Hand Sign

Hand Sign

Title: Hand Sign

General Information about Item:

  • Genre: Customary Folklore: Tradition
  • Language: English
  • Country: United States of America

Informant Data:

Alexis Wyatt, aged 21, is a Director of Ujima who joined the group her freshman fall (2014). She is a senior at Dartmouth College majoring in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and minoring in Psychology. Alexis was born, raised, and currently lives in Akron, Ohio. Before Ujima, Alexis had two years of dance experience in high school with modern, contemporary, and lyrical dance.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context: The entire team uses the Hand Sign. Ujima members will often pose with the hand sign at the end of a performance. This tradition originated at the group’s founding, and Alexis first learned of it when she performed during her freshman fall.
  • Cultural Context: Many dance groups have a hand symbol to act as an identifier for the team. Similarly, Ujima’s hand sign not only creates an image for the rest of campus to recognize them by, but also acts as a symbol of team membership within Ujima.

Item:

Ujima holds up two arms to form a “U” hand symbol pose to end their performances.

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

Transcript of Associated File:

“I think another unique thing that Ujima does is we have our hand gesture, which is essentially just a ‘U’ for Ujima. But I think that’s just kind of special because it also gives someone something to, kind of, represent, since obviously performances aren’t an everyday thing. But that doesn’t mean that we aren’t out here doing great things.”

Informant’s Comments:

The hand gesture’s visible likeness to the team name, Ujima, is integral to its recognizability.

Collector’s Comments:

The hand sign also acts as a symbol of unity and thus establishes a stronger group identity on campus.

Collector’s Name: Marcus Reid

Compiled/Analyzed By: Shinar Jain

Tags/Keywords:

  • Tradition
  • Dance
  • Team

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