The Function of Magic Folk Belief among Texas Coastal Fishermen

Bibliographic Data

ID2789607
AuthorsPatrick B Mullen (corresponding author)
Year1969
Volume82
Issue325
Pages214
Publication date1969-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of American Folklore (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-8715 • E-ISSN: 1535-1882
PublisherUniversity of Illinois Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2307/538709
OpenAlexW2053853913
LanguageEN
Citations received10

FOLKLORISTS have collected many folk beliefs and superstitions in the United States, but few collectors have placed the items in their social context and few scholars have attempted to analyze the functions of modern superstitious behavior. Collections of superstitions most often are lists of beliefs with perhaps the name of the informant and collector added. Usually there is no indication whether the person who reported the item believes or practices it. This information is necessary for any analysis of superstitious behavior, and the lack of contextual material may explain the dearth of studies of the function of magic among modern people. Folklorists have shown more interest in collecting superstitions than in analyzing them, while anthropologists have concentrated their attention on superstitious behavior among primitive groups. The approach I have used here combines the collecting procedures of folklorists with the analytic methods of anthropologists in an attempt to get complete contextual information for a thorough study of a particular group. The most fruitful way to apply this approach is to use a group that has a strong tradition of folk beliefs and to question the members of the group as to their attitudes toward their own magical practices. Several modern occupational groupsminers, sailors, construction workers, and fishermen-have systems of superstitious beliefs that stand out from the rest of society. Of these groups, fishermen are representative, having maintained a viable pattern of folk belief in partial contradiction to modern American society. I chose the fishermen of the Texas Gulf coast because they were accessible and had not been the subject of any previous folklore collections. My field work was done in the summer and fall of I967, and I collected 155 different items of folk belief as reported by i21 fishermen. I tried to get the complete social background of the informants as well as their attitudes to

Astronomy · Biology · Function (biology) · Geography · MAGIC (telescope) · Physics · Archaeology and Natural History · Community and Sustainable Development · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · History

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