SV: query: taboo against 3 people in picture

Wed Feb 22 15:09:57 UTC 2012

All this is also remiscent of Diana’s famous 1995 interview
"Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/diana/panorama.html
--> in a strictly monogamous culture, it would be tempting to imagine that a picture with three people in it is remiscent of "overcrowded marriages" / "ménage à trois", a rather unpleasant notion for the people in the picture; while four people in the picture are not supposed to evoke one marriage, but two (in French we also occasionally "ménage à quatre", though!), and so make up an unproblematic number. I have no idea if this connection could apply to South-East Asian and Pacific cultures.
Concerning "three on a match", there might also be a play on words (match meaning etymologically mate, spouse) - Cf Paul Whiteman’s lyrics
　
Three On A Match:
Three on a match
Is sure unlucky for me
Our affair has been a riddle since
We're three
Three on a match
Upsets our sweet harmony
Someone's playing second fiddle
Maybe me
I seem to find
A brand new vim and vigour
In her good night kiss
I'm not blind
And so I figure
New lips taught her this
Three on a match
Who can that third party be
I am superstitious of a match
For three
Three on a match
Is sure unlucky for me
Our affair has been a riddle since
We're three
Three on a match
Upsets our sweet harmony
Someone's playing second fiddle
Maybe me
I seem to find
A brand new vim and vigour
In her good night kiss
I'm not blind
And so I figure
New lips taught her this
Three on a match
Who can that third party be
I am superstitious of a match
For three
------------------
Didier Bottineau
CNRS, MoDyCo, Université Paris Ouest 
　
----------------------------
-----Message d'origine-----
De　: Discussion List for ALT [mailto:LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG] De la part de David Gil Envoyé　: mercredi 22 février 2012 14:54 À　: LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG Objet　: Re: SV: query: taboo against 3 people in picture
Ah but again, if I understand the taboo correctly (my experience with cigarettes and trenches being rather limited), four on a match would be even worse, right?
> Consider also the taboo against three on a match (for lighting cigarettes).
> I have heard that the belief dates from WWI trench warfare. The explanation was that by the time the third person had lit up, the enemy had time to aim and fire.
> But the taboo itself was well known when i was in college.
> Victor
>
> ---- Original message ----
> 
>> Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:37:25 +0900
>> From: Discussion List for ALT 
(on 
>> behalf of David Gil )
>> Subject: Re: SV: query: taboo against 3 people in picture
>> To: LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
>>
>> Jan,
>>
>> Yes, even Indonesian has similar expressions. However, in the case 
>> of 'three is a crowd' and such, I think the implicature is clearly 
>> that four (and above) would be even worse, whereas in the case of the 
>> 3-people-in-picture taboo, a common way of solving the problem is to 
>> invite an additional person into the picture -- the taboo is 
>> specifically for three.
>>
>> David
>>
>>
>>
>> 
>>> Dear David,
>>>
>>> Hailing from a different part of the world, your query made me think of such phrases as 'Three is a crowd' and 'Ménage á trois', which suggest that three is one too many.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>>
>>> Jan
>>>
>>> -----Ursprungligt meddelande-----
>>> Från: Discussion List for ALT 
>>> [mailto:LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG] För David Gil
>>> Skickat: den 22 februari 2012 13:14
>>> Till: LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
>>> Ämne: query: taboo against 3 people in picture
>>>
>>> Dear all,
>>>
>>> Apologies for posting a non-linguistic query, but I'm interested in checking whether the non-linguistic feature in question correlates with a particular linguistic area, so perhaps all you field linguists out there can contribute some of your experiences.
>>>
>>>
>>> In many parts of mainland and insular Southeast Asia stretching into New Guinea, there is a taboo against three people posing for a photo. One or two is fine, four, five and up is fine, but three is a no no. In some places the taboo is strong, while in others it's just something people joke about. Sometimes it is said that the person in the middle will meet misfortune or die.
>>>
>>> I have encountered this taboo in Cambodia, Sumatra, Borneo, Palawan, Luzon, Sulawesi, Maluku, and on a recent trip to the Baliem Valley in the Papuan highlands. (Though not in Java or the lesser Sunda isles.) The areal distribution suggests that the taboo must be older than the advent of photography, perhaps extending back to drawings and paintings; the antiquity of the taboo is further supported by its presence amongst the Papuan highland Dani, whose first contact with the outside world was only in the 1940s (and it seems implausible that they would have picked up the taboo since then).
>>>
>>> My question is: where else is such a taboo present? Are you familiar 
>>> with it from any other parts of the world? I would greatly appreciate 
>>> both positive and negative data (the latter always being harder to obtain reliably). I am particularly interested in delimiting the extent of the area listed above: does the taboo exist further east in New Guinea and into the Pacific? What about north into China, or west into South Asia?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> David
>>>
>>> --
>>> David Gil
>>>
>>> Department of Linguistics
>>> Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Deutscher Platz 
>>> 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
>>>
>>> Telephone: 49-341-3550321 Fax: 49-341-3550119
>>> Email: gil at eva.mpg.de
>>> Webpage: http://www.eva.mpg.de/~gil/
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 
>>> 
>> --
>> David Gil
>>
>> Department of Linguistics
>> Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Deutscher Platz 6, 
>> D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
>>
>> Telephone: 49-341-3550321 Fax: 49-341-3550119
>> Email: gil at eva.mpg.de
>> Webpage: http://www.eva.mpg.de/~gil/
>> 
>
>
>
>
> 
　
--
David Gil
Department of Linguistics
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
Telephone: 49-341-3550321 Fax: 49-341-3550119
Email: gil at eva.mpg.de
Webpage: http://www.eva.mpg.de/~gil/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20120222/78d64c27/attachment.htm>