Black Ritual Insulting in the Americas: On the Art of "VociferaR” (Colombia), "Vacilar” (Ecuador) and "Snapping”, "Sounding” or "Playing the Dozens” (U.S.A.)

Abstract

Dollard (1939), Abrahams (1962) and Labov (1974) were among the first to study an important ritualized speech event called "signifying” (also known as "the dozens”, "sounding”, "joaning”, "snapping”, etc.). Traditionally limited Black North American sub-culture, "signifying” typically consists of an exchange of ritualized insults directed at an opponent’s mother or relative. The practice can also include personal insults of a simpler form. Representative examples are: "If ugliness were bricks, your mother would be a housing project.” "Your mother is so ugly, she had to find a beautician that makes house calls.” African slaves also appear to have brought this practice to other parts of the Americas (Cuba, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, etc.). But to date, scholars of Latin America have paid virtually no attention to the phenomenon, and the few who did report on it failed to connect it to the North American tradition of "signifying”. This study first reviews the basic tenets of "signifying” as practiced in the United States. Thereafter, a series of texts recorded by the author in Afro-Colombian and Afro-Ecuadorian communities will be examined in order to illustrate that "signifying” is indeed a Black pan-American (rather than simply North-American) phenomenon.