Title: “Heightened Karma”
General Information about Item:
- Genre and Sub Genre
- Customary Folklore: Superstition
- Language: English
- United States of America
Informant Data:
Name: Joshua Davis
- Dartmouth Class of 2018
- Residence: Hanover, New Hampshire (During the school year) Los Angeles, California (during off-terms)
- Age: 20 years
- Jersey Number: 18
- Years of playing experience: 3rd year (Junior)
Contextual Data:
- Superstitions are very commonplace in the world of sports. Many players believe that the laws of magic apply to them throughout their lives, but specifically so during game days and they adjust their behaviors and actions accordingly.
Item:
Superstition: “Heightened Karma”
- Joshua already believes in the superstition of Karma, but thinks it is much more relevant during game days. This superstition benefits those around Joshua and he has an even stronger urge to help those around him during game days so that good karma is directed back at him. Furthermore, because karma is heightened, there is also a belief to not take shortcuts because everything will clearly reflect in his performance.
Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):
Transcript of Associated File:
“For myself, I believe this is superstitious. I try to do everything right. Say if I go to eat a meal and I’m coming out of a door, I hold the door for people coming in. I feel like I need to do the things that have really good manners for this day. Just doing the right things, I feel like that will translate over to the football field. It just feels like I need to do those things. If somebody drops something, I need to hurry up and pick it up for them. Definitely karma is heightened and I have to keep good karma on my side. I don’t split poles, I don’t split poles in the bases anyways, but I go out of my way to make sure I don’t split poles and make sure people don’t split poles around me.”
Collector’s Comments:
Joshua shares with us several important rituals that he individually partakes in, along with the rituals that he does with his entire team, both during practice and games. He opens up and shares his emotions that occur before games and how he uses various types of folklore to cope with those emotions. Furthermore, we are able to fully understand how such folklores are embedded into the culture of Dartmouth and the football program and how such folklores influence a player’s experience and performance.
Collector’s Name:
Kang Min Daniel Lee
Tags/Keywords:
Customary Folklore, Superstition, Football, Dartmouth