The Ethnopoetics of Potheads

This week I was struck by Foley and his explanation of Bauman’s “keys to performance.” He writes, “By invoking these signals the performer communicates via a recognizable shorthand, alerting the audience to the kind of experience in which they will be collectively engaged. Bauman enumerates the following as examples of such keys: (1) special codes, (2) figurative language, (3) parallelism, (4) special formulas, (5) appeals to tradition, and (6) disclaimers of performance.” This definition of sorts opened my imagination to what may be included in the oral poetic tradition. While Foley gives the disclaimer that, “we can find some version of every one of Bauman’s keys in text-based literature and in every-day speech” I have to question to what extent the spoken language can include a signal, a telltale detail, or an encoded message meant for hearers or readers before it becomes oral poetry.

I find myself thinking of the communication between people within small groups or cultures such as the calls the quarterback makes in the huddle, or the signs a catcher in baseball executes before each pitch. Are these not special codes and formulas meant to evoke a specific reaction and performance from the audience? Is this not a visual and oral performance by these athletes?

I have another, much more culturally specific example. Keeping in mind that the definition of culture includes “the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group,” I will now focus on a distinct social group I will identify as “potheads.” While this example may be applicable to all groups of drugs and drug users (do to the illegal quality of their actions, conversations about and around drugs tend to be in code), I will only focus on marijuana and my own personal experiences within the social culture and interaction with encoded messages and performance responses.

But, before I go in to detail, I would like to explain why I have decided to be forthcoming with my previous association with the social group I have identified as potheads. I debated whether or not to reveal this particular piece of my history due to the fear of criticism or complete disregard of my examples and opinions as unscholarly or perhaps inappropriate. Coming from Madison, WI, I’ve experienced a huge culture shock in which I’ve been forced to recognize my liberal open-mindedness in the face of Indiana, PA’s overwhelming conservative nature. While this would be an open subject where I received my undergrad degree, I’m not as sure how it will be received in this much more conservative setting. In the end I decided to share these ideas with you in the hopes of opening your minds and exposing you to different ideas and perhaps ideals in association with oral performance and poetry. This is after all the point of a higher education—sharing ideas and having the strength to persevere in the clutches of diversity. Note, you may think what you wish about my personal character and value system—but please respect my experiences and opinions as valuable. If you choose to view my opinions on this page as un-intellectual please note that I in turn choose to view you to be just as ignorant and self-righteous as those who saw Maria Sabina’s oral poetry (which involves tripping on mushrooms) as unworthy and of heathen sources. That said, here you go…

As an undergraduate my social group of potheads had a form of communication which includes all six of Bauman’s keys to performance. Here is the scene:

The social group of potheads engaged in various conversations throughout a local bar is brought together with one question—“Who has a dustpan?”
Direct attention is brought to the speaker and a specific reaction and performance begins within this social group.
“I have a dustpan, but no broom. Who brought a broom along?”
With the acquisition of a figurative broom, an appeal to tradition has begun. The person with the broom becomes the leader of this social occasion and takes the time to notify the bartender of the group’s intention to clean the beer garden. Here we see a parallelism between cleaning the beer garden and getting high. Everyone within this social group knows the true intentions of the potheads and participates in the performance at hand. Within this social group I know that a dustpan is actually a code for a bowl or a device with which one would smoke marijuana, and that the broom is code for the actual substance being used. I also know that we will not literally be cleaning the beer garden, a fact the bartenders at this particular establishment are aware of as honorary, non-active members of the pothead society. The declaration of the group’s intentions to clean simply serves to protect the privacy of the group’s intentions and actions. In other words, “We’re going to clean the beer garden” means “We are going out back to get high, so if the owner or a cop comes in it would be in all of our best interests if you let us know ASAP so we can postpone the completion of our illegal activities until a more appropriate time.” This resembles what Bauman refers to as a disclaimer of performance in alerting all active members of the society of their expected roles and actions. Upon completion of the cleaning, members of the society return to the front bar and are greeted by the bartender with the question, “Did you get everything cleaned up?”
Here differing answers illustrate the experience of the act of cleaning or getting high. Any member of the society, or even several members, can respond at this point.
“All clean” = we completed our smoking without any danger of trouble
“Too dusty” = we smoked a little but their was some danger of trouble so we put the project on hold
“It was pretty dirty but we took care of it” = we were in direct danger of trouble but smoothed things over with the outsider (usually this involves allowing the outsider to smoke within our society)
“Second shift is on it” = I’m done smoking but there are still members of the society engaging in action
“Most of it, we’ll go back out in a little bit” = we are done for now, and we will let you know before we go out for another round.

This is an oral tradition or performance which I took part in for the better part of four years. While some performers left and graduated and new performers were recruited and became members of the society, the actual performance varied very little. So I ask you, is this not oral poetry? Don’t these words evoke a tradition and specific response by the active audience? Is it possible that these potheads are actually experimenting with and engaging in ethnopoetics and oral performance? I think the appeals to tradition, the coded words, and the specific responses of the society give us our answer.