Monthly Archives: June 2019

Gemma Bautista

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Title: Gemma Bautista

General Information about Item:

  • Student
  • Varsity Field Hockey Team
  • English
  • Brisbane, Australia
  • May 13, 2019

Part 1

Text:

This pre-performance folklore is a form of chanting. The “chant” is a secret that cannot be spread outside of the team. As I member of the team, I know the chant as well but have promised not to write it down or pass it outside of the team. It is entirely in English however, so there would be no need to phonetically spell or transcribe the words. The music and lights are off and everyone is in a circle with their arms around each other. The chant begins with the team members on their knees crouched on the floor. One senior member of the team will begin whispering a secret phrase that everyone will then repeat. As the phrase is repeated the team will slowly begin to rise and start speaking louder and faster. After many iterations of the phrase the team will be jumping up and down and screaming the phrase as loud as they can. At this point, the senior member will yell “UP UP BIG GREEN ON THREE… 1, 2, 3” and the team will finish the chant with a loud collective cheer.

Context:

Gemma first learned about this pre-performance folklore during her freshman year at Dartmouth. She learned about it before the first competition of the season in the locker room. The chanting was passed down and taught to Gemma by the senior girls on the team. She does not know which teammate started it or what year it began. The hockey team has existed at Dartmouth since 1972, and many of our alums have mentioned performing chants when they come back for our big homecoming competition. It is possible that this ritual is decades old. The specific chant is not necessarily the same, which could mean there are multiple existences and variations of this ritual. To her knowledge, it is not written or recorded anywhere and is only performed orally by the team before home competitions. It has been and continues to be a major part of our team culture.

Gemma usually performs this ritual in the locker room of the Dartmouth Field Hockey Team. This locker room is located down the street from our field, alongside the Boss Tennis center on 6 Summer Ct, Hanover, NH 03755. Gemma and her teammates perform this ritual exactly one hour before the start of the game. This ritual is performed in the locker room before the start of every home competition. The girls on the team finish dressing in their uniforms and putting on their equipment. Before walking out to the field, a member of the team will gather everyone in the room into a circle and everyone will join arms. The music is turned off and the lights are turned off.

Meaning and Interpretation (Informant): “I think this means that I am an important player on a team of close friends. I am putting on a uniform for the many generations of women who came before me and shaped the team into what it is today. The same team that has always performed this is the team that chose me and gave me the opportunity to come to the United States to study. I think this performance is a way to feed off of other teammates energy and get excited to compete. The secrecy of the chant and the way it builds from a whisper to a scream is unique and something I will remember forever.

Part 2

Text:

When she is in Australia, she does have one ritual that she thinks could be considered folklore. In other countries, field hockey is also considered to be a men’s sport. Her dad grew up playing the sport and taught her how to play. Before he would play in competitions, he would re-tape the grip of his stick (the top part.) He taught Gemma the best method to tape the stick and she continues to do this in her Women’s League competitions. She does not perform this ritual in the United States because she has less free time before the games. It may be a ritual, because it was passed to her orally and her father never recorded or wrote down the method but instead taught her by example. He said he learned the method from his coach in the Philippines, but does not know where that coach learned it. There are multiple ways and patterns to re-tape a stick that many coaches and players have likely passed down, so this could be an example of multiple existence or variation. She said her father does not remember how he first learned the taping pattern and if it was orally passed to him by a teammate or coach. It is an unofficial part of her family’s culture and how they prepare to perform on the field.

Context:

In her native country, the pre-performance rituals are a lot less cohesive due to the nature of the team. College sports are not as popular or competitive as they are in the United States, and field hockey is played outside of the University level. You can sign up to play in a league that is independent of a University. Instead of playing with specifically recruited 18-22 year olds that you practice with every day, you may be playing with a random assortment of players. Any women’s team could have a wide array of females ranging in age, experience, etc depending on who signs up and where they are playing. She could be playing with a 45-year-old who’s been playing for 30 years or a 16-year-old who has just entered the women’s league. Therefore, there is a lot less focus on group cohesion and more focus on tactical skills and strategies needed to win the game.

The rituals tend to thus be more individualized and up to her to develop. They do not gather together in the locker room and address each other as a team. She explained that many of the rituals that are performed in Australian Women’s leagues would likely not be considered folklore, because many are authored/created by the players themselves.

Meaning and Interpretation (Informant): For me, the Australian ritual is meaningful because it is something my father taught her and something I want to be a family tradition. I want my kids to play hockey so this would be a fun thing to share with them. I think it is a technique to focus and improve my performance by preparing the best equipment possible for me to play with. It is significant because I do it before every game in Australia and it reminds me that I’m playing at home with a different set of players of all ages and skills. I likes that I have different rituals for each setting that I play in, because it makes each playing experience unique and competitive for me.

Parts 1 and 2 Together

Meaning and Interpretation (Collector):

I think that the United States ritual of chanting represents a law of similarity. The speed and volume of the chant starting very low and slow and ending very loud and fast parallels the building of energy and optimization of performance the team wants to have. The players are d increasing intensity during the ritual, and this could result in increasing intensity before the performance. This ritual is oral, it has not been written down or recorded, it was transmitted by word of mouth to the underclassmen, the movements in it were taught by example, the author is irrelevant, and it is definitely a part of our team culture. It could be a ritual because players are separating from their everyday selves and using the chant to transition into an intense game-like state and incorporate into the intense pre-competition stage. The Australian performance folklore may be magic superstition. She may go to the field to play without a taped stick, and she will only perform well if she retapes the stick. If she  It was orally passed down/shown to her by her father, the author is irrelevant as it was passed from coach to player to coach etc. in the Philippines, and it has become a part of their family culture. She does not perform this folklore in the US, almost like it would be bad luck.

I think the American ones are more team-based and passed down from older teammates to younger ones. It is a collective performance that bonds, focuses, and energizes every member of the team before a competition. The Australian rituals are much more individualized and are typically passed down from each family member or coach rather than each teammate. In Gemma’s case specifically, her pre-performance ritual in Australia is the physical performance of stick taping rather than the spoken performance of chanting. She thinks her performance ritual in Australia calms her down and focuses her mind more, whereas her performance ritual in America hypes her up and excites her to play more. They are rather different, but both of them get her ready to compete. I think it is important for her to have two separate performance plans based on folklore in her life for two separate mindsets and experiences of competition.

Collector’s Name: Katie Persin

Tags/Keywords:

  • Sports
  • Athletics
  • Field Hockey
  • Pre-performance ritual
  • Chanting
  • Stick-taping

An Engineer, a Mathematician and a Fire

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Title: An Engineer, a Mathematician and a Fire

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal lore, joke
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Sean Smith
  • Date Collected: 5-23-19

Informant Data:

  • Sean Smith is a 54 year old computer science professor at Dartmouth College. He teaches classes such as COSC 51, Computer Architecture, and COSC 58, Operating Systems. He is a self taught computer scientist, as there was no computer science major when he was an undergrad. He worked for the US government doing security consulting and then worked at IBM doing product development. At Dartmouth, he works on systems, as opposed to the more theoretical and mathematical side of computer science.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: This joke provides a comparison of two related but different fields, with the engineer being seen in a more positive light. The engineer is portrayed as practical and efficient, while the mathematician is implied to be disconnected from the real world because he is applying techniques used for proving mathematical theorems to a life or death situation.
  • Social Context: The joke was recorded during an in-person interview with the informant. The informant is not sure where he heard this joke, or where he would have said it.

Item:

Interview Recording:

Transcript of joke:

  • (4:18) “An engineer wakes up in a…, um, wakes up in a room and it’s on fire, but there is an empty bucket in the sink, so he fills the bucket with water and puts the fire out. A mathematician wakes up in a room and there’s a fire and there’s a full bucket of water and a sink and is like, ‘oh, now I’ve reduced it to the previous case.'”

Informant’s Comments:

  • This joke makes fun of how, in mathematical proofs, the efficiency does not matter as much as correctness.

Collector’s Comments:

  • The full interview contains lots of examples of engineering and computer science folklore other than jokes.

Collector’s Name: Ben Wolsieffer

Tags/Keywords:

  • Engineering
  • Verbal Folklore
  • Joke
  • Comparison between fields

A Pint of Milk and a Dozen Eggs

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Title: A Pint of Milk and a Dozen Eggs

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal lore, joke
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Ulf Österberg
  • Date Collected: 5-23-19

Informant Data:

  • Ulf Österberg has been a engineering professor at Dartmouth College since 1989. He teaches classes such as ENGS 23, Distributed Systems and Fields and ENGS 26, Control Theory. He was born in Gothenburg, Sweden and lived in Sweden until after he had earned his PhD in optics.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Jokes were not common in classroom settings at the schools the informant attended, but he strongly believes that jokes are helpful for keeping students engaged and makes an effort to tell jokes such as this one in his classes. This joke makes fun of how the technical mind of an engineer might interpret a statement like a computer, without thinking about whether it makes sense.
  • Social Context: This joke was recorded during an in-person interview with the informant. This joke was specifically intended to be told to students when it was relevant to the class. Telling jokes helps to connect students to the class and to the professor. The informant heard this joke from another professor at Dartmouth.

Item:

Interview Recording:

Transcript of joke:

  • (8:44) “The wife of an engineer says to her husband, ‘when you come home tonight, can you go by the grocery store and pick up a pint of milk and if they have eggs, pick up a dozen,’ and he comes home in the evening with twelve pints of milk, and she goes ‘why did you buy twelve pints of milk,’ and he says, ‘because they had eggs.'”

Informant’s Comments:

  • The informant said he grew up telling jokes in Sweden, but he had difficulty learning how to tell jokes and especially puns in English.

Collector’s Comments:

  • The informant was my professor for ENGS 26, Control Theory, this semester, and he told this joke in class. I have also heard this joke in the past with the protagonist being a computer scientist instead of an engineer.

Collector’s Name: Ben Wolsieffer

Tags/Keywords:

  • Engineering
  • Verbal Folklore
  • Joke

Wedding Hastags

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General Information:

  • Verbal Folklore, Material folklore (occasionally)
  • Language: English
  • Region of Origin: Unknown, 21st century
  • Informant: Kathryn Keenan
  • Date Collected: 5/23/19

Informant Data:

Kathryn Keenan is a 29 year old woman, originally from Albany, NY and was raised in an Irish Catholic household with many brothers and sisters. She is currently in her residency to be an Emergency pediatric doctor in Buffalo, NY. She was married to Michael Keenan, also a doctor, in the Spring of 2018.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context: Wedding Hashtags are at the bottom of all photos or posts from an event on social media. They are used by all wedding attendees, as well as photographers or caters showing work that they did at a wedding. Ms Keenan noted that she had seen them used at weddings of many different faiths and cultures, but had only seen them used by younger couples. The process of coming up with a clever pun or name mash-up often involves friends and family.
  • Cultural Context: The Wedding Hashtag is a new digital trend that is considered humorous and is a piece of verbal folklore created for each individual couple. It serves to organize and bond those in attendance. In a way creating a folkgroup from people who did not know each other because they know share a unique tradition or knowledge. It also allows each couple to have something new and uniquely their own. It creates a rebranding for the couple as a now being one unit.

Item:
Wedding hashtags are a unique phrase, often related to the couples origins, careers, or names, that is added to any social media posts, such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. This allows other attendees to find photos from the wedding. The hashtag may represent physical lore as well. While Ms Keenan opted for a simple blackboard with their phrase written on it, other couples create wooden signs for it, have a wall with it to take photos in front of, or place it on souvenirs for the guests.

Collector: Rebecca Conway

Note: The upper photo is a stock photo and was not provided by the source. The lower photo was.

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Title: The doctor vs the engineer

General Information about Item:

  • verbal folklore, joke/Riddle
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Eric Krivitzki
  • Date Collected: 5-11-19

Informant Data:

Professor Eric is an Aerospace engineer who have worked in the field for 15 years and decided to get a new challenge in Academia. So he decided to pursue his phd at Dartmouth. As a Phd, he is the instructor for the fluid lab. Before each lab meeting, he asks his students to come with an engineering related joke.

 

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context: Engineers love this joke and always laughs at it however, doctors usually takes offense even though the jokes depicts worse because of the amount of people they can harm at once.
  • Cultural context: Doctors suffer pressure that engineers don’t. The life of patients depend on the doctor in the moment. When the patient dies, the doctor usually takes it personally because he couldn’t save a life that he felt responsible for.  For engineers, the idea that someone could die is abstract because it will be in the future. Even if it happens, engineers usually work in teams so they don’t usually feel responsible for the deaths.

Item 

what’s the difference between an engineer and a doctor?

A doctor kills one person at a time.

Informant’s Comments:

  • it’s one of his favorite jokes even tho he says: “it’s not appropriate”

Collector’s Comments:

As a potential/future engineer, I like the joke.

Collector’s name: Pierre Desvallons

Beer Die (Casual)

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IMG_1786

IMG_1786 (1)

Informant: Carter Akerfelds

From: Boulder/Fort Collins, Colorado

    1. The Setup:Two teams of two. Each team stands on the opposite sides of the table at the corner of the table. On the corner in front of each of the participants stands a cup full of one’s drink. To begin the game the team that starts with the die is determined by one of the participants rolling one of the die and another participant from the other team stating high or low. High stands for if the die lands on a 4,5,6 then they will start the game. Low stands for if the die lands on 1,2,3 then they will start the game. If the one calling high or low is wrong the team rolling the die starts the game.

 

  • The Game (Offense): The team that starts with the dice. In this game, there are two die. The team starting… One throws the die in the air. Roughly 15+ feet in the air in hopes to hit the other side of the table. If on the off chance the die lands in the other opponents cup, they must drink their drink completely and refill it before continuing the game. Plus, the team throwing earns one point. Fun rule, If the person throwing lands the die in their own cup by bounce or on the fly, they must finish their drink and refill, but also have to call their mother and tell them that “they are a failure in life.” Furthermore, while throwing, only one person may throw a die at a time, and must receive confirmation that the other team is prepared to throw. You receive a point if the die hits the other half of the table (On your opponent’s side) and then falls off and hits the ground or if you land the die in the opponent’s cup you receive one point as well. If you throw the die and it lands on your side of the table first or misses the table completely, then the other team receives that die and waits for the original team’s partner to throw his die and then your team can now throw.
  • The Game (Defense): After the die has been thrown this is the part of the game that is tricky. If the die lands on your side of the table (opposite to the throwers) then you must wait till the die comes off the table before catching it. If the die is still rolling/bouncing on the table, you can not grab it yet. With that you may only catch the die with one hand, and you can not trap it with your body and hand to catch it. Otherwise it is a point to the team throwing. Catch the die off the table with one hand for each of the die thrown, and the other team does not score that round.
  • How to win: The team to score 11 points and win by two wins. Drinking in this game is casual for the most part, but the drink must be finished after the game is complete before starting a new game.
  • Random Kick Rule: If the throwing team misses the table, then the defensive team has the ability to kick the die in the air using anything below the waist, and if they kick the die in the air before it hits the ground, the partner on the defensive team has the ability to catch it with one hand. If done so successfully, then the throwing(offensive team) now loses one point.

 

 

Cutting and Feeding Each Other Cake

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General Information:

  • Customary Lore (the feeding), Material Lore (the cake)
  • Language: English
  • Region of Origin: Unknown
  • Informant: Rhea Enzian
  • Date Collected: 5/21/19

Informant:
 Rhea Enzian is a 21 year-old Dartmouth Student. She is originally from a small island off of Washington State. At Dartmouth she studies biology and is a member of the women’s rowing team.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context: Rhea has observed this at multiple weddings but most recently at a cousins. It generally occurs after the dinner and many people gather around to observe and take photos. Viewers do not personally participate but enjoy seeing a happy moment between the couple.
  • Cultural Context: The process of cutting the cake together is meant to represent the challenges they will tackle as a partnership and is the first task they do together as a married couple. This along with the sweet gesture of feeding each other cake demonstrate reliance on each other and support for their partner. The act of feeding cake, a frivolous food, also demonstrates prosperity in their marriage. Rhea has observed this tradition at weddings with couples of various ages and faiths.

Item:

The couple takes the knife in their hands, both holding it, and cut the first piece of the wedding cake. The remainder of the cake is typically cut and served by the caterer. They then each feed each other a piece of the cake, typically with their hands. This often results in a friendly mushing of cake into their spouse’s face, giving way to laughter and smiles.

Collector: Rebecca Conway

Note: This is a stock photo and was not provided by the informant.

Beer Pong (Colorado)

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IMG_1784

Regular Beer Pong(Jonah):

Informant Carter Akerfelds

Origin(Unknown) first played in Littleton. Colorado

 

  • Setup: Four players. Two teams of two.  Set the cups up in the following order in the following order on each side of the table. See picture. Fill cups up with beer.

 

How to play: To decide which team goes first. Each team picks a player and gives the player a ping pong ball. The players make eye contact and shoot the ball at the same time while making eye contact. First team to make the ball and other misses, The team that made the ball goes first. When throwing, make sure that the elbow is behind the end of the table. Toss the ball and attempt to make it in the cup. Take the ball out if it makes it.