Category Archives: general

“A stitch in time saves nine”

text: “a stitch in time saves nine”

Context: after telling my partner the Chinese proverb “未雨绸缪 (wèi yǔ chóu móu) or “repair the roof while the sun is shining” she said that another English proverb with the same message a “stitch in time saves nine”. She said that he learned the proverb from her grandmother who lived in rural America. It represents a universal truth about efficiency.

Analysis: Proverbs are often used from parents, telling their children a warning in order to induce better behavior and to instill a moral within children. This is an older proverb that has withstood the test of time which is impressive in our fast paced consumer culture, and has been passed on through oral tradition. This also demonstrates multiplicity and variation of folklore as two different proverbs from two completely different languages have the same meaning and cultural effect, employed in the same way in order to teach lessons.

“Bless your heart”

Interviewer: “Can you think of any folk speech or phrases that are passed through oral tradition in your family?”

AB: “Bless your heart sounds like a very nice thing to say to someone, however in the South it is considered an insult. It is a weaponized phrase that we use on dim witted people under the guise of wishing them well.”

Context: AB lives in the South, and her family has used this insult for a long time, it reflects both a cultural and geographical shared folklore, but also familial. What initiated the conversation was her explaining difficulties of moving to California to attend USC. She has heard female figures in her family use this phrase, particularly in church or faith based settings. She now uses this phrase in California against people who don’t know the origins or meanings of this folk speech, enabling her to slyly insult people.

Analysis: This piece of folk speech is an important example of how context is important, as the words do not have visual meaning, but require the performance and subtext of the speaker. This is regarded as a Shibboleth, as it differentiates southern people as their own group with shared customer. It is reflective of the gernous and kind culture of the south and how people have to employ folklore in order to navigate the strict confines of Southern society.

The Cursor Superstition

Interviewer: “Can you tell me more about this digital superstition?”

SG: When i’m downloading a huge game update, like the one we are downloading right now, I never leave the cursor on the loading bar. if the cursor is touching the bar, it feels like its ‘weighing it down’ and making it slower. I always move it to the corner of the screen.

Context: Sophie is a frequent gaming partner of mine. She told me this superstition and taught it to me while we were waiting a patch to download. In order for both of us to be able to log onto the game quicker, I attempted it and it worked. She learned this from a famous gaming YouTuber who has propagated this belief to his subscribers.

Analysis: This is an example of digital folklore. Even with modern technology, humans apply “magical thinking” to processes we cannot physically see or exert control over. Anthropoligcally, this is a control ritual, and the personification of the digital cursor having this weight over the loading bar is a form of animism applied to software. In applying real world physics to an intangible object, we are making the virtual space more intelligible.

Hospital Flower Taboo

SG: In Persian Culture you never, ever, ever ,ever, ever, bring black gifts or flowers or anything to a hospital patient. it’s considered an omen that the patient won’t be leaving the hospital. Its preferential to use blue or turquoise colors in order to ward off negative energy.

Context: She learned this from her Persian family members, and actually performed the occupational hazard herself and was reprimanded by her parents. From then on she has made sure to only gift and wear positively associated colors in hospitals.

Analysis: This occupational taboo reflects the high stakes environment of healthcare, where symbolic associations are treated with the same caution as physical symptoms. Superstition is intensified in such spaces, where the stakes of life and death are raised. People draw closer to death in such spaces and thus are more inclined to follow natural laws and folk beliefs in a last ditch effort to claim some sort of power over natural forces like death.

Birthday Spanking

AZ: In my family we do birthday spanks. You get one swat for every year you’ve been alive, plus one to grow. My dad usually does it while we’re all standing around the cake before we blow out the candles.

“Interviewer: I know this is a common folk ritual, however is there anything your family specifically does to modify this practice?

AZ: Now that you mention It we make sure to do the spankings at the exact hour the person was born, in order to “spank” them into the next chapter of their life”

Context: This is a multi generational family tradition passed down from her paternal grandfather. To AZ, this is a nostalgic and grounding ritual. While the act is playful, the family takes the timing seriously. The added later of the timing transforms a general game into a practice of family law. She views the physical sensation as a necessary “spank” into her new age.

Analysis: This ritual is another example of how folklore can be localized through variation and a secular rite of passage. However, the specific modification AZ describes, performing the ritual at the exact hour of birth, elevates the practice from a general custom to a sacred domestic event. Anthropologically, this emphasizes the importance of liminality. This is also connected to sympathetic magic, and the physicality of the action in the present propels the individuals journey into the future.