Author Archives: Alexandra Dasilva

White Witch of Rose Hall

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles/New York
Performance Date: April 28, 2015
Primary Language: English

In December 2012, the informant and his family traveled to Jamaica for Christmas Break. On their way to Rose Hall their taxi driver, a Native of Montego Bay in Jamaica, told them the story of “The White Witch of Rose Hall.”

The Story

In Jamaica, there is a “White Witch of Rose Hall.” She was a white (Colonial British) plantation owner’s daughter. She lived on a huge plantation in Jamaica and she would torture the slaves and be unkind towards them. She was not a good woman and her poor treatment led to her demise. She was eventually murdered by the slaves for her cruelty towards them. Basically, she was brutally murdered in this mansion, “Rose Hall.” Her spirit haunts the house – mostly at night. She makes the furniture move and people have claimed to see her spirit roaming the house.

 

Analysis:

The informant says that when they went to visit he and his family trespassed. They snuck onto the property of Rose Hall after hours and the informant said that it lived up to the hype, the mansion looked pretty eerie and spooky. He said that when they arrived, there were black cats roaming around (one even hissed at his brother) and there were doors creaking. Eventually, when the security guard came out to tell them to leave he said that the “White Witch” had thrown a table inside the house just moments before.

The informant mentioned that he thinks that the Security Guard telling his family about the table was to lure them back to see what chaos ensues at the haunted mansion during operating business hours. I agree with this informant. The security guard trying to entice them with “spooky information” coupled with the story about the White Witch t highlights the main reason why Rose Hall in Jamaica is so popular for tourists, they want to see if the house is haunted and if it is, they want to see the White Witch in action.

High Tea in Arkansas

Nationality: American
Age: Mid 30s
Occupation: N/A
Residence: Southern California
Performance Date: April 19, 2015
Primary Language: English

The informant is from Arkansas.

In Arkansas, there are three times when you have a high tea party in your life: When you graduate high school, when you get married, and when you have a baby. At these “High Tea” Party, everyone dresses up in formalwear. White gloves, long dresses – think of proper England and what “High Tea” must be like there. It’s like that in Arkansas – it’s as big as a debutante ball. When you get married everyone normally chips in for an extremely nice – usually sterling silver – tea set. So you don’t register for a wedding or anything, you just get a really nice tea set.

I asked the informant if she went through all three parties (she was holding her child) and she said that she stopped after the wedding because she had moved to California with her husband. Even though they received the Tea Set for her wedding, and she went through high tea twice, I found it interesting that the informant decided not to associate herself with this Arkansas tradition. She said it was too gimmicky and that in California it probably would have been bizarre to have a high tea. I asked her if when she told her mother, her mother was upset. She said that she was a little disappointed but that she understood because in California they probably do not have high teas. The informant changed the Arkansas identity she was associated with when she moved to California and became a mother. Perhaps High Tea to the informant symbolized youth and Arkansas – two things she might have wanted to get away from.

 

UC Berkley and the Library

Nationality: American
Age: 23
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: April 19, 2015
Primary Language: English

The informant attended UC Berkley and told me a series of traditions that are done at UC Berkley.

  • At UC Berkley around finals time people meet in the library stacks to hook up. There is a website that pops up around this time so that people can arrange their “hook ups”
    • There is also a naked run through the Library every year.
  • 4.0 Hill @ UC Berkley
    • If you roll down the hill before your first class then you will graduate UC Berkley with a 4.0 GPA
  • UC Berkley has seals that you cannot step on. If you do, it’s bad luck and you have to run and hit the library as fast as you can.

It’s interesting how a lot of these traditions revolve around the library and are directly involved with academia. UC Berkley is regarded as a rigorous school which speaks to why these traditions have to do with either going to the library or receiving good grades. The informant says that never participated in the Library Hookup while he attended UC Berkley and that rolling down the hill did not work. However, one thing is for certain, if you go to UC Berkley, you’re definitely going to try to get a 4.0 and go to the Library

Camp-y Songs

Nationality: American
Age: 6
Occupation: None
Residence: Long Island, NY
Performance Date: April 18, 2015
Primary Language: English

1. “Lemonade, crunchy ice, sip it once sip it twice”

 

2. “Turn around touch the ground kick your boyfriend out of town”

 

The informant is a six year old girl who has gone to day camp for the past two summers. She said that she learned these two short limericks while she was at camp from her bunkmates.

The informant goes to camp in Long Island, New York and the summers there are extremely humid which makes a hot day seem even hotter. It makes sense why the informant would sing the first limerick at camp during the sweltering summer. To me,  Lemonade connotes getting refreshed and summer.  I asked the informant when she sings this and she said “in between activities.”

The informant said that she sings “Kick your boyfriend out of town” in between activities as well. From my understanding, the age group that the informant is in at camp is separated from the “boys side,” so the girls tend to stick together as they go about their day. Given the age of the informant and the division of genders at camp, it makes sense why a group of girls would sing “turn around touch the ground kick your boyfriend out of town.”

What’s interesting about these two folk speeches is that they take place “in between activities.” It may be a tiny liminal phase, but regardless, that’s a liminal phase. These girls are singing these songs in a transition stage, whether it be as they wait to go into the dining hall or as they walk across camp from the soccer field to the tennis courts, and from that I can infer that these songs are used as a buffer for the space “in between activities.”

Feijoada

Nationality: Brazilian, American
Age: 71
Occupation: Cameraman for Globo News
Residence: New York
Performance Date: March 2015
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: English, Spanish

The Story of how the Brazilian dish, “Feijoada” was born:

“There were many slaves in Brazil brought over by the Portuguese. They only had very basic foods to eat. The owners of the slave would cut the waste parts of the animals – the nose, tails, and the feet – and throw it in the garbage. The slaves did not have a lot of meat so they went to the garbage and grabbed the tail, the nose – all the waste parts of meat, mostly pigs – and they mixed it with black beans and then they made the Feijoada. That’s how it was born – from the waste of the farmers. Now Feijoada is a very famous dish in Brazil. It is considered the national dish.”

Analysis:

The informant is Brazilian, however, it’s interesting that he would know so much about Feijoada because he has been a Vegetarian for 50 years. I do not think that the informant has actually ever tried a bite of Feijoada. But I think that his knowledge of this dish’s story speaks to how big of a role these traditional foods play in Brazil. The informant says that his mother would tell this story to him and his brothers and sisters when they were adolescents. I think that this narrative is a positive reflection of Brazilian culture. The story  emphasizes that what was once considered to be waste is now one of the most popular and traditional dishes in Brazil. The informant even mentioned that when people cook Feijoada, they still opt to use what was once considered waste meat because it reminds them of Brazilian tradition and history.