Randolph and his informants share a lot of contradictory information when talking about witches.
Some people call any sort of magical operation “witchcraft” while the person performing the operation most likely thinks of what they are doing in a completely different way. Part of the problem with identifying “witchcraft” lies in just how variable the word can be. Randolph’s book is of special interest to Modern Witches because it has led some people to believe that the magical practitioners he writes about self identified that way (as witches). Culturally, the Ozarks have a lot in common with the people of Appalachia, and their magical practices reflect that. Geographically isolated from much of the country until the internet highway system and without much in the way of major urban areas, the people of the Ozarks (an area that stretches from southeastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas into Oklahoma) developed (or perhaps more accurately “maintained) a wide array of superstitions and magical practices. The Ozarks are a special slice of Americana. Though he did not grow up in the Ozarks, he lived there for the majority of his adult life and clearly loved the place and its people.
The book’s author, Vance Randolph (1892-1980), was a journalist, magazine writer, and folklorist. It’s especially popular in Traditional Witchcraft circles these days and is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of magic and the occult in America. First published in 1947 by Columbia University Press, Superstitions was eventually republished in 1964 by Dover Publications and his been in print ever since. Why do people like to bring up the Ozarks in connection Witchcraft? Most of that’s due to one book, Ozark Superstitions (though most of us today own it under its “newer” title Ozark Magic & Folklore).
0 kommentar(er)
