Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Folk Belief – Fort Portal, Uganda

Nationality: Ugandan
Age: 25
Occupation: Employee
Residence: Panorama City, CA
Performance Date: April 10, 2008
Primary Language: English

Avoiding curses

“Never ever pick up any money from the ground while walking down any road. If you see money on the ground, either walk around it, or turn around and use another route.”

I first heard this from his deceased great grandmother who was about 84 years at the time.   She told me that such money (that thrown on the road) possessed evil curses and spirits. She said that people possessed with evil spirits would go to witches. Those witches would trap all the evil spirits in a coin or a paper currency and order the patients to throw the money on a fairly busy path. That if a person came across and picked that money, he in turn would become possessed by the evil spirits. Personally, while living in Fort Portal, I never saw anyone attacked by evil spirits carried in money. Nevertheless, I never picked up any money since I heard that advice from my grandmother. Today, however, I can pickup money from anywhere in USA because their spirits won’t attack me.

Analysis

Personally, I would never walk away from money because I do not believe in superstitions. I think it is only a psychological effect that anyone would believe that money on the ground has some kind of evil spirits in it. I think Gilbert believes in this advice because he thinks, “older is wiser.” I think it is almost customary for human beings to romanticize older ideas. Had that advice been to Gilbert by some one his own age, I do not think he would have taken it that serious. He only took it serious because it was advice from an eighty-four year old woman.

On the other hand, I think Gilbert believes in evil spirits because he was brought up to do so. That is the power or culture. Culture has such a big influence on how a human being’s mind works. Culture is so strong that it can cause two people to perceive the same thing differently. For example, if I found money on the ground, I would call it my lucky day while Gilbert would call it a nightmare. This is because we are raised in two different cultures. My culture calls it lucky and his culture calls it wicked.

Even though he did not recognize it was only psychological for him to believe in that advice, Gilbert seemed to perceive it. As he said, he can pick up money in the USA but not on his native land. Again, this shows the strength of culture and its boundaries. I say he can pick up money in the USA only because he has not been told that it possesses evil spirits. In a way, when he is in USA, his psyche switches to USA’s customs and vice versa when he goes back to this native country.

Folk Gang Sign – Van Nuys, California

Nationality: Ugandan
Age: 16
Occupation: Student
Residence: Van Nuys, CA
Performance Date: April 15, 2008
Primary Language: English

Anthony told me that him and his gang members used flashed this sign whenever they met each other. He also told me that they could show the same sign to strangers (about their age) who seemed to them that they were from some other gang. If that stranger showed a different gang sign from theirs, then a fight could either break up or he could be warned not to walk through their territory again. He told me that the Van Nuys West side gang had just been recently found and its members were mostly high school boys. To join the gang, you had to be physically strong. He said that fights with; either existing gang members or a random rival gang member tested a new members physical strength and mental toughness.

Analysis

I have personally seen numerous gang signs including this west coast sign. However, I always saw this sign being used in another context. Most notably, Tupac Shakur in most of his videos continuously used it. Particularly, Tupac and his group “The Outlaws” used this sign several times in Tupac’s music video Hit ‘em up. The video was popular at the time when the “West coast vs. East coast” rap battle hit the top. In the battle, Tupac represented the West coast and Notorious BIG represented the East coast. The “West coast vs. East coast” battle ended with both rappers loosing their lives.

In the context of the “West coast vs. East coast” battle, the West Coast sign was used by Tupac to show his representation of the entire Western side of USA. Contrary, Simon told me that they use this sign for the Van Nuys west side gang. That reminds me of the problem of folklore ownership. If the West Coast sign were to appear in an advertisement, a movie or anything commercial, we would see various groups of people claiming its ownership. That is one of the biggest problems with folklore.  It is just too hard to trace it back to its roots. Nevertheless, folklore remains important. As Simon said, “If a stranger showed his gang members a different sign, then a fight breaks.” That shows the strength of folklore. Just a hand sign can be the difference between fighting and not fighting. It is because those kids feel that someone showing them a different gang sign is actually disrespecting their identity.  Their identity is built around that sign.

Annotation: Tupac Shakur. Hit ‘em up. Death Row records, 1996. Hit ‘em up. 4th June 1996.

Folk Remedy – India

Nationality: Indian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Albuquerque, NM
Performance Date: April 20, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Hindi, Urdu

“If I’m sick my parents give me tea with ginger, honey, or cloves. The honey tastes good but the other stuff tastes nasty. For a sore throat, my parents tell me to suck on some cloves. For a stuffy nose, they tell me to put salt water in my nose. For sinus problems, I’m supposed to gargle with salt water. Getting a head massage with coconut oil is good for hair, and it’s supposed to be cooling.”

Asif told me that his parents have been giving him these homemade remedies since he was a small child, probably around 5 years old. As far as he knows, the remedies have been passed down through the generations in his family, and are actually quite common in India. From his experiences, he said that whenever his parents give him the remedies he feels better afterwards, and actually prefers the remedies to some of the more mainstream or western medicines. He thinks that he will continue to use the remedies and pass them onto to his own children.

My parents are from India and they have given me the same simple remedies for these common ailments. The only remedy that I actually use is the tea with ginger in it because I take more common medicines most of the time. When I was younger, my mom would put coconut oil on my hair, which felt pretty good. If I had an upset stomach my mom would sometimes give me ground up nutmeg. Also, my mom told me that although she hadn’t ever tried it, she heard of people in India making a paste of dried ginger and applying that to their foreheads as a remedy for a headache. It is supposed to burn a little but it helps get rid of a headache. But, now I mainly use the medicine you buy at a store. These remedies are just known and accepted in India, but I fear that they are becoming less popular as India is modernizing.

Folk Belief – Nigeria

Nationality: Nigerian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 23, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Student

“In Nigerian culture, fish in a dream is usually a very significant image. If you have fish in a dream, and no one is eating the fish, then it’s fine. It could mean the something might happen or something, but no one will really get hurt. If there’s a fish, and people are eating it, that means that something is wrong and someone might possibly die. If there are fish bones, then that means that someone is going to die, but that person won’t know they are going to die.”

Tobi said that she heard about the significance of fishes in dreams from her mom, but doesn’t recall the first time she heard about fish being significant images from her mother. She said that the night before someone died, her mom would have a dream about fish being the main course at a party or some other function, and that it was usually fried fish. She recalls one instance in particular that she remembers her mom waking up in the middle of the night one time, with a dream about fish. Her mom told her and her siblings that they should be careful. The next morning, her father’s professor’s wife passed away from breast cancer that she had tried to keep hidden. I asked Tobi whether she believed that there was a connection between images of fish in dreams and the events that happen after them, to which she very emphatically replied yes.

To me, it’s a very interesting belief, and though it has obviously manifested itself for Tobi, I don’t think I would associate any dream I have of fish with the events that happen after it. It seems like fish have an important part in Nigerian culture, probably because it is one of their few sources of protein. That can actually hold power over ones mortality. However, I am a bit less likely to start believing in the significance of fish in dreams, most likely because I haven’t personally witnessed many, or any, instances where a Nigerian person has a dream about fish. Another reason I am a bit less likely to believe is that most people can’t recall every dream that they have in full detail, whether there was a fish that was being eaten, was just present, or if there were bones in the dream. Also, I would ask what happens if a non-Nigerian person dreams about fish, whether that holds the same significance.

Superstition – United States of America

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 30, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: French

Cheerleading: The Spirit Stick

Beyond pom-poms, tumbling, and stunting, there exists within cheerleading a superstition. This superstition is about the “spirit stick;” it must NEVER touch the ground. If a squad’s spirit stick does touch the ground, it is considered very bad luck—although the actual consequences are never really specified…it’s just “bad.”

What exactly is a spirit stick? It’s a cylindrical stick about 1.5 inches in diameter and 12 inches long. Often, it is decorated in the squad’s colors, but sometimes spirit sticks are given from one squad to another. At a National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) cheerleading summer camp a couple of years ago, certain squads were given spirit sticks as a result of having done particularly well on a given day. Squads were given spirit sticks based on how well they worked together as a team, how much team spirit they exhibited, stunting prowess, or other qualities. The spirit sticks were handed out at the end of the day, and it was crucial for team members to ensure their stick’s safety until the next day, when the stick would have to be turned in and redistributed to another squad (or sometimes, it would be returned back to the squad it came from).

During meals, while practicing, and even while sleeping, the spirit stick’s safety was always a factor. Many seasoned squad members bring a stuffed animal to cheerleading camp to act as the spirit stick’s “protector.” While the squad is in possession of the spirit stick, it is usually attached to one of the stuffed animals somehow. This way, if the squad needs to work on a routine and set the spirit stick down, the protector will come between the stick and the ground. However, constant vigilance is still necessary. The first time I was at cheer camp, one of the squads set their protector (with spirit stick) down on the ground, and one of the camp instructors walked by and took the protector and the spirit stick away. Later that night, the instructors announced the squad’s punishment for their lack of attention towards their spirit stick: they had to write the instructors’ names all over their arms and legs for the next day of camp. At the end of cheer camp, each squad received an NCA spirit stick as a kind of souvenir for having participated.

I first became a cheerleader just before I turned 14 (spring 2002). During my first year cheerleading, I had no interaction with a spirit stick, but I had heard about them before. The first time I went to cheerleading camp was during summer 2004, and I went again during summer 2005.

Most people outside the realm of cheerleading have heard of a “spirit stick,” largely due to its prominence in a popular 2000 cheerleading movie called Bring It On. In this film, the main character, Torrance is dared to drop the spirit stick in front of the entire cheer camp. As she does this, the seriousness of the spirit stick is satirized, with the camp instructors all diving in slow motion after the spirit stick, in an effort to save it from touching the ground. Later, one of the instructors tells Torrance that whoever drops the spirit stick “goes to Hades.” Throughout the rest of the movie, she feels like she’s cursed from the spirit stick. If anything doesn’t go smoothly for her, she blames it on her dropping the spirit stick.

Cheerleading, in general, is a pretty light-hearted sport. Yes, there is a competitive side to it, but cheerleading is not typically taken very seriously. The presence of the spirit stick is a very serious phenomenon though, contrasting the rest of the nature of cheerleading. Once being a cheerleader myself, I am able to understand the importance cheerleaders place on the spirit stick; however, the whole idea probably seems very silly for those who have never been on a squad. Granted, some cheerleaders don’t take the superstition seriously. As for myself, I didn’t really think that bad luck would come to me if I dropped the spirit stick, but I made sure to handle it with care whenever it came into my possession. The bad luck associated with the spirit stick is unclear—a definite outcome for dropping the spirit stick is never named. Sometimes, the bad luck might be attributed to the cheerleading squad itself, or the sports team they cheer for.

One possibility for the spirit stick is that it is a phallic symbol. Although the sport began as an all-male spirit group, cheerleading has evolved to include females. Currently, females account for the vast majority of cheerleaders in America, effectively making it a “girl’s sport” in some people’s eyes. However, I’m not sure exactly how a status as a phallic symbol would have significance for the superstition about the spirit stick touching the ground—perhaps some kind of loss of power? The origin of the spirit stick, as I learned from fellow cheerleaders, is that the first one was broken from a tree branch and given to a squad that had exhibited tremendous spirit and team unity, because there wasn’t a trophy set aside for this particular category. This origin doesn’t seem to have any kind of gender-related or phallic symbolism basis at all.