General Information about Item
- Gesture
- Genre: Insulting American Children’s Gesture
- Country of Origin: United States
- Informant: Alejandro Cuan-Martinez
- Date Collected: October 28, 2018
Informant Data
Alejandro is a ’20 that attends Dartmouth College. He is from Los Angelas, California where he grew up for most of his childhood. He is of Chinese-Mexican decent and has an older brother. In high school he was on the swim team. He is interested in studio arts and is a member of the Alpha Theta gender-inclusive greek house.
Contextual Data
Social Context – I collected this folklore from Alejandro in Alpha Theta’s library. I recorded our conversation on an iPhone and asked him to tell me about insulting gestures he may remember from childhood. It was humorous the wide array of gestures he recalled from childhood that he would use to insult his friends in primary school. Many of the gestures were subtle variations of the middle finger, used in a manner to get away with giving someone the bird without actually doing the gesture but fully implying it with a similar one. Most of the gestures he showed me were ones targeted towards a specific person with the intention of being seen and received, with the ability to be quickly concealed if an adult was to look.
Cultural Context – Alejandro learned it when fighting with other little kids when he was younger. He then went home that day and did it to mom, who got very mad.
Item
“Usually little kids do it but basically if you’re playing around or are mad at someone, you stick out your tongue.”
Associated File
Informant’s Comments
Alejandro noted that he got in a lot of trouble from his mom when he did it to her.
Collector’s Comments
When I was younger, I remember either my mom or sisters telling me that if I did that, the Devil would come in the middle of the night and chop off my tongue.
Collector’s Name: Cherie-Noelle Kaanana
Tags/Keywords
- Gestures
- American Children
- Insults