Monthly Archives: November 2018

Serbian Tongue Twisters

_____________________________________________________________________________

 Title: Serbian Tongue Twisters

General Information about the Item:

  • Tongue Twister
  • Language: Serbian
  • Informant: Katarina Nesic
  • Date Collected: 10/24/18

Informant Data:

  • Katarina Nesic was born in Serbia. She spent most of her high school years at a boarding school in Sweden.
  • She is currently double majoring in Government and Russian at Dartmouth College and aspires to go to graduate school for public policy.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural context: I spoke with Katarina on October 24, 2018 in lobby of Baker Library. Katarina shared tongue twisters were a part of the Slovak culture and he learned most of them from her school teachers.
  • Social context: In Serbia, tongue twisters are used to teach school children how to pronounce words correctly. The children often have competitions amongst themselves to see who can perform the best at saying the tongue twisters.

Transcriptions/Translations:

 The following tongue twister were both translated from Serbian into Latin, and then into English by Katarina Nesic. To my knowledge, these transcriptions and translations are taken verbatim from the tongue twisters spoken in the recording.

  • Serbian Translation: “Stala mala Mara na kraj stara hana sarna.”
  • English Translation: “Little Mary stood at the end of the old inn alone.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • Hana is actually a Turkish word for place where traders would stay over for the night.

Collector’s Name: Ryan Spence – NH

Tags/Keywords:

  • Slavak
  • Serbia
  • Tongue-twister

_____________________________________________________________________________

Title: Serbian Tongue Twisters

General Information about the Item:

  • Tongue Twister
  • Language: Serbian
  • Informant: Katarina Nesic
  • Date Collected: 10/24/18

Informant Data:

  • Katarina Nesic was born in Serbia. She spent most of her high school years at a boarding school in Sweden.
  • She is currently double majoring in Government and Russian at Dartmouth College and aspires to go to graduate school for public policy.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural context: I spoke with Katarina on October 24, 2018 in lobby of Baker Library. Katarina shared tongue twisters were a part of the Slovak culture and he learned most of them from her school teachers.
  • Social context: In Serbia, tongue twisters are used to teach school children how to pronounce words correctly. The children often have competitions amongst themselves to see who can perform the best at saying the tongue twisters. 

 Transcriptions/Translations:

The following tongue twister were both translated from Serbian into Latin, and then into English by Katarina Nesic. To my knowledge, these transcriptions and translations are taken verbatim from the tongue twisters spoken in the recording.

  • Serbian Translation :”Mis uz pusku, mis niz pusku.”
  • English Translation : “A mouse went up against the rifle and down the rifle.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • Sh and Ch are very similar sounds in english, and therefore are hard to pronounce
  • Very similar to the English tongue twister “She sees Cheese 3x”

Collector’s Name: Ryan Spence – NH

Tags/Keywords:

  • Slavak
  • Serbia
  • Tongue-twister

_____________________________________________________________________________

 

Title: Serbian Tongue Twisters

General Information about the Item:

  • Tongue Twister
  • Language: Serbian
  • Informant: Katarina Nesic
  • Date Collected: 10/24/18

Informant Data:

  • Katarina Nesic was born in Serbia. She spent most of her high school years at a boarding school in Sweden.
  • She is currently double majoring in Government and Russian at Dartmouth College and aspires to go to graduate school for public policy.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural context: I spoke with Katarina on October 24, 2018 in lobby of Baker Library. Katarina shared tongue twisters were a part of the Slovak culture and he learned most of them from her school teachers.
  • Social context: In Serbia, tongue twisters are used to teach school children how to pronounce words correctly. The children often have competitions amongst themselves to see who can perform the best at saying the tongue twisters.

 

Transcriptions/Translations:

The following tongue twister were both translated from Serbian into Latin, and then into English by Katarina Nesic. To my knowledge, these transcriptions and translations are taken verbatim from the tongue twisters spoken in the recording.

  • Serbian Translation: “Na vrh brda, vrba mrda.”
  • English Translation :“At the top of a hill a willow is moving.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • Many Serbian tongue twisters are non-sensical and are actually used for educational purposes.

Collector’s Name: Ryan Spence – NH

Tags/Keywords:

  • Slavak
  • Serbia
  • Tongue-twister

_____________________________________________________________________________

Title: Serbian Tongue Twisters

General Information about the Item:

  • Tongue Twister
  • Language: Serbian
  • Informant: Katarina Nesic
  • Date Collected: 10/24/18

Informant Data:

  • Katarina Nesic was born in Serbia. She spent most of her high school years at a boarding school in Sweden.
  • She is currently double majoring in Government and Russian at Dartmouth College and aspires to go to graduate school for public policy.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural context: I spoke with Katarina on October 24, 2018 in lobby of Baker Library. Katarina shared tongue twisters were a part of the Slovak culture and he learned most of them from her school teachers.
  • Social context: In Serbia, tongue twisters are used to teach school children how to pronounce words correctly. The children often have competitions amongst themselves to see who can perform the best at saying the tongue twisters.

 

Transcriptions/Translations:

The following tongue twister were both translated from Serbian into Latin, and then into English by Katarina Nesic. To my knowledge, these transcriptions and translations are taken verbatim from the tongue twisters spoken in the recording.

  • Serbian Translation:”Nevesele snene zene, plele tesle mreze.”
  • English Translation: “Unhappy, sleepy women were weaving heavy nets.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • This tongue twister is actually considered to be Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian.

Collector’s Name: Ryan Spence – NH

Tags/Keywords:

  • Slavak
  • Serbia
  • Tongue-twister

_____________________________________________________________________________ 

Title: Serbian Tongue Twisters

General Information about the Item:

  • Tongue Twister
  • Language: Serbian
  • Informant: Katarina Nesic
  • Date Collected: 10/24/18

Informant Data:

  • Katarina Nesic was born in Serbia. She spent most of her high school years at a boarding school in Sweden.
  • She is currently double majoring in Government and Russian at Dartmouth College and aspires to go to graduate school for public policy.

Contextual Data:

 

  • Cultural context: I spoke with Katarina on October 24, 2018 in lobby of Baker Library. Katarina shared tongue twisters were a part of the Slovak culture and he learned most of them from her school teachers.
  • Social context: In Serbia, tongue twisters are used to teach school children how to pronounce words correctly. The children often have competitions amongst themselves to see who can perform the best at saying the tongue twisters.

Transcriptions/Translations:

The following tongue twister were both translated from Serbian into Latin, and then into English by Katarina Nesic. To my knowledge, these transcriptions and translations are taken verbatim from the tongue twisters spoken in the recording.

  • Serbian Translation:”Kuja je zajalaja i prolajala.”
  • English Translation: “A female dog began barking and barked.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • It is very hard to pronounce words with S’s and N’s in the Serbian language.

Collector’s Name: Ryan Spence – NH

Tags/Keywords:

  • Slavak
  • Serbia
  • Tongue-twister

Dartmouth DOC First-Year Trips

Title: Matriculation Ceremony

General Information about Item:

  • Initiation Ritual
  • Dartmouth College
  • Informants: Fisher Katlin
  • Date Collected: October 23rd, 2018

Informant Data

  • Fisher Katlin is a senior at Dartmouth College, who has lived in Chicago for his whole life. He is a double majoring in Chinese and Chemistry and plans on going to medical school after college. He is an active member of the Dartmouth outdoors club and has lead Dartmouth freshman trips for two years. He was my trip leader and has remained one of my close friends at Dartmouth since then.

Contextual Data

  • Fisher has both been a trippee, which is what the freshman going on these trips are called, later served as an upperclassmen trip leader. His freshman year, he went to the Dartmouth grant on the “Climb and Hike” trip, where he was introduced to rock climbing. During his freshman trip, Fisher recalled becoming close with his upperclassmen trip leader, named Brad. Brad later introduced Fisher to the mountaineering club, a Dartmouth organization which Fisher is an active member of today. Fisher’s junior year, he led a “fishing” trip, and his senior year, he worked on “Grant Crew” and helped all of the “Hike and Climb” trips learn to rock climb.

Item

  • Every year, over 90 percent of Dartmouth first-years take part in a DOC First-Year trip, where they go on a five day outdoors trip all over New Hampshire. There are several different types of trips offered, including hiking, mountain biking, fishing, rock climbing, and many others.  These trips are characterized by various rituals, pranks, and verbal lore that encourage trippees to learn more about each other and Dartmouth culture as a whole. Fisher Katlin fondly remembers the “Robert Frost’s Ashes” prank as being a memorable and effective tradition, where the trip leaders tricked the trippees into thinking hot chocolate powder was famed Dartmouth alumni Robert Frost’s ashes. Additionally, trippees are not allowed to bring any technology with them, which creates an acutely solitary environment in which the group is intentionally coerced into being constantly engaged with each other and being present in the moment.
  • 1080p-1i60pk4

Analysis

  • Initiation rituals consist of three stages: separation, transition, and incorporation. In this ritual, the separation stage occurs when the trippees leave home and embark on their trip. Next, the transition stage happens while the students are on their trip, as they both overcome the challenges that the New Hampshire wilderness poses and learn about Dartmouth’s culture and traditions. Finally, the incorporation process occurs when the students arrive back on campus with a stronger sense of understanding and belonging in the Dartmouth community.

Meaning and interpretation

  • DOC First-Year trips serve as an important aspect of initiating freshman into Dartmouth. They welcome new freshman to campus and give them a chance to get their first taste of look into Dartmouth’s culture. While on the trips, the trippees and trip leaders are able to grow as they weather the challenges from the wilderness. Additionally, DOC First-Year trips allow Dartmouth first-years the make their first purely Dartmouth connection, both with their fellow trippees and with their upperclassmen trip leaders.
  • Comparison:
    • Comparison within the subgroup:  In this sub-group, we focused on Dartmouth College social initiation rituals. The main similarity with these initiation rituals is that they all have the three phases of initiation rituals: separation, transition, and incorporation. Another similarity between most of these rituals is that freshman experience. A student’s freshman year is a time learn about his or her new community and the traditions that form its unique culture. Freshman year is also the time that most students join the clubs or sports teams that they will be most involved in throughout their Dartmouth careers. Therefore, it makes sense that so many of the Dartmouth social initiation rituals take place during the freshman year, such as the matriculation ceremony.  The homecoming bonfire and many of the rituals in our subgroup also involve helping freshman feel like they have officially become members of the Dartmouth community, and it also forms a connection with the leader of their community.

    • Comparison with the rest of the subgroups: The subgroups differ dramatically across the board. One difference within our subgroup is who initiates and rums each initiation ritual. Sometimes these rituals are set up and funded by the Dartmouth administration, and sometimes, like in the case of DOC first-year trips, they are student-run. Another difference is the duration of each ritual. Some social spaces take a while to initiate into or involve various rituals to initiate new members, while others only require one short ritual.

     

    Transcript

    • Fisher Katlin on how DOC first-year trips act as an initiation ritual “The most important thing trips does is it gives you that first group of people from Dartmouth that you know.”

     

    • Collector: J.P. Mortenson, Dartmouth College, Russian 13, Professor Valentina Apresyan, Professor Mikhail Gronas, Fall 2018

     

    • Tags/Keywords:
      • Initiation
      • Ritual
      • DOC first-year trips
      • Freshman class
      • Dartmouth

Matriculation Ceremony

Title: Matriculation Ceremony

General Information about Item:

  • Initiation Ritual
  • Dartmouth College
  • Informants: Charlie Pashlo
  • Date Collected: November 3rd, 2018

Informant Data

  • Charlie Pashlo is a freshman student at Dartmouth College and has lived in Newtown Connecticut his whole life. Because he is still in his first year at Dartmouth, Charlie has not yet decided on his major. He is on the Dartmouth Swimming team and is a teammate and close friend of mine.

Contextual Data

  • Cultural Context: I interviewed Charlie on the first floor of the Baker Library. Charlie was introduced to Dartmouth’s matriculation ceremony during orientation. He was surrounded by all of his fellow floormates during the ceremony, which took place in the early afternoon in president Phil Hanlon’s office.
  • Social Context: Dartmouth’s Matriculation Ceremony occurs during freshman orientation week. Orientation week involves many activities and traditions that help new students to bond with the other members of their class.

Item

  • Every year, all Dartmouth freshman dress up in formal attire and are led by their UGA to the school presidents office. They are greeted by the president who gives them a brief talk about the Dartmouth values. After the talk is over, he shakes the hands of every student one by one, concluding the matriculation ceremony. After they do this, they have officially concluded the matriculation process and are officially enrolled in Dartmouth College.

Analysis

  • Initiation rituals consist of three stages: separation, transition, and incorporation. In this ritual, the separation stage occurs when the freshman gather with their floor and travel to the president’s office. Next, the transition stage happens when all the students arrive in the president’s office and listen to him speak. Finally, the incorporation process occurs when these students shake the president’s hand and return to their dorms.

Meaning and interpretation

  • The matriculation ceremony is a ritual that occurs each year during Dartmouth’s freshman orientation. It acts as a way for the students to both meet the leader of their new school and to formally enter the college. The matriculation ceremony is something that every Dartmouth student goes through, and many of them fondly remember it as it signified the official start of their time as a Dartmouth student.
  • Comparison:
    • Comparison within the subgroup:  In this sub-group, we focused on Dartmouth College social initiation rituals. The main similarity with these initiation rituals is that they all have the three phases of initiation rituals: separation, transition, and incorporation. Another similarity between most of these rituals is that freshman experience. A student’s freshman year is a time learn about his or her new community and the traditions that form its unique culture. Freshman year is also the time that most students join the clubs or sports teams that they will be most involved in throughout their Dartmouth careers. Therefore, it makes sense that so many of the Dartmouth social initiation rituals take place during the freshman year, such as the matriculation ceremony.  The matriculation ceremony and many of the rituals in our subgroup also involve helping freshman feel like they have officially become members of the Dartmouth community, and it also forms a connection with the leader of their community.
    • Comparison with the rest of the subgroups: The subgroups differ dramatically across the board. One difference within our subgroup is who initiates and rums each initiation ritual. Sometimes these rituals are set up and funded by the Dartmouth administration, and sometimes they are student-run. Another difference is the duration of each ritual. Some social spaces take a while to initiate into or involve various rituals to initiate new members, while others only require one short ritual.

 

Transcript

  • Charlie Pashlo on how Dartmouth’s matriculation ceremony acted as an initiation ritual “we weren’t really considered students of the college until we did it.”

 

  • Collector: J.P. Mortenson, Dartmouth College, Russian 13, Professor Valentina Apresyan, Professor Mikhail Gronas, Fall 2018

 

  • Tags/Keywords:
    • Initiation
    • Ritual
    • Matriculation
    • Freshman class
    • Dartmouth

Family vs. Friendship

Title: Family vs. Friendship (William Baddoo)

General Information about Item:

  • Proverb
  • Language: Spanish
  • Country of Origin: Spain
  • Informant: Rosa Matorras
  • Date Collected: 10/16/18

Informant Data:

  • Professor Matorras is a Senior Lecturer of Spanish in the Spanish and Portuguese department at Dartmouth College. She was born and Raised in Madrid, Spain. After completing undergraduate studies in Spain she earned her PhD at the Ohio State University. She is married with two sons. She tries to go back to Madrid ever summer if possible.

Contextual Data:

  • The proverb was told to Professor Matorras by her grandmother. She in her brother would often get into fights when they were younger. Her grandmother wanted them to know the importance of family despite the differences they had.

    Professor Matorras says that the prover is about how important family relations are in life. While it is important to have friends, there is certain level of connection and bond that can only be achieved by your family. Family is always there for you at the hardest moments in life. It is your family that has immense influence on who you become as a person. Another aspect is that family provides a stable foundation. During life, friends can come and go. When you move somewhere, get a new job or go to a different school, you will likely lose some of the friends you made. This never happens with family. A bad fight may end a friendship, but families can quarrel all the time and still live under the same roof.

Item:

  • “Un litro de sangre vale más que 100 gramos de amistad.”

    Translation “An ounce of blood is worth more than a pound of friendship”.

Informant’s Comments:

  • The bond between family members is a permeant bond that can withstand the tests of time, arguments, and travel, which is not always true with friendships.

Collector’s Comments:

The structure of the proverb is a comparison. Blood is used as a metonym for family. Overall the proverb is literal and direct. Family is more valuable than friendship. This proverb, along with a few other that we collected send the message that family comes first over friendship. This concept seems to be culturally significant in Spanish-speaking countries.

Collector’s Name: William Baddoo

Tags/Keywords:

  • Spanish Proverbs
  • Family
  • Blood

Fake Friend (William Baddoo)

Title: Fake Friend (William Baddoo)

General Information about Item:

  • Proverb
  • Language: Spanish
  • Country of Origin: Argentina
  • Informant: Natalie Monetti
  • Date Collected: 10/17/18

Informant Data:

  • Professor Monetti is a Senior Lecturer of Spanish in the Spanish and Portuguese department at Dartmouth College. She is was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Professor Monetti got her bachelors from Universidad Nacional de Cordoba. She came to the United States in the mid 2000s for graduate school at Washington University in St. Louis.

Contextual Data:

  • Professor Monetti was told this proverb by her father when she was in primary school. At the time she had just moved to a different school and was having trouble adjusting.  Some of her new friends were not the best people. Her Father wanted her to be more careful in the friends she chose.

    Professor Monetti said that the proverb is about the dangers someone who betrays your trust can do to you. In life there are people who can seem like they are genuine and care about but are putting on a facade.  This especially true when you are young and there is a lot of pressure to make friends and fit. These are the types of people who may then say things about you or reveal information to others that you believed would remain private. It hurts a lot to have someone who you are comfortable being honest with betray. One silver lining is that having to deal with bad friends makes you appreciate those who are genuinely kindhearted and have your best interest in mind.

Item:

  • La lengua que pertenece a un amigo falso es más afilada que un cuchillo.

    Translation: The tongue that belongs to a fake friend is sharper than a knife.

 

Informant’s Comments:

  • Pick friends wisely or you can end up suffering significant emotional damage.

Collector’s Comments:

  • The proverb is two part, using comparison Pain caused by a person pretending to be your friend and can hurt more than physical damage. There is common theme this proverb has which is that people should avoid bad friends. It was told to the informant by a parent, which also is a common theme.

Collector’s Name: William Baddoo

Tags/Keywords:

  • Spanish Proverbs
  • Friends
  • Betrayal.

Stay Positive (William Baddoo)

Title: Stay Positive (William Baddoo)

General Information about Item:

  • Proverb
  • Language: Spanish
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Luis Valdovinos
  • Date Collected: 10/19/18

Informant Data:

  • Luis Valdovinos is a junior at Dartmouth College majoring in Government. He is a member of the class of 2020. He is from Los Angeles, California. He is of Mexican-Descent. He is an undergraduate advisor for the Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies (LALACS) house.

Contextual Data:

  • Luis learned this proverb a few years ago from one of his friends. The proverb was said to him when he was going through a particularly hard time. While the proverb is fairly simple, Luis said that it is still meaningful. The proverb is not specifically about family or friends, but it is almost always used in the context a family or friend giving encouragement to another family friend. Proverbs or sayings that come from people that you are close to can be powerful and help you get through emotionally and or physically challenging periods in your life.

Item:

  • Original Proverb: “A mal tiempo, buena care”
  • Translation:“In bad times stay positive, or at least look at it”

Associated file 

Informant’s Comments:

  • It’s important not to give into despair during difficult times.

Collector’s Comments:

  • This proverb fits our theme even though it is not specifically about friends or family. What’s relevant is the context which it is used. It is often said by a person’s family or friends. Those are the people most likely to provide words or encouragement during hard times. The proverb has a simple structure.

Tags/Keywords:

  • Spanish Proverbs
  • Family
  • Hope

Lightweight Crew Initiation, Informant 2

Title: Lightweight Crew Initiation 

General Information about Item:

  • Initiation Ritual
  • Dartmouth College
  • Informant: Kyle Ziemer
  • Date Collected: October 30, 2018

Informant Data

  • Kyle Ziemer is a lightweight rower in the Dartmouth class of 2021. He hails from rural Minnesota, and is studying economics and computer science at Dartmouth. Besides rowing, Kyle is involved with his fraternity on campus as well as some student activist organizations.

Contextual Data

  • Cultural Context: Most of these rowers lead lives that are both academically and athletically intensive, with rigorous classes and practice most days of the week. Although Kyle is from the midwest, he estimates that 80% of his team is from the east coast.
  • Social Context: I collected information on this ritual from Kyle in the library, however this ritual is performed typically by sophomore rowers at Dartmouth College, who are around ages 19-20. The initiation as a “varsity” rower, through finding varsity jackets, begins at the Dartmouth crew boat house and then moves to the Dartmouth cemetery temporarily before returning to the boathouse. The rite is performed by the whole sophomore class of rowers, which is typically around 5-8 rowers (in Kyle’s case he was with five others). The ritual is usually performed after practice mid Fall, before the annual Head of the Charles race.

Item

  • After going through a separate initiation process to join the crew team as a freshman, Kyle underwent this process to become an official varsity rower as a sophomore. After a practice this fall, his sophomore teammates and him all went to search for their varsity jackets in the Dartmouth cemetery. After finding them, they return to the following practice wearing them, symbolizing their transition to being varsity rowers.
  • IMG_6271-24s98wr

Analysis

  • This ritual follows the three stages of all initiation rituals: separation, transition and incorporation. The separation stage occurs when the sophomores rowers leave the rest of the team after practice to go search for their jackets in the graveyard, which have been hidden by senior rowers. Once the sophomores travel to the graveyard they have begun their transition stage, in which they are in a liminal space (the graveyard) completing the challenging task of locating their jackets. They are incorporated when they return to the team with their varsity jackets the next practice.

Meaning and Interpretation

  • Sophomore rowers gain a strong sense pride by being initiated as varsity rowers through receiving these jackets. It distinguishes them from freshmen as experienced oarsman who have already dedicated a year of hard work to the team, and are now beginning to take on more senior roles.

Comparison

  • Comparison within the subgroup: In this sub-group of Dartmouth sports teams, this ritual is somewhat unique in that it is focused on sophomores rather than freshman. Most rites we have examined involve the initiation of freshmen onto their team, however the focus here is on someone becoming a more distinguished varsity member.
  • Comparison with the rest of the subgroups: The subgroups differ dramatically across the board. Some of the subgroups focus on various ethnic groups while others focus on groups within Dartmouth. The initiation rituals of the groups within Dartmouth usually have the purpose of welcoming new members into their community and are symbolic. Ethnic-based group rituals have the purpose of testing the new members. Additionally, ethnic groups’ initiation rituals tend to be related to religious practices. Initiation rituals of Dartmouth groups are not religious in character. What all groups have in common though is the fact that the process of initiation creates closeness with the rest of the group and makes one feel completely immersed into the group. Like almost all initiation rituals, this one does conform to the three stages of separation, transition and incorporation.  

Collector: Elliot Adams, Dartmouth College, Russian 13, Professor Valentina Apresyan, Professor Mikhail Gronas, Fall 2018

Touching the Homecoming Bonfire

Title: Touching the Homecoming Bonfire

General Information about Item:

  • Initiation Ritual
  • Dartmouth College
  • Informant: Anonymous
  • Date Collected: November 5th, 2018

Informant Data

  • Due to the legal fallout stemming from the incident, the informant would like to remain anonymous. The informant is a close personal friend of mine who is also a Dartmouth Student in the graduating class of 2021.

Contextual Data

  • Cultural Context: I interviewed the informant in his dorm’s common room at Dartmouth College. Anonymous was repeatedly told to touch the homecoming bonfire by many upper-classmen in the weeks leading up to it. When he was running on the green around the 2017 homecoming bonfire, he decided to try and touch it, but the Hanover police tackled him, and he was arrested.

Item

  • During homecoming, freshman are told by upperclassmen to touch the fire, despite the fact that they can be injured or arrested. A class is called the “worst class ever” if it does not have a member who touches the fire. Several people have touched the fire in years past out of their own volition. It is a very difficult task to touch the fire, as doing so involves climbing a 10-foot tall fence and evading security officers and Hanover Police Officers. Many students have gotten caught attempting to touch the fire in years past and faced consequences from both the Police and Dartmouth College. However, in 2018, no freshman touched the bonfire due to increased security measures.

 

  • In order to best protect the informant’s anonymity, I left out the audio file and transcribed the interview instead.
  • Interviewer: Alright, so let’s start with the obvious question. Why did you want to touch the fire?
  • Informant: For the weeks leading up to it a lot of upperclassmen had talked to me about it and kind of made it seem they painted it as a very old Dartmouth tradition that was being threatened by the current administration. It’s actually only a 5 or 6-year-old tradition, but they kind of painted as this very old Dartmouth tradition that Phil Hanlon was trying to destroy. I had almost a contrarian impulse that I had to stop that and like because I hate when Dartmouth administrators try to change Dartmouth, well change isn’t always but, but I hate it when they change the things that people love about it. For example, the bonfire itself is just like this great unique thing that everybody loves.
    But now, this year, like it’s such a far cry from what it once was.
  • Interviewer: Can you walk me through what happened your freshman homecoming?
  • Informant: So, I didn’t think that I would actually do it so in the weeks leading up I kind of jokingly told everyone “ I’m going to do it.” Then the night of, I essentially was just running around a bunch of times people were screaming at me like screaming at everyone like touch the fire. And I guess In the Heat of the Moment I just did it you know. It wasn’t even really like thought our planned it out because, well, I obviously got caught.

Analysis

  • Initiation rituals consist of three stages: separation, transition, and incorporation. In accordance with the old tradition, the separation stage of this initiation ritual occurs when the freshman class isolates itself from the rest of the student body and runs laps around the homecoming bonfire. The transition stage occurs when the freshman class proves their bravery and touches the fire. Finally, the incorporation stage occurs after the bonfire when the upperclassmen have gained more respect for the freshman class due to the bravery they displayed during the bonfire, and generally stop referring to them as the worst class ever

Meaning and interpretation

  • Touching the bonfire is a freshman tradition that had occurred for several years before the increased security measures in 2018. It acted as an opportunity for Dartmouth’s freshman to come together as a class by supporting and cheering on their classmates brave enough to touch the fire. Additionally, the stories and legends about the students who touched the fire served as a way for Dartmouth students to bond with one another.

 

  • Comparison:
    • Comparison within the subgroup:  In this sub-group, we focused on Dartmouth College social initiation rituals. Obviously, the main similarity with these initiation rituals is that they all have the three phases of initiation rituals: separation, transition, and incorporation. Another similarity between most of these rituals is that they are experienced by freshmen. A student’s freshman year is a time learn about his or her new community and the traditions that form its unique culture. Freshman year is also the time that most students join the clubs or sports teams that they will be most involved in throughout their Dartmouth careers. Therefore, it makes sense that so many of the Dartmouth social initiation rituals take place during the freshman year, such as the touching the fire ritual. The homecoming bonfire and many of the rituals in our subgroup also involve helping them feel comfortable in their new community and connecting them both with their own classmates and with the upperclassmen.
    • Comparison with the rest of the subgroups: The subgroups differ dramatically across the board. One difference within our subgroup is who initiates and rums each initiation ritual. Sometimes these rituals are set up and funded by the Dartmouth administration, and sometimes they are student-run. Another difference is the duration of each ritual. Some social spaces take a while to initiate into or involve various different rituals to initiate new members, while others only require one short ritual. 

 

Transcript

  • The informant on how touching the bonfire acted as an initiation ritual “I really feel like because touching the fire was an event that was exciting and that the whole class experienced together, it definitely helped bring the class closer both with each other and with the upperclassmen.”

 

  • Collector: J.P. Mortenson, Dartmouth College, Russian 13, Professor Valentina Apresyan, Professor Mikhail Gronas, Fall 2018

 

  • Tags/Keywords:
    • Initiation
    • Ritual
    • Homecoming Bonfire
    • Freshman class
    • Dartmouth

One Head, Two Heads

Title: One Head, Two Heads

General information about item:

  • Verbal folklore, proverb
  • Language: Russian
  • Country of origin: Russia
  • Informant: Mikhail Gronas
  • Date collected: 10/31/18

Informant Data:

Professor Mikhail Gronas teaches in the Russian department at Dartmouth College. He is 48 years old and was born in Central Asia before moving to Moscow. He studied in the United States and has lived in Hanover for 12 years.

Contextual Data:

The proverbs, Professor Gronas said, are rather old-fashioned, but most Russians would know them. He learned the proverbs in childhood and said they are a common part of the language.

Item

Одна́ голова́ — хорошо́, а две — луч́ше.

Literal translation: “One head is good, but two heads are better.”

Meaning: You can do more by collaborating than by working alone.

Associated file: 

Transcript: “‘Одна́ голова́ — хорошо́, а две — луч́ше.'” Which literally means, ‘one head is good, but two are better.'”

Informant’s comments:

“The idea is here that collaboratively, you can do more things, do them more effectively than on your own.”

Collector’s comments:

Other proverbs I looked at tended to value friendship over other things, or to say that old friendships are better than new. This was the only one to explicitly say it is better to have more friends than fewer. It did fit in with a more group-centric mindset I saw in many of the proverbs I collected, where it is seen as valuable to be part of a larger group rather than alone.

This proverb is structured with a kind of parallelism, where the structure of the second half of the sentence mirror the first half: “x is … ,” “y is … .” Other proverbs I collected also exhibited this kind of structure. Unlike others, this proverb emphasizes the second item as the good thing, rather than the first item (“better” rather than “worse”).

Collector’s name: Zachary Benjamin