Category Archives: Other

Traditional Chinese Meal

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Title: Traditional Chinese Meal

General Information about Item:

  • Genre and Sub Genre: Familial Folklore
  • Language: English
  • Country where Item is from: China

Informant Data:

  • Marshall Peng provided us with what his family eats every year for Christmas Dinner. He is 19 years old, currently a ’20 at Dartmouth College and lives in Wisconsin. Both his parents originate from China. Tyler’s family practices Christianity.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context: On large holidays families typically have a traditional meal that they will make for that holiday. Christmas is no exception as all of the people we interviewed spoke about a traditional meal that they have every Christmas.
  • Cultural Context: Steamed Dumplings is a very popular Chinese dish. Marshall’s parents are both from China and they brought this traditional meal to the U.S. and incorporated with their celebration of Christmas.

Item:

  • His mother makes his favorite meal, steamed dumplings. She makes this every single year and he has eaten it every Christmas he can remember. It is traditionally a Chinese New Year dish but his mother makes it for Christmas.

Collector’s Name: Clay Chatham

Tags/Keywords:

  • Food, Tradition, Christmas,

Traditional Jamaican Meal

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Title: Traditional Jamaican Meal

General Information about Item:

  • Genre and Sub Genre: Familial Folklore
  • Language: English
  • Country where Item is from: Jamaica

Informant Data:

  • Tyler Neath provided us with what his family eats every year for Christmas Dinner. He is 19 years old, currently a ’21 at Dartmouth College and lives in Jamaica. Both his parents originate from Jamaica. Tyler’s family practices Christianity

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context: On large holidays families typically have a traditional meal that they will make for that holiday. Christmas is no exception as all of the people we interviewed spoke about a traditional meal that they have every Christmas.
  • Cultural Context: Jerk chicken, cormeny porridge. This is a very popular dish Jamaica.  Tyler and his parents are from Jamaica and they make this meal at home to celebrate Christmas.

Item:

  • His mother makes his favorite meal, Jerk chicken and cormeny porridge for Christmas dinner. She makes this every single year and he has eaten it every Christmas he can remember.

Collector’s Name: Clay Chatham

Tags/Keywords:

  • Food, Tradition, Christmas,

Traditional American Meal 1

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Title: Traditional American Meal 1

General Information about Item:

  • Genre and Sub Genre: Familial Folklore
  • Language: English
  • Country where Item is from: United States

Informant Data:

  • Austen Michel provided us with what his family eats every year for Christmas Dinner. He is 20 years old, currently a ’20 at Dartmouth College and lives in Boston Massachusetts. Both his parents are from America. His father is from Boston and mother is from Louisiana. They practice Christianity.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context: On large holidays families typically have a traditional meal that they will make for that holiday. Christmas is no exception as all of the people we interviewed spoke about a traditional meal that they have every Christmas.
  • Cultural Context: Eating Chinese food for Christmas dinner is common with families practicing judaism.  This is largely due to the fact that most restaurants close down for the holidays, but those who do not celebrate Christmas remain open.

Item:

  • His family goes to a Chinese restaurant for Christmas dinner. They do this every single year for Christmas.

Collector’s Name: Clay Chatham

Tags/Keywords:

  • Food, Tradition, Christmas,

Traditional Greek Meal

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Title: Traditional Greek Meal

General Information about Item:

  • Genre and Sub Genre: Familial Folklore
  • Language: English
  • Country where Item is from: Greece

Informant Data:

  • Katherine Spanos provided us with what her family eats every year for Christmas. She is 19 years old, currently a ’20 at Dartmouth College and lives in Hummelstown Pennsylvania. Her father is from Greece and her mother is from the USA. Her family practices Greek Orthodoxy

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context: On large holidays families typically have a traditional meal that they will make for that holiday. Christmas is no exception as all of the people we interviewed spoke about a traditional meal that they have every Christmas.
  • Cultural Context: Pastitsio is a very popular Greek dish. Katherine’s father is from Greece and brought this traditional meal to America. Her father makes this dish for her family to celebrate Christmas

Item:

  • Her father makes her favorite Greek dish, Pastitsio, for Christmas Dinner. He makes this every single year and she has eaten it every Christmas she can remember

 

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

Collector’s Name: Clay Chatham

Tags/Keywords:

  • Greek, Food, Tradition, Christmas

Traditional Indian Christmas Meal

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Title: Traditional Indian Christmas Meal

General Information about Item:

  • Genre and Sub Genre: Familial Folklore
  • Language: English
  • Country where Item is from: India

Informant Data:

  • Sai Davuluri provided us with what his family eats every year for Christmas Dinner. He is 18 years old, currently a ’21 at Dartmouth College and lives in Merced California. Both his parents originate from Central/South India. Sai’s family practices Hinduism and does celebrate Christmas.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context: On large holidays families typically have a traditional meal that they will make for that holiday. Christmas is no exception as all of the people we interviewed spoke about a traditional meal that they have every Christmas.
  • Cultural Context: Masala Dosa Is a very popular South Indian dish. Sai’s parents are both from South India and they brought this traditional meal to the U.S. and incorporated it into the americanized version of Christmas.

Item:

  • His mother makes his favorite Indian dish, Masala Dosa, for Christmas Eve dinner. She makes this every single year and has eaten it every Christmas he can remember.

Collector’s Comments:

  • It was interesting that Sai’s family practices Hinduism and celebrates and also celebrates a primarily christian holiday. They open their presents Christmas morning and eat chocolate chip pancakes. They also watch the movie Home Alone on Christmas day.

Collector’s Name: Clay Chatham

Tags/Keywords:

  • Food, Tradition, Christmas, Hinduism

Belsnickel

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Title: Belsnickel

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Legend
  • German
  • Germany

Informant Data:

  • Hendric Tronsson is a Dartmouth 20 who grew up in Berlin before coming to school at Dartmouth.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context: Almost everyone who celebrates Christmas has a Christmas story that they believe in. These are typically told to children around the holiday times in order to create a festive mood and make everyone excited for Christmas. As the kids grow up, they begin to lose their belief in these legends because they start to realize that there parents were the source of the gifts.       However these legends remain a large source of the classic Christmas symbols and festive decorations for all ages even though the legends are no longer believed to be true.
  • Cultural Context: The “Father Christmas” figure varies greatly between different cultures – changing primarily due to religious and geographical differences. In the United States it is typically Santa, though people from other cultures who have parents from other cultures may also believe in a different legend.

Item:

  • Hendric has multiple Christmas legends but the one that he shared with us was the Belsnickel. The Belsnickel is a man that wears furs all around and is a companion of St. Nicholas. This figure also delivers presents to kids around the holidays.

Collector’s Name: Alec Vaules

Tags/Keywords:

  • Christmas, Krampus, Germany, Tradition, Legend

 

Team Meals

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Team Meals

Title: Team Meals

General Information about Item:

  • Genre: Customary Folklore: Rituals, Tradition
  • Language: English
  • Country: United States of America

Informant Data:

Alexis Wyatt, aged 21, is a Director of Ujima who joined the group her freshman fall (2014). She is a senior at Dartmouth College majoring in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and minoring in Psychology. Alexis was born, raised, and currently lives in Akron, Ohio. Before Ujima, Alexis had two years of dance experience in high school with modern, contemporary, and lyrical dance.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context: Based on individual availability, as many team members as possible participate in Team Meals. Team meals occur at the Class of 1953 Commons (FoCo) before Sunday practices at noon and before performances throughout the year. The ritual originated at the group’s founding, and Alexis first learned of it when she participated during her freshman fall.
  • Cultural Context: Ujima’s culture focuses on building close relationships both on stage and off. Therefore, team meals allow Ujima’s members to get to know one another outside of practice and form friendships. Many sports teams on Dartmouth’s campus get meals together after practice, and this ritual is in line with that of other groups.

Item:

Ujima members get meals together prior to Sunday practices and performances as a way to converse and grow closer as a group.

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

Transcript of Associated File:

“So, typically on Sundays, since our practice starts at one, if people can make it, we always try to go and get FoCo together, at least an hour or so before rehearsal starts… And then leading up to shows, I would say that our tradition is get dinner together, disperse and go get dressed, and then come back together and continue running or whatever it is that we need to attend to, whether it be continuing to get dressed or discussing what we need to go over. And I’m not sure where that tradition started, but it’s been a thing since I’ve been in Ujima, so we just kept doing it.”

Informant’s Comments:

Team meals act as an opportunity to take a break and relieve anxiety with the team before a performance.

Collector’s Comments:

Aside from being open to every member on Ujima, team meals are especially inclusive because they involve a non-taxing, universal activity—eating.

Collector’s Name: Marcus Reid

Compiled/Analyzed By: Shinar Jain

Tags/Keywords:

  • Ritual
  • Tradition
  • Dance
  • Team

Bequest – Commodore Oar

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Title: Commodore Oar

General Information about Item:

  • Genre: Material, Customary Folklore
    • Subgenre: folk costume, traditions
  • Language: English
  • Country of origin: USA

Informant Data: Sam Lee ’18 is a 21-year-old male from Turlock, California. He has been rowing since joining light-weight crew in college as a walk-on.

Contextual Data:

Social Context: As with any bequest, this item is traditionally passed down from graduating seniors to underclassmen on the rowing team who are deemed most fit to receive the object. This exchange happens annually in the spring after the competition season has come to a close. The event involves the whole team and requires presence for several hours, as each senior may give away several bequests, each with a description of the significance of the item and why it goes to the recipient underclassmen. During the process, teammates must wait until they either bequeath or are bequeathed an item. It is a spectacle for the team and is often humorous and emotional. Underclassmen express gratitude through words and little physical contact as to expedite the process.

Cultural Context: Bequests are handed down through a line of rowers throughout the years. This line is connected through a common trait (e.g., captainship, knowledge of statistics, heavy weight). The bequest links generations, creating team cohesiveness through history. The bequest indicates a unique importance and role in the team and generally shows that the recipient upholds the values of the team. Rowers wear bequests to exhibit that they are deserving of the honor bestowed upon them.

Item: This bequest is a rowing oar that is passed down from commodore to commodore. It has all the signatures of the commodores, who are responsible for the social dynamic and inner squad dynamic.

Associated Image: Not available to collector

Collector’s Name: Yeonjae Park

Tags/Keywords: bequest, D150, crew

 

Bequest – Captain’s Oar

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Title: Captain’s Oar

General Information about Item:

  • Genre: Material, Customary Folklore
    • Subgenre: folk costume, traditions
  • Language: English
  • Country of origin: USA

Informant Data: Sam Lee ’18 is a 21-year-old male from Turlock, California. He has been rowing since joining light-weight crew in college as a walk-on.

Contextual Data:

Social Context: As with any bequest, this item is traditionally passed down from graduating seniors to underclassmen on the rowing team who are deemed most fit to receive the object. This exchange happens annually in the spring after the competition season has come to a close. The event involves the whole team and requires presence for several hours, as each senior may give away several bequests, each with a description of the significance of the item and why it goes to the recipient underclassmen. During the process, teammates must wait until they either bequeath or are bequeathed an item. It is a spectacle for the team and is often humorous and emotional. Underclassmen express gratitude through words and little physical contact as to expedite the process.

Cultural Context: Bequests are handed down through a line of rowers throughout the years. This line is connected through a common trait (e.g., captainship, knowledge of statistics, heavy weight). The bequest links generations, creating team cohesiveness through history. The bequest indicates a unique importance and role in the team and generally shows that the recipient upholds the values of the team. Rowers wear bequests to exhibit that they are deserving of the honor bestowed upon them.

Item: This bequest is a rowing oar that is passed down from captain to captain. It has all the signatures of the captains and adds unity within each new team.

Associated Image: Not available to collector

Collector’s Name: Yeonjae Park

Tags/Keywords: bequest, D150, crew

 

Bequest – Hard-o Uni

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Title: Hard-o  Uni

General Information about Item:

  • Genre: Material, Customary Folklore
    • Subgenre: folk-costumes, traditions
  • Language: English
  • Country of origin: USA

Informant Data: Sam Lee ’18 is a 21-year-old male from Turlock, California. He has been rowing since joining light-weight crew in college as a walk-on.

Contextual Data:

Social Context: As with any bequest, this item is traditionally passed down from graduating seniors to underclassmen on the rowing team who are deemed most fit to receive the object. This exchange happens annually in the spring after the competition season has come to a close. The event involves the whole team and requires presence for several hours, as each senior may give away several bequests, each with a description of the significance of the item and why it goes to the recipient underclassmen. During the process, teammates must wait until they either bequeath or are bequeathed an item. It is a spectacle for the team and is often humorous and emotional. Underclassmen express gratitude through words and little physical contact as to expedite the process.

Cultural Context: Bequests are handed down through a line of rowers throughout the years. This line is connected through a common trait (e.g., captainship, knowledge of statistics, heavy weight). The bequest links generations, creating team cohesiveness through history. The bequest indicates a unique importance and role in the team and generally shows that the recipient upholds the values of the team. Rowers wear bequests to exhibit that they are deserving of the honor bestowed upon them.

Item: This bequest is a unitard that used to belong to an old light-weight rowing coach. It is the unitard that goes along with the Stabbing and PR legend where a member of the team got mugged one night and did not realize he was stabbed because his adrenaline was pumping until he got home and his roommate pointed it out. The next day he put on the unitard and went to practice without telling the coach about the incident and the wound opened up again, blooding the unitard. This unitard is passed down each year to someone that is very hardworking and goes to extreme lengths to do his best.

Associated Image: Not available to collector

Collector’s Name: Yeonjae Park

Tags/Keywords: unitard, bequest, D150, material folklore