Author Archives: Daniel Gilbert

Celebration – Cavite, Philippines

Residence: Manila, Philippines
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Tagalog

“ Pamasko”

Carolyn was born in the province of Cavite, within the municipality of Silang- located outside of Manila in the Philippines. She has lived in the Philippines for seventeen years and has spent only two years in the United States. She currently resides in Los Angeles. She speaks English and Tagalog fluently. Her parents are both from the aristocratic class of the Philippines nation.

On Christmas morning in Cavite, the upper-class citizens do not first enjoy the spectacular gifts that they have purchased for one another- instead they are busy standing at their doorstep greeting those of the lower working class who have come to visit. The lower class peoples traditionally will venture on Christmas morning to the houses of the upper class where they will receive what is referred to in Tagalog as a “pamasko”. In English, this would mean the equivalent of a small Christmas offering or gift. The upper-class families will wait at their doorstep and offer small gifts of money to the peasants as they arrive at the house. While the parents are receiving money from the house owners, the lower-class children participate in a variety of games that are prepared for them in the house courtyard. Such games include a traditional egg and spoon race. Usually the wealthy families will give a twenty-peso bill to children who visit their homes and a fifty- peso bill to adults.

Carolyn says that she has always practiced this tradition throughout her life. Her parents say that their parents also participated in the pamasko tradition. According to Carolyn, the upper class peoples give these gifts to the lower class in a spirit of generosity- something that is highly valued in her culture.

The practice of giving a pamasko to the lower classes on Christmas morning seems to be a physical representation of the practices and attitudes valued by the citizens of Cavite. It is apparent that generosity and helping those who are less fortunate are two values that are highly considered by Cavite citizens.

Game – University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia

Residence: Athens, GA
Performance Date: March 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

“Andre Pong”

Wendy is a sophomore in college at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. She is originally from Marietta, Georgia a suburb of Atlanta located just thirty minutes out of the city center. Her parents are both from China and speak Mandarin as well as English. Wendy speaks mainly English but she is capable of understanding written and spoken Mandarin.

In order to play Andre pong, it is necessary to start with some basic materials. Andre pong requires, first and foremost, a large quantity of Andre (a cheap champagne that costs at average $4.99). In addition, it is necessary to have a table of substantial length along with twenty-two cups of the same brand and style as well as a ping-pong ball of regulation size. The table is set up as such: ten cups are placed on each side of the table in a triangular formation wherein the ten cups are in the same position as bowling pins. The remaining two cups are filled with water and used to clean the balls during play. Each team is composed of two team members who alternate taking turns in attempt to throw the ball into the opposing teams cups. Each time a ball lands in the opposing teams cup the team must remove to cup from the formation and subsequently drink the contents of the cup before play resumes. This process proceeds until one team has successfully tossed the ball into each of the opposing team’s cups. The ultimate object of the game is to beat the opposing team, though most players consider it victorious to consume that amount of alcohol in the process of the game regardless of the outcome.

Wendy says she was first taught the game upon her arrival to the University of Georgia in the fall of 2005. She encountered the game at a fraternity party at the Sigma Chi chapter at the University of Georgia. She says that the game is played both for the competition it provides as well as for its abilities to make the process of becoming intoxicated much more enjoyable.

It is interesting to find games such as Andre pong that involve both competition and heavy drinking. It seems that both of these: competition and heavy drinking are largely popular interests among college students in the United States of America. It is obvious that competition is valued at college campuses. If one is in doubt, he needs only to watch a college football game or basketball game and take notice of the intense rivalry and sense of school spirit found at most universities. In addition, teenage drinking levels have been increasing heavily over the last few decades to where it is no surprise that this is common practice at college campuses.

Legend

Residence: Marietta, GA
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English

“Soft Drink Can Contamination”

Glenn is a resident of Marietta, Georgia, a relatively large-sized suburb of Atlanta. He is originally from Thomaston, Georgia a geographically southern town located near the border of Florida and Georgia. He is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology and works as a Civil Engineer.

Glenn tells me that he has heard that it is unsafe to drink from a soda-can unless the lid is washed in the sink first prior to opening. He says that he has heard a legend that apparently the factories and warehouses where the cans are manufactured are rodent-infested and therefore the cans may have fecal matter remains from these creatures. He has been told that often times the surfaces of the can containers are not sanitary and require washing- especially because of the design of the can. He says that as a result of the way the can is poorly designed, the external surface of the can actually punctures into the drink itself when the consumer pops the top. He claims that he has heard that a person became seriously ill due to contamination from the lid of the soda can.

Though he is unsure as to whether or not anyone actually became seriously ill as a result of poor sanitation regarding the soda cans, he says it doesn’t hurt to wash the top just in case. Coming from an engineering perspective it seems that he is unsatisfied with the whole mechanization of the canning process and expresses a level of distrust in regards to the unsanitary conditions in which the cans are stored prior to shipping for sales and eventual consumption.

It seems that he has a lack of trust for other people to ensure his own sanitary health and safety. I think this may be a common distrust that is plaguing society- the inability to trust that others are doing their part to ensure a healthy and clean environment for food and drink production and consumption. This risk of contamination may stem from a general distrust towards others in general.

Food Cuisine

Residence: Thomaston, GA
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English

“Squirrel Preparation”

Phyllis Gilbert is a resident of the small town of Thomaston, Georgia. She is a second-generation British-American. She grew up in the smaller town of Yatesville, Georgia where she first learned how to cook and prepare squirrel.

Every first Sunday of the month, Phyllis prepares squirrel for her family to eat. Her son and daughter-in-law along with their three sons always come to her house at this time to participate in the activity. First, the younger children will take the traditional bow and arrows that have been in the house for over one- hundred years and hunt for the squirrel, which will be cooked. Once the children return with a sufficient amount of squirrel, Phyllis will skin the squirrel completely and remove the parts, which are desirable for consumption. Only the legs and the pectoral muscle area are chosen for cooking and consumption.  The squirrel is cooked in a similar fashion to the way in which chicken is often fried. It is prepared in a frying pan and is often served with a variety of sauces including gravy. The tradition of cooking squirrel on the first Sunday of each month is an incorporation of family gathering, children’s hunting, and cooking.

Phyllis says that her family practiced this tradition from the time she was a little girl (now she is 82 years old). The method for squirrel preparation that she uses was taught to her by her grandmother. She says that this family tradition is very important because it is a way of holding onto the practices of the older generations of the family in a present time wherein cultural traditions are dying out.

The practice of keeping this tradition wherein squirrel is hunted and then prepared on the first Sunday of each month seems to be an important way in which the family keeps tradition and heritage. It is interesting that many of the people who consume this item, being that they are from my family have told me that they strongly dislike the taste of squirrel yet continue to eat it for tradition’s sake. This clearly shows that sometimes traditions and cultural practices are continued regardless of their lack of functionality in the present times and even their at times unpleasant nature. The value of cultural tradition is often placed higher than the cost one must pay to keep tradition alive.

Folk Belief

Residence: Newnan, GA
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: French

“Dead Snake in the Tree”

Jessica Lewis is currently a student at the University of Southern California where she studies Psychology and Classics. She was born and raised in the small city of Newnan, Georgia. Her family lives in a rural area of Newnan, where agriculture is the people’s main source of profit and professional life.

Jessica was informed of this superstition by her grandfather, who claims that it has proven true on multiple occasions. The superstition is that if one kills a snake and then hangs the dead snake on a tree limb then it will rain within three days. Jessica says that her grandfather often would practice this superstition and that it was not a rare site to see dead snakes hanging from trees on her farm. She says that she thinks the superstition came about as a result of the family’s primarily agricultural lifestyle, wherein adequate amounts of rainfall are essential to the subsistence of both the crops and her family.

It seems that these superstitions probably arose out a person’s desire to express some sort of control over the weather, which itself is a rather uncontrollable entity. Most likely, the practice of killing snakes and hanging them on tree limbs is a desperate attempt on behalf of the farmer’s to control the rain in order to provide adequate rainfall for their crops. This leads one to believe that superstitions probably arise out of people’s desire to have some control in otherwise chaotic and inexplicable situations- particularly in matters of life and death.

A variant of this superstition is discussed in Lloyd N. Jeffrey’s Snake Yarns of the West and Southwest. From JSTOR: Western Folkore: Volume 14, No. 4, p.252

“Turning a dead snake on its back or hanging it on a fence will bring rain…”