it, might also reveal a legitimate fear that female students at Tufts University might feel when using the steps late at night. As they do, for example, when coming back to campus from off-campus parties, where the likelihood of sexual assault is also higher. The name does allow Tufts students to identify a landmark easily, but it may also reveal an unspoken of fear that female students at Tufts feel.

Annotations:

Enotes.com. 2011 Tufts University: Tufts Urban Legends. http://www.enotes.com/tufts-university-guide/urban-legends, accessed April 28, 2011.

Birch-Desai, Jaya. The Tufts Daily. 2009 Engineering Psychology and the Rape Steps. http://www.tuftsdaily.com/engineering-psychology-and-the-rape-steps-1.2063372, accessed April 28, 2011.