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September 3, 2015
Yam a lam a ding dong!
The husband is expected to give his wife's father or brother a gift in turn for the yams they give his wife. When the woman is first married, she receives yams from her father until the woman's brother thinks his sister and her husband are old enough for him to give the yams. At the beginning of the yam harvest, the yams stay on display in gardens for about a month before the gardener takes them to the owner. The owner is always a woman. There is a great ceremony for this every year. The yams are loaded into the woman's husband's empty yam house. Young people come to the gardens dressed in their most festive traditional clothes early on the day the yams are delivered to the yam house. The young people are all related to the gardener, and carry the yam baskets to the owner's hamlet. When they get to the owner's hamlet, they sing out to announce the arrival of the yams while thrusting out their hips in a sexually provocative motion. This emphasizes the relation between yams and sexuality. A few days later, the gardener comes and loads the yam house, and the man is now responsible for the yam. Yam Exchanges Trobriand Islands
Posted by gerardvanderleun at September 3, 2015 6:53 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
Take these yam collectors, drop them in St Louis, and you'll understand Ferguson, #BLM, and modern America.
Posted by: jack_gott ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://americandigest.org/sidelines/nav-commenters.gif)
at September 3, 2015 3:52 PM
At least the yam collectors work.
Posted by: tripletap at September 3, 2015 4:30 PM
I yam what I yam.
Posted by: ghostsniper at September 3, 2015 6:18 PM
This activity is a lot more positive and productive than burnin' and lootin'.
Posted by: chasmatic at September 3, 2015 10:17 PM
My uncle Letsgo "The Bantam King" Lozko spoke of a courting ritual practiced in parts of Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Romania. I'll forego the accent, just imagine Bela Lugosi speaking:
In the small farm villages not much was secret. When a young man and young woman started making eyes at each other the courtship began. The young gal would bring a calf and tie it to the gate of the young man's farm.
The young man would take in the calf and feed it, care for it, groom it, much like the livestock shows with the 4H clubs.
When the season was upon them and the calf had been brought up to be well cared for, well fed, groomed, the young man would take the heifer to the young girl's farm and leave it at the gate.
The girl's family would see how well he took care of the cow; in fact the entire village would have been watching this process.
As he cared for the cow so would he care for the girl, as his wife. The courtship then proceeded to the next level
Posted by: chasmatic at September 3, 2015 10:33 PM
@Chas, there's wisdom in that.
Posted by: ghostsniper at September 4, 2015 6:10 AM
Chas, it's cheaper and easier to do it with yams. Mo'Yammy! will be the new chant in Ferguson.
Posted by: Vermont Woodchuck at September 5, 2015 7:22 AM