Author Archives: Baldur Tangvald

WATAHOTAHO

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: St. Louis, Missouri
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: English

WATAHOTAHO

Camp shwayder

Item: A story from camp, called WATAHOTAHO

 

Transcribed from our interview:

My informant’s explanation:

“First day of every camp session,  which is in the mountains, they take everybody to this like opening in the mountains, yeah I’m not going to remember this well but, they oh I know I remember now, there was randomly in this mountains there was a stack of rocks that was unexplainable, not from an avalanche, either some natural thing or man made, it was kind of weird. It looked like a cave with some weird rocks out fornt. This camp direct has this big walking stick and he goes up there with all the campers and every time he tells this story on Watahotaho.

 

It is a story of an Indian tribe in which there was a chief and there are three sons and one is hunting, one grows things,a nd one herds, idk, but they get ina  huge fight and they all go and their land used to be very beautiful and when they got in a fight they all left and they didn’t do well making tribes, and their old tribe didn’t do well. So chief tried to have them come back, he turns to each one and tells them they need to work together.  The cave was where it all happened. You all yell watahotaho together because the spirit is still around, and the legend is that if everybody says it in unison, you can hear a spirit calling back. They send some counselor away, and they do a delayed echo so it sounds like a sprit is calling back.

Little kids really bought into it, so it was funny by the time I was older. Every year you come he changes his story a little bit, so you realize how stupid it is. “

 

What it meant to my informant: “Well it was a good way to entertain these kids, to get them introduced to camp and get them to interact with eachother. The shouting thing was just sort of fun. I would just run around camp and to make fun of it I would just yell watahotaho because I thought it was so stupid, but the kids loved it.”

There are several key elements to this tradition, like when this happens and the interactive portion of the story. The story’s theme is teamwork and community, and since this is the first day of a summer camp for kids, this encourages the children to be more outgoing and embrace each other as a community. The interactive portion supports this, forcing the kids to work together. Moreover, by yelling WATAHOTAHO, the kids are almost performing enactive speech, their shouts in unison symbolizing the bonds they create. My informant said it was most effective for smaller children, which makes sense: they are most gullible, so the counselor’s trickery would be more effective. Regardless, Justin Elliot grasped the “silliness” of the word, which is also effective for small children; letting young children speak in a different language at the top of their lungs is exciting and liberating for them, especially because they are normally a disempowered community that must follow rules like maintain “inside voices.” Thus, immediately the campers are introduced to a new community and set of rules that sets the tone for the rest of their stay at the camp.

Pinky’s Up

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: April, 2012
Primary Language: English

Pinky’s Up

Type: Athletic Tradition

 

My informant said his school’s volleyball team had a tradition each time the team was about to start the winning point. As a team, they say “Pinky’s up!” Raising, their little fingers, they begin the point. Tyler explained that the players do this so the team “wins with Class.” My informant claims it is not connected with any school lore, and is unsure when or why it started , but that the volleyball team has done this as a tradition for years, and he thinks it is funny because it belittles the other team.

 

Associating the pinky with high-society, the players mock sportsmanship. This also suggests that they predict they will win the point, their confidence illustrating that they find the other team unthreatening. Undermining the seriousness of the game, the players illustrate their dominance over the other team.

Town Meeting Never-Ending Applause

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: English

Endless Applause

Initiation tradition/Practical Joke

 

In my informant’s  school (grades 7-12), there are weekly school gatherings called Town Meetings.  In these meetings, any student may make an announcement. It is tradition that when the first 7th grader gets up to make an announcement every year, the students break out in applause, but do not stop applauding. The noise of clapping too overwhelming, the student awkwardly stands on stage and cannot finish the announcement. My informant thought this was funny, and enjoyed the tradition.

 

Although embarrassing to the victim, it allowed everybody else to laugh together, reinforcing the community. This is also a liminal activity that introduces the new students to the school, a form of initiation. Knowledge is key here; those that know the joke can partake. The seventh graders, who do not know the joke is coming, are the “other”. Once they know, though, the 7th graders become part of the community. A year later, those 7th graders (now 8th graders) can be part of the joke and laugh at the new 7th graders too.

Last Football Practice Speeches

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Chatham, New Jersey
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: English

Last Football Practice Speeches

Tradition

 

My informant described one of his football team’s traditions:  “A tradition of football team was that at end of every season the Seniors would give a talk – each Senior would give a talk in front of the entire football team.”

 

To my informant, “What would they usually say – every Senior speaks after the last practice of the season, marking the end of their football careers. It is very emotional. Seniors impart their wisdom and what they’ve learned and what’s been valuable to them.”

 

The last practice is an example of a liminal time: the Seniors are not quite finished with football. This tradition aids Senior players through the liminal period, providing a finite moment so the Seniors feel they have finished playing. Passing on their wisdom maintains their role in the football society, since their advice will continue to affect players for years. Since football is a very tough sport, and most of the season is spent trying to be tougher, this moment is vital because it is the first time that emotions are really allowed. Thus, players get to see how much their teammates treasure their companionship and time spent together.

Blueberry Island Trip

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: student
Residence: New Orleans
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: English
Language: Spansih

My informant described a family tradition that takes place

Usually first week in august during their stay in their vacation home, which is located on Blueberry island (in Lake Joseph, Canada).

 

The following is a transcript of our interview:

 

“Each year up in Canada we go to this island called Blueberry Island for a picnic. It’s like a 90 minute boat ride and we have like 4 boats going together and we go and dock up next to each other on this tiny wooden dock and we jump off this rock, fry soft shell crabs, make s’mores, and sit on the rock, which has a nice view. It is a family tradition, and my whole family goes, often with extended family, every year for the past 50 years. My mother did this once when she was a little kid, and she liked it so much that she vowed to come back every year.”

 

To the informant, this day is the pinnacle of vacation, and he looks forward to it all year. He said it wouldn’t occur on a specific day, just when a majority of his family could come out for the picnic. He said he liked it so much because his family was together all at once, but isolated in the world because they were alone on the island.

 

The informant’s mother, who enjoyed this so much when she was a child, is sharing her favorite memory with her entire family. Also, by repeating what she did that day, she is likely conjuring memories of her parents and siblings and reliving the moment so that she could feel young again. The food, crab and s’mores, represents their vacation home and summer, since crabbing and cooking over the fire are limited to their vacation.  Thus, this event serves to create a memorable experience with which to codify the vacation.  Moreover, family is key to the event, which will not take place until a sufficient (but arbitrary) number of members can go, illustrating the importance of their established community. Spending time together, the family strengthens their bonds, and since this takes place on a private island, this trip reinforces their identity as part of the family.