Monthly Archives: May 2019

Feed a Cold, Starve a Fever

Nationality: German and English
Age: 45
Occupation: Lawyer
Residence: Palo Alto, California
Performance Date: March 10, 2019
Primary Language: English

The following is a folk medicine belief that my informant heard from his mom in the 1980s California. My informant is a middle aged white man who will be referred to as T.

Text: Feed a cold, starve a fever.

Context: T heard this folk belief from his mother who was a nurse. His mom followed this belief as well, and if T had a cold, she would feed him a lot, and if he had a fever, she would just give him small amounts of soup. T’s mother was German, but had grown up in America. The reason behind this folk belief is that it was believed that eating heated up the body, and if you fed someone while they had a cold, it could warm them up, but visa versa if you didn’t feed someone who had a fever, it could cool them down. T says he never thought this worked particularly well, and he never instilled this belief on his children. However, T also said that he never questioned his mothers knowledge as a child, and always thought that eating with a cold would help him recover faster as a child. However, T does believe in the placebo effect, and thinks that there is some advantage to thinking you are helping your body, even if you aren’t at all.

Analysis: I liked this folk belief, and like many others the first question I had was whether or not it worked. When I looked it up, their were numerous articles written about it, all of which said that there is very little evidence to support it but also very few studies to disprove it. Due to the sheer amount of articles regarding it, it seems like this is a common folk belief and according to Scientific America,  “This saying has been traced to a 1574 dictionary by John Withals, which noted that “fasting is a great remedy of fever. (1)” This folk belief shows the importance of the knowledge we receive from our parents. If our parents tell us something is going to make us feel better, we never question it and always accept it. It also shows how well folk beliefs can spread, with this belief being heard and used by so many different people, despite having no scientific or medical support.

For a more in depth examination of this folklore go to

O’Connor, Anahad. “The Claim: Starve a Cold, Feed a Fever.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 13 Feb. 2007, www.nytimes.com/2007/02/13/health/13real.html.

Works Cited

1) Fischetti, Mark. “Fact or Fiction?: Feed a Cold, Starve a Fever.” Scientific American, 3 Jan. 2014, www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-feed-a-cold/.

 

Swimming Folk belief

Age: 19
Occupation: University Student
Residence: Columbus, Ohio
Performance Date: April 2019
Primary Language: English

The following folksaying was collected by my friend J. J is 19 years old and from Ohio.

J: My mom would always jokingly tell me “Don’t swim an hour after after you eat.”

Context: J told me that his family has a lake house and they often go swimming in the summer. His mom has told him this, but nobody in J’s family actually believes it, including his mom who told J this. J says that the belief behind this saying is that after you eat, all your blood and energy goes to your stomach, and your arms and legs therefore lose blood and energy to keep you up if you are swimming. J says that it is logical, but in his experience, he sees no difference in his swimming abilities before and after he eats. J says his mom told him this because she thought it was an interesting belief and wanted to share it with J, but didn’t believe in it and never prohibited J from swimming after he ate. J told me this folk saying in a group and it delved the group into a conversation as to whether this folk saying has any truth to it.

Analysis: This is a common folk saying that I too have heard in my lifetime. I have never heard of anyone following this folk saying however, and J felt the same way. It is surprising to me that this folksaying has survived for as long as it has, considering there seems to very few people who follow it.  It shows how people like to share information and beliefs they have heard, even if they don’t believe in it, as it can start an interesting conversation. It also shows that folk sayings are reliant on logic, not on science.

Ghost on MA-70

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 2/22/2019
Primary Language: English

[The subject is PD. His words are bolded, mine are not.]

Context: PD is a college student from Massachusetts. He is Caucasian, of Irish-Catholic heritage, and has lived in the United States for his entire life. This story was told to a small group of people during a party, just after midnight, when the conversation had shifted to ghost stories.

PD: It was like… this is how I know it was definitely a ghost, because it was like 2 AM, like broad daylight, like I was driving from Clinton to Worcester, and like to get from Clinton to Worcester is like this ten mile stretch of like nothing but woods. Like no people, no houses, no nothin’… and I was like stuck behind this like 19-like 80s, 90s, like fuckin’, like a… it was like a Plymouth, like a car they don’t even like make anymore and shit. And the dude was going like 10 miles below the speed limit, and I was like fuckin’ pissed as shit. And like out of nowhere, the dude just like pulls over to the road, and like gets out of his car, and sprints and just like leaps over the fence and into the woods. And I’m like, ‘what the fuck was up with that?’ So ten seconds later I do a three point turn and turn around, dude’s gone, car is gone, I don’t know what in the fuck happened, but I asked my fuckin’ boss Emily, who’s like been in the parks department for like five hundred years, and she was like, “oh yeah, I’m pretty sure like a bunch of people died on route 70 back in the eighties before we started like improving it.” And I’m pretty sure I saw a ghost!

Thoughts: At the beginning of the story, I think PD meant to say it took place at 2 PM, since it was in broad daylight, and he was sure that this was a ghost because he could see it clearly. I noticed that this legend is very dependent on the modern time frame that it is set in, because the old style of car that the ghost was driving stood out to the storyteller, and connects to what Emily had said about the roads being unsafe in the eighties. I also found it interesting that the car the ghost was driving was said to be a Plymouth, since the story takes place in Massachusetts and Plymouth, Massachusetts is one of the oldest towns in the United States and is generally thought of as a place with lots of history and folklore, including ghost stories.

“Black and White” Chinese Children’s Game

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 78
Occupation: Retired
Residence: San Mateo
Performance Date: 2/15/2019
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

[The subject is MW. Her words are bolded, mine are not.]

Context: MW is my grandmother, who was born in Shanghai and then lived in Hong Kong later on in her youth. She moved to San Francisco as a young adult and has lived in the Bay Area for the last six decades. She is a native Mandarin speaker, but is also fluent in English. I sat down with her and asked her to talk about some stories from her childhood. Before this, she had mentioned a “black and white” game that she played with the other kids, and I asked her to return to that subject and explain it to me.

ME: You mentioned a “black and white” game earlier that you play with your palm.

MW: Yeah, yeah.

ME: Could you explain to me what that is?

MW: Nothing. Oh this? [Holds out hand, palm facing up] Just, we play…

ME: How do you play it?

MW: So we say… and then it’s like, [holds hand behind back, then moves to hold it out in front of her, palm facing up]. You play, it’s the game, right? And then we play game like everybody go, [holds hand behind her back] and only you [holds out hand, palm facing up] is white, is good. Right?

It’s like, we always go like this [holds hand behind back], and then sometimes I go like this [holds hand out, palm up]. Right? That means… I won.

ME: Could you explain why that means you won?

MW: It’s like, we play, who will do okay? If the game, if you throw the ball. Who will be the first one to do it. So we don’t let them know [moves hand back behind her back], and ‘one, two, THREE!’[brings hand back out, palm facing up], right? And with three people, then it’s like we all white, and then this one, this [turns hand over so that palm is facing down], is black.

ME: So ‘white’ is your palm facing up and ‘black’ is your palm facing down?

MW: Yeah.

ME: So how many people do you play it with?

MW: You play it about three people.

ME: If everyone has their palm like this [I have my palm facing down], what does that mean?

MW: Then it’s nothing. But if it’s ‘one, two, three’ and one is out [puts out palm facing up], then he won.

ME: Then why can’t you do this [palm facing up] every time to win?

MW: Because one can start, and then the other ones can follow you, I don’t know. So it’s everybody, like this [palm facing up], then that’s fine, but it should be [flips palm, facing down].

Thoughts: This game stood out to me when MW first mentioned it in passing because I had never heard of a hand game like this, and she called it “Black and White,” which was interesting because the two opposing colors seem to appear a lot in folklore. From what I gathered by my grandma’s description/demonstration, three children play the game and they start with their hands behind their backs. Then, on the count of three, they all put out their hand with it either facing palm up (white), or palm down (black). This part I am the most unsure of, but I think that the goal of the game is to be the only person of the three to have the “white” hand or the “black” hand. Thus, neither “black” or “white” is better, instead, the winner would be the person who chooses how they place their hand uniquely. This is surprising to me, because typically in children’s stories with the colors black and white, one signifies good and the other evil, but in this game they are only meant to signify opposites.

Cutting Hair for Chinese New Year

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 78
Occupation: Retired
Residence: San Mateo
Performance Date: 2/15/2019
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

[The subject is MW. Her words are bolded, mine are not.]

ME: Can you tell me about a Chinese New Year tradition?

MW: Chinese New Year, or Chinese New Year eve, we will put the whole table. Mother cook, or have the servant cook, all kinds of goodies, but we cannot eat first. But they still put the wine and the chopstick, and the whole table, but that’s let the ancestor come, ancestor, I mean we don’t see them- the people already pass away like my grandma, or grandma, you know? My mother always, we cannot- the kids eat later, just have to let them, still, put the best food, all warm, but we cannot touch the chair. It’s grand-grandpa, and grand-grandma, let them eat first. And after the time, bring the food back to the kitchen, and then bring it back and then we can eat.

And then also, in Chinese New Year, we have to go to have a haircut, the kids all have to go have a haircut.

ME: Why is that?

MW: It’s like for a new year, then you have to clean up the whole thing. And the next day, we have to go to, for our auntie, and grandma, those kowtow. And then they give us a red envelope.

Context: MW is my grandmother, who was born in Shanghai and then lived in Hong Kong later on in her youth. She moved to San Francisco as a young adult and has lived in the Bay Area for the last six decades. She is a native Mandarin speaker, but is also fluent in English. I sat down with her and asked her to talk about some traditions and stories she remembers from living in China.

Thoughts: I am half-Chinese and have lived in the United States for my entire life, so while the tradition of eating a big dinner on Chinese New Year is familiar to me, but the less common tradition of getting a haircut for the new year was not. I believe that this tradition could be associated with Frazer’s concept of homeopathic magic, because the chopping of the hair seems to represent chopping off what you no longer want to hold onto from the last year, and creates good luck going forward.