Kill the Aye-Aye

Title: Kill the Aye-Aye

General Information about Item:

  • Language: English
  • Country: United States
  • Verbal folklore that features a magic superstition

Informant Data:

  • Nate Dominy is a Dartmouth professor who has researched several different aspects of aye-aye anatomy and behavior. 

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context:

This interview lasted nearly an hour and was conducted in the informant’s office with all three group members present, taking notes, and asking questions.

Scholars learn about this folklore in a variety of settings; our informant happened to learn of it in a campfire setting. He was visiting Madagascar for the first time, and every night the academics would gather around a fire and discuss their days, including their research, the animals, and the local’s beliefs. This item came up during one of those talks and is a common thread of conversation when researchers discuss Malagasy people’s interactions with aye-ayes.

  • Cultural Context:

This verbal folklore comes from a researcher who has conducted first-hand research with aye-ayes in laboratory contexts. He has never seen an aye-aye in the wild, though he has traveled to Madagascar. His knowledge of aye-aye folklore comes from other scholars’ accounts. Predominately, these scholars are Western intellectuals who are not native to Madagascar. Thus, it is a Western academic perspective that observes and disseminates evidence of this behavior by the Malagasy people of Madagascar. They do not take part, or to any large degree, hear from it directly from the locals (as discussed here); this folklore is spread via observation of behavior and interpretations of attitude.

Item:

And so people say that when an aye-aye is seen, it should be killed right away […] before this bad luck can be transmitted into some hapless victim.”

Nate’s quote suggests that the enforcing of this magic superstition is in fact a preventative measure to stop the spread of the aye-aye’s ill-omen in the form of sympathetic magic.

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

Collectors’ Comments:

All three informants mentioned this magic superstition, but we found Nate to be the most concise speaker, so we decided to represent the folklore from his perspective.

Collectors’ Names:

Keira Byno, Savannah Liu, and Annie Medina

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