Author Archives: bpolan

Dabbing (Dance)

Nationality: Persian
Age: 19
Primary Language: English

My informant is Grant, a 19-year-old male student at USC. Grant was born and raised in Los Angeles, however his father is from Iran and his mother is from Japan. Both of these cultures influence his life in different ways. This piece of folklore is a tradition performed on a holiday.

Do you know any folkdance or a form of dance you’ve learned from others?

Grant: “Does dabbing count? (laughing)”

Yeah you can talk about dabbing! So explain it what is “dabbing”?

Grant: “Yeah dabbing, its like popular now in hip-hop and rap that made it famous. You just kind of bend your arm like a chicken wing and drop your head to your elbow”

That’s a dance move?

Grant: “Yeah a lot of rappers do it but celebrities really made it famous and you see it all over twitter and other social media”

Was there anyone specific that started this dance move or do you know the origins?

Grant: “I don’t know exactly but I know it became popular because of Cam Newton. He would dab during all his football games when he scored or even when he had a good play he would just celebrate. I also know the move comes from taking a “dab” which is like smoking but harsher so you have to cough afterwards. The dab is like a cough but as a dance move”

Do you think people know it originated from smoking?

Grant: “I don’t think so, I think it started out that way but once celebrities made it common and little kids and parents started doing it and I definitely don’t think they know it came from smoking”

So would you say all age groups do it?

Grant: “Yeah you see little kids doing it all the time on tv and twitter and even grandparents but I don’t think they know what they’re doing”

 

I like this piece of folklore because it began as a dance started by popular culture about smoking drugs but through the mass use of the dance move by celebrities and then by their followers it turned into an innocent dance move almost known by everyone.

Kick the Can (Game)

Nationality: Persian
Age: 19
Primary Language: English

My informant is Grant, a 19-year-old male student at USC. Grant was born and raised in Los Angeles, however his father is from Iran and his mother is from Japan. Both of these cultures influence his life in different ways. This piece of folklore is a tradition performed on a holiday.

Grant: “So uh as a kid I would used to play ‘Kick the Can’ in my neighborhood. Did you play that?”

No I never did how do you play?

Grant: “You would get a can or like a carton and we’d put it in the middle of the street and then you have like, only one person defending the can and everyone else would disperse and hide from different angles. So usually we would put it in the middle of a cul-de-sac so it would be easier to defend and everyone would spread out and go to different angles and you would like coordinate with people and run at the middle and try and actually kick the can while the defender tries to tag you”

So would the guy defending the can be allowed to be right next to it the whole time or did he have to move around?

Grant: “Oh you can’t really puppy-guard. Like probably can’t be within 10 feet of the can until someone comes running”

How do you win?

Grant: “You kick the can you get a point but if you get tagged you have to be in the middle and defend the can now”

Was this a big game in your childhood?

Grant: “Yeah, I would say so. I used to play it all the time with my neighbors”

Did you play this game at school?

Grant: “Yeah, we used to play it sometimes at recess”

Do you know who taught you the game?

Grant: “I don’t know, I think one kid must have come out and explained it and said let’s play this game and it just took off from there”

When did you start playing this game?

Grant: “I was like seven or eight”

When was the last time you played?

Grant: “Probably like 10, we went through a phase of it where we would play a lot”

 

I think Grant gave me a really typical example of a childhood game. Like most childhood games, kick the can requires very little specific gear to play the game, on the contrary, merely an old can or empty carton will suffice. Grant isn’t sure where he first learned the game but assumes one kid just offered the game, explaining the rules, then proceeding to get everyone to play. Thus the transfer of folklore and now more people know the game and as they play with other children they in turn teach the game, transferring folklore. Grant played this game with his friends at school and his friends from his neighborhood. It may very well have been him being the bridge bringing the game from the schoolyard to the backyard or vice versa. It is just interesting how explaining a fun game to children is a way of communicating folklore.

 

For alternate rules and explanation see here:

 

“The Rules of Kick the Can /.” Project Play. Project Play Books, 2013. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.

 

Black Neck (Protection)

Age: 26
Performance Date: 3/18/16
Primary Language: English

My informant is Betsy, a 5’3, white female. Betsy is 26 years old and grew up in Los Angeles her whole life. She is of Irish and Eastern European descent.

 

Betsy: “When I was a little girl my grandma would always tell me to wash my neck in the morning, like she made sure I did it. She said that if I didn’t my neck would turn black because when she was growing up she knew a girl who never washed her neck and everyone would make fun of her at school because she had a black neck”

How old were you when she first told you this?

Betsy: “Ever since I remember she told me that story! She really wanted me to wash my neck”

Did you actually do this?

Betsy: “Yes! Every time I took a shower, to this day, I remember my grandma Florence saying “Wash your neck!” so I always did it”

Did you think your neck would turn black?

Betsy: “When I was younger I did and I would really scrub but now I know it won’t but I still wash it every morning out of habit”

 

Betsy’s folklore is a superstition her Grandma told her about how if she didn’t wash her neck it would turn black. This seems like any normal persuasive saying a parent or grandparent would tell a child but she took it really far, enough to where Betsy continues to this day remember that warning and wash her neck appropriately. It’s interesting how we keep the same habits even though we find out they do not work.

Carnival de San Miguel (Festival)

Nationality: Salvadorian
Age: 50
Performance Date: 4/8/16
Primary Language: Spanish

My informant is Alice. Alice is 50 years old and was born and raised in San Salvador, El Salvador. She lived there until she was 18 then moved to the United States and proceeded to live in Mexico for a short time before returning to the states.

 

Alice: “The festival is called ‘Carnival de San Miguel’ – the carnival of Saint Michael. It’s basically a town party, San Miguel is a city in El Salvador and there are a ton of coffee plantations around there and at the end of the coffee harvest they have this festival in the middle of the town like a big big party. Everyone goes and they get dressed up, well they used to now not so much, and dance and it’s very, very hot. There’s drinking and dancing and all kinds of merriment”

And this has been going on as long as you remember?

Alice: “This has been going on as long as I remember but there was a long period of time where people from the West of the country couldn’t go to that part of the country because of the war. So I missed this carnival for much of the time that I grew up because I couldn’t get there ecause of the war. When I came back after college I went for two years in a row. But my mother and my grandmother and my aunts and uncles all grew up going to this carnival”

Was it like a carnival here?

Alice: “No they call it carnival but its more like a big party, a dance”

What does this festival mean to you?

Alice: “It just means that it’s the end of a lot of hard work for a lot of people and you get to see everyone socially, people you know. It’s just a fun event, it’s a celebration. And depending on your age was how long you got to stay out and party. As a kid you would go with your parents and leave early but when you’re older you stay until like 4am and party. It’s like a rite of passage”

 

This festival, the ‘Carnival de San Miguel’, seems like a really fun celebration and like a very well known one in a small country like El Salvador where people would travel to come join the celebrations. Alice’s mother and her other’s mother all grew up going to this festival and she even claims it’s a rite of passage. All ages attend this celebration and it just sounds like one big party. This form of folklore is interesting because it is an annual celebration but they continue to do it and naturally it would change every year just a little bit, but from 50 years it could be completely different. Alice notes the change in wardrobe as people used to dress nicer to the festival. It’s also a cool form of folklore because it is something you can visually see take place and physically be a part of.