User:Patricka Daley/sandbox

'Anancy an Ticks', 'Anancy an Smoke-Pork' and 'Bra Nancy an Tiger' are short stories that appear in the 1979 anthology 'Anancy and Miss Lou'. Written by Jamaican folklorist and author, Louise Bennett-Coverley, the stories feature the adventures of the main character, Anancy, as he uses trickery and cunning to outsmart those around him for personal gain. Anancy stories are a part of West-African oral tradition and the tales were brought to the Caribbean by the Ashanti people of Ghana during slavery. The modern retellings in 'Anancy and Miss Lou' are done using Jamaican Patois, a widely-spoken, unofficial Jamaican language that Bennett-Coverley is credited with pioneering amid pushback from Jamaica's middle and upper classes.

Miss Lou
Louise Simone Bennett-Coverley (September 7, 1919 – July 26, 2006), known as Miss Lou, OM, OJ, MBE was a Jamaican folklorist, poet, educator, writer, and activist who defended the ‘languagehood’ of Jamaican speech. She was called a ‘living language’ and a ‘culture icon’ by most Jamaicans. Miss Lou has for decades been the face of Jamaican culture, through her poems in Jamaican patois, she raised the dialect of the Jamaican language to an art level that is appreciated by all in Jamaica. Miss Lou uses her poems to capture the spontaneity of the expression of Jamaican joy, sorrow, religion, and even their philosophy of life. She wrote her first creole poem when she was fourteen years old. In the late 1930s to early 1940s, she was embarrassed whenever it was time to use dialect because it was socially unacceptable and only the poor and illiterate spoke the language.

Anansi
Anansi whose name is sometimes spelled ‘Anancy’ is originated in West Africa and brought to Jamaica and other parts of the world by Ashanti slaves. Anancy stories are handed down orally from generation to generations. He exists as a man, a spider and sometimes both. Anancy is a lazy, greedy, inventive trickster, cunning and extremely smart. For instance, in all three stories analyzed, anancy has shown these traits in ‘Smoke-pork’ he deceived his wife so he could eat her pig which he greedily ate alone. In ‘Bra nancy an tigar’ Anansi tricks bra tigar to win Mish Quashiba over, and in ‘Anancy an ticks’ Anansi tricked ticks into working to pay him back for the goat he(Bra Anansi) killed.

Language
The official language of Jamaica is Jamaica Standard English, but the true Jamaican language is patois which emerged from the languages of those who came to the island. Years later it has developed to be a colorful language. Patois can easily be understood if time is taken to listen although many of the phrases are unique to Jamaica. The language originally developed as a pidgin. Language, in general, has linguistic features that include phonology, lexicon, grammar, and syntax. However, in creole the sound system is different from that of the English, e.g. patois – hegg, English – egg. The lexicon for patois looks similar to the English but they do not have the same meaning. E.g. belly is used to refer to pregnancy.

Grammar in patois is pluralized by adding “dem” after the noun and syntax is featured in certain elements of a sentence. In patois language, there is an existence of different pronouns specific to men and women. The term 'Gal' was also used in the " Anansi and Tiger" to describe the women they were dating. Gal has different meanings and these meanings come across based on the context they are used in. The term 'Gal' is used in the Jamaican culture to refer to a woman or a girl. In Bro Nancy and Tigar, the term gal was used to describe the woman Tigar and Anansi were dating and this term also made it clear to the reader that it was a woman they were describing as this term is not used to describe men or boys.. Miss/Mrs. are used as honorifics for women, Mrs. is used for women who are married, Miss is used to address  ‘miss Quashiba’ in ‘Bra nancy an tigar’ showing that she was an unmarried woman.

Anancy an Ticks
The story “Anancy and Ticks” is a famous Caribbean folktale about the trickster spider ‘Anancy’, it was first told by Phillip Sherlock in his book 'Anansi the Spider Man' (1956). In the story, Anancy sees an ad in the newspaper about a man looking for a cow to hire. Having no cow himself, Anancy devises a plot to trick his neighbor, Ticks, who owns a cow. To achieve his goal, Anancy kills his own goat and manages to place the blame on Ticks. As payment for the dead goat, Anancy convinces Ticks to agree to not only hire out his cow but to work the cow and hand over the money earned to Anansi until the debt is repaid.

Anancy an Smoke-Pork
In ‘Anancy an Smoke-Pork’, the titular character is a pork-lover and wants a taste of the meat from the large pig owned by his wife. He knows his wife will not slaughter her pig to feed him under normal circumstances, so he comes up with a plan to trick her into doing exactly what he wants. Anancy starts off his plan by feigning a serious, seemingly fatal illness which prompts his wife to call the doctor. Once she leaves to get the doctor, he quickly disguises himself as a doctor and takes a short cut to intercept her. Once she describes Anancy's symptoms to the "doctor", the "doctor" diagnoses Anancy with an illness that can only be cured by eating pork. In desperation, Anancy's wife agrees to kill her prized pig to save her husband's life. Once back home, Anancy (no longer in disguise) pretends to be shocked by the diagnosis and treatment, and initially refuses to eat the pig. After a while he pretends to cave and he is served the pig. He eats bit by bit till he is full, but there is still a large chunk of pork left uneaten. In an effort to not waste the meat, Anancy hangs the pig over a fire to smoke the meat - thus making it last longer. According to the story, this is why people started smoking meats to preserve them.

Bra Nancy an Tigar
‘Bra Nancy an Tigar’ tells the story of Bredda Anancy and Bredda Tigar, who were courting the same woman, Quashiba. To increase the chances of being chosen, Bredda Anancy hatches a scheme to convince Quashiba that his rival, Bredda Tigar is 'old ridin horse' and is therefore beneath her. After he tells Quashiba this detail, he set out to trick Bredda Tigar, so he can prove that his claim is true. Tigar however, hears what Anancy has been saying about him and heads over to his house to confront him. Upon arrival at Anancy's house, Tigar immediately demands that Anancy accompany him to clear his name with Quashiba. However, Anancy responds with groans and complaints of pain, implying that he is sick. He agrees to go with Tigar, but only if he's able to ride Tigar's back. Tigar is fine with this, and and also agrees to Anancy's additional request for Tigar to wear a saddle to make the journey more comfortable. When they arrive at Quashiba's she witnesses Anancy riding Tigar in full riding gear, thus confirming what she was told, that Tigar was an "old ridin horse". Quashiba dismisses Tigar and marries Anancy in the end.

Polyamory
Polyamory is the practice of having multiple intimate relationships, with the full knowledge and consent of all parties involved. Polyamory is not gender-specific and rejects the idea of exclusivity, anyone of any gender can have multiple partners. In ‘anancy an tigar’ it is evident that ‘Mish Quashiba’ was dating anancy and tigar at the same time ("Bredda Anancy an Bredda Tiger was courtn de same gal") although anancy did everything he could to end the relationship between ‘Mish Quashiba’ and Tigar.

Patriarchy
Patriarchy is a socially constructed system where males have primary powers and are the head. It affects many aspects of life from politics, business management, religion, property ownership right down to the family home where men are considered leaders. Male-centeredness, male privilege, and male identity are some characteristics of a patriarchal society. All three stories are male-centered, focusing on Anancy who represents a masculine figure. In anancy and ticks patriarchy was reflected in the form of leadership when anancy gains leadership over ticks which leads back to the representation of manhood in the Caribbean. Caribbean men are referred to as ‘ginal’s’ and use their advantages to get gain.

Caribbean Masculinity
Masculinity refers to the qualities, characteristics or roles considered typical of a boy or man in a society or social context, the context of masculinity may vary on culture (Chevannes 2001). Dr. Natasha Mortley found that Jamaican men are suffering from an identity crisis related to high youths’ unemployment which puts a strain on gender relations and masculinity. She highlighted that men have conflicts, which affects their identity, attitude, and practices. Masculinity also has a lot to do with women, and women can either validate or bring to question how masculine men are. It is also seen in Man Talk by Linden Lewis that in a group of men there is always one that is seen as more dominant and ultimately the stronger man would be seen as more desirable by females this is exactly what happened in Anansi and Tiger. The Female chose Anansi because he was seen as more dominant compared to Tiger based on Anansi's manipulation tactics.

Deception
The deception was evident in ‘Anancy an ticks’ when Anancy deliberately caused ticks to believe he is the cause of his goats’ life when he knew it was to achieve personal gains. Anansi being as smart as he is, knew that asking people for things that are near and dear to them for his own selfish reasons would make them angry and they would say no. So, knowing this Anansi would rather to deceive them in order to make them give him what he wants willingly and without a fight or quarrel. An example of deception was seen in Anansi and Smoke-pork where firstly Anansi deceived his wife into thinking that he was sick. Secondly, he then further deceived her by pretending to be a doctor and making his illness seem more severe just to he could eat her pig. So, he deceived her into thinking that she was saving his life.

Gender theory and Language
Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, expression, and identities of girl’s boys, men, and gender diverse people. Gender ideologies are not fixed it is based on the cultural context. It through gender that individuals learn with is feminine and masculine. It influences how people perceive themselves and each other, how they act and interact. In the Caribbean men are considered "real men" when they are engaged in multiple relationships, but in this case, it is a woman that has more than one partner. In the story 'Bra Nancy an Tiger', Miss Quashiba was dating both Br Anancy and Tiger ( "Bredda Anancy an Bredda Tiger was courtn de same gal"). In Jamaica, it is frowned upon when a woman has multiple sex partners to the extent to which she is referred to as;’ promiscuous, whore, slut’ but one such act for this behaviour can be for the men to maintain her financially. It is also due to this social construction that causes inequality among males and females.

In contemporary society, males dominate for the top or highest position in an organization whilst the women are mostly in the middle of the lowest positions in their majority this is so because patriarchy has instilled such power in society for men to be the leaders/heads. In the story ‘Anancy an ticks’ Anancy took full control of ticks by making him work his cow to get money to pay Anancy for his damage. Anancy was able to take full control over ticks, he could do such an act because he was literate and could understand enough to “study a brain” which means to think about things that could be done to them without them knowing the truth about something especially through misleading information.

‘Jack Mandora me nuh choose none could be interpreted as an individual and his/her combolo (friends). In the event, the story was told to be fun, as a mere division of thought. It was through only good manners to say, “the story is not aimed at you or anyone else, nor am I wishing the same fate on you.” Hence, “Jack Mandora, me nuh choose none.” Jack Mandora represents the doorman of Heaven's door, so it was also to state that they were not in agreement with Anancy's behavior.