Meditation #1

  • Title: Meditation Before an Exam
  • General Information about Item:
    • Ritual
    • English
    • United States
  • Informant Data
    • Kenna van Steyn was born on July 18th, 1999 in Walnut Creek, California. Her family currently resides in Lafayette, California. She is a ’21 at Dartmouth studying Neuroscience. She hopes to pursue a career in Psychology after Dartmouth. Kenna does not consider herself very superstitious.  

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • The data was collected in person in the Baker-Berry Library. Paul asked Kenna if she had any pre-exam superstitions or rituals and gave her a minute to think before responding. Kenna said she bathroom meditates because she saw a few of her classmates doing it before their first neuroscience midterm. She immediately adopted the folklore and has done it ever since.
  • Cultural Context
    •  The cultural context of this folklore reflects the competitive atmosphere of Dartmouth college, where every grade impacts as student’s GPA. Students at an Ivy League do not just try to succeed in their classes, but to outperform their peers. As a result of this high stress environment, students may turn to superstitions or ritual to lessen the pressure.
  • Item:
    • Although Kenna said she didn’t have any pre-exam superstitions, she did practice a ritual. Before walking into an exam room, Kenna always goes to the bathroom and meditates. She takes 5 deep breaths, taking care to stand as tall as possible. Kenna feels that it is important to slow down and calm the body before going into a stressful situation.

 

  • Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

    Transcript of Associated File:

  • I actually do have a ritual. Before every test, I was once told by someone that it’s good to act big. So I go into the bathroom and put my hands onto my hips and I’ll just act really strong and powerful and just stand there for a second.
  • Collector’s Comments:
    • Kenna explained to me her pre-exam ritual of mediation. She saw some of her classmates from her neuroscience class meditating in the bathroom prior to their exam, so she decided to give it a try. She immediately noticed how calm it made her and it ended up working well so she has been performing the bathroom mediation ritual ever since. This is considered folklore since the ritual spread from Kenna’s neuroscience classmates to Kenna.

     

  • Collector’s Name: Miranda Greig
  • Tags/Keywords: Ritual. Homeopathic Magic. Diffusion.

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