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OnLine Multicultural Manners ColumnWartime Folklore: YELLOW RIBBONS, APRICOTS, AND THE UPSMarch, 2003 • Immediately after President Bush issues his March 17, 2003 ultimatum to Saddam Hussein to step down or be attacked, a Los Angeles TV news program shows the California desert city of Twentynine Palms. Residents have wrapped yellow ribbons around their signature trees. • Marines stationed in Kuwait refuse to eat apricots. When they find Charms candies and green candy-coated gum in their military meals, they chuck them, too. • E-mail messages warn about unfamiliar persons in UPS uniforms delivering packages. They advise readers to ask for proper ID and notify building security or law enforcement and avoid accepting potentially lethal materials. What Do These Activities Mean?Yellow Ribbons Yellow ribbons demonstrate support for military personnel. Twenty-nine Palms sits adjacent to a U.S. Marine Corps Air/Ground Combat Training Center. Residents feel protective toward these neighboring Marines, who have been deployed to the Persian Gulf for combat in Iraq. Wrapping ribbons around the palm trees gives concrete evidence of the community’s concern. Displaying yellow ribbons on trees is a recent American custom. They first emerged as a national symbol in January 1981, to welcome home Americans taken hostage in Iran in November 1979. The ribbons represent those waiting for loved ones in danger and act as a welcoming display for their return. They are associated with the song, “Tie a Yellow Ribbon ‘Round the Ole Oak Tree,” and the title tune from a John Wayne movie, “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,” referring to the girl who wears one for her true love who is “far, far away.” Yellow ribbons reappeared during the 1990 Persian Gulf War. Locally, they surfaced again in 1999, when Andrew A. Ramirez was captured near the Yugoslav-Macedonian border. Yellow ribbons festooned his East Los Angeles neighborhood until his release. Now they’re back again, not just in Twenty-nine Palms but all over the nation as well as appearing on lapels at the 2003 Academy Awards ceremony. Apricots Persons engaged in high-risk work frequently observe taboos and engage in ritualized behavior. Especially in wartime, military personnel develop convictions about what might keep them safe, what might place them in danger. According to an Associated Press report, the avoidance of eating apricots is probably related to a landing craft disaster occurring off the coast of France during WWII. A ship carrying apricots for the service men sank. All lives were lost, and in the recounting of the tragedy, someone must have tried to create a rationale. Apricots became the culprits. Today, the abhorrence of apricots is so strong that amphibious assault crews in Kuwait have dubbed them the “A-word” or “Forbidden Fruit.” Other potent beliefs flourish in the Persian Gulf. Charms candies are thought to invite rainstorms. Additionally, service personnel associate eating green candy-coated gum with causing diarrhea or having one’s mate committing adultery back home. In every war, parallel ideas abound. During the Vietnam conflict, military men stationed there feared drinking a Vietnamese beer called “33” also known by its French name “Trente-trois.” The beer was believed to contain so much formaldehyde that it would poison its imbibers. During WWII, troops in the European Theater turned their rings and ID tags toward home. To turn them toward Berlin meant death. Other branches of service had their own rituals. Maintaining an ancient belief, sailors avoided whistling. To whistle brings drowning at sea, but the whistling taboo persisted even on land. Elsewhere to ensure survival, flyers refused to change their underwear, a practice sustained among troops today. UPS E-mail hoaxes play on our fears: virus-infected computer hard drives, exorbitant phone bills, soft drinks shrinking testicles or causing brain tumors. The UPS e-mail hoax is no exception in its potential for dire consequences. It cautions readers to be suspicious of unfamiliar delivery persons in UPS uniforms. The rumor/urban legend asserts that unknown persons recently purchased a shipment of $32,000 worth of these uniforms. It implies that terrorists disguised as delivery persons will bring deadly packages to our doors. Wartime fears feed on such stories. Proven false, this story nonetheless continues to circulate. It toys with public paranoia following 9/11, especially after the anthrax outbreak. E-mail also transmits wartime jokes and cartoons. One shows an older-looking
Bush wearing a turban and white beard, captioned “If the U.S. Loses
the War…” More chilling imagery accompanies it. Mosques
and minarets fill the New York City skyline. In another drawing, the
Statue of Liberty has her face covered by a veil. While these visual
gags elicit a sick kind of laugh/moan, they also raise the frightening
specter of failure on our side, something most people dare not articulate.
Perhaps passing on this distasteful joke is the only socially acceptable
way e-mailers can divulge concern about the unthinkable. What do Miss Muffet and Saddam Hussein have in common? How do you play Iraqi Bingo? What do Saddam Hussein and General Custer have in common? What is Iraq’s national bird? What is the motto of the Iraqi Air Force? From displaying yellow ribbons to support those defending our nation, to the troops’ taboos attempting to control their destinies, to the exchange of e-mails expressing dread and laughter, wartime folklore reveals our ideals and our fears. By using rituals, customs, beliefs, jokes, and urban legends, we avoid having to find the right words to speak. Using these folklore forms frees us from having to disclose our emotions, too. The examples demonstrate how well folklore serves human needs, especially during times of anxiety and sorrow. Sources: Apricots Dorson, Richard. 1959. American
Folklore. Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press, pp. 270-274. Rumors of War (Uniform
Behavior) |
"For over thirty years, cross-cultural customs
and beliefs have been the focus of my research, writing and
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