Category Archives: Kinesthetic

Body movements

Superstition: Running a Yellow Light

Nationality: American
Age: 23
Occupation: EMT, Social Worker, Army ROTC
Residence: Connecticut
Performance Date: 24 April 2011
Primary Language: English

White/Jewish

Fordham University/University of Southern California

Army ROTC, EMT, Social Worker

Military Social Work

English

Connecticut

24 April 2011

Superstition- touching car roof

“Here’s something I can tell you. About a month ago I got a ticket in the mail for running a red light. You know, one of those automated deals were they show you the picture of it and everything. It’s really funny ’cause in the picture you can clearly see my left hand touching the inside roof of my car. Basically, when your driving through a yellow…you kiss the tips of your fingers and then place them against the roof of your car.” HS explained that the reason she did this was for luck and to ward off accidents. She stated that she started doing it because it she saw her older brother do it all the time when she was in the car with him. She said she also did it because while an EMT in New York she saw many horrific traffic accidents, and she didn’t want that to happen to her.

From my perspective, touching the roof of your car as you drive through a yellow light is a simple gesture to ward off possible calamity and for luck. It’s a superstition akin to knocking on wood after saying something is going really good.  Looking at the gesture, I would say that it’s functions within a liminal space for three reasons. The first is that the vehicle is actually occupying a space where cars can cross from any direction; it’s in between the beginning and end of the intersection. The second reason is that it is a place that can be dangerous, if people are not paying attention. The third reason is that, when driving, going through a yellow light is kind of a grey area. As a driver you not supposed to really do it, but all drivers do at some point. I personally have never done it,and the reason I probably don’t is because no one in my family does it. In this sense, the touching of the roof can be a gesture learned from friends or family.

Rose water

Nationality: German-American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles and Irvine CA
Performance Date: April 20, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Some spanish

“After I turned sixteen, every time that I came over to my grandma’s house she would always have like this vial of rose water with her and she would just be like, here you  need to put this on so you can find a boyfriend. That was like her thing, she believed rose water was a bringer of love because it was made with roses. And, now every time I smell it I think of her because it, it’s just kind of her, it was like her little obsession kind of thing about me finding a nice boy who would be attracted to this smell. So if she helped me then it would be faster. Well she’s from Georgia and she was a debutante, she was all of, like every stereotypical southern kind of girl and so I’m pretty sure she heard it from her mom, who it’s been kind of like a tradition they passed down sort of.”

Flowers symbolize new youth and fertility.  It makes sense that a debutante would pick up on this, and pass it on to her daughters and grand-daughters.  The scent of flowers are almost intoxicating.  Perfumes often have flowery and rosey scents because of this.  Wearing the scent from a bright red flower is like an advertisement to potential partners that one is young and beautiful.  There seems no better way to try to attract the attention of a young man by using a rose smelling perfume or rose infused water.

Folk Gesture

Nationality: African American
Age: 14
Occupation: High School Student
Residence: Fresno, CA
Performance Date: April 23, 2011
Primary Language: English

“That deserves a neck”

My informant told me that this is a popular gesture that the male students at his high school often engage in. Whenever a boy says something that is glaringly obvious or has a “dumb moment” their friends will say “that deserves a neck” and then hit the back of the boy’s neck. My informant doesn’t know why the guys do it or how it started. But he does know that it is considered funny and that everyone laughs whenever someone says “that deserves a neck and then slaps the back of their friends neck”. My informant doesn’t think that someone would do the “neck hitting thing” to someone who isn’t a friend. He’s also not sure if this gesture is common at other high schools or if it is just localized to his high school in the Fresno Unified School District.

I had never seen this gesture performed before, but from my informant’s description it seems like a form of bonding. It is something that only males have been observed doing and they only do it with other males that they are close to. My informant likened the behavior as being similar to “one’s mother smacking the back of their head for being stupid”, he thinks that it might be a related gesture. If that is true then it might mean that the boys who engage in this behavior with their friends find it comforting because it is associated with something their parents might have done.

Kinesthetic – Hand gesture insult

Nationality: English
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Mundesley, UK
Performance Date: March 2011
Primary Language: English

Hand gesture insult

My informant and her friends use the V-sign (index and middle finger upward while other fingers are in a fist with the palm facing inward) as an insult. She compared the insult to that of the middle finger or flipping someone off in America. My informant said that she and her friends mostly use the gesture jokingly but it can also be used a more serious insult. She shared that the sign is often used in English pop culture like television and movies.

She also shared the widely known legend behind the “two finger salute”. The gesture was supposedly first used during the Hundred Years war when the English were fighting the French. The French threatened that they would cut off the arrow-shooting fingers of the bowmen. When the English won the battle against the French within the world the bowmen all showed off their intact index and middle fingers to the French. The gesture serves as an insult and the story provides some patriotism and pride in one’s country.

Almost every country has at least one its own unique hand gesture insult. Even if a legend is not told to trace its origin, gestures provide a sense of nationalism and unity even in a possible situation of anger or spite.

Folk Gesture – American

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 27, 2011
Primary Language: English

Pinkie Promise

Two people grasp each others’ pinkies and shake them. Similar to a hand-shake, but with only the pinkie (little) finger.

“It’s a hand gesture made between two people and it signifies that the promise that is verbally spoken during this hand gesture has to be kept. If a pinkie promise unfulfilled or broken, the guilty the party can no longer be friends with the other person, as per rules of the pinkie promise.

“I only really do them with a couple, because it’s like not really social acceptable for people my age, but it was a big deal in elementary school. It’s cute. If you ever used them as a kid you understand the implications that go along with it, and even as an adult you wouldn’t break them. It’s a binding contract because your friendship is on the line.”

The informant is a 19-year-old Caucasian student in the Los Angeles area, originally from Northern California. She follows the Jewish faith. She also comes from a very large family with 8 other siblings.

The pinkie promise is a piece of children’s folklore. Children’s folklore forges an informal folk group. This is demonstrated in the fact pinkie promises are typically made from one child to another. The pinkie promise also can align with the children’s interest in secrecy (Oring 102). Often children pinkie promise to keep a secret. Also, the informant’s remark that pinkie promising at her age (in adulthood) is no longer socially acceptable demonstrates another hallmark item of children’s folklore: once one passes from childhood, the folklore is no longer applicable.

Oring, Elliott. Folk Groups and Folklore Genres: an Introduction. Logan, UT: Utah State UP, 1986. Print.