Initiation Ritual – Bar Mitzvah (Alex)

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Initiation Ritual

“Bar Mitzvah”

Alex

Dartmouth College

2018

General Information About Item:

  • Genre: Customary Lore
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Alex
  • Date Collected: 11/1/18

 

Informant Data: Alex is a 21 year old student at Dartmouth College. He is from Ohio. During his spare time at Dartmouth, he is actively involved in clubs across campus.

 

Contextual Data:

Social Context: I collected this folklore from Alex, a 21 year old student at Dartmouth College. Alex is a close friend of mine. I asked him to tell me about his Jewish heritage, and the bar mitzvah is his only true traditional experience he has had in the Jewish Culture. At Alex’s bar mitzvah, he invited his classmates and family members. He really enjoyed the party, and he describes it as very  fun.To Alex, it did not feel so much as a right of passage into becoming an adult, but rather an opportunity to have fun in the most educational way.

Cultural Context: The Jewish culture revolves around a tight knit community. Jews have suffered discrimination and persecution for thousands of years, so inherently, they take comfort in the companionship of members of their community. Therefore, Bar Mitzvahs are a common celebration in the jewish culture as a way to unite the people while rejoicing in a child’s coming of age ceremony. This ritual is arguably  the quintessential ritual for the Jewish people, and this explains how it is so well preserved.

 

Item:    A bar mitzvah is a coming of age ceremony for Jewish people who are thirteen years old if they are a boy and twelve years old if they are girls. For girls, this event is called a “bat mitzvah”. During this ceremony, the boy or girl reads from the torah and it takes roughly an hour. The reading is usually followed by an awesome party with lots of the child’s friends.

 

Audio File: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18c3S7GK3oy8Adra0m_BrRNpd0r3xRRrW/view?usp=sharing

 

 

Transcript for Bar Mitzvah:

“A bar mitzvah is a coming of age ceremony for Jewish people who are thirteen years old if they are a boy and twelve years old if they are girls, which would be called a “bat mitzvah”, which is a ceremony where they read from the torah which is the old testament or the Jewish holy book in a synagogue and it takes about an hour and it’s usually followed by an awesome party with lots of their friends. That’s what I did.”

 

Informant’s Comments:

  • I had a lot of fun at my Bar Mitzvah!

Collector’s Comments:

  • Alex really enjoyed his Bar Mitzvah
  • It’s unfortunate how the significance of the Bar Mitzvah seems to elude Alex

 

Collector’s Name and Information:

Khia Hollyer 18
Dartmouth College
Russian 13
Fall 2018

Tags/Keywords: Jewish, Bar Mitzvah, Party, tradition

North America Initiation Rituals: Sweet Sixteen Birthday Candles

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Title: North America Initiation Rituals: Sweet Sixteen Birthday Candles

General Information about Item:

  • Initiation Rituals
  • Culture: American
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Morgan Gelber
  • Place Collected: Dartmouth College Library, First Floor Berry
  • Date Collected: 11-2-18

Informant Data:

  • Morgan Gelber, age 20, is a female Dartmouth student in the class of 2020. She was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Her ethnic background is half Russian and half Caucasian. She went to a small public high school in the city. At Dartmouth, Morgan is in Kappa Delta sorority and is a member of the fencing team. She is planning to major in English with a minor in Russian studies.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Many consider America to be the “melting pot” of a diverse range of cultures. The blending of cultures is reflected in many traditions in America, including sweet sixteen. Sweet sixteen’s borrow various traditions from othercoming of age ceremonies. The two main celebrations that it borrows from are the Jewish Bat Mitzvah and the Latinx Quinceañera. ​
  • Social Context: Sweet sixteen are typically thrown by middle class toupper class families. The frequency of girls that have a sweet sixteen varies from region to region, but in generally since the celebration is quite a financial burden regions that are economically well off tend to have a higher frequency. Sweet sixteen’s are celebrated by girls in America, regardless of ethnicity.

Item:

  • The birthday candle is one of the most important traditions involved with birthdays. A common tradition to make a wish before blowing out the candles on the birthday cake. Most believe that all the candles must be blown out in one breath for good luck and the wish to come true. The blowing out of candles marks the true point when the person transitions to the next year of their lives. As a result, blowing out the candles is part of the transition stage of the three stages of initiation rites.  For sweet-sixteens this transition point also represents moving from childhood to adolescence. For this particular person’s sweet-sixteen the candles had an extra tradition associated with them. Each of the sixteen candles would represent a friend or family member who helped her get to that point in her life. For each candle she would tell a short story about what those people important in her life.

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

           

Transcript:

  • Morgan: “My friend… for the candles around the cake, she calls up (people). My friend made a speech for each candle and had either one or a group of people come up for each (candle) that were significant in her life and we lit the candle together.”
  • Darien: “So a story pre-candle basically?”
  • Morgan: “Yeah, so one was like her very best friend, one was like her parents, one was like a group of four or five people. But (they were) who had helped her get to that point in life. And she blew them (the candles) out and ate the cake.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • Even though this was not her sixteenth birthday party, the story about the candles was a defining memory for her when she looks back on birthday parties she’s been to.

Collector’s Comments:

  • I found the extra tradition that was involved with the candles on her sixteenth birthday really special and meaningful. The retrospective thoughts on the people who were important in her childhood was a nice way to reflect and move on from her childhood to adolescence.

Analysis:                

  • All initiation rituals consist of three main stages: separation, transition, and incorporation. For the North American Sweet Sixteen and Quinceañera, the separation stage consists of the girl getting prepared and planning for the ceremony. This includes, for many girls, their first time wearing tall high heels, getting the makeup professionally done, and wearing elaborate gowns. The transition stage is marked by the various ceremonial traditions. The ceremonial traditions include the opening of gifts, the dance between the father and daughter, reading of speeches, and blowing out candles. The incorporation stage of the Sweet Sixteen and Quinceañera is the party after all the ceremonial traditions are completed. The girl celebrates becoming a women with her friends, family, and community.

Comparison:

  • Comparison within the subgroup: A comparable piece of folklore within the subgroup of North American initiation rites is the candles used in the Quinceañera. Both initiation rites include candles as a central symbol in the tradition. In the case of the Sweet Sixteen the candles only represent the transition from one year of life to the next. On the other hand, for the Quinceañera the lighting of the candles is in honor of the deceased relatives.
  • Comparison to the rest of subgroups: Many of the culturally based initiation folklore include tasks and physical activities as an aspect of the initiation rite. A comparable initiation rite to the North AmericanQuinceañera and Sweet Sixteenfrom another subgroup was the Jewish Bat Both the Quinceañera and Bat Mitzvah are rooted in religious beliefs and customs. Since, both these religious based initiation rites are common in America, customs from both are commonly borrowed in Sweet Sixteen celebrations. For example, all three use candles as a central tradition associated with the ceremony. In the context of the rest of the our group, this piece of folklore is another example of a tradition that is a transition point in a person’s life.

Collector’s Name: Darien Jones, Dartmouth College, Russian 13, Professor Valentina Apresyan, Professor Mikhail Gronas, Fall 2018

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary folklore
  • Initiation
  • Sweet Sixteen
  • Candles

Coffee & Pastries

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Title: Coffee & Pastries

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal/Visual Lore, Joke, Meme
  • Language: English
  • Origin: Dartmouth Athletic Teams
  • Informant: Shannon Ropp
  • Date Collected: 10-29-18

Informant Data:

  • Shannon Ropp was born in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Her parents are Jefferey and Debra Ropp. She has one older brother, and grew up playing hockey. She has a dog named Frodo. She is currently a senior at Dartmouth College, and is studying Engineering Sciences. She is a member of the Dartmouth Women’s Ice hockey team.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: The Dartmouth women’s ice hockey head coach, Laura Schuler believes that in order to be a peak athlete, you must fuel your body for performance. One day while she was speaking to her team, she said that they needed to stop “exclusively fueling their bodies with coffee and pastries”.
  • Social Context: The team drinks a lot of coffee during the school term in order to stay awake for classes and assignments, as well as eats lots of pastries as they are easy to grab and go. The team thought this was humorous that their coach would reprimand them for something as minuscule as that. The team then began making memes out of the incident.

Item:

  • This is a combination of a visual joke/meme and a spoken joke. The team created a serious of memes and shared them. Whenever someone is making unhealthy decisions, they are told to stop “fueling their body with only coffee and pastries”.

Informant’s Comments:

  • This was one of our favorite jokes so far this year, and it has sparked many following memes and jokes. We have also renamed out group chat “Coffee & Pastries” as a nod to the incident.

Collector’s Comments:

  • The joke here is a paradox for athletes. You would not expect division 1 athletes to eat excess unhealthy foods. Its also interesting to see the first meme I collected from a sports team, and may reflect the culture of the generation of current Dartmouth athletes.

Collector’s Name: Sydney Hill

Tags/Keywords:

  • Verbal Lore
  • Joke
  • Meme
  • Coffee
  • Hockey
  • Pastries
  • Athlete

 

 

Kajal

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Title: Kajal

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Lore, Superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: India
  • Informant: Athi
  • Date Collected: 10-10-18

Informant Data:

  • Athi is a male psychiatrist of The Woodlands, TX. He was born in Nager Coil, India in 1970, but moved to the United States in 1998 following his marriage. Besides work, he enjoys playing golf and watching television. Today, he lives with his family in a small, suburban home just outside of Houston.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: The evil eye is a central Indian belief. A look/glance rooted in jealousy, the evil eye is believed to be associated with malevolent spirits and to bring about bad luck. Indians, but south Indians in particular, practice a number of rituals to inhibit, or prevent the effects of this evil eye.

 

  • Social Context: Weddings are grand ceremonies involving hundreds and hundreds of people. These people can, from time to time, become jealous of the bride, either for her beauty, happiness, or big-budget wedding. This gives way for ample opportunities of becoming infected by the evil eye. The bride, as such, requires protection. Here, this protection takes the form of a black dot of kajal on the cheek.

Item:

  • This particular superstition works to inhibit the effects of the evil eye. By penciling a dot of kajal upon her cheek, the bride is believed to be protected from the jealous eyes of friends and family.

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

Transcript:

  • “In South Indian marriages, the bride always will have a black dot on her cheek. This is mainly to prevent the evil eye on her from relatives and friends who come for the marriage.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • This black dot of kajal is not exclusive to brides. It can often be seen on babies, children, or really anyone who wishes to protect herself/himself from the evil eye.

Collector’s Comments:

  • This is an example of a Magic superstition, as it follows the form, “If you do A, Then B”. If the bride pencils a black dot of kajal on her cheek, then she can prevent infection by the evil eye.

Collector’s Name: Sanjena Venkatesh

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Lore
  • Superstition
  • Evil Eye

Funeral Procession

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Title: Funeral Procession

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Lore, Superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: India
  • Informant: Athi
  • Date Collected: 10-10-18

Informant Data:

  • Athi is a male psychiatrist of The Woodlands, TX. He was born in Nager Coil, India in 1970, but moved to the United States in 1998 following his marriage. Besides work, he enjoys playing golf and watching television. Today, he lives with his family in a small, suburban home just outside of Houston.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Indians consider death to be a painless escape from the cycle of life. Lord Yama, the God of Death, is believed to claim souls from the mortal world at a specific, pre-determined time. Following death, the body is taken through the village while onlookers chant mantras. The soul remains attached to the body over the course of this procession, only separating from the body once the ritual is complete. Then, on its journey to Yama, the soul is believed to take along all the sorrow/pain/wishes/desires it encountered from the mantra-chanters.

 

  • Social Context: The informant first learnt of this superstition on his way to school as a young child. As a funeral procession passed by, everyone stopped in their tracks. The began chanting mantras and silently praying.

Item:

  • The viewing of a funeral procession on the way to work, school, college, etc. is auspicious. It indicates the destruction of evil and sorrows from life and suggests that all pending desires and work will soon be achieved/accomplished.

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

Transcript:

  • “In South India, it is believed that seeing a dead body while walking out of the house is considered very lucky because whatever you want to finish or accomplish on that day will happen without any problems.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • This superstition is interesting, since one would expect that viewing a dead body would bring about bad luck, but under Indian beliefs, the opposite occurs.

Collector’s Comments:

  • This is an example of a sign superstition, as it follows the form, “If A, Then B”. If one sees a funeral procession on his way, then all his sorrows will disappear and he will be able to accomplish anything he desires.

Collector’s Name: Sanjena Venkatesh

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Lore
  • Superstition
  • Funeral Procession / Dead Body

Salt, Dried Chilis, and Camphor

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Title: Salt, Dried Chilis, Camphor

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Lore, Superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: India
  • Informant: Vandana V.
  • Date Collected: 10-10-18

Informant Data:

  • Vandana V. is a female student in her senior year of high school at John Cooper. She was born in Temple, Texas in 2001, but has lived in Houston for much of her life. In her free time, she enjoys playing the flute in the Wind Ensemble and competing with her Varsity Tennis team.  She plans to attend Dartmouth College in the fall, where she will study pre-med and economics.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: A central aspect of Indian culture is based upon the idea of the evil eye – a look/glance rooted in jealousy that is associated with malevolent spirits and believed to bring about bad luck. Numerous superstitions, as such, act to inhibit, or prevent the effects of the evil eye.

 

  • Social Context: Despite being brought up in American society, the informant’s cultural origins are primarily Hindu. Her grandparents and extended family all lived in India, and as such, she visits every summer. There, she has learned of the various Hindu superstitions, rituals, beliefs, etc. The informant in fact first saw this superstition in practice at a young age, during a summer visit to India. She had fallen sick following the wedding ceremony of her aunt. So, her grandmother circled the plate of camphor, salt, and chilis around her head three times. Within a few days, she had begun to feel better.

Item:

  • This particular superstition attempts to cure someone infected by the evil eye. Here, an elder takes a plate of salt, dried red chilis, and camphor in their right palm and circles it around the infected individual’s head 3, 5, or 7 times depending on the severity of the misfortune. Such an action is believed to remove the drishti.

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

Salt, Dried Chilis, Camphor-2mqqvx7

Transcript:

  • “If you go to a special function and you come back with vomiting or a headache, then it’s said that you have the evil eye. So an elder must take salt, chilis, and camphor in their right palm and circle it around your head and then throw it out.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • According to the informant, this superstition has been strongly conserved/practiced in her family, and passed down from generation to generation.

Collector’s Comments:

  • This is a concrete example of a Magic Superstition, as it follows the form of “If you do A, Then B”. After all, if a plate of salt, chilis, and camphor is circled around one’s head by an elder, then the sickness brought upon by the evil eye will be cured.
  • Further, this superstition seems to have originated to make sense of the world – to explain and cure sickness

Collector’s Name: Sanjena Venkatesh

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Lore
  • Superstition
  • Evil Eye

Men’s Lightweight Rowing Initiation Ritual #1

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Initiation Ritual

 

Chris Duan
Dartmouth College
October 4th, 2018

Informant Data:

Chris Duan is a member of the class of 2021 here at Dartmouth and is a member of the Men’s Lightweight Rowing team. He is from California. He has been rowing all his life and wanted to row at Dartmouth since he was in middle school.

Contextual Data:

Social Context: This initiation ritual is performed by new members of the Dartmouth Lightweight Rowing team. It is administered by the coach of the team and occurs roughly three weeks into the fall. It is performed in the late evening and continues into the night.

Cultural Context: In rowing, the boats have a piece of equipment called an oarlock attached to boat that holds the oars in place. It allows the oars to be moved around for rowing but keeps them in the same spot along the boat and prevents them from falling into the water. They act as a pivot point for rowing strokes. Gile is a hike close to campus that is short and easy. The elevation gain is not very large and can be completed in under an hour. It is a popular hike due to its low level of difficulty and length.

Item:

Roughly three weeks into the fall of the freshmen’s first season, the coach ends practice early for the freshmen. He then tells them that he has hidden an oarlock at the top of the Gile hike and that they must go retrieve it. The freshmen then drive to Gile and hike up to the top and find the oarlock and bring it back to the coach

Video Interview: lightwt rowing-2dro7wp

Analysis:

In this ritual, the freshmen are separated from the rest of the team at practice by the coach letting them out early. The transition is in their hike up Gile to find the oarlock and then when they return they are incorporated with the rest of the team back at practice. It involves a physical activity and facilitates getting to know the members of the class.

Comparison:

This ritual requires a form of physical activity which is seen in several other rituals we observed like the Rugby team and the Men’s swim team. It also involves getting to know your class by completing a task together such as with the Men’s swim team’s ritual of swimming all events in a meet or on the Men’s water polo team when the freshmen must arrive to campus earlier than  other members of the team.

 

Elliot Adams; 22 years old
Hanover, NH
Dartmouth College
Russian 13 Fall

FACT

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Title: FACT

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal Lore, Joke
  • Language: English
  • Origin: Dartmouth Athletic Teams
  • Informant: Eva Klein
  • Date Collected: 10-25-18

Informant Data:

  • Eva Klein was born Los Angeles, CA and grew up in Santa Clarita, CA. She is currently a junior at Dartmouth College, and is studying Film/Media and French. She began playing rugby when she was 12 years old. Her father played rugby for the University of Buffalo. Eva was recruited to play rugby for Dartmouth and has been playing since her freshman year.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Eva’s teammate, Ale Ada, is a freshman at Dartmouth College. She is from Sinajana, Guam. Her teammates give her a hard time because she speaks in what Eva described as a “matter of fact” tone.
    Social Context: The team thought that the way that Ale spoke was very funny, as it seemed that she was constantly telling everyone cold hard “facts”. This then developed into a reoccurring joke repeated by members of the team. 

Item:

  • This is a joke spoken by the members of the Dartmouth Women’s Rugby team, following whenever Ale Ada speaks. Whenever she speaks, whether it be a question, opinion or statement, a fellow teammate yells out “FACT” in response as a nod to the way she presents herself.

Informant’s Comments:

  • This was a joke that was started when Ale began speaking. It may not seem very funny to others, but it makes most of us laugh

Collector’s Comments:

  • The joke here serves as a way to incorporate the freshman Ale, as well as allows the team to bond over their kinship. The true humor derives from the parallel between what Ale is saying, usually a question or an opinion which is presented as a statement and is said to be a “fact”.

Collector’s Name: Sydney Hill

Tags/Keywords:

  • Verbal Lore
  • Joke
  • Rugby
  • Fact
  • Team
  • Freshman
  • Inclusion

 

 

Direction of Sleep

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Title: Direction of Sleep

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Lore, Superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: India
  • Informant: Rama
  • Date Collected: 10-10-18

Informant Data:

  • Rama is a female software engineer of Houston, TX. She was born in Tirunelveli, India in 1975. She moved to the United States, however, at the age of 21, with her first job. Besides work, she enjoys gardening and reading. Today, Rama lives with her family in a suburb just outside of Houston.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: In India, bodies are often cremated. However, if a body is buried, it is always, without fail, placed with the head pointing towards the North and the feet towards the South. This is due to the belief that Yama, the God of Death, resides in the south.

 

  • Social Context: This superstition is particularly prevalent in South India. Houses are often constructed with properly oriented bedrooms to allow for beds to fit in the “auspicious direction” (East-West).

Item:

  • This superstition declares that if one sleeps with his/her head pointing towards the North, he/she will experience bad luck. This is because if one’s head is pointing North, his feet are pointing to the South, where Yama resides. On rare occasions, sleeping in this direction is believed to bring death.

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

Transcript:

  • “If you sleep with your feet pointing towards the South, you will be plagued by bad luck. At its extreme, you may die.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • According to the informant, this belief stands strong within her family. Each and every bed in her house, prior to its placement, was ensured to be facing the correct direction.

Collector’s Comments:

  • This is a concrete example of a Magic Superstition, as it follows the form of “If you do A, Then B”. If one sleeps with his feet pointing towards the south, then he will face bad luck in the near future.

Collector’s Name: Sanjena Venkatesh

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Lore
  • Superstition
  • Sleep

Randall

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Title: Randall

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal Lore, Joke
  • Language: English
  • Origin: Dartmouth College Athletics
  • Informant: Clay Han
  • Date Collected: 10-24-18

Informant Data:

  • Clayton Han was born in Cincinnati, OH on February 23, 1995. His father’s family is originally from Indonesia and immigrated to the United States in 1974. His mother is from Barbourville, KY, a small town in the southeastern portion of the state. Clayton grew up in Cincinnati, until he graduated from high school and moved to Lexington, MA in order to play hockey. In addition, Clayton and his family are members of the Methodist Church. Currently, Clayton is a Junior at Dartmouth College, where he is also a member of the Men’s Varsity Ice Hockey team

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: When Brendan Less, Clay’s teammate, joined the team during Clay’s sophomore year, his teammates saw similarities in both face and personality between Brendan and Randall Bogs from the animated film “Monsters Inc.”
  • Social Context: The joke is shared amongst the men’s hockey team, and is reoccurring through conversation.

Item:

  • This is a men’s hockey team joke, in the form of a nickname

Informant’s Comments:

  • This was a joke that was created to include the freshman Brendan Less. It is in good spirit and not meant to be mean, but rather a way to bond.

Collector’s Comments:

  • The joke here is a good way for teammate’s to bond over past experiences and create a social dynamic together. There is a parallel between expecting a hockey player to be a lot different than a Pixar character.

Collector’s Name: Sydney Hill

Tags/Keywords:

  • Verbal Lore
  • Joke
  • Hockey
  • Randall
  • Monsters Inc
  • Nickname
  • Team