General Information about Item:

• Genre: Gesture
• Place Collected: Video Call
• Date Collected: November 7th, 2019, 12:12 pm
• Country of Origin: Trinidad & Tobago
• Informant: Joy-Denise Burke

Informant Data:

• Joy-Denise Burke is my mother who was born and raised in Port of Spain, the capital city of Trinidad. It’s a small, third world country with a population of 1.37 million people, and is located in the Caribbean. She is of Indian descent, as her senior relatives migrated over from India. She moved to Canada at age 16 for school, where she studied art and psychology. She then moved back to Trinidad, then to Florida for graduate school, and finally ended up in New York for business school at NYU. She worked in New York after that, and then moved to Westchester, NY in 2002. Most of her family still lives in Trinidad, though, so she often visits.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: Joy-Denise first learned this gesture in elementary school, since her friends used it when it was time to go. She has since learned/noticed that the gesture can be used for several reasons. 1) it is considered impolite to disturb someone while they are talking, so this signal could be sent secretly behind the other person’s back, so the person in view of the signal sees that you are ready to go. 2) Trinidadians like to “fete” or party and play loud music, so it is a visual nonverbal sign which allows for minimal disruption of the party. 3) It can be used in an urgent situation, to support the idea that someone wants to leave right away. For example, if one’s kids are taking their time and a parent wants to stress the importance of leaving right away, then this would be a good sign to use.
• Cultural Context: Trinidad has a distinct culture that is influenced by the many races that came to the country over the centuries, specifically African, Indian, Portuguese, American Indian, Spanish, Chinese, and English. The island was discovered by Christopher Columbus, and remained under Spanish control until 1797 when Britain captured it. It didn’t gain full independence until 1962, so is a melting pot of races that has its own unique culture as well.

Item:

• This gesture means “let’s go now.” It is performed by slapping the back of one’s hand into the other to make a loud sound, and then pulling the arms apart. It varies by how hard you slap the back of your hand into the other and how far you extend your arms at the end- the harder and faster one slaps, the more urgent the need to depart. Also, this hand gesture could be accompanied by facial expressions to further accentuate the urgency. It is quite popular in Trinidad amongst all classes, races, genders, and ages.

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

Collector’s Comments (Interpretation): I think this gesture relates to Trinidad specifically because Trinidadians are very expressive in general, but they also have a lot of respect for their elders/family/people they are speaking to. They never want to come across as rude by interrupting someone and saying that they need to leave. It’s a good way to catch the other person’s attention right away, as it’s very visible, and can easily demonstrate how urgent the person wants to leave. It’s an excellent visual nonverbal gesture that stresses the importance of leaving. Also, Trinidad has a wild party scene, and is known for it’s party environment and night life, so it makes sense that some would use this when the music would be too loud to hear someone.

Collector’s Name: Bailey Burke

Tags/Keywords:

• Trinidad
• Gesture
• Let’s Go Now