Category Archives: Kinesthetic

Body movements

Children’s Game – American

Nationality: Caucasian American
Age: 41
Occupation: Storyteller
Residence: Westlake, Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 17, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Conversational Spanish, Conversational German

The informant says he “probably learned [the following game] in elementary school or something”:

The game is called “Red Light, Green Light,” and the basic rules are that one player allows the rest to rush forward from a start line when he says, “green light,” and has his back turned, but the other players must stop suddenly if the leader says, “red light,” and turns around, lest they be caught moving and get sent back to the beginning. The first player to reach and touch the leader becomes the next leader. Here are the rules in the informant’s own words: Red Light, Green Light

When asked when the game was usually performed, the informant responded, “I don’t think I played it any time beyond, like, elementary school, or . . . Either during recess or with some friends of mine at, like, a kiddie birthday party—four, five, six, seven, you know, something like that.”

The informant’s opinion of the purpose of the game is that it allows children to “get some of their inherent sneakiness, you know, resolved without getting into any real trouble, ’cause the worst that happens is you get sent back to the beginning of the line.” This might be construed as a useful function, making children more governable the rest of the time; however, the informant thinks the game is more “a subversive game designed to, uh, uh, to effectively teach people that it doesn’t matter what you do as long as you don’t get caught.” In his words, the game is “designed to teach you to be sneaky—the idea that if someone’s not looking, you can get away with something.” He concluded by saying, “I’m not sure that, ultimately, the message is all that positive.”

The informant compares “Red Light, Green Light” to other games that might be considered folkloric cognates—“Mother May I” and “Simon Says”—commenting, “There’s a whole sort of series of games that’s about can you follow instructions, can you be sneaky without getting caught.” However, Rae Pica and Mary Duru, authors of the book Great Games for Young Children, have a different concept of what the game is supposed to teach: “listening skills,” “traffic safety skills,” and “self-control” (47), among others. Clearly they endorse the game from an adult standpoint and do not consider it subversive. That the game is included in their book is evidence of multiplicity, and there is a slight variation in their rules for the game:  instead of being sent back to the beginning, children who get caught moving are designated as “yellow lights, which means they must walk in place until the signal to go is given again” (47). And instead of the person who reaches the leader first getting to go next, Rae and Duru recommend a less partial system of deciding an order in advance (47). Clearly the name “Red Light, Green Light” has a terminus post quem of the invention of the stoplight, but the cognate games that the informant mentioned may be older.

Source:

Pica, Rae and Maray Duru. Great Games for Young Children: Over 100 games to develop Self-Confidence, Problem-Solving Skills, and Cooperation. Beltsville, Maryland: Gryphon House, 2006.

Ritual

Nationality: American. Self-Identified Ethnicity: Caucasian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/26/11
Primary Language: English

Ben explained that “Kandi” is the name for a type of bracelet that consists of beads on a plastic string.  Each bracelet is different, and you’re supposed to make your own bracelet unique.  People wear these bracelets to raves, which are huge dance parties where electronic musicians and DJs perform.

Ben said that there are “Kandi and Name-Giving Ceremonies” at raves.  If you’re an inexperienced raver, you likely don’t have a Kandi bracelet or a “rave name,” which is basically just a nickname for your rave alter-ego, since people dress and behave differently at raves than they do in regular, every day life.

At raves, the more experienced rave-goers will bring Kandi bracelets that they can then pass on to other, beginner-level ravers.  Furthermore, the experienced ravers make up a “rave name” during this process that sticks with that person forever.  Ben said that one of the rules is that both people have to be “rolling” (slang for high on ecstasy or mdma), but people often break this tradition.

Ben said this tradition was taught to him at a rave in which the group Bloody Beetroots were performing.  A random guy approached him and asked him, “Do you have a rave name?”  Ben was confused, and responded that he didn’t know what he was talking about.  The random guy then said, “You are Hurricane,” because Ben was wearing blue, wavy face paint.

Ben said that he was completely out of his element at this point and didn’t know what was going on, but the random guy continued with the process.  He told Ben that he had something for him before taking Ben through the official “Kandi giving ceremony.”

The Kandi-giving ceremony calls for both individuals to raise one hand and make the “peace sign” (two fingers).  The combine fingertips and say “peace.”  Example:

Then, the individuals combine their hands so that it looks like a “heart” symbol and say “love.”  Example:

Finally, the individuals combine hands so that their palms are linked together like this:

They then say, “unity.”  With the experienced individual’s free hand, he takes his “Kandi bracelet” and slides it over the conjoined palms, on to the other person’s wrist.  After that, the process is over.

Ben told me that he still feels as if his rave name is “Hurricane,” at that he’s now at the level where it’d be acceptable to give a rave name to someone else.

Ben said he thinks this tradition exists because raves are all about love.  He said that in a world full of hate, the youth of America need a place to feel safe and feel that connection with human beings on a positive level.

Ben’s analysis is probably true to a certain extent, as the interaction definitely symbolizes love and unity between otherwise random people.  From a non-raver, outsider point of view, however, the ceremony seems more like a rite of passage for inexperienced ravers.  If you haven’t gone through this process, you can’t really consider yourself a part of the subculture, at least according to Ben’s report.  After going through this process (which some rave attendees have never even heard of), you feel like part of a larger group of individuals.  Then, once you feel experienced enough and fully integrated into the rave culture, you can pass the tradition on.

Ghost Riding The Whip

Nationality: American. Self-Identified Ethnicity: Blend of Japanese, Caucasian and Mexican
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/26/11
Primary Language: English

Video Examples:  http://vimeo.com/22972127

Drew told me that ghost riding the whip is when you blast hyphy music in your car (“whip” is slang for “car”), open up the doors and dance along the car, on the hood, or on top of the car while the vehicle rolls forward slowly in drive or neutral.  Drew described “Hyphy” music as mid-tempo hip hop with unusual slang and goofy lyrics commonly found in the Bay Area.    The type of music encourages its listeners to “go dumb” and have fun with themselves rather than having any serious political philosophy or emotional relevance.  Drew explained that the style was popularized by artists like Mac Dre, E-40 and Too $hort.  People often ghost ride the whip in areas like Oakland at events called “sideshows,” in which large groups of people get together, play loud music, and basically have huge parties in the middle of the street.

Drew learned how to ghost ride the whip from the juniors and seniors in his high school when he was a freshman or sophomore.  He said he and his friends performed the activity a few times throughout high school, usually late at night on abandoned streets.  He said that he also did it once in his high school parking lot.  He claimed that people mostly did it just because it was funny and because they had seen Bay Area rappers doing it in videos.

Drew said he thinks people ghost ride because the act is funny and a part of hyphy culture.  If you want to feel like a part of the hyphy movement, you’ll ghost ride the whip at some point in your life.  Also, it’s fun.

In the videos included at the beginning of the post, Drew and his friend Gordy (also from the Bay Area) demonstrate common dances associated with ghost riding the whip.  However, they told me that you can pretty much dance however you want.  The only rule is that the car has to be moving by itself and blasting hyphy music.

I agree with Drew’s analysis that people ghost ride the whip mostly because it’s fun and funny.  I also would ghost ride the whip with my friends a few times in high school, simply because we felt as if we were doing something funny that we had seen rappers from Oakland do in videos online.

Also, ghost riding has an element of danger attached to it, as there’s always the fear that your car might get out of control and crash.  This makes the practice especially exciting for kids who have just learned how to drive and are rebellious and willing to test their limits.  The fact that Drew did this in his high school parking lot demonstrates that the practice is associated with youthful rebelliousness.

Also, ghost riding and the other aspects of “hyphy” are largely linked to Oakland and the greater Bay Area.  Even though the action is performed by people throughout the country, it’s most commonly found in Oakland.  Thus, ghost riding gives people a sense of identity and community.  It also distinguishes the hip hop scene from other hip hop scenes found throughout the country.

This practice can be found in the film Ghostride The Whip: The Hyphy Movement, a documentary by Peter Sprier released in 2008.  The documentary depicts examples of members of Oakland’s hip hop scene participating in sideshows, ghost riding the whip and doing other tricks with cars.  It highlights the danger surrounding the practice, but also explains how hyphy is a movement that shapes Bay Area identity and youth culture.  Popular Bay Area rappers like Keek Da Sneek appear in the film and explain the ghost riding phenomenon.

The practice has also been written about in several news publications, such as this article in the Washington Post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/26/AR2006122600994_pf.html

References to ghost riding the whip can also be found in songs such as “Ghost Ride It” by Mistah FAB, featured on the album Da Yellow Bus Rydah.

Dance

Occupation: Student
Residence: Oxford, MS
Performance Date: March 2007
Primary Language: English

“Tinikling”

Ben first was introduced to the practice of tinikling at the age of nine. He learned how to perform the dance during elementary school when a friend of his who had recently moved to the United States of America from the Philippines taught him after school. Ben learned how to practice tinikling from his friend and began to take serious interest in the dance and continued to show interest for about three years. He says he performed the dance at his elementary school’s talent show during his fifth-grade year.

According to Ben, tinikling is a dance/game similar to jump roping wherein there are at least three participants– sometimes more. There are two people sitting opposite from one another who are both holding onto opposite ends of two long poles, which can be made of plastic tubing or bamboo. He said they used plastic because there isn’t exactly a large surplus of bamboo in the United States. Then he said that the people on the ends hit the poles on the ground in unison and then bring the poles together in the middle, while the third person jumps in and out of the poles in a fashion similar to jump-roping. Ben says that after one masters the basics of jumping in and out, it is fairly easy to implement other sorts of movement such as acrobatics for example. He claims that he is able to do cartwheels through the poles while tinikling, a skill, which took him a few painful practice runs to perfect.

Ben is currently a student at the University of Mississippi and studies Philosophy and Creative Writing. He grew up in Marietta, Georgia and attended a public elementary school there where he first came into contact with the practice of tinikling. He is a third-generation American with family backgrounds coming from Europe: Sweden and Scotland.

Variations of Tinikling are also present on a variety of websites such as the following:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinikling. April 14, 2007. 9:30PM.

Game – United States

Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Chino Hills, CA
Performance Date: March 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Gujurati

Bloody Knuckles

This is a schoolyard game played by mostly teenagers. It is played between two people. My informant used to play this game in middle school when he lived in Texas. This is a game of strength and determination. The first person makes a fist and hits the other person’s knuckles as hard as they can with their knuckles. Then the next person does the same thing. The person to give up first because of either pain or boredom, losses. He said he used to play this during lunch time or recess.

This game is a manly game mainly played by boys. In a society where brute and strength determine man, it is a perfect game to play to see who is the strongest and the most “manliest.” It would be rarely played by girls or woman.

I think that this game is very interesting in the sense that society is so keen in trying to see who is the strongest and manliest. I am pretty sure this game has been played for as long as we can remember. This part of society never changes. There are many variations to this game, including putting a quarter in between your fingers and then hitting the other person thus hitting them with a quarter. This game is very interesting and has an important part in society.

Pictures provided by: www.bloddyknuckles.org