Title: Touching Elder’s Feet

General Information about Item:

• Genre and Sub Genre
  • Verbal Folklore: Superstition

• Language: English

• Country where Item is from: India

Informant Data:

• Gaurav is currently a sophomore at Dartmouth College from San Jose, California. He identifies as Indian. His family is technically Hindu, but does not practice heavily. He does weightlifting in his free time.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: Gaurav learned these superstitions from his family. Specifically, he mentioned that he learned this one from his grandmother when he was a child.

• Cultural Context: This superstition is consistent with the prominent Indian and East Asian value in respecting one’s elders. Touching feet is a sign of respect, and in turn the elder bestows good luck and good fortune.

Item:

• Good Luck Superstition: It is good luck to touch one’s elder’s feet.

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

Transcript of Associated File:

• Gaurav Interview Transcript

Informant’s Comments:

• The informant mentioned that he learned this superstition from his grandmother. Feet are generally seen as unclean, so touching feet is a powerful display of respect, a statement against the general Indian belief in cleanliness.

Collector’s Comments:

• There is a very similar practice in Filipino culture that I learned from my grandmother, which involves touching an elder’s hand to your forehead. It was interesting to see this paralleled in Indian culture.

Collector’s Name: Mitchell Tang

Tags/Keywords:

• Indian/Good Luck/Superstition/Elder/Feet