Cottagecore

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: student
Residence: La Habra, CA
Performance Date: 4/29/2020
Primary Language: English

An informant explains a growing online lesbian subculture.

Text:

Informant: Cottagecore is this, typically lesbian, ideal aesthetic where you want to live like in cottage in the woods. It’s very fairy-esque. You bake bread and wear paisley skirts. There’s a lot of gardening, living off the land, being off the grid for the good of your soul and the planet. It’s very “I want a fairy wife” kind of belief. There’s a lot of mushrooms and forest animals. It’s this lesbian fantasy that you’ll run away and leave the world behind and live this perfect story-book life with your wife.

Context: A friend was explaining to another friend what Cottagecore is. The informant is a member of the wlw community.

Thoughts:

Cottagecore is very popular subgroup/theme on TikTok. I’ve seen it a lot, and it has recently begun to spread to other social media apps like Twitter. I feel as though it is growing in popularity, in both the lesbian culture and more mainstream internet users, because it rejects the stressful aspects of modern society such as capitalism and the nine-to-five work day.

Rubber Band Jumprope

Performance Date: 4/28/2020
Language: Primary language is Taiwanese. Also speaks Mandarain, Cantonese, and English

Piece
We didn’t have much in the village I grew up in, so kids just made toys out of whatever they had. We would always save things to make toys out of. Like if one kid got enough rubber bands, we would make a jump rope and we’d all go to the field and play until it broke. Sometimes we had multiple ropes and we do competitions.Example of the folklore piece

Context
The informant was a participant in this piece of folklore as a child who learned the activity from other children in their neighborhood. Telling this story seemed to make the informant think of how resourceful children were in her village and in her time.
This story was shared when the informant was asked what they used to do as children by the informant’s grandchildren looking for something to do or play.

My Thoughts
I connected this to the craze that happened several years ago over band looms that allowed children to make necklaces, bracelets, rings, etc. using these colorful little rubber bands. This says a lot about our current circumstances as now children gain these play toys through commercialism where in my informant’s youth, children didn’t buy things but played with what they had.

Arnica and Linaca Mixture for Healing

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 48
Occupation: Human Resources manager
Residence: San Fernando Valley
Performance Date: 4/28/20
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

EA: Arnica is a tea it is like a natural herb, arnica and linaca and it is supposed to be like a a homeopathic remedy you can use for like swelling and just kind of instead of like a Neosporin type thing. It helps to heal a little bit better. Back then when they would make it when you know they did not have modern medicine so they would take it with like leaves or whatever and they would put it on and then they wrap it and then that helps with the cut of whatever you have. 

Interviewer: Did she say how she boiled it?

EA: Yeah she boiled it and lets it simmer for like a while on high heat and then she lowers he heat and lets it simmer. Ten minutes I think she said and it boils it and then you turn it off and then you just let it sit and  then that’s when it gets that vava, which is kind of like a vasiline type texture and then it just like sits there. 

Interviewer: That’s when you know it is done?

EA: Yeah, like a little thick.  

Context: EA is my mother mother who was born in Southern California, but whose parents are both from Mexico. The information taken from a casual conversation I was having with my mother about any folklore she had for me and my sister was also present. She was referring to an ointment that my aunt made for her son when he had a really bad insect bit and gave to us when our dog had a rash. 

Analysis

In Mexico, even know it is difficult in many places to see or either afford a doctor. This has given rise for the necessity of home remedies. Arnica is in many supplements and gels that are sold in pharmacies. Thus, showing the ability for homeopathic remedies to transfer to modern medicine and being legitimizd by being formally sold in stores. However, people would likely still feel that something like Neosporin is inherently more effective than something homemade when this is not inherently the case. Accordingly, when recommending these home remedies it is often accompanied with an anecdotal success story to prove it’s merit. would be It also shows the versatility of the homemade treatments because they are made with natural ingredients and how it can help your family and having advice when another person you care about is having a difficulty. 

Irish Superstition about Pearls

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: La Habra, CA
Performance Date: 4/29/2020
Primary Language: English

Text:

Informant:

It’s an Irish superstition where it is super super bad luck for a woman to receive pearls except from her husband on their wedding day. Any other time it’s an omen of death. There’s this little thing that has sort of happened because of this since Irish people are often such devout Catholics where instead of getting a divorce, a husband will very passive-aggressively get their wife pearls. It means screw you, I wish we could get a divorce, but we can’t since we’re Catholic.

Context:

I asked a group of friends about any superstitions they were raised with. This was one of their responses.  The informant was raised Irish Catholic.

Thoughts:

I was raised Irish Catholic, and am very familiar with this both pearls being an omen of bad luck as well as husbands buying their wives pearls as an ill-wish.

Avocado Pit in your Guacamole

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 48
Occupation: Human Resources manager
Residence: San Fernando Valley
Performance Date: 4/17/20
Primary Language: English
Language: spanish

EA: Put the pit of one of the avocados form the guacamole into it after you are finished making you guacamole to keep it from browning. 

Context

EA is my mother who was born in Southern California, but whose parents are both from Mexico. She and her whole family are Catholic. However, she is not as religious as the rest of her family. She is a Human Resources manager at a small manufacturing company in the San Fernando Valley. The information was from when I was making guacamole for lunch and she was telling me what I could do to keep it fresh to eat it later.

Analysis: After I told her I wanted to collect that as folklore she told me it was not folklore because it was true. She said it very matter of fact as if it something that everyone does. Specifically, related to food and medicine the value is placed on whether or not it works. That folklore is something outdated that people believe, but does not actually work. This is obviously not the case given that many recipes and standard cooking practices originated as folklore. It also shows the negative connotation that arises when using the word folklore to describe people’s practices and how they might not like having their culture being referred to as folklore.