General Information about Item:

• Genre: Gesture
• Place Collected: Hanover, NH
• Date Collected: November 14th, 2019
• Country of Origin: Japan
• Informant: Jack Burgess

Informant Data:

• Jack Burgess is a 21 year old, male student in the class of 2020 at Dartmouth College. He was born and raised in Arizona, and still lives there when not in school. When in sixth grade, Jack spent six months living in Japan and attended middle school there.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: Jack learned this gesture while attending middle school in Japan. He remembers girls in his band using it often to indicate an idea or behavior was not okay. He described the gesture as meaning, “That’s a no-no,” and said that it was primarily used when discussing a course of action to reject a suggestion. The common response to the gesture would be a sense of shame and backing down. Jack believes the gesture is universally understood in Japan, but primarily used by children of elementary school age.
• Cultural Context: Jack noted that when grading assignments, Japanese school teachers mark correct answers with an ‘o’ and incorrect answers with an ‘x’. Therefore, the ‘x’ symbol indicates someone has done something wrong outside of the context of this gesture.

Item:

• This gesture is performed by holding one’s arms out in front of one’s chest, bent at the elbow and crossing them so they meet at a 90 degree angle, resembling an X. The performer then taps their wrists together twice and accompanies the gesture by speaking the word “Dame”, which means “No” in Japanese.

Associated file:

Informant’s Comments: Given that the origins of this gesture stem from the significance the ‘x’ has due to its use in grading, it is especially interesting that the gesture is most popular among elementary school aged children, who are likely exposed to the ‘x’ as a negative symbol very often.

Collector’s Name: Sophie Byrne

Tags/Keywords:

• Gesture
• Japan