Ozark Superstitions

Download or read book Ozark Superstitions written by Vance Randolph and published by Read Books Ltd. This book was released on 2013-06-18 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The people who live in the Ozark country of Missouri and Arkansas were, until very recently, the most deliberately unprogressive people in the United States. Descended from pioneers who came West from the Southern Appalachians at the beginning of the nineteenth century, they made little contact with the outer world for more than a hundred years. They seem like foreigners to the average urban American, but nearly all of them come of British stock, and many families have lived in America since colonial days. Their material heirlooms are few, but like all isolated illiterates they have clung to the old songs and obsolete sayings and outworn customs of their ancestors. Sophisticated visitors sometimes regard the “hillbilly” as a simple child of nature, whose inmost thoughts and motivations may be read at a glance. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The hillman is secretive and sensitive beyond anything that the average city dweller can imagine, but he isn’t simple. His mind moves in a tremendously involved system of signs and omens and esoteric auguries. He has little interest in the mental procedure that the moderns call science, and his ways of arranging data and evaluating evidence are very different from those currently favored in the world beyond the hilltops. The Ozark hillfolk have often been described as the most superstitious people in America. It is true that some of them have retained certain ancient notions which have been discarded and forgotten in more progressive sections of the United States. It has been said that the Ozarker got his folklore from the Negro, but the fact is that Negroes were never numerous in the hill country, and there are many adults in the Ozarks today who have never even seen a Negro. Another view is that the hillman’s superstitions are largely of Indian origin, and there may be a measure of truth in this; the pioneers did mingle freely with the Indians, and some of our best Ozark families still boast of their Cherokee blood. My own feeling is that most of the hillman’s folk beliefs came with his ancestors from England or Scotland. I believe that a comparison of my material with that recorded by British antiquarians will substantiate this opinion.

Download or read book Ozark Tales and Superstitions written by Phillip W. Steele and published by Pelican Publishing. This book was released on 1983-05-30 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A celebration of authentic Ozark lore with twenty-six tales from Native American legends to stories of outlaws, treasure, and the supernatural. The dramatic history and breathtaking landscape of the Ozarks have fostered a diverse and compelling tradition of storytelling. In Ozark Tales and Superstitions, Western author and historian Phillip Steele collects twenty-six stories that preserve and showcase the rich lore of this region. Here are tales of the supernatural including “Lady of the Valley” and “Monster of Peter Bottom Cave,” Indian legends such as “Legend of the War Eagle” and “Legend of Virgin’s Bluff,” treasure tales, outlaw stories, nature lore, plus a collection of superstitions, moon signs, weather signs, and regional cures and remedies.

Download or read book Ozark Superstitions written by Vance Randolph and published by Franklin Classics. This book was released on 2018-10-15 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Download or read book Ozark Magic and Folklore written by Vance Randolph and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-07-31 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes eye-opening information on yarb doctors, charms, spells, witches, ghosts, weather magic, crops and livestock, courtship and marriage, pregnancy and childbirth, animals and plants, death and burial, and more.

Download or read book Pissing in the Snow and Other Ozark Folktales written by VANCE RANDOLPH and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 1976-11 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The well-known Ozark folklorist gathers together bawdy tales, previously considered unprintable, that provide insight into the region's rich exotic narrative tradition.

Download or read book Down in the Holler written by Vance Randolph and published by . This book was released on 1953 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Down in the Holler, first published in 1953, is a classic study of Ozark folklore. The University of Oklahoma Press is especially pleased to introduce such an invaluable and delightfully written book to a new generation of researchers and Americans entranced by the Ozarks and the folkways of the past. Until World War II the backwoodsmen living in the Ozark Mountains of southern Missouri, northern Arkansas, and eastern Oklahoma were the most deliberately "unprogressive" people in the United States. The descendants of pioneers from the southern Appalachians, they changed their way of life very little during the whole span of the nineteenth century and were able to preserve their customs and traditions in an age of industrialism. When the many attractions of the Ozarks were discovered by "outlanders," the tourists--and television--reached the hinterlands, and the old patterns of speech and life began to fade. In this perceptive book, Vance Randolph, who first visited the Ozarks country in 1899, and his collaborator, George P. Wilson, recapture the speech of the people who lived "down in the holler." Randolph, closely identified with the region for many years, hunted possums with its people and shared their table at the House of Lords (a "kind of tavern" in Joplin). Through the years his hobby became a profession, and he spent years recording the various aspects of Ozark folk speech.

Download or read book Gone to the Grave written by Abby Burnett and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2015-04-03 with total page 511 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before there was a death care industry where professional funeral directors offered embalming and other services, residents of the Arkansas Ozarks—and, for that matter, people throughout the South—buried their own dead. Every part of the complicated, labor-intensive process was handled within the deceased's community. This process included preparation of the body for burial, making a wooden coffin, digging the grave, and overseeing the burial ceremony, as well as observing a wide variety of customs and superstitions. These traditions, especially in rural communities, remained the norm up through the end of World War II, after which a variety of factors, primarily the loss of manpower and the rise of the funeral industry, brought about the end of most customs. Gone to the Grave, a meticulous autopsy of this now vanished way of life and death, documents mourning and practical rituals through interviews, diaries and reminiscences, obituaries, and a wide variety of other sources. Abby Burnett covers attempts to stave off death; passings that, for various reasons, could not be mourned according to tradition; factors contributing to high maternal and infant mortality; and the ways in which loss was expressed though obituaries and epitaphs. A concluding chapter examines early undertaking practices and the many angles funeral industry professionals worked to convince the public of the need for their services.