Author Archives: D R

A paternal dinner table legend

Nationality: United Arab Emirates
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 29
Primary Language: English
Language: Arabic

Background on informant: Informant is a senior at USC, studying communications. She was born and raised in Dubai and plans to move there after graduation. Her father went to school in the United States, as did her sister.

Informant: My dad doesn’t have any pictures we can look at from his time in college at Washington State and all he has are weird stories about how he barely knew any English. Yet he was a master’s student and a TA for some math class. We keep talking about how he would go to the dining hall and they had a bunch of selections of food. And he’d be like, ‘I want that. The feesh. And that guy would be like, “What?” Or every time he went to a restaurant, he’d say “I want a burger” whgich could mean anything — a sandwich, etc… He had a very limited vocabulary. Sometimes he adds weird details to it. First, he started with the burger sandwich thing and then he added the fish thing. And then there were deserts. He would say it as deesert. The family makes fun of it. “It starts with him mispronouncing a word and then tell a story about when he was a student…”

Analysis: I thought it was interesting that the informant notes that her father occasionally “adds weird details to it” because it suggests that she is aware that the story contains multiplicity and variation, serves as folklore, but still is a meaningful way in which her family connects. In this story, I thought it was interesting that the informant’s father occupies a sort of liminal space. He is in a place of transition and that is what he performing — he is performing his transition learning English, adjusting to a new environment, etc… It is telling that the informant notes that this story typically prompted additional stories from her father.

A homemade laxative

Nationality: United Arab Emirates
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 29
Primary Language: English
Language: Arabic

Background on informant: Informant is a senior at USC, studying communications. She was born and raised in Dubai and plans to move there after graduation. Her father went to school in the United States, as did her sister.

Informant: This is a home remedy for whenever someone is having stomach problems, constipated. It’s an herbal remedy every UAE grandmother and mother swear by. It pretty much tastes nasty and is kind of like a tea sort of situation. We just drink that nasty thing and it makes your digestive system go crazy. It’s kind of like a laxative. I’ve never taken it but I’ve heard my friends complain about it. “My is making me drink this. It’s the worst.” It’s like an herbal tea but it activates your digestive system. I think it’s mostly an Arab region thing. Informant was not sure of the exact ingredients for the remedy but had heard about it as an effective but aesthetically displeasing remedy.

 Analysis:It is interesting that the informant has such an evocative memory for the folk remedy, given the fact that she never once took it and that she doesn’t remember its contents or its name. This suggests that the folklore transcends any label given to it. It exists as its performance and it exists in her memory. This, to me, was the most interesting aspect of this particular piece of folklore — that it mattered more what the folklore did than its ingredients and its name. It suggests, perhaps, that it can be made with different ingredients and as long as it still has the desired effect, be more or less the same piece of folklore.

How the UAE was formed

Nationality: United Arab Emirates
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 29
Primary Language: English
Language: Arabic

Background on informant: Informant is a senior at USC, studying communications. She was born and raised in Dubai and plans to move there after graduation. Her father went to school in the United States, as did her sister.

Informant: The way it’s phrased is different from what’s written down. The UAE used to be occupied as British territory. Before it was the UAE, every city was it’s own state. The leaders of the state’s came together, including Bahrain and Qatar, and said “let’s become one giant country, and by giant, I mean really small. But you know what I mean.” But then Bahrain and Qatar were like ‘nah, we’re just going to be our own thing.’ Then they said ‘Let’s kick out the British people and apparently we shooed them away” which I don’t think was a real thing because in reality, it was just an agreement. But the folklore is “yeah, we kicked them out.” I think it’s because we still want to claim its our country. Even though it’s the Emirates’ country, there are a majority of foreign people. Because of that, we still hold ourselves superior saying it’s our country, we got our own independence that way and they can’t say what we can and can’t do.

Analysis: This national legend was certainly interesting. As the informant notes, it’s likely neither true nor recorded. But it sheds light on the character of the country. This is what she learned as how the UAE was created even though she herself says this is not what occurred in reality. She knows that this is not the history but still the folklore persists. And that’s the interesting part. The context in which the folklore is told sheds light on some of the current political and cultural anxieties — that “there are a majority of foreign people” — so it is important for the Emirates to reinforce the legend that they reclaimed their country.

Descendant from the Arabic language

Nationality: United Arab Emirates
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 29
Primary Language: English
Language: Arabic

Background on informant: Informant is a senior at USC, studying communications. She was born and raised in Dubai and plans to move there after graduation. Her father went to school in the United States, as did her sister.

Informant: There’s this one joke or myth I guess. The guy who structured the Arabic language grammar — my dad jokes how we are related to him because his name in Persian means something in relation to apples. People in our family eat apples a lot so we are definitely related, my dad says.  Also, our last name means “intelligent person” — well his last name — and so since he put together the grammar of the Arabic language and we like apples, my family believes that we are therefore related. It’s some weird logic. I’ve never taken it seriously. But names are important. Names are everything. That’s how you are differentiated, whose an Emirati, whose not an Emirati.

Analysis: This myth, which could also be classified as a sort of familial belief, was extremely difficult to follow and the informant was asked to clarify several times. But perhaps that is precisely the point. At this point, the myth that the family is descended from the man who structured Arabic grammar, has sort of morphed into a belief that finds justifications for its existence rather than existing because of the so-called evidence, or the justifications.  That is how meaningful this myth is to the family. In this sense, you could say it is a myth because you could almost say it is sacred. The myth also sheds light on how the family exists within the context of society and the importance of names and languages. “Names are everything,” the informant said. “That’s how you are differentiated, whose an Emirati, whose not an Emirati.” Therefore, this belief is not just a belief for its on sake. In fact, it is a belief that is intimately tied to contemporary social standing. There is, in this sense then, something very much at stake in believing the myth, despite the “weird logic.” The informant might never have taken it seriously but there’s a reason, as she even concedes, that a myth so tenuously justified, persists in her family.

Learn to eat your rice…

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 29
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

Background on informant: Informant is a senior at USC studying computer science. She comes from a Chinese family and speaks Chinese.

Informant: My mother would regularly tell me to not leave any rice left in my bowl. I would ask, well why it’s just another little pellet in my bowl. For every rice pellet that you leave in your bowl, that’s another scar on your future husband’s face. So I made sure to keep my bowl clean. Now it’s just as a matter of habit. I guess. You just want to have a clean bowl. I don’t know where she picked it up specifically but it’s a general thing. I’ve heard friends say it too. Nobody wants pockmarks on their husband’s face.

Analysis: I found this to be a very interesting piece of folklore, a belief that I legitimately had never heard of. It definitely highlights some interesting aspects of society, such as a predetermined bond between husband and wife before they have even met. It teaches that the actions have one can have an effect on the actions of another. In a sense, the belief is extremely communal. You must eat your food so the other person is saved from getting scars on his face, which you also have a vested interest in not seeing have happen, as the informant says: “nobody wants pockmarks on their husband’s face.” Moreover, the belief inculcated a good habit, to eat all of your food, which for the informant is something she still does to this day. “You just want to have a clean bowl,” she said.