Category Archives: Customs

Customs, conventions, and traditions of a group

DON’T PEE IN NATURE WHILE IN BALI…YOU CAN PEE ON A SHRINE AND HAVE A CURSE ON YOUR GENITALS

Nationality: Indonesian
Age: 48
Occupation: Shopkeeper
Residence: California
Performance Date: 4-24-2018
Language: Indonesian Primary / English Secondnary

DON’T PEE IN NATURE WHILE IN BALI…YOU CAN PEE ON A SHRINE AND HAVE A CURSE ON YOUR GENITALS

 

Main Piece: (rough English translation)

 

There are a lot of shrines here in the jungles/wild/forests/beaches of Bali. Sometimes you do not know whether or not a place is sacred and there are a lot of tourists or people even (natives) who would just go to a bush and pee there – but then they would pee on a sacred space, like a shrine or part of a temple and then spirits of that temple/shrine would get very mad and curse them – their genitals.

 

Their genitals (penises) would get very swollen (in a very bad way), like purple or blue, for a very long time, until they would go to a witch doctor/shaman, and do what’s necessary for them to heal.

 

Background Information:

Why do they know this piece?

It is important to know things like this when you are going through the jungle/forests/beaches/the wild because it is important to protect yourself from bad situations like this.

 

Where/Who did they learn it from?

Friends, family accounts of tourists, taxi drivers.

 

What does it mean for them?

Do not go around peeing anywhere/everywhere when you are in the jungle.

 

Context of Performance:

Talking to mother through the phone.

 

Thoughts:

My mother told me this when I was in Bali and I did not pee anywhere in the wild just to be safe. Always used a bathroom.

COINING

Nationality: Indonesian
Age: 80
Occupation: Grandmother
Residence: Indonesia
Performance Date: 4-20-2018
Language: Indonesian Primary / English Secondnary

COINING

 

Main Piece:

 

This is a method of medicine for Indonesians/Chinese (for things such as colds, flus, fevers, etc.).

 

You do it by first rubbing “minyak putih” (literal translation: white oil) on to the affected area (usually the Chest or the Back area – could be over the triceps in some cases, etc…) – the area where “the bad wind” has entered the body, making it sick, and then you use a coin (but I use the hard peeled skin of red garlic, sometimes using the garlic piece too) and I use that to rub on the affected area down, down, down, in lines down the body to get rid of the bad wind.

 

The idea is that with each stroke down of the garlic/coin the garlic/coin takes some bad wind out of the body.

 

Usually this is done until there are red marks all over the affected/intended area. The redder the mark, sometimes blue or purple dots, the better or more effective the coining is working.

 

Background Information:

Why do they know this piece?

Because this is a very big part of medicine of our culture and it is a very good way to heal.

 

Where/Who did they learn it from?

I learned it from my mother.

 

What does it mean for them?

A very good way to heal your family when they are sick.

 

Context of Performance:

Talking to grandmother over the phone.

 

Thoughts:

Personally I do not like this method of medicine because it is painful/can be very painful. This would be done a lot to me when I was younger.

 

Once I went to school in the 2nd grade (I came here to the States from Indonesia when I was in 1st grade, still unaccustomed to the culture/rules of America) and my teacher saw how I had these giant red marks up to my neck. She called me during recess and asked me if everything was okay at home – she mistook it for child abuse.

 

Also there was a period when my father was very sick from pneumonia and this coining was all that my mother did to help him heal – and it was extremely insufficient – and he had ended up going to the ER for his pneumonia – it had gone very bad to the point where 75% of his lungs were filled with the liquid and the bacteria. I think this could have been preventable much earlier on if we took him to a legitimate doctor instead of trying to use this home remedy to heal him.

 

Although I have some dislikes about this I do admit that sometimes it does work and it helps me heal much faster than without it/traditional American/Western over the counter medicine.

 

 

ACUPUNCTURE

Nationality: Indonesian
Age: 80
Occupation: Grandmother
Residence: Indonesia
Performance Date: 4-20-2018
Language: Indonesian Primary / English Secondnary

ACUPUNCTURE

 

Main Piece: (rough translation from Indonesian)

 

When you are sick besides coining you can also do acupuncture.

 

Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese tradition and method of healing where you lay flat either on your back or your front side and an experienced and trained physician sticks needles gently into you acupuncture/acupressure points.

 

They believe that by doing this you can “clean up” or “open up” your chakra / meridian points / flow of energy throughout the body.

 

They believe that this is because all sickness in some way shape or form block or disrupt the flow of energy through the body through these acupuncture points.

 

I always use acupuncture when I am sick and it always makes me feel better very fast.

 

 

Background Information:

Why do they know this piece?

Because this is a good way/method of healing for the body.

 

Where/Who did they learn it from?

From a lot of places, books, doctors, family practitioners.

 

What does it mean for them?

A very powerful Chinese tool and tradition to cure the body of anything.

 

Context of Performance:

Talking to grandmother over the phone.

 

Thoughts:

I personally believe in acupuncture and a lot of my friends who had it before told me that it worked – but I never did it because I am very afraid of needles. This is a very well known Chinese tradition and way of healing.

Mom cooks, Dad cleans

Nationality: Swedish, Jewish
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: April 21st, 2018
Primary Language: English

“My mom and dad always divided the responsibilities. My mom would always cook, and my dad would always clean.”

“I grew up in Westchester New York in the suburbs. My parents are both originally from New York. My mom moved all over when she was younger because her dad was in the Military Forces, but dad was born and raised in Queens. He went to school at Buffalo State and then moved into the city to start work. My dad is Syrian and Polish and my mom is Swedish, Irish, and Russian. My mom is more European decent and my dad is more Syrian.

“My dad’s side of the family all stayed close together, they all raised their kind in New York. We’re more spread out on our moms side because they were used to moving as kids. My dad’s side of the family never really moved.”

“My dad doesn’t really know how to cook. He can work a grill and do some basic stuff but my mom is the real cook of the family.”

“My mom learned to cook from her mom. She was from Sweden so a lot of the dishes are kind of similar to Swedish foods, she makes a really good beef stew. Then she converted to Judaism, so now she makes a lot of matzo ball soup which she learned from my dad’s father. She makes a lot of traditional food, like brisket and potato latkes. Since my mom converted, I eat a lot more traditional Jewish food. Because my whole family is from New York, we celebrate a lot of Jewish holidays, so yeah I guess that’s why we eat more Jewish cultured food.”

“My dad’s mom was a stay at home mom, so she would always cook for him. I guess that that tradition was passed down into our family. Well, my dad never really cooked or saw the man of the household cook growing up, so I don’t see why he would think that’s normal. My mom is a great cook though and I think that has a lot to do with why our family does meals that way. Also, like, if my mom’s gonna slave in the kitchen my dad might as well clean up. Team work.”

 

My Interpretation:

In modern times, there is much discussion about gender roles in society and in the household. Certain cultures stress that the woman is in charge of all domestic accounts, like cooking, cleaning, etc. Through listening to this dynamic, I was able to decide that I think that this set up is solely about cooking ability. If the wife makes better food, let her cook. Looking into their past lives, their modern and past cultures, and their heritage, there is little to determine that their meal set ups are structured this way due to cultural tendencies. Personally, being of Jewish decent and practicing their culture, I know that food is a huge part of their culture and lifestyle. In my experience, the people who know how to make the food make it, there is no worth in making food the wrong way and not letting everyone enjoy it. It is important to note that there are different types of Jewish cultures though. The interviewee’s family is of Sephardic decent, which is a strain of Judaism different from mine, therefor they could have different cultural characteristics than those of my own. I still believe that there is not much underlying cause for this teamwork, rather just how the family makes it work.

New Year’s Eve – Waves

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 20
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA; São Paulo, Brazil
Performance Date: 04/15/2018
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: English

Artur, my friend from Brazil and my roommate in USC, was telling me about one of his traditions during New Year’s Eve, which has many celebrations all over the country. The story was told in Portuguese because is something that he does only when he celebrates in Brazil. It is extremely common to have superstitions and perform certain rituals right when the year stars. He tells the tradition like this:

“Tem uma tradição que a gente segue no Brasil, que todo Reveillon, para dar boa sorte no ano seguinte, a gente pula 7 ondas na praia. É um negócio que todo mundo faz quando tá na praia. Pessoas de todas as idades e também de todo mundo que estão lá. E acho que a primeira vez que eu ouvi disso, acho que eu era pequeno, tinha ido para a praia depois de um Reveillon, e eu não sei bem quem me falou para fazer isso, minha mãe ou minha avó, e eu comecei a prestar atenção com outros fins de ano que passei ali, que todo mundo fazia isso, então eu comecei a fazer também. Eu sei que, a origem dessa tradição tá relacionada com o Candomblé, que é a religião que surgiu no estado da Bahia por causa de uma mistura de diversas religiões do oeste da África que foram trazidos pelos escravos africanos durante a colonização do Brasil. E saiu como uma referenda para uma religião chamada iemanjá, que umas das figuras mais místicas, mais importantes dessa religião. Apesar de eu não ser da Bahia, eu sigo essa tradição muito menos pela oferenda, e mais pelo costume cultural disso.

 

“É por esse motivo que você gosta dessa tradição né? Mais pela parte cultura?”- I asked him.

Sim, você vai no “bandwagon” né. Mais eu acho simpático. Não sou supersticioso, mas, é, não custa nada.

“Ela tem algum significado especial para você?” – I asked him.

“Sinceramente não, só uma tradição que eu faço de vez em quando. Existem algumas no Reveillon, eu faço essa.”

Artur says that he has a tradition and superstition to jump over seven waves during New Year’s Eve. His grandma told him to do it and as he observed other people doing the same thing, he began to join this tradition, more as a bandwagon rather than any other specific reason. He says not to be really superstitious in general but he goes with this one because is something that everyone does in Brazil and it’s a way to start a new year with something to chase. I know Artur well enough to acknowledge that he isn’t in fact a superstitious person. I believe that this is a common thing in Brazil, just to “go with the flow” and do what others are doing, especially when you are young. In fact, this tradition is something that I also follow and although I am superstitious in this sense it was just something I did as a bandwagon. My parents told me about this tradition and how everyone did this so I decided to do it every year too. It’s a good way to start the year with a few dreams and to go after and achieve them. For every wave I jump, I come up with a wish and try to make this wish a reality in the upcoming year. I’ve been doing this until today and I plan to continue with this superstition throughout my life.