Category Archives: Rituals

Signing the Book

Title: Signing the Book

Information about Item:

  • Verbal and customary folklore
  • Informant: N.R.
  • Collected 5/26/2020

Informant Data:

N.R. is a member of the Class of 2020 at Dartmouth and is affiliated with Greek Life. He is from Illinois and studies Economics.

Contextual Data:

  • Verbal: “Signing the book” is the term given to literally signing a book at a particular fraternity.
  • Custom: By signing the book, a potential new fraternity member lets a house know that he is interested in rushing regardless of whether he shakes out or not.

Item: Potential new members of fraternity organizations sign a book to indicate their interest in joining.

Collector’s Comments:

This saying is similar to a shake out, which is a another way for potential new members to indicate their interest in joining a particular fraternity.

Collector’s Name: Sanjit Deepalam

Tags/Keywords:

  • Verbal folklore
  • Customary folklore
  • Ritual
  • Fraternity rush

Disinfecting After Work

Ritual
Disinfecting After Work

Ross Johnson
Chicago, Illinois
2020

Informant Data:
Ross Johnson is a Caucasian, middle-aged father of one who lives in Chicago, Illinois. He is the manager of a meat packing plant where he works Monday through Friday every week. Even when many businesses closed, his meat packing plant stayed open with social distancing measures in place. Having to go out five out of seven days a week, even in lieu of stay-at-home orders, there were concerns that he could become infected, or have the virus on his clothes and bring it home to his family. To prevent this to the best of his ability, he did his best to make sure that he was disinfected when he got home, before ever actually stepping foot into his house.

Contextual Data:
The global pandemic that has been plaguing our world since the beginning of the year has led to stay-at-home orders in almost every state, and social distancing restrictions across the globe. Many businesses were forced to close their doors for the time being, unless they were deemed essential. Ross Johnson’s meat packing plant was allowed to stay open as long as they took the appropriate measures such as wearing masks the entirety of the time and staying socially distanced.

Item:
Being able to continue working through the pandemic has been a real blessing, but also means that I have an increased risk of exposure to coronavirus. The last thing I want to do is accidentally bring it home with me and infect my wife or daughter, so whenever I get home I follow the same routine to make sure I’m completely clean and disinfected before going into my house. As soon as I get home from work, I stand in the garage while my wife sprays me down with industrial strength disinfectant. Then I leave my work clothes in the garage and go hop in the shower. After all of that I feel much more comfortable being around my family so I make sure that I follow this routine every single time I come home from work.

Isaac Hanover, 20
533 Homestead Drive
Lima, Ohio, 45807
Dartmouth College
RUSS 13
Spring 2020

Disinfecting Products from Stores

Ritual
Disinfecting Products from Stores

Jenni Jones
Kansas City, Missouri
2020

Informant Data:
Jenni Jones is a Caucasian mother of two. She lives in Kansas City, Missouri and does a significant amount of the grocery shopping for her family. With the recent coronavirus pandemic, she has become increasingly worried about inadvertently bringing the virus into her house via the items from the grocery store. She has concerns that the items could have been infected when shipped to the store, or by an infected person in the store coming into contact with the product. As a result, she has taken increased measures to ensure that the products she buys and brings into her house are clean.

Contextual Data:
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many restrictions have been placed upon the general public, such as social distancing measures and stay-at-home orders. However, people still need food and as a result, still must go grocery shopping. Concerns of infected products being brought into one’s home is quite high, so many people have begun making sure that they clean the products before bringing them into their homes with their families.

Item:
The coronavirus pandemic has been really scary. It’s really worrisome to realistically have no idea whether or not someone or something that you have come into contact with was infected with the virus. In an attempt to have peace of mind, and to help protect my family, we’ve started wiping down all of the things we buy at the store with disinfecting wipes in the garage before we bring them into the house. We also make sure to thoroughly wash any and all produce in the sink before putting it into the refrigerator. While it’s impossible to tell whether or not something is actually fully clean, it’s much more comforting knowing that we wiped everything down before it even got through the door.

Isaac Hanover, 20
533 Homestead Drive
Lima, Ohio, 45807
Dartmouth College
RUSS 13
Spring 2020

Disinfecting Routine

Ritual
Disinfecting Routine

Moe and Gene Austin
Cockeysville, Maryland
2020

Informant Data:
Moe and Gene Austin are an older, Native American couple who live in Cockeysville, Maryland with their two dogs. As a result of the global coronavirus pandemic, concerns of infection are high, and the worry that one of them might bring the infection into the house without knowing it is one of their greatest concerns. Moe is a nurse at the local hospital and Gene is a retired electrical engineer who still works on houses. Both of these jobs require that they leave the house almost every day which further increases their concerns.

Contextual Data:
Despite the stay-at-home orders in their state and social distancing requirements, the Austins must still leave the house and be in contact with many different people as a result of their professions. Especially with their contact with others, there is a great concern about bringing home the virus. Both Moe and Gene are in the age group that is most susceptible to the virus, so they are making sure they are fully disinfected while at home.

Item:
For people of our age group, the COVID-19 pandemic is not something that we can afford to take lightly. We worry a lot about bringing the virus home and infecting each other or the dogs now that dogs have tested positive for coronavirus. Whenever we go out, whether it’s for work or just something like shopping, we make sure that we, and all of our belongings, are disinfected to the best of our ability before interacting with each other or the dogs. Each time we get home, we go straight to the basement and expose our clothes and all of our other stuff like purses or groceries to UV light to thoroughly disinfect them and to put our minds at ease about bringing the virus into our home.

Isaac Hanover, 20
533 Homestead Drive
Lima, Ohio, 45807
Dartmouth College
RUSS 13
Spring 2020

Virtual Videogame Hangouts

Ritual
Virtual Videogame Hangouts

Neil Verma
Milton, Georgia
2020

Informant Data:
Neil Verma is an Indian-American male who lives in Milton, Georgia. He is currently a rising sophomore at Texas A&M university and studies computer engineering. He was supposed to be on campus during the Spring, but the coronavirus epidemic cut his time there short, so he is back home and has looked to other forms of entertainment in order to interact with his friends. He values his interactions with his friends, even if they are virtual, so these activities have become a daily routine for Neil.

Contextual Data:
Because of the coronavirus epidemic, many of the typical outdoor activities that many kids and teenagers alike enjoy have become impossible to do. As such, many kids have started relying on video games such as Call of Duty: Warzone to have fun and still interact with their friends. For many, these videogames have become daily parts of their lives, replacing the in-person interactions with safer online interactions.

Item:
Yeah… it definitely wasn’t ideal when I first heard I wouldn’t be able to go back to [Texas] A&M. As a freshman, I definitely felt like I had found my people and had gotten into the groove of college life. It’s great to be back home, but I still miss the new friends I’ve made in college. I know that I will see them at some point, but it’s still fun to interact with my friends by hopping on a [PS4] party with them. Pretty much every day now, I’ll get on [Call of Duty] Warzone with my friends from college and play a couple rounds with them, and I’ve found that even these virtual interactions can help me get through the difficulties of social distancing.

Aditya Choudhari, 20
12982 Waterside Drive
Milton, GA, 30004
Dartmouth College
RUSS 13
Spring 2020

Coronavirus Cleansing 2

Ritual
Coronavirus Cleansing
Shawn Jiang
San Ramon, California
2020

Informant Data:
Shawn is an Asian-American male born in San Ramon, CA on October 15, 2000. He’s currently a sophomore at the University of Chicago and considers himself well-read on coronavirus and the safety precautions he can take to mitigate risk.

Contextual Data:
As coronavirus has spread to the United States, families are taking a variety of precautions to mitigate the risk of spread. One point of access is through groceries, which pass through any number of potentially contaminated places or people. Some have adopted extra measures to clean groceries or to ensure a greater chance of elimination of the virus on their groceries.

Item: Shawn’s family leaves groceries in the garage for a couple of days after purchase. He hopes that this process kills any remnants of the virus on his groceries. This ritual therefore serves a practical purpose of safety.

Kevin Xiao, 19
5517 London Way
San Ramon, CA 94582
Dartmouth College
Russ 13
Spring 2020

Coronavirus Cleansing 1

Ritual
Coronavirus Cleansing
Maggie Johnston
St. Paul, Minnesota
2020

Informant Data:
Maggie Johnston is a white American female born on October 22, 1999 in Toronto, Canada. She currently lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. Maggie says that although she adheres to all government guidelines, she considers the threat of coronavirus to her or her family relatively minor; nevertheless, she adheres to a common ritual for packages ordered online to mitigate the risk of coronavirus. Maggie is a sophomore studying at Dartmouth College.

Contextual Data:
Partly because Minnesota has been more isolated from coronavirus than many other areas in the country and partly because Maggie’s father works as an eye surgeon who is already in contact with tens of patients a day, the risk of coronavirus is both reduced in the state—creating a culture of more lax protocols—and harder to mitigate in Maggie’s household.

Item: Maggie’s family leaves packages in a designated spot for a few days after receiving them to ensure they are cleansed of coronavirus. Like other variants, including leaving groceries in one’s garage for a period of time after purchase, this ritual serves the practical purpose of ensuring safety and cleanliness.

Kevin Xiao, 19
5517 London Way
San Ramon, CA 94582
Dartmouth College
Russ 13
Spring 2020

Sideline Cheer

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE ITEM:

  • Customary Lore – Ritual
  • Language: English
  • Country of origin: United States
  • Informant: Ariella Kovary
  • Date Collected: 11/10/19

INFORMANT DATA:

  • Ariella Y. Kovary is a former member of the Dartmouth Women’s Ultimate Frisbee Team, formerly known by its previous name, Princess Layout. She is a member of the class of 2020 and is majoring in history and psychology. She played frisbee recreationally in high school, and played on Dartmouth’s team during her entire freshman year and sophomore fall. Born on August 27, 1998, she is from Mineola, New York. 

CONTEXTUAL DATA:

  • Cultural Context: Sideline cheers and talk is an integral part of playing ultimate frisbee. Sideline cheers drive a lot of the energy on the field, pumping players up and helping them perform well and focus. Dartmouth Ultimate Frisbee has numerous sideline cheers that are creative, fun, silly, and unique.Many of them are centered around life at Dartmouth, pertaining to trees, Collis Pasta, and Webster Avenue and more. Additionally, sideline players also usually speak to the players on the field to help them gain more spatial awareness of the field and insight into what they should be doing during games. Overall, the sideline is a necessary part of a frisbee team; the players on the sideline play an essential role for the team.

 

  • Social Context: This ritual was documented in a one-on-one interview in Novack. Teams say cheers at practice and tournaments. They are a way for teams to demonstrate a united front against competition as well as energize themselves and teammates while playing frisbee. Teams are performed as a group, with all players saying the same words at the same time. Sometimes players will accompany cheers with physical dances, but that is not a necessary or integral part of the cheer.

ITEM: 

  • Sideline cheer

Recording:

TRANSCRIPT:

  • I guess when I first became part of the team and we were going to competitions and tournaments and things of that sort, I was not aware of what would go on if you’re not on the field. I thought it was a time just to relax and just like do homework. And I thought as a freshman that this was a great opportunity, even though I’m outside in the cold, I’ll just do my homework on the sidelines and be engaged partially. But I remember Angela Zhu, a ‘17, was like “oh no, everyone’s gotta get up on their feet and be rushing along the sidelines.” And I was like “but why, like why do we have to keep running along with the teammates that are on the field. They’re the ones who are playing and we’re not. It doesn’t make any sense.” But, in retrospect it did because the sideline engagement was like the encouragement as well as the enthusiasm for the players that were on the field. And I didn’t realize how much of a force that the people who didn’t play had on the people who did. And so its like a whole team engagement thing in which we’re shouting back and forth across the field to the other people that are on the sidelines and saying all these different sort of cheers , and we made up new ones, you know Kayliegh made that new one over spring break where you just say: “what time is it” and we’re all going back and forth saying “what time of the year is it? I don’t know. was it yesterday? Is it today?  Oh it’s spring break!” and then we all lift up our shirts and expose our bras and say it’s spring break. It’s so great that these cheers have caught on to other teams in which – I forgot which team it was but some other team we were playing even used one of our cheers and they even said our college’s name so it just shows the impact of the cheer itself and how much it not only inspires the people who are on the field, saying they have a support system, but also how much it is an engaging activity and a whole team bonding effort for everyone on the sidelines. It really created some sort of unity among everyone, and like, yes, there’s really great players that are gonna be on the field most of the time, compared to those who are not, or those who are novices in the frisbee world as I was myself. But overall it was a thing that brought the whole team together. They were fun, and they were quirky, and they were just like spontaneous and engaging. And whether you just lose your voice or you had to hydrate on water it was just like part of the spirit of Ultimate. And then, even though I left the team pretty early, one of the cheers will always remain with me, and that one is ‘P is for Party.’ So it goes like: “P is for party and A is for alright! R is ready and T is for tonight! Y is for you ‘cause you know what to do! Let’s Partyyyy! Don’t let your mama know you partyyyyy! That you go to Daaartmouth!” So considering that I’m now a senior and that was part of my freshman experience that really carried throughout my whole college career. So I’d say that sideline cheers are pretty important to the team as well as the players themselves.

INFORMANT’S COMMENTS:

  • “One of my favorite parts about Ultimate Frisbee was cheering on my Buddy, Caitlyn Lee.”

COLLECTOR’S COMMENTS: 

  • The sideline cheer is one of the most important aspects of a frisbee game. Team performance is truly impacted by the support on the sidelines. If teammates are being loud and cheering the players on well, the team plays better.

COLLECTOR’S NAME: 

  • Annett Gawerc and Luke Cuomo

Ski Patrol Initiation Ritual

Title: Ski Patrol Initiation Ritual

General Information about item:

  • Customary Lore, Initiation Ritual
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Anonymous
  • Date Collected: 11-5-19

Informant Data:

  • The informant would like to remain anonymous, but has shared that he is 19 years old and was born in Western America. He attends Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. As a first year student, he has just joined Ski Patrol. Skiing is a big part of his life and he skis often outside the college. He is a pre-health student. His love for skiing and hope to learn outdoor emergency care drove him to join Ski Patrol at Dartmouth College

Contextual Data:

  • Ski Patrol is a very tight knit community that needs to prepare its members for the team based rescues that will take place. This initiation ritual would occur the morning after ski patrol applicants are informed that they have been accepted into the organization. New members would be informed by email that they will have a fun time in the morning, but will not be given specifics. This ritual involves all members of Ski Patrol.

Item:

  • This ski patrol initiation ritual begins with a morning pickup. The upperclassmen on the team go to the new members dorms and wake them up at 5 AM. They tell them to put on a crazy costume, but do not give any other instructions about what is to come. Then, the new members are put into cars and are told that they will be driven to Canada, which is a lie. During the drive, the same song is played on repeat. The upperclassmen tell the new members that they will need to choreograph a dance to this song. About 10 minutes into the drive, the upperclassmen turn the car around and bring new members to a parking lot on campus. At this parking lot, the new members have 10 minutes to practice their dances. Then, the new members are driven to a random gas station parking lot. Here, all patrollers, both upperclassmen and new members, perform the songs they choreographed while standing in a circle. Finally, the upperclassmen buy the new members breakfast.

Transcript:

  • “For Ski Patrol, we did this fun thing when we first started where they [upperclassmen in ski patrol] came to our rooms and woke us up at 5 AM on Monday morning. We weren’t told where we were going and we put on crazy costumes so I was wearing a shark onesie. And then we got in a car and we were told we were driving to Canada, but about 10 minutes into the drive they turned around and brought us back to campus to a parking lot. They made us listen to the same song three times in a row in the car and told us we had to choreograph a dance. At the parking lot, we had about 10 minutes to practice our dance and so we practiced our dance in our animal onesies in the dark. And then we were driven somewhere else to a gas station where we then had to perform our dance in front of the rest of the patrollers, who were also creating a dance. And so we all stood in a big circle in a gas station parking lot and danced to our songs. And then they bought us breakfast”

Informant’s Comments:

  • Interpretation: “It’s a good activity to help people get to know each other as patrollers. We’re going to have to spend a lot of time with each other and be in high stress situations. We’re going to have to trust each other and be comfortable with each other in the future. So I thought it was just a funny thing where we have to do something kind of embarrassing in front of each other just so we can… it’s like bonding cause now we all saw each other do something silly”

Collector Comments:

  • Interpretation: I agree with the informant’s interpretation. New members most likely feel nervous joining Ski Patrol. The older members have known each other for a long time while the newer members are still getting used to college life. This initiation creates a common experience between all members of Ski Patrol before they engage in the high stress situations of the organization. It is meant to make members feel comfortable in Ski Patrol and encourage bonds between members. This ritual also exhibits characteristics of rites of passage. Driving away can be interpreted as a separation rite of passage because it symbolizes a separation from the general Dartmouth culture. Practicing the dance with other new members is the transition rite because it is a stage in between where one is not truly aggregated with the other patrollers but is still separated from non-patrollers. Dancing in a circle with all patrollers is the incorporation phase as both patrollers and new members are performing the same activity together. Furthermore, the circular shape symbolizes inclusion. Interestingly, many groups on campus have some version of this morning pick up initiation ritual.

Collector’s Name: Nisha Patel

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary lore
  • Initiation Ritual
  • Ski Patrol Initiation Ritual

Reverse Pong

Title: Reverse Pong

General Information about Item:

  • Type of Lore: Drinking Game
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: America (Tennessee)
  • Informant: Anonymous
  • Date Collected: May 24, 2019

 

Informant Data:

  • The anonymous informant was a member of the Dartmouth Math department. They learned this drinking game during their time at Vanderbilt University.

Contextual Data:

  • The informant went to a relatively typical American college – with many students going out on the weekends to fraternities to party and drink. It was at one of the fraternities, at Vanderbilt University, that the informant observed this game.

Item:

  • “Two teams, with each partner standing across the table from the other. You have to bounce the ball against first the table, then your partner, and they use their chest to redirect the ball into the cups in front of them. If they bounce it in a cup, the opponent on their side has to drink.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • “A different variant of pong that creates excitement by using one’s body as a significant part of the game”

Collector’s Comments:

  • This is yet another variant of pong – this time using one’s own body as a sort of paddle to hit the ball with.

Collector’s Name: Michael Steel

Tags/Keywords:

  • Ritual. Drinking Game.