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Documenting Maritime Folklife: An Introductory Guide
Part 1: What to Document
Customs
Customs are similar to beliefs in that they involve verbal and nonverbal
expressions that are put into play under certain circumstances. Unlike
beliefs, they are not primarily concerned with assumptions that certain
signs or actions
will indicate or cause particular results. Customs are practices followed
as a matter of course. Well-known customs are associated with holidays
and festivals, as well as rites of passage such as birth, marriage, entry
into
an occupation, retirement, and death. Frequently, important events include
a variety of customary practices. Weddings, for example, feature such things
as traditional vows, music, clothing, rice throwing, food, drink, toasts,
dancing, bouquet and garter tossing, and car "sabotaging." These customs
are arranged in a specific order that is well known to everyone in the
community.
Many customs are unique to maritime communities, although some
are carried on in connection with major holidays. In several of
Maine's coastal communities, lobster boat races, rowboat races,
and the sale of seafood prepared in a traditional manner are key
elements of annual Fourth of July celebrations. At Easter time
in many coastal regions of the country, local clergymen bless boats
and their crews as they pass by in a procession. Community-based
seafood festivals also include many customs. In the town of Apalachicola,
Florida, site of one of the nation's most productive oyster fisheries,
an annual festival is held to celebrate local maritime heritage.
Inaugurated in 1915, the festival includes such events as the crowning
of King Retsyo ("oyster" spelled backwards), a blessing of the
fleet, an oyster-shucking contest, an oyster- eating contest, crab
races, and the sale of local seafood.
Customs related to death also have maritime correlatives. They
include memorial services held at sea for fishermen lost there,
and tombstones that display engravings of boats, anchors, and other
nautical objects.
Finally, there are remedies for sickness, especially seasickness,
and injury. For many commercial fishermen, wounds caused by sharp
fish fins are a constant hazard. The following is a description
of a method used by some fishermen to ease the pain caused by such
injuries:
Take a penny and wrap it in a piece of bacon and put
it on [the wound]. And whether it be a nail or a catfish puncture,
. . . you will not believe what it will do . . . . I've personally,
a number of times, took the penny and a slice of bacon about this
big and put the penny inside of it, and just fold it over, put
it right to the puncture wound. And you will not believe. The next
day it's like nothing ever happened to you.1
Notes
1. Interview with John Gavagan
of Neptune
Beach, Florida, recorded July 26, 1986, by David
Taylor.
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