Category Archives: Other

Dessert: Pandoro

General Information about Item:

  • Genre: Material Lore – dish; Customary Lore – celebration, family tradition
  • Language: English with some Italian
  • Country of Origin: Italy
  • Informant: M.P.S.
  • Date Collected: November 19, 2020

Informant Data:

  • M.P.S. is a 22-year-old senior studying Mathematics and Computer Science at Dartmouth College. She is half Canadian and half Italian, but she spent most of her life in England. As a young child, she spent some time living with her relatives in Italy, where she learned to speak basic Italian and became accustomed to many local traditions, especially ones related to food. She is non-religious but enjoys celebrating Christmas with her family.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context

  • In Italy, Christmas cakes, more accurately described as sweet breads, are traditional desserts eaten for Christmas celebrations. During the Middle Ages, only rich people could afford to eat white bread, and sweet bread was considered a luxury reserved for the nobility. Nowadays, they are much more affordable and extremely popular among Italian households. Most families purchase them at the store days or even weeks in advance, though some choose to bake their own at home.

Social Context

  • Christmas cake, as the name implies, is eaten on or around Christmas Day. Store-bought Christmas cake is often packaged in a beautiful paper container. Many families have their own rituals when it comes to unpackaging the Christmas cake and sharing the delicious contents within.

Item:

  • Pandoro, which translates to “golden bread,” is a type of traditional Italian Christmas cake that originates from Verona. It is a plain sweetbread dusted with vanilla-scented icing sugar that is well-known for its distinctive golden color, which signifies wealth. When viewed from above, the shape of Pandoro resembles an eight-pointed star, which symbolizes salvation and abundance from a Judeo-Christian perspective. When purchased from the store, Pandoro is nicely packaged with the icing sugar included in a plastic packet. For many families, the preparation of Pandoro is an entertaining ritual that typically takes place early Christmas morning: the whole sweetbread is placed in a plastic bag along with the powdery icing sugar. The plastic bag is then sealed and shaken vigorously until the cake is fully coated in icing sugar. Afterwards, the Pandoro is sliced and shared among the family. Unfortunately, Pandoro is difficult to find in the US. Many Italian American families prefer Panettone, a cupola-shaped Christmas cake from Milan that contains dried or candied fruits.

Image File:

Bauli Pandoro, a popular brand (Photo was taken by M.P.S. on November 30, 2020; she ordered the Pandoro from the store more than a month in advance)

Audio Clip:

 

Transcript:

M.P.S. (informant): So I eat this food, so my food is called a Pandoro. Am I meant to say that now?

W.W. (collector): Yeah, yeah.

M.P.S.: Okay, so my food is called a Pandoro. It’s basically a Italian Christmas bread, cake type food. And it is my favorite food of all time. I love it so much. I’ve eaten it every Christmas since I was a baby. Either if I was in Italy, that Christmas, or if I was in England, which is where I live. And this is basically a type of kind of big, fluffy yellow cake that you can eat around Christmas time. I don’t know if there’s any specific rules. But typically, my family we wait until Christmas day to open it. We buy it from the store, we don’t make them ourselves. And one of the fun-est things about them is that you take the icing sugar, and you mix it into, into this kind of plastic bag, and you put the whole cake in the plastic bag, and you shake it around until the cake is coated and icing sugar. So that’s kind of like the ritualistic element every Christmas morning. So the first thing we do is open the Pandoro and shake it up so that it’s ready to eat at lunchtime.

W.W.: Great. And the tradition that you just mentioned is something that you only do with your family, or is this a common thing for Italian families to do?

M.P.S.: Well, a lot of Italians eat Pandoro at Christmas. And I mean, you typically, when you buy them, they’ll come with a packet of icing sugar and a plastic bag in the box ready for you to do, so I think lots of Italian families do shake it up together. It’s kind of like celebratory, although I don’t know whether or not it’s specifically like on Christmas Day or just around the time. And some people obviously make them themselves. They home-make.

W.W.: So you mentioned Pandoro is Italian Christmas cake. Could you talk a little bit about how it’s, like what’s special about the cake? Um, like for example, like the shape, the way it’s made.

M.P.S.: So it’s kind of shaped like a Christmas tree, and it’s really tall. So like from the top it looks like a star which is really nice and Christmas-y and it’s made it’s pretty simple. The ingredients, I’m pretty sure just butter, sugar, flour, eggs, or I’m not even sure I don’t think there’s eggs actually. Um, and it’s originally like bread. So it’s Pandoro, which means like bread, gold bread, right, “pan” is bread, and “d’oro” is gold. So it’s like meant to be very like yellow, yellowy. So that’s kind of what makes it stand out. There’s another Christmas cake called Panettone which is similar and maybe more commonly found, like in America, or I’ve seen it more often like, in places like Starbucks and things, and this has got fruits and stuff in it. But Pandora is typically like plain, and you’re just eating it with sugar. Some people like prepare it different ways. I like to dip it in milk. I think it’s really delicious.

Informant’s Comments:

  • If you haven’t tried Pandoro before, I highly recommend you try it. It’s so good. It doesn’t seem like it should be that good because it’s just bready sponge cake. But it is. There is something about it and the flavor. That makes it my favorite thing about Christmas time. It’s so delicious. And if you try it, you shouldn’t put whipped cream or ice cream or chocolate on top. Just eat it like is meant to be eaten, at least for the first time, so you get the proper experience because I feel like it’s got such a delicate flavor.

Collector’s Comments:

  • Fortunately, I was able to try Pandoro in my freshman year of college. It tastes absolutely amazing, and the experience was one of the highlights of my winter term. I really enjoyed learning about the informant’s lovely family tradition on Christmas morning where they prepare the Pandoro together. I didn’t know food preparation could be so fun!

Collector’s Name: Winston Wang

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Entrée: Tamales

General Information about Item:

  • Genre: Material Lore – traditional dish; Customary Lore – celebration
  • Language: Spanish
  • Country of Origin: Mexico
  • Informant: G.P.
  • Date Collected: November 7, 2020

Informant Data:

  • G.P. is a ~60 year old woman living in New Jersey. She was born in Tlaxcala, Mexico and has spent over 20 years in the United States, where she lives with two of her siblings and, up until they started university, her two nephews and niece. In the US, her family usually celebrates Christmas by inviting over more family members, preparing food, and partaking in some traditions with respect to her religion.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: You will most likely find tamales anytime you go to a Mexican restaurant, but when a family makes them at home, the dish has more meaning. Tamales are more of a work of art, and the process is very special. There is a general belief that emotions tied to cooking are passed on to the resulting dish, which is an example of the law of similarity, like produces like. This is doubly so for tamales. The process involves washing one of your hands and arm and mixing the batter until everything is well integrated. This direct physical contact with the ingredients makes it really important for the chef to remain happy and excited. To remedy the annoyance of beating the mixture for long periods of time, people switch places.
  • Social Context: Eating and making tamales is something that’s usually done as a group due to the grueling work that goes into it. The easier parts are prepping the salsas, meats and/or cheese, and chile pepper slices. The hard part is beating the batter and making the tamales, so usually family and friends gather to form them in the leaves.

Item:

The recipe is somewhat complex, so it’ll be split into several parts

  • The sauce:
    • Tomatillo Sauce (Green): Peel tomatillos and keep the peels for the batter. Grill tomatillos and green chile peppers (jalapeños or chile de arbol), then peel the scorched parts off, and blend with water, garlic and onion. Afterwards, heat up some oil in a pot, then fry the sauce in it, and leave to boil.
    • Tomato Sauce (Red): Wash, cut, and deseed a lot of tomatoes, then blend. Slice some onion and fry until it becomes clear but before it starts browning. Add the sauce and water, so it isn’t too viscous. Add about two stems of epazote and salt to taste, then leave to boil.
  • The batter requires a very large pot. You’ll have to boil tomatillo peels with some anise. Then, you’ll need to mix flour for tamales, salt, a bit of baking soda and baking powder, about a liter of oil per bag of flour, chicken stock, and the stock from the tomatillo peels after being strained through a colander. Then, you must mix everything by hand, add salt, mix again, and let the contents sit for an hour.
  • Once the sauce and batter are done you can begin forming tamales by using corn husk leaves or banana leaves. Add batter, your choice of salsa, raw chicken pieces, cheese, and/or green chile pepper slices. Wrap them up so they don’t leak, and continue. Once you have a good bit of tamales, you’ll need a special pot with two sections separated by a metal plate with holes for steam since tamales are vapor-cooked. The bottom section is filled with water, and the top section is stacked with tamales until the top of the pot is reached. Then, cover everything with a moist cloth, plastic bag, and pot top. Let the contents slow cook for 2.5 hours, and they’re done, becoming more solid as they coo).

Translation:

C.Y. (collector): Wow tamales take a while to make, why do you choose to make them?

G.P. (informant): Well I don’t make them for fun let me tell you that. I usually only make them when I can get help from my nephews and nieces, because it takes a long time, and as you probably know, getting angry is only going to make the process longer.

C.Y.: Oooh yea, I know about that. I remember my uncle threw away a whole meal because I was really angry as I helped him. Man, I was so disappointed in myself after that.

G.P.: Yea it’s really important. It helps in adding a bit of the human spirit into the mix, otherwise you’d just be able to use a machine, but I don’t think they come out as well.

Collector’s Comments:

  • Tamales are really something else in the food world. When I was younger, I used to get mad at being woken up at 6am to beat the batter, but, as I got older, I realized the payoff was worth it and was much happier to help. To date, the longest I’ve gone only having tamales for breakfast, lunch, and dinner was around a week.

Collector’s Name: Carlos Yepes

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House Families

Title: House Families

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore
  • Informant: R.C. ’22
  • Date Collected: 05/19/2020

Informant Data:

  • R.C. is a male student at Dartmouth College. He is affiliated.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Families are small units of close individuals. The adoption of this technique into fraternity culture serves a similar purpose.
  • Social Context: House families are smaller groups in the house new members are sorted in to. These act as smaller and closer social groups for the new members in the house.

Item:

  • This specific fraternity gives its new members “families” within its members. These families consist of one to two new members and a handful of older members to serve as a resource during and after the rush process.

Collector’s Comments:

  • I found these families to be an interesting and useful way to help new members during the rush process. They stay families for life, long after active membership in the fraternity ends. In this specific example, the family the informant was in was easily dated back to Dartmouth alumni from 2014.

Collector’s Name: Charlie Wade

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Lore
  • Family
  • Social

Frisbee Formal

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE ITEM:

  • Customary Lore – Tradition
  • Language: English
  • Country of origin: United States
  • Informant: Hannah Marr
  • Date Collected: 11/16/19

INFORMANT DATA:

  • Hannah Marr is a captain of the Dartmouth Womxn’s Utimate Frisbee Team, known as Dartmouth Daybreak. She has been on the team, previously known as Princess Layout, since her freshman year. Born on November 24, 1997, she is from Falmouth, Maine. Hannah is a member of the Dartmouth Class of 2020. She has been playing Frisbee since high school and continued to when she came to Dartmouth.

CONTEXTUAL DATA:

  • Cultural Context: Frisbee Formal is an event that occurs during the winter term. Underclassmen must ask upperclassmen from a different team to formal in a creative way and send the formal invite to all of SPEW. In return the upperclassmen must respond in a similar fashion to all of SPEW. Frisbee formal is held at an undisclosed location where individuals chat and dance. A theme is announced ahead of time and people usually dress in “flair,” which is a colloquial term applied to fun, costume-like clothing, in accordance with the theme. 
  • Social Context: This interview was conducted off campus in person. Frisbee formal allows individuals an opportunity to meet players from other teams and socialize in a different environment and usual for frisbee. Often times underclassmen do not know the upperclassmen they ask to formal. Formal is also a time when the men’s and women’s teams are mixed together, even though they play seperately. Formal is a fun event where people socialize and meet other people in the program.

ITEM: 

  • Formal

TRANSCRIPT:

  • “Frisbee formal is a really fun tradition that the frisbee program has. How it works is that underclassmen make really funny videos, whether it be a parody of a song, a dance that they’re doing or a little skit and they send the videos out via our listserv [SPEW] asking upperclassmen to the formal. Upperclassmen when they’re asked to respond with a similar fun video whether it be a song response or anything, and they’ll respond to the underclassmen. Everyone always says yes and it culminates with everyone going to a themed dance and where we all wear flair and dress up and have an awesome time. It’s a really great tradition that frisbee has. Frisbee formal is a really great way by which underclassmen get to feel comfortable around upperclassmen and the whole community gets to know each other better.”

 

INFORMANT’S COMMENTS:

  • “I always look forward to seeing all the invites and responses that get sent out on SPEW!”

 

COLLECTOR’S COMMENTS: 

  • Frisbee formal can be seen as a form of a rite of passage because attendees are usually invited or have invited someone else to attend. The asking and response process is lengthy and often takes a lot of preparation. Additionally, at this event, it is likely that you will meet new individuals from other teams within the program, which could be interpreted as a part of incorporating new members into the community. 

COLLECTOR’S NAME: 

  • Luke Cuomo & Annett Gawerc

Psychotic Seed Award

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE ITEM:

  • Customary Lore – Tradition
  • Language: English
  • Country of origin: United States
  • Informant: Avery Feingold
  • Date Collected: 11/15/19

INFORMANT DATA:

  • Avery Feingold is a former captain of the men’s frisbee B team, Discomfort Trolley, and is a former member of PainTrain, the men’s A team. He is a member of the Dartmouth Class of 2017. Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he now resides there post-graduation. He was born on September 25, 1995.

CONTEXTUAL DATA:

  • Cultural Context: The Psychotic Seed Award is an award given out to members of the freshman class from each team during the fall and spring terms at frisgiving (Frisbee thanksgiving) and banquet, respectively. It is awarded to individuals that exemplify the certain values of the team, including friendliness, positivity, and the warmth. The award is given in remembrance of and in honor of a former frisbee player nicknames “Townie,” who sadly passed away during his time at Dartmouth.

 

  • Social Context: This ritual was documented during a virtual interview. The award is presented in front of the entire frisbee team membership. Each term when the award is given, all previous recipients are asked to rise. This allows others to see the number of individuals who have previously received this award and fosters a sense of unity by demonstrating the amount of positivity and warmth that has been cultivated throughout the years of Dartmouth Ultimate Frisbee. 

 

ITEM: 

  • Psychotic Seed Award

TRANSCRIPT:

  • “There was a boy who played on the Dartmouth ultimate team in the 1990s who got to know everyone in Hanover so well that even though he was from Iowa, he was named “Townie” by the Dartmouth Ultimate team and that name stuck and became how he introduced himself to new freshmen when he was a senior. But when Townie was a senior he got brain cancer and died very shortly thereafter, so dartmouth ultimate, in his memory, every year gives out an award called the Psychotic Seed Award named after the sunflower seeds that Townie used to chew. It’s awarded to a rookie player from each team that exemplifies the friendliness, positivity, and the warmth that we want to embody on Dartmouth Ultimate.”

INFORMANT’S COMMENTS:

  • The informant did not provide any further comment.

COLLECTOR’S COMMENTS: 

  • The Psychotic Seed Award is one of the best parts of the frisbee program, seeing as it recognizes the good naturedness of the program members. However, at the same time is always a somewhat solemn thought in remembrance of the award’s namesake. Overall, this award strikes a good balance at recognizing and remembering the positive aspects of the frisbee program’s past and present.

COLLECTOR’S NAME: 

  • Luke Cuomo and Annett Gawerc

Team Dinner

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE ITEM:

  • Customary Folklore – Tradition
  • Language: English
  • Country of origin: United States
  • Informant: Ruby
  • Date Collected: 11/10/19

INFORMANT DATA:

  • Ruby is a new member of the Dartmouth Women’s Ultimate Frisbee Team, Dartmouth Daybreak, formerly known as Princess Layout. She is a member of the class of 2023 and intends to major in Geography. She played frisbee extensively in in high school on her school’s frisbee team, and she knew that she wanted to continue playing frisbee at Dartmouth. Born on November 6, 2000, she is from Shanghai, China. 

CONTEXTUAL DATA:

  • Cultural Context: Team dinner happens every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday  in both fall and spring term after practice. In the winter team dinner is often before evening practice. This is a time when the program gets together in upstairs FoCo and dines together. There are traditions incorporated during this meal time as well, for example, it is common for individuals to “rosham,”  commonly known as rock, paper, scissors, for who has to take down all the dirty plates. But mostly, team dinner is an unstructured meal where members chat about whatever is on their mind.

 

  • Social Context: This ritual was documented in a one-on-one interview in Novack. The frisbee program bonds over team dinners, where topics can range from program activities and frisbee to anything under the sun. Most team members will show up for team dinner, resulting in a crowd of two dozen often times. Sitting together in upstairs FoCo is a great way for team members to become more familiar with each other, and also allows for new members to have the chance to chat with the group in a calm environment, as opposed to practices or game time.

ITEM: 

  • International Comparison – Team Dinner

Recording:

TRANSCRIPT:

  • “So, I have played three years on my high school team, and it was in a completely different cultural setting than Dartmouth. It was a high school mixed [gender] team. Transforming from my high school frisbee experience to Dartmouth, I found one significant similarity that we share, like my high school team and the Dartmouth Ultimate team. And it is that we spend a lot of time together eating meals. We used to eat meals after every tournament [in high school] and there was a specific restaurant that we’d always go to when we finished every tournament. It was kind of like a celebration and we just had a really fun time there. And I feel like its very similar to what we have now on the Dartmouth Frisbee team because we have team dinner after every practice.”

INFORMANT’S COMMENTS:

  • “I have been able to meet more people in the program through team dinner.”

COLLECTOR’S COMMENTS: 

  • Across cultures, we have found that team dinners are a commonality between Ultimate Frisbee teams. Both Ruby’s frisbee experience in high school in China and Dartmouth’s frisbee program have a very similar team dinner tradition. Ultimate Frisbee is a sport that relies on team dynamics for good performance, and this intricate dynamic is fostered over time. Traditional team dinners serve as an additional avenue for teams to foster this sense of community. The similarities between these two frisbee experiences is particularly notable because of the wide sociopolitical and cultural differences between Shanghai and Hanover.

COLLECTOR’S NAME: 

  • Luke Cuomo and Annett Gawerc

Bequests

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE ITEM:

  • Customary Folklore – Tradition
  • Language: English
  • Country of origin: United States
  • Informant: Alec Miller
  • Date Collected: 11/10/19

INFORMANT DATA:

  • Alec Miller is an active member of Dartmouth Men’s Ultimate Frisbee Team, known by its name, Pain Train and has been a Dartmouth Ultimate Frisbee community member for three years. He is a member of the class of 2021 and is a Government major. He started playing frisbee in high school, but improved significantly in college. Born on May 10, 1999, he is from Philadelphia, PA. His favorite frisbee throwing technique is the low release backhand.

CONTEXTUAL DATA:

  • Cultural Context: Bequests, or bequesting, is the act of passing down treasured items from one team member to a younger member. Bequests occur at Banquet each year. Banquet marks the official end to the year as a frisbee program, and all of the seniors who have been bequested items over the years now have to bequest them down so that they stay within the frisbee program. There are some items that have been in the program for many, many years: since the 1990s and earlier. Bequested items can consist of a number of things, including non-physical items, such as the title of “SPEW OVERLORD”, and physical items, most commonly flair. Each item is passed down and has each previous owner’s name and year associated with it, usually written on the item itself; this forms a sort of lineage of people that the item has been passed down from.

 

  • Social Context: This ritual was documented in a one-on-one interview in Novack. Bequests are given to individuals in the program that have developed a relationship with the bequester over their time at Dartmouth and within the Ultimate Frisbee Community. Items are usually bequested after the bequester has said a few (or a lot of) words in front of a group about what the item or previous owner has meant to them and what the recipient of the bequest means to them or why they feel the recipient should be the new owner. This fosters a sense of community within the program.

ITEM: 

  • Bequests

Recording:

TRANSCRIPT:

  • “Bequests are pretty much – some important, some not as important – but it’s all the stuff that’s been part of the frisbee program from the past couple of years and some for a very long time. So at the end of the year we have a program banquet where the teams get together in a cabin or somewhere where we’re all together and that is when bequests are handed down. There are multiple rounds. The first round is giving away most of their stuff but its stuff that doesn’t have much personal meaning to them.t could be random flair and stuff like that. Then there is, in between that round and the last round it’s called side bequests. That’s pretty much when someone wants to give something to someone but it’s usually more personal stuff that they just wanted to have a moment with the person to hand something down and don’t really feel the need to publicize it to the program. This stuff is usually not as related to the frisbee program but it’s more of a personal gift from the person. And then the last round is the more personal stuff, I guess you could call it the more important stuff to the frisbee program which gets handed down. The last round is definitely more emotional than the first one because it’s just like people giving up stuff that is very important to them to people who are important to them. And, in the first round it’s people giving away a lot of their stuff that they don’t really have a connection to whereas in the last one its people giving away four or five things that they care a lot about and talking about the importance of the item has to them and the importance the person has to them and why they’re giving it to them.”

 

INFORMANT’S COMMENTS:

  • “Banquet is the most important event of the year outside of playing”

 

COLLECTOR’S COMMENTS: 

  • Bequests are some of the most cherished items many Dartmouth students own and are kind of sacred. Bequested items never to be lost and should be preserved as best as possible. New items can become part of a bequest chain if they have enough significance to a single team member or the whole team itself, or if an item is particularly unique or one of a kind.

 

COLLECTOR’S NAME: 

  • Luke Cuomo and Annett Gawerc

Watch the Fire

General Information about Item:

  • Customary, Practical Joke
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Claire Azar
  • Date Collected: This data was collected during a one-on-one interview in the library of Dartmouth College with Claire Azar on October 30th, 2018.

Informant Data:

  • Claire Azar ‘22 is a female student studying Chinese at Dartmouth College. She is originally from Indianapolis, and recently moved to Washington DC. Malcolm participated in a canoeing trip before the start of his Freshman year at Dartmouth as part of the First Year Trips DOC program. At Dartmouth, she is part of the Equestrian Team.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
  • Claire encountered this joke, which is specific to the cabin camping section of trips, when she was a tripee during August of 2017.
  • This joke is typically played by upperclassmen or students leading trips on their first-year tripees. As the objects of the prank, the new freshmen are supposed to be initiated and bonded together as a new class by going through the embarrassment of this prank together.
  • Cultural Context
  • This joke occurs on first-year trips, which close to 95% of every incoming class at Dartmouth College participates in. Trips are used as a way to welcome each new class to Dartmouth and to break down whatever misconceptions they might have. Accordingly, jokes on trips are used often as they offer a great way to subvert expectations and to make everyone have a good time. Typically, the practical joke is played once the members of the trip and the leaders have left Dartmouth’s campus and are together somewhere in the surrounding wilderness of New Hampshire/Vermont. In this way, practical jokes like this one are very common to the Trips setting as they serve to bring everyone closer together through group humiliation/embarrassment.

Item:

  • During the cabin camping section each year, Trip leaders will light a fire outside the cabin This is supposed to be used to cook food such as soup and mac-cheese.  The wilderness area where trip sections go is isolated and lacks a kitchen to cook food.  On the last night, her trip was instructed to keep the fire going while the leaders went to collect more wood. Her trippees enjoined bonding over the fire,  while looking after the fire, however, here trippees were getting worried after a few hours. Suddenly, her leaders returned, carrying with them Dominos pizza.

 

Transcript:

  • Gordon: Hi I’m here today with Claire and we’re going to talk about her trip.
  • Claire: Hi ok, so on the third day of our trip we just finished a lot of hiking. And it started to downpour and our trip leaders told us they were going to get more firewood.
  • Gordon: So what happened after that?
  • Claire: We kept ourselves busy for four hours and so to keep ourselves occupied we played we loved playing this game of Mafia.
  • Gordon: Did they give you any tasks to do while they were gone?
  • Claire: Oh, yeah, they wanted us to keep the fire going but like they were gone for a really long time. We started to get really concerned because it was dark out and it was raining and then you guys still kept the fire going we did we did what we were supposed to do and then then we like heard some like banging on the outside of the cabin and we like got really freaked out because we didn’t we had no idea what was going on and then it like stop for a little bit and then it was our trip leaders and they had gotten Domino’s pizza for us.
  • Gordon: So they really got you guys.
  • Claire: They did we were really freaked out. We were worried that they like died or something.

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

Informant’s Comments:

  • “It was a great experience, even with the rain our group really enjoyed talking and looking after the fire.”

 

Collectors’ Comments:

  • This prank seems like another example of trips leaders making the trippees work together and go through a tough or humiliating experience together. These are great way of integrating them into the wider Dartmouth community.

Collector’s Name: Gordon Robinson

Tags/Keywords:

  • Joke. Pranks. Practical Jokes. Trips. Dartmouth.

Face Place

General Information about Item:

  • Customary, Practical Joke
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Jack Kinney
  • Date Collected: This data was collected during a one-on-one interview in the library of Dartmouth College with Jack Kinney on October 28th, 2018.

Informant Data:

  • Jack Kinney ‘19 is a male student studying Environmental Science and Geography at Dartmouth College. He is originally from Seattle Washington. Jack participated in a hiking trip before the start of his Freshman year at Dartmouth as part of the First Year Trips DOC program. Since then, he has led trips every year.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
  • Jack Kinney encountered this joke, during this own trip. Later he has made played joke himself on each of his trips.
  • This joke is typically played by upperclassmen or students leading trips on their first-year tripees. As the objects of the prank, the new freshmen are supposed to be initiated and bonded together as a new class by going through the embarrassment of this prank together.
  • Cultural Context
  • This joke occurs on first-year trips, which close to 95% of every incoming class at Dartmouth College participates in. Trips are used as a way to welcome each new class to Dartmouth and to break down whatever misconceptions they might have. Accordingly, jokes on trips are used often as they offer a great way to subvert expectations and to make everyone have a good time. Typically, the practical joke is played once the members of the trip and the leaders have left Dartmouth’s campus and are together somewhere in the surrounding wilderness of New Hampshire/Vermont. In this way, practical jokes like this one are very common to the Trips setting as they serve to bring everyone closer together through group humiliation/embarrassment.

Item:

  • During First Year Trips each year, Trip leaders will talk to their Trippees about Dartmouth traditions and way of life. Since Trips is the first introduction to Dartmouth for many of students, they are eager to learn from them. Trip leaders will share many parts of Dartmouth folklore and slang with their trips to integrate them into the Dartmouth community.

Transcript:

  • Gordon: Hi Jack, could you talk a little bit about yourself and your time with the Dartmouth Trips?
  • Jack: Yeah, so I’m Jack Kinney am a senior at Dartmouth and have been involved with Trips either a trippees or a leader my entire time here.
  • Gordon: What kind of pranks were played on you, and did you do any on your trips?
  • Jack: I thoroughly enjoyed Trips. They were one of the best experiences I had here at Dartmouth, I wanted to share this same experience with future students. One of my favourites jokes was this one about Dartmouth lingo.
  • Gordon: Nice, what was it?
  • Jack: Well, while we told them about all the different slangs we have we told also gave them some wrong ones. For example, we told them that First Floor Berry was called “Faceplace” by Dartmouth students.
  • Gordon: Great, so what happened?
  • Jack: When they got to campus, they were confused about what we meant. It was funny hearing them talk about  Faceplace.
  • Gordon: Thank you sounds, like a great joke.

Informant’s Comments:

  • “I remember when this same joke happened on my trip. It was the I liked the most. Some of our trippees actually still talked about Faceplace as their one inside joke.”

 

Collectors’ Comments:

  • This prank wasn’t played on my trip. However, I heard about it from friends from went on other trips. I think that it’s a great way to introduce students to Dartmouth folklore and slang.

Collector’s Name: Gordon Robinson

Tags/Keywords:

  • Joke. Pranks. Practical Jokes. Trips. Dartmouth.

Fake Emergency

General Information about Item:

  • Customary, Practical Joke
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Malcolm Robinson
  • Date Collected: This data was collected during a one-on-one interview in the library of Dartmouth College with Malcolm Robinson on October 28th, 2018.

Informant Data:

  • Malcolm Robinson ‘22 is a male student studying Russian Area Studies and Geography at Dartmouth College. He is originally from London. Malcolm participated in a canoeing trip before the start of his Freshman year at Dartmouth as part of the First Year Trips DOC program. He has 2 older brothers (Austin Robinson ‘19 and Gordon Robinson 21′), who attend Dartmouth, but Trips were his first true introduction to life as a Dartmouth student.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
  • Malcolm encountered this joke, which is not specific to the caneoing section of trips and is actually quite common when he was a tripee during August of 2017.
  • This joke is typically played by upperclassmen or students leading trips on their first-year tripees. As the objects of the prank, the new freshmen are supposed to be initiated and bonded together as a new class by going through the embarrassment of this prank together.
  • Cultural Context
  • This joke occurs on first-year trips, which close to 95% of every incoming class at Dartmouth College participates in. Trips are used as a way to welcome each new class to Dartmouth and to break down whatever misconceptions they might have. Accordingly, jokes on trips are used often as they offer a great way to subvert expectations and to make everyone have a good time. Typically, the practical joke is played once the members of the trip and the leaders have left Dartmouth’s campus and are together somewhere in the surrounding wilderness of New Hampshire/Vermont. In this way, practical jokes like this one are very common to the Trips setting as they serve to bring everyone closer together through group humiliation/embarrassment.

Item:

  • During First Year Trips each year, Trip leaders carry a first aid kit for an emergency.  This is because the College Grant, the wilderness area where trip sections go is very isolated area several hours from the College and any serious medical care.  Trip leaders inform their trippees of the importance of helping each other if one has an accident. At a certain point during the Trip, one of the leaders will pretend they are having a medical emergency. They will tell their trippes that they need to find the first aid kit and help the leader. When the trippees find the kit they will open it, where they will see a pie from Lou’s. This local eatery in Hanover, is a student favorite.

 

Transcript:

  • Gordon: Hi Malcolm, great to be with you again, as you mentioned in our last conversation your leaders played multiple pranks on you guys?
  • Malcolm: Yeah, so besides the Robert Frost Ashe’s they also played this other joke on us..
  • Gordon: Great, so could you tell me a little bit about that joke?
  • Malcolm: Yeah so my trip leaders were great and liked playing jokes on us. After Robert Frost’s ashes, they had another joke for us. One day while we unloading the canoe one of our leaders pretended to have an asthma attack. The other one told us to quickly find the emergency kit in their bag, while he called for help on his phone.
  • Gordon: What happened?
  • Malcolm: My friend quickly found and we all opened it. Instead of a medical kit, we saw a box from Lou’s. I looked inside and there was a cherry pie from Lou’s. We realized that it was all a joke.
  • Gordon: What a great joke!

Informant’s Comments:

  • “We were all worried for a little. When we saw the box from Lou’s, we all started to laugh. Eating the pie was great, especially after the bland food we on the trip so far.”

 

Collectors’ Comments:

  • This prank is a great way to reinforce how everybody on the trip must work together. Lou’s is also a favorite of Dartmouth students, and this is a great way to introduce people to this great local institution.

Collector’s Name: Gordon Robinson

Tags/Keywords:

  • Joke. Pranks. Practical Jokes. Trips. Dartmouth.