[Linganth] Middle finger as informal greeting

[Harriet J. Ottenheimer]

Phrases like these appear in blues lyrics earlier than the  1950s.  I'm
thinking in particular of Speckled Red (Rufus Perryman)'s "The Dozens"
recorded in the 1940s (I think, I'm still in Prague and not near my
library or files right now), but there are other examples as well.  Not
clear whether these examples display the multiple voicings that you are
looking for, though.  --Harriet

Alexander King wrote:

> I also don't have real data, but I'm pretty sure that "negatives" have
> long been used as "positives" in slang, especially Afro-American
> slang. Use of "bad" to mean "good" was already well established when I
> noticed it anecdotally in the 1980s. Also I have hearsay evidence
> (someone told me about reading a thing ...) of "bad motherfucker" used
> as the highest compliment among Afro-American blues/jazz musicians in
> the 1950s. Middle-fingered greetings would seem to parallel this usage.
>
> If Leila's students are mostly white (?), this would follow a pattern
> of whites eventually adopting slang innovated by blacks a generation
> earlier.
>
> Alex
>
> At 11:15 -0500 30/1/05, Gaudio, Rudolf wrote:
>
>> Leila,
>>
>> I don't have any real data on this, but my surmise is that you & your
>> students are onto something.
>> An example from pop. culture that comes to mind is Eminem's movie _8
>> Mile_, in which a few of the
>> characters use the middle finger to greet each other in a way that
>> (to me) suggests affection and
>> hostility at the same time.  I'd be curious to know how you & your
>> students read it.
>>
>> Rudi
>>
>> Rudolf P. Gaudio
>> Assistant Professor of Anthropology
>> School of Natural and Social Sciences
>> Purchase College, State University of New York
>> Purchase, NY 10577
>> rudolf.gaudio at purchase.edu
>>
>