Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro - Paperback

by Newbell Niles Puckett (Author)

2022 Reprint of the 1926 Edition. Illustrated with Photographs. Exact facsimile of the original edition and not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. This is a book of black folklore and superstition, voodoo and conjure, magic and religion, songs and wonders. The author's aim has been to present these folk-beliefs, to show their origin whenever possible, and to indicate some of the general principles governing the transmission and content of folklore in general as a means of establishing better relations between the races. Originally produced as a dissertation for a Ph.D. at Yale, this remarkable history of Black folklore and superstition details Negro folk beliefs, indicates their origin whenever possible, and proposes some of the general principles governing the transmission and content of folklore in general.

Contents: I. Practical and emotional backgrounds -- II. Burial customs, ghosts and witches -- III. Voodooism and conjuration -- IV. Voodoism and conjuration, continued -- V. Positive control-signs: minor charms and cures -- VI. Negative control-signs: taboos -- VII. Prophetic signs or omens -- VIII. Christianity and superstition: conclusion -- IX. References cited -- X. List of informants. Index.