greeting | Dartmouth Folklore Archive

Title: Greetings

General Information about the item:

Informant data:

Zoe Leonard ’19 from Honolulu, O’ahu. Born in Hawaii and grew up there until coming to Dartmouth.

Contextual data:

Social context: It is part of local speech to show respect by calling people older than you. It is also customary to give a kiss on the cheek because people are very affectionate. It is also considered dirty and disrespectful to wear shoes in the house.
Cultural context: The cheek kiss is similar to the traditional greeting (honi) where two people share a breath in through the nose to say hello. Aunty and Uncle in pidgin were taken from English. They were understood to mean elders or other adults, not specifically blood relatives. The practice of not wearing shoes inside is likely derived from Japanese culture.

Item:

The custom to greet someone in Hawaii today is a cheek to cheek kiss. Most elderly are referred to “aunty” or “uncle” rather than a “Mr…. or Mrs….”. It is customary to remove your shoes before entering a house.

Collector: Aaryndeep Rai

Initiation/Greeting Handshake

Informant info
- Junior at Penn State Sorority
Type of lore (verbal, material or customary), Genre, Subgenre
- Customary
Language
- English
Country of Origin
- United States
Social / Cultural Context
- Pennsylvania State University Sorority
Informant’s comments
- Taken very seriously. In order to get fully initiated in the house, we had to knock on the door and the Vice President of Administration of the sorority was standing there waiting for us. We have a secret handshake that only sisters of the house know that we had to do with the Vice President in order to enter. Once we successfully do our handshake we are fully initiated and the handshake becomes a greeting amongst sisters at meetings and around campus.
Collector’s comments
- anonymous as to not give away the identity of the sorority and informant

Dartmouth Folklore Archive