Category Archives: general

The “Golden Rule”

Nationality: Vietnamese-American
Age: 10
Occupation: Elementary School Student
Residence: Iowa
Performance Date: 5/1/2021
Primary Language: English

Main Piece:

B: The golden rule is like “treat others the way you want to be treated,” so that’s the golden rule.

Me: How did you first learn about it?

B: So basically, during soccer, this kid bumped into another kid, because he was trying to get the ball from him. But the other kid- who got bumped into- thought it was on purpose, and he thought the other kid was trying to hurt him or something- so he like- he thought it was on purpose so he tackled him. And then a teacher- she saw it so she came over and she said, “Don’t do that anymore,” and then after we went inside, the principal went to every classroom and said, “Treat others how you want to be treated. If you treat somebody good then they will treat you good back.” So that’s the whole story.

Background: 

My informant is my cousin’s 10-year-old son, who is in the fourth grade. He lives in a suburban neighborhood near Des Moines, which is the capital of Iowa. He goes to a public elementary school in his district, which is where this soccer incident happened. At the time, he was in the 1st grade, and the lesson from it still stays with him today. He tells me that believes in the golden rule, and has applied it in his own life to resolve issues between friends. He explains that every year, he and his friends have a nerf war that involved building forts. Each time, his friends would get into an argument about where and how to build the forts. He tells me that one year, he was tired of them fighting and told them the golden rule, which made them stop, and in his words, “hear each other out.”

Context:

This is a transcript of our conversation over the phone. Lately, he has been telling me stories about what goes on during school, though this conversation was prompted specifically for this collection project. I was curious about what he learned the “golden rule” to be.

Thoughts:

I remember learning about the “golden rule” when I was also in elementary school, though it came from another child on the playground. Often, it was said in an instance where someone was being mean to another person. Hence, it was used as a sort of chiding for bad behavior. It was interesting to find out that my cousin’s son understood and believed the rule to be “treat others how you want to be treated,” as it was relayed to him by teachers, and to also continue the lesson to his friends since another variation I learned from other students was “do unto others how they have done to you,” as a way of justifying revenge. Because the “golden rule” is so ubiquitous, the choice of what its definition is can be very telling of what principle or virtue is valued. In my cousin’s son’s case, kindness is most important. 

Break your Mom’s Back

Nationality: Vietnamese-American
Age: 10
Occupation: Elementary School Student
Residence: Iowa
Performance Date: 5/1/2021
Primary Language: English

Main Piece:

B: People would say, “if you step on that crack then you’ll break your mom’s back.” 

Me: Who did you learn that from?

B: A classmate. One time we were walking out to recess and there’s like a crack in the concrete. And so he told me (laughing) that if you step on that crack then you’ll break your mom’s back. And then I just stepped on the crack (laughs). And then I was like- “are you sure about that,” (laughs). 

Me: You did it on purpose?

B: Yeah because I didn’t believe them, cause it was fake. So then I was like “what are you gonna do about it” (laughing). 

Me: Did other kids believe it?

B: No.

Background: 

My informant is my cousin’s 10-year-old son, who is in the fourth grade. He lives in a suburban neighborhood near Des Moines, which is the capital of Iowa. He goes to a public elementary school in his district, where he first heard this superstition in first grade. He finds this superstition silly as if it could never be believable. He laughs often in this telling, showing that this superstition is rather a funny story to him.

Context:

This is a transcript of our conversation over the phone. Lately, he has been telling me stories about what goes on during school, though this conversation was prompted specifically for this collection project. He brought this up on his own.

Thoughts:

This superstition was something that I also heard in elementary school. I similarly went to a public school, not too far away from his in the capital (Des Moines). When I was told this, it was also in a playful manner as his re-telling of the superstition suggests. It’s interesting that children find humor in a superstition that sounds rather brutal; a situation where you could be the cause of a potentially debilitating and painful injury to your mother. This act of poking fun at a brutal hypothetical then points to how children often find humor in being anti-hegemonic, where the mother in the situation is the authoritative figure in a child’s life. How a child reacts and perceives this superstition, whether it be humorous like my informant, or fearful, can speak to how a child views the authority of their parent. 

Serrano and Cahuilla Dragonfly Song

Nationality: Cahuilla and American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Southern California
Performance Date: 5/2/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Cahuilla

Main Piece:

I: It’s called the Dragonfly Song, it’s like a lullaby kind of song– so you sing it, and like if your heart is good, and it’s like– you don’t have anger or resentment or like bad feelings, or revenge, or any of those things– but like basically if you have good intentions like a good heart and you sing it dragonflies will come to you and they’ll sit on you. And like it’s really neat to like see it happen, like– they’ll fly around you and then they’ll come fall on you. And, they’ve never like… landed on me because (indicates that she is referring to the good intentions) but like I’ve seen like them go to other people. And so it’s like a really neat– I think people do it with hummingbirds too, but like it’s– so, it’s a lullaby that repeats the 4 verses over again, but the lullaby verses are like “Ooshkana ooshkana oh oh, ooshkana oosh” (these lyrics are typed out phonetically). And it repeats in different variations four times and you have to sing it in verses of 4.

Background:

My informant is a good friend from high school. She is a part of the Cahuilla and Chippewa Indigenous Nations and explains that she learned this Dragonfly Song from a Serrano elder, though it was not the first time she had heard it. She believes that her mother might have sung this lullaby for her when she was a baby. She explains that her parents were actively involved in Indian Country, working with Native children in the community, and her father was the director of a foster care agency that was specifically for Native Youth but also worked with rehabilitating families. She says it was probably during one of their group sessions with the youth where Ernest Siva, the Serrano elder, was a guest and sang this song. This song is meaningful to her because of the symbolism of the dragonfly as a messenger from the spirit world.

Context:

This is a transcript of a conversation between my friend and me over the phone. I have talked to her a few times about my folklore class and explained the collection to her. She was happy to help and talk about some of her traditions.

Thoughts:

My friend and I have talked often about our respective traditions with each other, but there are so many that we have not talked about in detail. This is the first time I learned about the Dragonfly Song and thought it was beautiful. She explained to me that in Cahuilla culture, the dragonfly is thought to be a messenger from the spirit world, and thus, is the connection of the physical world to the spirit world. The need of having a good heart and good intentions in order to attract dragonflies when singing this song illustrates how the spirit world is regarded in Cahuilla culture: healing and nourishing. Its purpose as a lullaby also indicates the importance of children and the youth, as being able to sing this song and attract dragonflies (proof of having a good heart and good intentions) to soothe a child transfers the positive energy and intentions to them.

For more on the Dragonfly Song, see:

Siva, Ernest. Voices of the Flute: Songs of three Southern California Indian Nations. Ushkana Press, 2004.

Harvard Graduation Tradition

Nationality: Cahuilla and American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Southern California
Performance Date: 5/2/2021
Primary Language: English

Main Piece:

I: Before you graduate, you’re supposed to like streak through some part of the Yard, have sex in the library– the library sex– and pee on the Harvard statue’s foot. And then I heard there’s a fourth where you’re supposed to jump in the river, but like I don’t know…

Me: What’s the statue?

I: Pee on the statue’s foot– like it’s so gross because the statue’s foot looks a little different… and like, tourists touch it? It’s supposed to be like a lucky thing, but they don’t know that people are peeing on it! It’s so gross (laughing).

Me: What’s the statue called?

I: Oh John Harvard statue. And it’s like yellow…like it’s a different color than the rest of the statue and like people touch it (shuddering). 

Me: Do you have to do all of these things right before you graduate?

I: I think just at some point during college, like you could knock them all out freshmen year if you wanted to.

Background:

My informant is a good friend from high school. She’s a freshman at Harvard University, where she was able to attend in-person during the pandemic. She learned about this tradition through her roommate, whose brother graduated from Harvard in 2020. She says that her roommate’s brother peed on the statue and went streaking, but didn’t complete the other activities. Because of the pandemic, she has still been pretty isolated, so she hasn’t met many seniors and wouldn’t know people who performed this ritual. She tells me that she would not do this tradition. 

Context:

This is a transcript of a conversation between my friend and me over the phone. We were talking about ethnic traditions before his conversation until I asked her if she knew any folklore from her school, which reminded her of this tradition.

Thoughts:

This tradition, or ritual, of university seniors performing a series of rebellious or profane acts (from the institution’s point of view), is indicative of the liminal period. In this period of liminality, university seniors are straddling two different identities, and are close to a state of being identity-less. They are not quite university students anymore, yet they may not have acquired an “adult” job in the “real world” yet either. This liminal period can thus be filled with feelings of freedom, but also tension from being identity-less. Pranks and rebellious acts can then be a way to resolve and alleviate this stress. Streaking in public on campus, peeing on the statue of an authority figure, and having sex in a taboo place on campus can be both freeing, as students are disregarding university rules and methods of alleviating tension. 

The Guardian Angel

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Long Island, NY
Performance Date: 4/18/21

Interview/Overview/Context:

Interviewer: “I remember you mentioning a crazy story from when you were young. You were in the car with your mom.”

Informant: “Yes! I think I was about seven or eight. We were in Florida, where a lot of our relatives live.”

Interviewer: “So you were in the car, where were you driving?”

Informant: “We were coming home from a family party, actually. It was really late and we were driving back to our hotel. We were so tired at that point. I fell asleep on the ride home, and the crazy part is that my mom swears she fell asleep, too. When she woke up, I was still asleep in the car, and our car was parked at our hotel.”

Interviewer: “Woah, that’s so freaky. What does your mom think about it?”

Informant: “My mom always says that it was a guardian angel that brought us home. We were with so much family that night, I think it was my grandma looking over us. I don’t know, I find it very comforting.”

Thoughts

I’ve heard of a lot about belief in “guardian angel” presences. Throughout my childhood, people would say that their deceased relatives watched over them and protected them, and when something crazy would happen, they would cite their savior as their guardian angel. Oftentimes, these people were religious. As a non-religious person, I wonder how many other non-religious people also believe in guardian angels.