Author Archives: elimelec@usc.edu

Reed Kaplan 19: Sneezing

“When you sneeze the reason people say bless you is because your soul momentarily leaves your body and if someone says bless you it makes your soul go back in.”

Context: I collected this story from Reed at the University of Southern California. Reed is an American Jew with roots in Louisiana. He heard it for the first time when he was a kid and heard it numerous times since.

Analysis: I have heard this story a number of times and have heard a number of variations. One theory that was discussed in my folklore class is that sneezing is a signifier of getting sick, which is an element that people have no control over. This is why they continue to pass on the story. Another variation is that your heart stops when you sneeze and you have to say “bless you” because you actually died momentarily.

Alyena Koehler 18: Adam and Eve

“The reason why men have one missing rib is because god created Adam first and he made Eve from his rib.”

Context: Alyena told me this story at the University of Southern California. She is a student at Santa Monica Community College. She was born and raised in Agoura Hills California, and is not religious. She heard this story from her family and from her peers all her life.

Analysis: Alyena heard this story even though she did not grow up in a religious home. The fact that she still knows this information from word of mouth is a testament to our highly religious American society. This is also an indicator of how patriarchal American society is, that a woman stems from a man’s rib. This was probably partially the intent behind this mythology: to depict women as inferior to men.

Alyena Koehler 18: Tobacco

“The Native Americans have sacred tobacco that they used to bless their fire with and when the Americans came they used it for smoking to dis them. Now the Americans are dying because the spirits are spiting then with cancer.”

Context: Alyena told me this story at the University of Southern California. She is a student at Santa Monica Community College. She was born and raised in Agoura Hills California, and is not religious. She heard this story at a Native American sound bath one week prior to the recording of this folklore.

Analysis: For Native Americans to be telling stories of how their colonizers are dying with cancer is telling about their sentiments towards what happened to them. The Native Americans were brutally colonized and still never received the justice they deserve for their mistreatment. For them, a story like this serves a little bit of justice for what these people did to them.

Ben Elimelech 18: Tiny people story

“There’s a story my father used to tell me about these tiny dwarf people that would come out when people were not looking. Whenever anything was missing or misplaced around the house, he would say it was the tiny people who moved it. They were always causing mischief and would hear you when you came to disappear really fast. They had a peaceful community though and we were always trying to catch them to see if we could see them.”

Context: Ben is my brother, and he told me this story at home. He heard these stories growing up and throughout his childhood. My father heard the story from his parents, and it is passed on from generation to generation. My father is from israel originally. These stories represent an element of childhood that is comforting to remember. It recalls the connection of a father and son, which is what the story means to ben.

Analysis: This story was probably used to explain all of the misplaced items that exist around a house. This type of havoc is often unexplainable, which would prompt people to create a story centered around it.

Hila Moverman 42: Shakshuka

“Shakshuka is a middle eastern food that consists of two eggs cracked over some sort of tomato sauce. It can be spicy but it doesn’t have to be. Typically, it is served in the pan and is supposed to be eaten with bread.”
Context: Hila Moverman was born and raised in Israel, and moved to the United States when she was 19.
Analysis: Food often unites a culture and makes one feel as if they are connected to a group of people because they eat similar foods. For Hila, she feels that this food connects her to her homeland and reminds her of memories of her mother cooking this food.