Plot

In this article, Goldstien attempts to describe the aspect of AIDS in Newfoundland. In order to sufficiently do so, she illustrates three main elements which relate to the expansion of the legend in the province; Cultural variability, localization and contemporary legend. The idea of doing this is to give the reader a general understanding of what stories were told in order to enhance the generation of these legends.
Throughout the article, Goldstien provides examples of different versions of the AIDS legend. There are significant motifs used in these versions that distinguish the versions generated. There is the coffin version in which the man usually lures the woman into getting involved with him, and when she leaves to return home he hands her a box which has a coffin inside with the message “welcome to the world of AIDS”. The lipstick version generally suggests the opposite; the woman lures the man into getting involved with her and in the morning the man will go to the bathroom with a message wrote on the mirror in lipstick “welcome to the world of AIDS”.
The version chosen will reflect cultural assumptions and values, which is what is described as cultural variability. Goldstien provides facts that the coffin version is more prominent in Newfoundland than the lipstick version; 74% of random sample knew about the coffin legend versus the 26% that were aware of the lipstick legend. The original version may not have made sense to Newfoundlander’s, so it was altered to be understandable and meaningful. They often use mainlanders, which are the outsiders, as scapegoats. The Newfoundland version suggests an innocent, hardworking woman goes away on a trip, meets a man, falls in love and engages in sexual intercourse. If they engaged in sexual activity in Newfoundland and retrieved AIDS, the mainlanders would be blamed for the disperse because they are strangers. Newfoundlanders are good, mainlanders are bad. Newfoundland is safe, mainland is a threat.
In part II of the article is where Sider’s main points start. This is where he beings to outline his main points on mummering. He begins with a definition on what mummering is, in case the reader is unaware. If the reader is completely unaware of the aspect of mummering, they would read Sider’s first description and probably be totally confused. “Loud banging at the ‘victims’ kitchen door.” When seeing the word “victim” they may think there is some kind of illegal activity going to happen when they enter the house. “Loud banging” may constitute for an aggressive person or group. They both relate. In trying to avoid this conclusion, Sider quickly exemplifies the fact mummers are always lifelong neighbors and are never strangers even though they would appear to be.
What happens when mummers enter the house? Sider continues to illustrate huge points that unfamiliar readers need to be aware of. Mummers do not enter households and “trash” the place. They enter and dance around, have sociable drinks, eat food and wait for the household to guess their identity. There is no illegal occurrence that takes place during this activity and Sider makes this point very clear.
The second point Sider makes is the aspect of Scoffing. Upon reading this article, I was unfamiliar with what scoffing was. Sider makes a main point regarding scoffing when he describes the term “scoff”. A scoff is formerly known as a meal, usually one that consists of a large amount of food. Another description that he gave was that scoff refers to a party for people from several different families, for which all the food is stolen or “bucked” which in Newfoundland means something a little different than stealing. Sider makes another huge point when he says that food is only taken from another family living in the same community and who is the same “social class” as the person taking the food. An individual who comes from a poor fisher family would not take from a wealthy family, and a wealthy individual would most certainly not take from a poor family.
Sider also acknowledges the connection between mummering and scoffing which is another huge point made in this article. He notes that they lie at the intersection of different forms of alliances within and between families. These alliances can include sentiment and emotion, but also kinship or work and production. These activities basically hindered or helped social relations. In order to further illustrate the alliances, Sider goes in to talk about the organization of the village inshore fishery during the period when the family was the unit of work for the fishery, which is Part III of the article.
In Part IV of the article, Sider describes the truck system and the tal qual system. Due to reading the first article “In Between History and Tomorrow: Making and Breaking Everyday Life in Newfoundland.”, I am very familiar with both of these systems, but he describes it because not all of the readers would have read that previous article. He thoroughly describes each system which is important so that the reader will know what these systems are and what they were used for.
In Part V of the article, Sider illustrates the diminishing of the two customs (mummering and scoffing). This is a major point because readers may understand why they haven’t been familiar with either of them and it would be due to the fact that hardly anyone participates in them anymore. For example, I knew what mummering was because it still occurs in my area but not very often. I was completely unaware of scoffing upon reading this article because it was not something that I was introduced to. It did not happen in my area and if it did, it would not go over well. These customs are diminishing and if we ask people in generations from now, they probably will not know what either one of these customs are.
The last main point that Sider presents in this article is answering “Why do outport Newfoundlander’s mum and scoff?” He answers by illustrating that customs do things. They are connected to people who participate in them. It becomes their social root for some people. The second answer that he illustrates is the connected between customs and culture. It is important for Sider to illustrate this because reader’s may often times wonder while interpreting this article why people do the things that are being described. They may not realize it, but it is a true statement when people say it is part of you inheritance.
Aside from the main points outlined in this article, which are relevant in understanding the article, I have generated a few questions based on a couple aspects that were discussed.
1.) Why doesn’t Sider talk more about the women during that era? He did mention in Part I that the mothers, wives, sisters and young children salted and dried the fish, preparing them for fall delivery to the merchant. He also mentioned them again during the explanation of kinship organization. The women were part of the shore crowd, there were usually three or four needed, and they were not paid directly (it depended on their father or brother’s catch) Sider continues to describe how men interact during the off season, but what about the women? What do they do during off season? How do they manage work life with home life? (because everyone knows back then the women did all the cooking and cleaning). In my opinion, there is too much focus on the men, although it is proven they worked extremely hard and it is important to put emphasis on that, but it almost feels like women were minor in this article.
2.) In the context of scoffing, how would people actually steal the goods? Sider gives a thorough description of scoffing, but fails to mention anything about how the goods would be stolen, or bucked. Why didn’t Sider expand on this context and provide an in-depth example? Would people wait until early hours in the morning? Would they do it in broad daylight? Would they go back numerous times in one scoff? Would they get someone else to do it for them just in case they get caught? What do they bring with them? Does anyone get really hurt or angry buy having their food stolen? Sider mentions that the individual(s) buck enough for it to hurt, but how hurt do they get? Do they seek revenge other than stealing back from them? A lot of unanswered questions came to me when reading about scoffing and it may be because I am so unfamiliar with the custom. I will definitely do more research into it because it seems very interesting.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this article. I can relate to the mummering where I am from. Although it is not a common thing, my family still sometimes go downstairs, dress up and come up dancing like mummers would. I really appreciated the point in the article when Sider referenced the “abundant Sunday dinner”. The traditional Sunday dinner is still a huge thing in my family. My grandmother faithfully cooks every Sunday, either for a small or big crowd. Sider’s descriptions are very thorough and interesting to read, which is why this article appealed to me more than the others. He covers most aspects that are needed in order for the reader to understand the points he is attempting to make. This is extremely important when trying to keep the reader interested and informed, and Sider productively does that. As a new reader of Sider’s work I am impressed with his systematic descriptions and approach in his work and I look forward to reading more of his writing!