Category Archives: Kinesthetic

Body movements

Dabke

Nationality: Syrian/Lebanese-American
Age: 50
Occupation: Accountant
Residence: Plano, Texas
Performance Date: March 13, 2016
Primary Language: English
Language: n/a

So anytime there is a gathering of Syrian-Lebanese people, and um it’s a celebration of any type, there will be music playing, and the music has a very unique rhythm, usually a very strong percussion base, and so that lends itself to a lot of folk dancing, and the folk dancing is when the families, members of all ages, get together and hold hands and do a um a dance, and it’s a repetitive dance of about eight or twelve counts, and you just do it as long as the music is playing. So if you have someone playing, oh and the percussion I mentioned earlier is called a derveke, and uh used to be made of a wooden or metal drum with animal skin stretched on top, and it could make a really loud sound, so as long as the dervake is playing, you can dubke, so whether you have a full band or just a derveke, you can do the dubke. It is significant to me because well that if I don’t carry on the family traditions and teach my children how to do the dubke and the family recipes, it will die out and there will be no heritage.

Informant: The informant is a Catholic mother of five, of Syrian descent. She is from Kinder, Louisiana, where she grew up in a large family.

Analysis:

I believe that this tradition and practice of dance and folk music greatly exemplifies the communal aspect of the Syrian-Lebanese culture. The gathering of Syrian-Lebanese families is usually quite large, as extended families come together to celebrate. The music lends itself as a great example of the history of the culture, as the specific instruments that are used to play music in America are derived from or are the same as those that were originally played in that region. As the rhythm lends itself to folk dancing, the communal aspect of the culture is apparent in the holding of hands during the dance, and the need for each participant to be synchronized with the rhythm. Because it is a line dance, if one person missteps, it can interrupt the synchronization of those around them. It is also interesting how the repetitive nature of the dance movements demonstrate how the dance is learned, as anyone can stand up, hold the hand of the last person in line, and follow their steps that match the rhythm. This once again demonstrates the communal aspect and the importance of celebrating the Lebanese-Syrian community through dance.

I also thought it was interesting about the association of “heritage” with this dance. Because the dance is learned from other people and can vary from place to place and person to person, it is more of a tradition than heritage, especially because it is a mode of activity that represents the past. Heritage, on the other hand, is not an activity, but rather an inherited set of relationships about who you were in the past. So, this practice is a tradition that celebrates the past of Lebanese-Syrian cultures and in doing so, it is a way for the people who partake in it to acknowledge their heritage. I was also able to learn parts of this dance, as I was invited to partake in the tradition. This was a lot of fun for me, because the rhythm is very up-beat and perfect for dancing.

Annotation:

 

Handshake

Nationality: American
Age: 52
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Dallas, Texas
Performance Date: March 15, 2016
Primary Language: English
Language: n/a

“You’d say is-they-alethes (spelling uncertain), I’m not sure what that means, but it’s Greek, and I think it means in the bonds. And you’d take the person’s hand and give it three pulses. And I was the marshal in the house, which is kind of like the parliamentarian, so I would stand at the front of the house and give everyone the handshake when they came in. And everybody would have to say is they- alethes (spelling uncertain) and shake my hand and that was kind of funny and then the president would say sister marshal are the chapter rooms secure? And I would say yes they are secure and then we would close chapter doors and we would have our meeting. And you learned the handshake after you pledged, and you learned the saying and the traditions. And it was a way of letting us know you were in the sorority.”

Informant: The informant is a mother of three currently living in Dallas, Texas, to where she moved from Chicago at the age of three. She attended the University of Texas at Austin, and was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. She graduated in 1983 with a Bachelor’s degree in Advertising and has lived in Dallas ever since. She has a younger brother and a younger sister.

Analysis:

This ritual is an example of folklore that distinguishes those within the sorority from those not in the sorority. As a sisterhood, sororities have many traditions and rituals that only members are allowed to know. The sisterhood can only be entered if a girl decides to go through recruitment and mutually selects the house. Upon this selection, the girl can enter the sisterhood. Many rituals are taught to the girls, but this specific one is interesting because it is similar to the secret handshakes that children would come up with for their best friends. When children are younger, they often come up with handshakes so as to distinguish the special bond of friendship that they have. In accordance with this, the delta delta delta sorority, or Tri Delta sorority has instituted their own handshake as a way to determine whether or not someone is in the sorority. As they like to keep their meetings secret and only giving information to those within the sorority, the handshake is their way of determining membership upon their entrance to the meetings. The marshal is the job held by the person who determines this, and therefore keeps any outsiders from entering the meetings. This is a way to ensure that this sisterhood remains intact and keeps those who are within separated from those who are not. The saying that goes with the handshake re-affirms this as well.

Bang Bang Choo Choo Train (Cheer)

Nationality: American
Age: 10
Occupation: Student
Residence: Beverly Hills, CA
Performance Date: 4/24/16
Primary Language: English

(Acting out the whole thing, had to recall it)

Stop don’t talk to me loser lame-o wannabe
Like oh totally t-totally
Rainfall waterfall girl you think you got it all
But you don’t I do so boom with that attitude
Bang bang choo choo train wind me up
I’ll do that thing bang bang choo choo train
Wind me up I’ll do that thing.
Reeses Pieces butter cups you mess with me I’ll mess you up
Loser whatever get that picture. Word. (that’s what people say)

 

THE INFORMANT: Ruby is ten and says she learned this chant in 3rd grade. Everyone in her grade knows it but only the girls act it out because she says the boys are too embarrassed.


ANALYSIS: Some research on this chant, because I remember the “bang bang choo choo train” part but not the rest, has shown that this rhyme / cheer has been around in some form or another since as far back as 1902, with many variations along the timeline. It is often used as a cheer for young girls to perform as cheerleaders or dancers, and has historically been controversial because some versions of it use more sexualized language than parents think is appropriate for their children to perform to. However, the language used in Ruby’s version shows the large differences between the different versions of this cheer from school to school and over time, where only the “bang bang choo choo train” part is still intact.

The Flying Dutchman

Nationality: American
Age: 24
Occupation: University Administrator
Residence: Auckland, NZ
Performance Date: March 26, 2016
Primary Language: English

The informant is a new professional in post-secondary administration. He lives in New Zealand, but he is originally from Apple Valley, California and went to university at the University of California, Irvine, where he was involved in student affairs and studied computer science. His background is Italian and Polish, and he has 3 older siblings.

This piece describes a dance that the informant’s family performs at Polish weddings.

“So at Polish weddings, there’s a polka dance called the Flying Dutchman, and so it’s pretty traditional to always do it. And so, basically how it works is you get in groups of three and you all kind of line up and walk around in a circle. So, the groups of three all go in a circle and there’s basically two tempos of the song—one is slow and one is fast. So when it’s slow, you’re just in your group of three with all your arms linked going in a circle, really simple. And then once the tempo picks up, then you start doing kind of a do-si-do thing. So the one person in the middle is always going to be moving around really really quickly because they’ll go to the left and swing around to the person on the right and then go around to the person on the left, so they’re basically doing a figure eight around the two people on the outside.

The reason it’s called the Flying Dutchman is cause if you’re going fast enough, eventually they should start actually flying. So then it’ll go really fast for about, I don’t know, 30 seconds, and then it’ll slow back down again and everyone gets back into their group of three and goes around in the slow circle again. And then it picks up and you do it really really quick, and then it slows down and you slow down, and it picks up, and it slows down. So it’s a very very very fun wedding song. I’ve been to….five weddings now? For my cousins, no—four, because two cousins and my brother and sister, and at all four of them, they did the Flying Dutchman. It was fantastic.”

What does the Flying Dutchman mean to you?

“Mainly it’s fun, but I also think of weddings—Polish weddings. Cause I’ve been to weddings with other people and no one knows what it is, or they haven’t done it, so, like, at every wedding I go to I would want to do the Flying Dutchman, but not everyone does it cause it’s a Polish thing.”

Do you know anything about where this tradition came from? It’s okay if you don’t, I’m just curious.

“I have no idea.”

Analysis:

I find this dance most interesting because of how it requires three people to a group instead of two, especially as it’s performed primarily at weddings. The do-si-do portion of the dance almost seems like a depiction of an inability to choose between the two partners on either side of the dancer. The informant did not describe whether or not the bride and groom performed this dance in any particular way.

The name of the dance is also interesting—as it’s a Polish tradition, it was surprising that the name of the dance is the Flying Dutchman. As the informant did not know the origin of the tradition, he did not know why it has the name it does, or whether or not it also is performed by the Dutch.

Baseball Superstitions

Nationality: Cuban-American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish
  1. My friend was on the baseball team when he was in high school. When he played, he would walk onto the field with a mouthful of water and spit it out onto the field, from both sides of his mouth. This would be before it was his turn to bat or to pitch. He believed that doing this would ensure he would do well in that game. He actually had heard about this superstition from a fellow teammate that would always do this as well during their games.
  2. My friend had first heard about this superstition from a fellow teammate. He noticed his teammate performing this superstition one day during one of their games. He had asked them why they did this, and what exactly they were doing. Since that teammate had been one of the best players on their team, my friend believed that this ritual must have been part of the reason why he was so good. So, he started doing the same ritual during their games.
  3. Many sports have rituals such as this that athletes like to perform and even customize to some extent. These rituals can be shared amongst fellow teammates, or kept personal depending on that athlete’s belief towards their ritual; like will the ritual still be effective if it is shared with others or not.
  4. When I was in track and field in high school, we had interesting superstitions and rituals like this that some of my teammates liked to do. I believed that they were effective in their own way, maybe through the Placebo Effect, but not necessarily due to their own power. I tried some of the superstitions as well before my races and I noticed that some seemed to work for me, but I definitely due think that must have been due to other factors.

*For other versions of this superstition, and one’s like it, see:

“The Craziest Superstitions of Baseball Players.” : JUGS Sports. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://jugssports.com/the-craziest-superstitions-of-baseball-players>.