Category Archives: Material

Figure Skating and Stuffed Animals

Nationality: American
Age: 58
Occupation: Photo Agent
Residence: New York
Performance Date: 4/23/19
Primary Language: English

Main piece:

Interviewer: Can you think of any superstitions or rituals you had when you were figure skating?

Informant: Me? No I wasn’t superstitious at all. I remember other girls that would do stuff. Stuffed animals are a big part of skating culture. Some skaters have one singular stuffed animal that they carry everywhere, throughout their entire career. Sometimes when a skater performs really well at some event, fans will throw their animal onto the ice.

Background: The informant is my mother. She started skating at a very young age when she was growing up in Maine. For her, figure skating was an outlet from a rough home life. She learned of the significance of stuffed animals to figure skating through first-hand experience at her local ice rink. This interview was recorded in person when she came to visit me here at school.

Context: The informant remembers the symbolism of the stuffed animal through continued exposure to high-level figure skating, where it is common-place for fans to throw stuffed animals onto the ice after a successful routine is completed. However, the informant stated that the act of continually carrying around the same stuffed animal is hardly mentioned on TV broadcasts. I did some extra research into this and could not find any info regarding the continued possession of a singular stuffed animal. However, the practice of tossing a stuffed animal onto the ice is widely known, even among those not familiar with the sport of figure skating.

Analysis: I assume there is probably good reason for the relatively low notoriety of this piece of figure skating lore. For one, it is exclusive to high-level figure skaters who are performing in a competitive environment. As such, this tradition hasn’t permeated into the mainstream due to the difficult barriers-to-entry within the figure skating community. The informant stated that fellow skaters would treat their own stuffed animals “like they we’re diamond encrusted”. Off of that, I assume that high-level figure skaters are naturally protective of their totems. If the most prominent members of this community are reluctant to speak on this significance of the stuffed animal to the figure skater, it is difficult anyone to learn of this tradition. I was also curious to see if the informant could remember why one skater would pick a certain animal over another. The informant couldn’t remember exactly but thought the decision was based on personality. If you consider Figure Skating to be a form of artistic communication, which is the consensus, than the significance of the animal combined with the act of throwing stuffed animals on the ice in praise takes on a different meaning. The figure skater chooses a specific stuffed animal that aligns with her identity. When they are performing they are conveying their own identity through their art form, which is figure skating. If done successfully, the audience will then affirm the figure skater’s performance and identity by throwing the same stuffed animal onto the ice in an act of approval.

Apples & Honey on Rosh Hashanah

Nationality: US
Age: 53
Occupation: Advertising
Residence: New York
Performance Date: 4/4/19
Primary Language: English

Main Piece:

Informant: You have supposed to dip a slice of apple in some honey and eat it. It’s supposed to guarantee that you have a sweet year.

Interviewer: Do you remember when you learned about this?

Informant: It’s always been in my life. It’s not specific to our family, It’s a Jewish thing. Remember we’re Jewish? You know, it’s your grandmother’s thing though. She always made me and D— (The informant’s sister) eat the apple.

Interviewer: When is this performed?

Informant: Every Rosh Hashanah, before the meal starts.

Context:

The informant is my father, and he is describing a traditional Jewish ritual associated with Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is a holiday symbolizing the start of the Jewish New Year. The informant learned this tradition through their mother. At our family Rosh Hashanah dinners, dipping the apple in the honey is a formality. However, it wasn’t until I went to my first traditional Rosh Hashanah dinner that I realized this was a common Jewish practice. This conversation was transcribed from a recording of a phone call. He learned this tradition as a kid growing up in Los Angeles.

Analysis:

I think it’s interesting that this religious custom was passed down through familial relationships. Even more so, I didn’t associate this tradition with being distinctly Jewish until I was told so. For me, this was a tradition exclusive to my own family. For my Dad, this tradition tied him to Judaism. My father is not overly religious, so claiming a piece of religious folklore from someone like him. Even though he doesn’t place much value in religious symbols, he has never failed to perform this tradition on Rosh Hashanah. Possibly, it is the value he places in his mother that had shifted this Jewish tradition into a familial superstition.

Venezuelan Folk Dishes: “Moros y Cristianos” and “Pabellon”

Nationality: Venezuelan
Age: 20
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 04/08/2019
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Context: The informant, a 20-year-old college student who was born in Venezuela and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, was describing various rituals and superstitions that relate to both her passion for theatre and her Venezuelan nationality. The following is an excerpt from our conversation, in which the informant describes two Venezuelan folk dishes

Text:

Informant: So, in Venezuela, but I think this is also like throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, there is this dish called “Moros y Cristianos” and it means “The Moors and the Christians.” It’s basically just rice and beans. Because, you know, race relations are very prevalent in South America, especially with the slave trade and the differences in how races were treated. So, this plate is meant to represent the difference between the two races. I have always found it interesting because my dad makes this meal and he calls it that and I’ve always been like, “What? That’s so weird.” He just says it’s like a thing that people have done since people were slaves in Latin America. And I’ve just always thought it was so weird because you’re like calling a plate like Moors and Christians, which usually relates to like darker-skinned and lighter-skinned people. So it’s just really interesting because I’ve definitely eaten that plate since I was a child. There’s another dish that’s called “Pabellon.” It’s just rice, beans, plantains, and shredded pork. It’s supposed to also represent all the different races, including indigenous people. That’s why is contain plantains because the yellow part is supposed to represent the indigenous people. I don’t really know why it’s called “Pabellon.” That’s a really common dish… that’s just kind of like, “Oh, we’re going to have this for dinner.” You really eat it on any old day. It’s not like both of these dishes are used in any specific celebrations or events. It’s like a home food or a comfort food.

Informant’s relationship to the item: The informant grew up eating “Moros y Cristianos” and “Pabellon,” two Venezuelan folk dishes. The dishes were so integral to her childhood, that she only realized their historical significance later in life. The meals served as an important piece of folklore for her and her dad to use as a means of starting a dialogue about Venezuela’s complex history and the multiculturalism of its citizens. Both dishes remind her of her family and her birth country; she considers them “comfort food.”

Interpretation: Both “Moros y Cristianos” and “Pabellon” hold a lot of symbolic and historical significance to the people of Venezuela. They are more than just the traditional cuisine of the country, which citizens tend to eat on a regular basis; the ingredients that make up both dishes are important symbols for the country’s history of complex race relations and rich multiculturalism. While Venezuelan’s history includes shocking atrocities such as the nation’s slave trade, which made up a large part of its economy for centuries, it is interesting to see how Venezuelans have immortalized this history within their cuisine. Like in the case of my informant, the meals seem to serve as important folk dishes capable of sparking dialogues about Venezuela’s complex and problematic history of race relations that ultimately led to the diverse population seen in the country today.

 

 

Saint Christopher Medallion

Nationality: American
Age: 70
Occupation: Musician
Residence: Austin, Texas
Performance Date: 03/16/19
Primary Language: English
Language: Polish

Content:
Informant – “When I was being raised, Saint Christopher was an important saint. All of us, the kids, got medals, little medallions that we wore, that were Saint Christopher medals. Saint Christopher was the patron saint of travelers.
Now Christopher means Christ carrier. And the legend is that he was a big person, almost a giant, and he came upon a little boy on the bank of a stream and the little boy asked him to please carry him over to the other side. And so Christopher said sure and proceeded to carry him on his shoulders across the river, and as he went further and the water got deeper the boy got heavier and heavier, and it took all his strength, and when he finally reached the shore, exhausted, he asked the child ‘My gosh how could you weigh so much?’ And the child revealed that he was really Christ and that he was carrying the weight of the world. And then he disappeared.”

Context:
Informant – “I grew up with it. And while I was growing up, Christopher was touted as being a real person, but more recent research has found that there is no real record of his existence. The first mention of him was like 3 centuries after he supposedly existed. So they say he’s pretty much a legend.

JK – “What were the medallions for?”

Informant – “It was really a religious good luck charm. It was supposed to protect us from the travails of travels and journeys and all that.”

Analysis:
There is an interesting connection between the medallion and the story. One wears a medallion around one’s neck. You feel the weight at the back of the neck – the same place where you would feel the most weight if you were carrying someone on your shoulders.

Rings out of Quarters

Nationality: American
Age: 74
Occupation: Consultant
Residence: Austin, Texas
Performance Date: 03/15/19
Primary Language: English
Language: Polish

Content:
Informant – “Sailors used to make rings out of quarters. They would set the quarter on a hard surface, standing up on it’s edge. They would tap the edge, rotate the coin, tap the edge, rotate the coin. Then they would drill a hole through the center.”

Context:
Informant – “I heard this from a navy friend of mine. He said they would tap the quarters with spoons, but I’m skeptical. I’ve made rings like these before, but I’ve always used hammers. But my friend swore they used spoons. I guess it makes sense. When you finish your chores on a ship, you have a lot a free time and nothing to do. My friend said they used to wear through spoons making these rings.”

Analysis:
Having made a ring like this myself (using a hammer), I can say that it is a very contemplative experience. There is a comfortable zen to the robotic monotony. It’s an easy task to perform on auto-pilot. You can zone out – a wonderful cure for boredom. Also, my informant’s friend was in the Navy in the 60s. There were still silver quarters in circulation then, so any ring a sailor made would be far more valuable than the quarter itself.