LL-L "Folklore" 2002.12.09 (06) [E]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 09.DEC.2002 (06) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Folkore

I responded to Luc's experiences in China:

> > Maybe Ron allows me to digress onto this other (folkloric) habit of
> eaving shoes outside the
> > house. First of all, I would like to state that it's not very difficult
to
> buy a mat in Belgium *s*. And
> > finally I'd like to point out that "The cleaner we keep our houses on
the
> inside, the more dirty it
> > will be outside the house".
> > It's quite common here (= China) to see even young women spit on the
floor
in department
> stores for example, so maybe China has already taken its toll of me. *s*
>
> Welcome to culture shock, Luc!
>
> Well, what you wrote there isn't really all that much off-topic.  Bear in
> mind that China and the Lowlands are on one continent, Eurasia, and there
is
> a cultural continuum betweeen them (never mind what fantasies circulate
> about "the continent Europe" and Marco Polo having discovered China).
What
> you are witnessing in China -- and I know it very well first-hand,
involving
> also throwing bones and fruit and vegetable peelings on the floor of homes
> and restaurants, later to be swept away -- is what used to be the case in
> Europe also, and not all that long ago (involving also animal stables and
> people's dwellings being under one roof and on one floor).  It gradually
> disappeared with multi-story apartment living and carpeted floors.
>
> In China, as in Europe and Africa, floors are or used to be made from
> patted-down dirt and are or were perceived as extensions of the outside.
> Garbage thus can or could be trown onto them, and liquids could be spilled
> onto them, and the loose garbage would periodically be swept up and thrown
> outside.  Because of this, floors are considered dirty, and you must
always
> wear shoes inside and never sit or lie on a floor.  This has been carried
> over into "modern" living, where floors are wooden, tiled,
linoleum-covered
> or concrete and are or ought to be kept clean.  You must also bear in mind
> the omnipresent gray Gobi Desert dust throughout Northern China, making it
> impossible to keep anything very clean without storing it in airtight
> containers (especially during those dry, biting-cold winters).  My Chinese
> roommate used to be horrified when I walked around barefoot on our
> (atypically) immaculately clean wooden floor in the summer.  He would
swear
> that I would pick up a terrible disease or two and would die a torturous
> death, but he did not have any scientific explanation for that when I
asked
> for it.  In other words, this "knowledge" was unquestioned, had become
> folklore based on traditional Chinese medical knowledge that assumed
dirt(y)
> floors.  This would also explain why on a visit to a Kazakh family in
> Xinjiang (Eastern Turkestan) my Han Chinese companions would sit in a row
on
> one bed, the only piece of furniture in the yurt, and would watch in
> discomfort as our hosts and I were sitting on a beautiful, clean rug
eating
> dried fruit and sheepsmilk curds and drinking tea set on a silver tray
> placed on that rug on the floor (= patted-down clay) -- a truly barbarian
> and horrific sight for Han Chinese to behold.
>
> As for leaving shoes outside, let me clarify that the focus of the
> pre-Christian Scandinavian custom was not that the shoes were left outside
> (and for all I know they may have been left inside by the threshold) but
> that all family members' shoes were placed together to symbolize the wish
> that the next Yule none of the pairs would be missing, that the family
would
> stay together another year.  Leaving shoes outside to keep floors clean
may
> be a much later development and does not only apply to Yule/Christmas.

I am not sure if I made myself clear.  Let me just say that it is my basic
hypothesis that folk *wisdom* (i.e., handed-down scientific knowledge - such
as disease prevention rules - acquired through experience and observation
over millennia) is oftentimes passed down without the original scientific
reasoning, thus “deteriorates” by becoming unquestioned traditional
etiquette (“Thou shalt not ... (but don’t ask me why)”), oftentimes with
folkloristic embellishments and thus disguised as or transformed to
folklore, and this tradition may be retained even after the need for it
disappears (in this case perceiving and treating all floors as equal to
earth/soil, even where they are not).

Perhaps we can think of parallel cases in Lowlands cultures.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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