DOCSLIB.ORG

O Livro Dos Mediuns

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
O Livro Dos Mediuns – Third Edition – THE MEDIUMS’ BOOK THE MEDIUMS’ BOOK or MANUAL FOR MEDIUMS AND EVOKERS Experimental Spiritism THE MEDIUMS’ BOOK or MANUAL FOR MEDIUMS AND EVOKERS Content SPECIAL TEACHING BY THE SPIRITS CONCERNING THE THEORY OF ALL THE GENRES OF MANIFESTATIONS, THE MEANS OF COMMUNICATING WITH THE INVISIBLE WORLD, THE DEVELOPMENT OF MEDIUMSHIP, THE DIFFICULTIES AND PITFALLS THAT MAY BE ENCOUNTERED IN THE PRACTICE OF SPIRITISM Comprising the Continuation of the Spirits’ Book By Allan Kardec Translated by Darrel W. Kimble with Marcia M. Saiz Copyright © 2009 by INTERNATIONAL SPIRITIST COUNCIL SGAN Q. 909 – Conjunto F 70790-090 – Brasilia (DF) – Brazil All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private use without prior written permission of the publisher. ISBN 978-85-98161-82-2 Original Title: LE LIVRE DES MÉDIUMS OU GUIDE DES MÉDIUMS ET DES ÉVOCATEURS (Paris, 15 January 1861) Translated by Darrel W. Kimble with Marcia M. Saiz Cover design by: Luciano Carneiro Holanda Layout: Rones José Silvano de Lima Edition of INTERNATIONAL SPIRITIST COUNCIL SGAN Q. 909 – Conjunto F 70790-090 – Brasilia (DF) – Brazil www.edicei.com [email protected] +55 61 3038-8400 Sales: + 55 61 3038 8425 Third Edition 10/2011 INTERNATIONAL DATA FOR CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION (ICP) K27g Kardec, Allan, 1804-1869. The Mediums’ Book or Guide to mediums and evokers: experimental spiritism / by Allan Kardec; [translated by Darrel W. Kimble and Marcia M. Saiz]. – Brasilia, DF (Brazil): International Spiritist Council, 2011. 518 p. ; 21 cm Translated from: Le Livre des Médiums ou Guide des médiums et des évocateurs “The Spirits’ special teaching on the theory of all types of manifestations, the means of communication with the invisible world, the development of mediumship, and the difficulties and obstacles that may be found in the practice of Spiritism.” “It is the sequel to The Spirits’ Book” ISBN 978-85-98161-82-2 1. Mediums. 2. Spiritism. I. International Spiritist Council. II. Title. CDD: 133.9 CDU: 133.7 Contents Translators’ Preface ................................................................11 Anna Blackwell’s Preface ........................................................13 Introduction ..........................................................................19 PART ONE Preliminary Observations Chapter I – Are There Spirits? ...............................................27 Chapter II – The Extraordinary and the Supernatural ...........35 Chapter III – Methodology ...................................................47 Chapter IV – Theories ..........................................................63 PART TWO Spirit Manifestations Chapter I – The Action of Spirits upon Matter .....................87 Chapter II – Physical Manifestations and Turning Tables .....95 Chapter III – Intelligent Manifestations ................................99 Chapter IV – Explanation of the Physical Manifestations ...103 Movements and Suspensions; Noises ........................................103 Increase and Decrease in the Weight of Objects ......................115 Chapter V – Spontaneous Physical Manifestations ..............117 Noises, Racket and Disturbances .............................................117 The Hurling of Objects ...........................................................125 The Phenomenon of Apportation ...........................................131 A Spirit’s Dissertation on Apportation .....................................132 Chapter VI – Visual Manifestations .....................................143 Questions concerning Apparitions ..........................................143 Theoretical Essay on Apparitions ............................................152 Globular Spirits .......................................................................157 The Hallucination Theory ......................................................160 Chapter VII – Bi-Corporeality and Transfiguration .............165 Apparitions of Spirits of the Living ..........................................165 Spirit Doubles – St. Alfonso of Liguori and St. Anthony of Padua ......................................................................................169 Vespasian ................................................................................171 Transfiguration ........................................................................172 Invisibility ...............................................................................175 Chapter VIII – The Laboratory of the Invisible World ........177 Spirit Clothing; The Spontaneous Formation of Tangible Objects ...................................................................................177 The Modification of the Properties of Matter ..........................181 Curative Magnetic Action .......................................................185 Chapter IX – Haunted Places ..............................................187 Chapter X – The Nature of Communications .....................193 Crude Communications ..........................................................194 Frivolous Communications .....................................................194 Serious Communications ........................................................195 Instructive Communications ...................................................196 Chapter XI – Sematology and Typtology ............................199 Chapter XII – Pneumatography or Direct Writing Pneumatophony ..................................................................205 Direct Writing .........................................................................205 Pneumatophony ......................................................................209 Chapter XIII – Psychography ..............................................211 Indirect Psychography: Baskets and Planchettes ......................211 Direct or Manual Psychography ..............................................214 Chapter XIV – Mediums .....................................................217 Physical Effects Mediums ........................................................218 Electrical Persons .....................................................................222 Sensitive or Impressionable Mediums ......................................222 Hearing Mediums ...................................................................223 Speaking Mediums ..................................................................224 Seeing Mediums ......................................................................224 Somnambulistic Mediums .......................................................228 Healing Mediums ...................................................................230 Pneumatographical Mediums ..................................................233 Chapter XV – Writing or Psychographic Mediums ..............235 Mechanical Mediums ..............................................................236 Intuitive Mediums ..................................................................237 Semi-Mechanical Mediums .....................................................238 Inspired Mediums ...................................................................238 Prescient Mediums ..................................................................240 Chapter XVI – Special Mediums .........................................241 Special Aptitudes of Mediums .................................................241 Synoptic Table of the Different Varieties .................................244 Varieties of Writing Mediums ..................................................249 Chapter XVII – The Development of Mediums ..................261 The Development of Mediumship ..........................................261 Changes in Handwriting .........................................................274 The Loss and Suspension of Mediumship ...............................274 Chapter XVIII – Problems and Dangers of Mediumship ....279 The Influence of the Practice of Mediumship on the Health, the Mind and Children ...........................................................279 Chapter XIX – The Role of Mediums in Communications .283 The Influence of the Medium’s Spirit ......................................283 The Theory of Inert Mediums ................................................287 The Aptitude of Certain Mediums for Things They Do Not Know: Languages, Music, Drawing, etc. .................................288 A Spirit’s Dissertation on the Role of Mediums .......................292 Chapter XX – The Medium’s Moral Influence ....................299 Various Questions ...................................................................299 A Spirit’s Dissertation concerning Moral Influence ..................306 Chapter XXI – The Influence of the Surroundings .............311 Chapter XXII – Mediumship in Animals ............................315 A Spirit’s Dissertation on the Issue ..........................................317 Chapter XXIII – Obsession .................................................323 Simple Obsession ....................................................................324 Fascination ..............................................................................324 Subjugation .............................................................................326 Causes of Obsession ................................................................327
Load more

Recommended publications
  • (2011), I Found a Relationship Between a Local “Vanishing Hitchhiker” Legend and a Murder That Took Place Near Owego, New York About 180 Years Ago
    THE WHITE LADY O F DEVIL ’S ELBOW ELI za BETH TU C KER While doing research for my book Haunted Southern Tier (2011), I found a relationship between a local “Vanishing Hitchhiker” legend and a murder that took place near Owego, New York about 180 years ago. This legend, “The White Lady of Devil’s Elbow,” raises an interesting question. To what extent can speculation about a violent death that happened many years ago influence the development of a local legend that belongs to a migratory legend pattern? This essay will explore the development of “The White Lady of Devil’s Elbow” from the early 1900s to the present, examining legend texts and reports of “White Lady” pranks played by teenagers. It will also delve into the White Lady’s symbolic meaning, in an effort to explain why she has been important to young people in upstate New York for many years. Near Owego, New York on Route 17C, some people who have driven past a hill called Devil’s Elbow have claimed to have startling experiences. Legends about these experiences describe a young woman wearing a long white dress. Narrators who learned her story in the early twentieth century have described her as a young Victorian lady carrying calling cards who travels in a horse-drawn carriage. In the 1980s, 1990s, and early twenty-first century, adolescent and young adult narrators have described her as a prom queen or a bride. Before vanishing, she asks the driver to stop at the bottom of Devil’s Elbow Hill. When the driver goes to a nearby house to ask about the young woman, he learns that she died in an accident on the hill many years ago.
    [Show full text]
  • By Hans Corneel De Roos, MA Email: [email protected] Dedicated to Richie, Jane and Jiven, Who Shared the Excitement of This Strange Discovery with Me
    WAS THE PREFACE TO THE SWEDISH DRACULA VERSION WRITTEN BY A PRIEST? BERNHARD WADSTRÖM AND THE “WHITE LADY” by Hans Corneel de Roos, MA Email: [email protected] Dedicated to Richie, Jane and Jiven, who shared the excitement of this strange discovery with me. Note: References to the Swedish text of the Dagen variant of Mörkrets makter are given in [square brackets], indicating the page numbers as given in the newspaper serialization. For the section describing Harker’s adventures in Transylvania (up to the middle of page 196), the Dagen and the Aftonbladets Halfvecko- upplaga variants have the same text and identical page numbers; in fact, these serializations must have been printed from the same matrices. The Tip-Top republication of 1916-1918 was typeset in a different format, without continuous page numbers. Note: The Icelandic text of Makt myrkranna and the Swedish text of the variants of Mörkrets makter are in the public domain; my translations of these texts and my comments are protected by international copyright laws. Hans Corneel de Roos | 26 May 2018 | Vamped.org | World Dracula Day Special | Was the Preface to the Swedish Dracula Version Written by a Priest? Bernhard Wadström and the “White Lady” | Page 2 WAS THE PREFACE TO THE SWEDISH DRACULA VERSION WRITTEN BY A PRIEST? BERNHARD WADSTRÖM AND THE “WHITE LADY” by Hans Corneel de Roos, MA For 52 months now, the question whether Bram Stoker personally contributed to the modified plot and the changed style of Makt myrkranna, the Icelandic version of Dracula, has haunted me. A surprising discovery I made at the start of May 2018 now throws a new light on the matter and dramatically narrows down the options.
    [Show full text]
  • Cinemeducation Movies Have Long Been Utilized to Highlight Varied
    Cinemeducation Movies have long been utilized to highlight varied areas in the field of psychiatry, including the role of the psychiatrist, issues in medical ethics, and the stigma toward people with mental illness. Furthermore, courses designed to teach psychopathology to trainees have traditionally used examples from art and literature to emphasize major teaching points. The integration of creative methods to teach psychiatry residents is essential as course directors are met with the challenge of captivating trainees with increasing demands on time and resources. Teachers must continue to strive to create learning environments that give residents opportunities to apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information (1). To reach this goal, the use of film for teaching may have advantages over traditional didactics. Films are efficient, as they present a controlled patient scenario that can be used repeatedly from year to year. Psychiatry residency curricula that have incorporated viewing contemporary films were found to be useful and enjoyable pertaining to the field of psychiatry in general (2) as well as specific issues within psychiatry, such as acculturation (3). The construction of a formal movie club has also been shown to be a novel way to teach psychiatry residents various aspects of psychiatry (4). Introducing REDRUMTM Building on Kalra et al. (4), we created REDRUMTM (Reviewing [Mental] Disorders with a Reverent Understanding of the Macabre), a Psychopathology curriculum for PGY-1 and -2 residents at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. REDRUMTM teaches topics in mental illnesses by use of the horror genre. We chose this genre in part because of its immense popularity; the tropes that are portrayed resonate with people at an unconscious level.
    [Show full text]
  • The Pennsylvania State University
    The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School GHOSTS AND THE IMAGINED PAST A Dissertation in Sociology by Christine Bucior © 2019 Christine Bucior Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2019 The dissertation of Christine Bucior was reviewed and approved* by the following: Alan Sica Professor of Sociology Dissertation Advisor Chair of Committee Gary J. Adler Assistant Professor of Sociology Jeffery T. Ulmer Professor of Sociology and Criminology Associate Department Head, Department of Sociology and Criminology Stephen Browne Liberal Arts Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences Jennifer Van Hook Roy C. Buck Professor of Sociology and Demography Director, Graduate Program in Sociology *Signatures are on file at the Graduate School ii Abstract When persons tell ghost stories, they imagine the past. Ghost stories are complete when they include both an account of paranormal happenings and an account of previous, this-worldly events that ghost-storytellers can use to explain those happenings. But ghost-storytelling differs from other activities in which persons imagine the past (like history education, monumentation, and museum-work). For one, there are no barriers to ghost-storytelling. For two, ghost- storytellers do not set out to imagine the past. They do so because the past is useful for their storytelling purposes. Hence, ghost-storytelling gives a “bottom up” view of the past; it shows what ordinary persons, as part of their unselfconscious assumptions about social life, think the past was like. I explore what that “bottom up” view of the past looks like in Pennsylvania. I ask who it includes.
    [Show full text]
  • OS FANTASMAS DA FOTOGRAFIA E DO CINEMA PHOTOGRAPHY, CINEMA, and the GHOSTLY Processo De Revisão N
    RCL — Revista de Comunicação e Linguagens e Linguagens Comunicação de — Revista RCL 53 ISSN 2183-7198 ISSN Journal of Communication and Languages Communication of Journal 2020 Fall/Winter N.53 (2020) ISSN 2183-7198 N.53 (2020) ISSN Outono/Inverno OS FANTASMAS DA FOTOGRAFIA E DO CINEMA PHOTOGRAPHY, CINEMA, AND THE GHOSTLY José Bértolo Margarida Medeiros (Eds.) 1 FICHA TÉCNICA EDITORIAL INFORMATION Revista de Comunicação Frequência Frequency e Linguagens Semestral bi-annual Journal of Communication Publicação em acesso livre and Languages Publication in open access — OS FANTASMAS DA FOTOGRAFIA E DO CINEMA PHOTOGRAPHY, CINEMA, AND THE GHOSTLY Processo de revisão N. 53 Review process Revisão cega por pares double blind peer review Direcção Editors-in-Chief ISSN Margarida Medeiros 2183-7198 ICNOVA e Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade DOI Nova de Lisboa https://doi.org/10.34619/55s6-rw65 [email protected] Teresa Mendes Flores Endereço da Redação ICNOVA e Faculdade de Ciências Journal address Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova Instituto de Comunicação da NOVA de Lisboa e Universidade Lusófona Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas [email protected] Universidade Nova de Lisboa Avenida de Berna, 26-C | 1069-061 Lisboa E-mail: [email protected] Editores deste número URL: www.icnova.fcsh.unl.pt This issue Editors José Bértolo Design Universidade de Lisboa, Tomás Gouveia Faculdade de Letras Centro de Estudos Comparatistas Capa Cover [email protected] Fotografia de Staveley Bulford, 1921 Margarida Medeiros Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade Revista de Comunicação e Linguagens de Ciências Sociais e Humanas. Journal of Communication and Languages Instituto de Comunicação da NOVA www.fcsh.unl.pt/rcl/index.php/rcl/index [email protected] Edições anteriores a 2017 Last issues www.icnova.fcsh.unl.pt/revista-de- comunicacao-e-linguagens/ Este trabalho está licenciado sob a Licença Creative Commons Atribuição-NãoComercial 4.0 Internacional.
    [Show full text]
  • The Mediums' Book
    THE MEDIUMS’ BOOK THE MEDIUMS’ BOOK or MANUAL FOR MEDIUMS AND EVOKERS Experimental Spiritism THE MEDIUMS’ BOOK or MANUAL FOR MEDIUMS AND EVOKERS Content SPECIAL TEACHING BY THE SPIRITS CONCERNING THE THEORY OF ALL THE GENRES OF MANIFESTATIONS, THE MEANS OF COMMUNICATING WITH THE INVISIBLE WORLD, THE DEVELOPMENT OF MEDIUMSHIP, THE DIFFICULTIES AND PITFALLS THAT MAY BE ENCOUNTERED IN THE PRACTICE OF SPIRITISM Comprising the Continuation of the Spirits’ Book By Allan Kardec Translated by Darrel W. Kimble with Marcia M. Saiz Copyright © 2009 by INTERNATIONAL SPIRITIST COUNCIL SGAN Q. 909 – Conjunto F 70790-090 – Brasilia (DF) – Brazil All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private use without prior written permission of the publisher. ISBN 978-85-98161-82-2 Original Title: LE LIVRE DES MÉDIUMS OU GUIDE DES MÉDIUMS ET DES ÉVOCATEURS (Paris, 15 January 1861) Translated by Darrel W. Kimble with Marcia M. Saiz Cover design by: Luciano Carneiro Holanda Layout: Rones José Silvano de Lima Edition of INTERNATIONAL SPIRITIST COUNCIL SGAN Q. 909 – Conjunto F 70790-090 – Brasilia (DF) – Brazil www.edicei.com [email protected] +55 61 3038-8400 Sales: + 55 61 3038 8425 Third Edition 10/2011 INTERNATIONAL DATA FOR CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION (ICP) K27g Kardec, Allan, 1804-1869. The Mediums’ Book or Guide to mediums and evokers: experimental spiritism / by Allan Kardec; [translated by Darrel W. Kimble and Marcia M.
    [Show full text]
  • Haunting the Bathroom
    Hugvísindasvi! Haunting the Bathroom Vengeful Ghosts in Japanese Contemporary Legegnds Ritger! til BA-prófs í Austur-Asíufræ!um Elísabet Kristjana Grétarsdóttir Maí 2012 Háskóli Íslands Hugvísindasvi! Austur-Asíufræ!i Haunting the Bathrooms Vengeful Ghosts in Japanese Contemporary Legends Ritger! til BA-prófs í Austur-Asíufræ!um Elísabet Kristjana Grétarsdóttir Kt.: 240985-4119 Lei!beinandi: Gunnella "orgeirsdóttir Maí 2012 Abstract The main focus of this essay is on 4 contemporary legends which all have the same subject; Vengeful ghosts in Japanese contemporary legends. The author’s interest in this particular subject was awoken while studying in Fukuoka Japan, where these legends seemed to be a popular interest amongst the public, or at least they thought it to be a good idea to share these legends with a foreigner. In this essay a general introduction is given to the term contemporary legends is explained with the help of Dr. Jan Harold Brunand who is a known folklorist and has written a number of books on the subject. Then the vengeful Japanese ghosts are introduced into the essay, their appearance and behavior, followed by the four legends chosen, Toire no Hanako-san, Aka Manto, Teke-Teke or Kashima Reiko and Kuchisake- Onna. Samples of western stories are also mentioned as to show that there are similar stories from other places of the world. As well as written research an online survey was conducted and shared with native Japanese where they were asked if they knew and believed in the four legends cited in this essay. Stories and believes of co-students and others in Japan were also taken into consideration.
    [Show full text]
  • Ghostlore and the Creation of Virginia History Alena R
    University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School July 2017 The ommonC Uncanny: Ghostlore and the Creation of Virginia History Alena R. Pirok University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the United States History Commons Scholar Commons Citation Pirok, Alena R., "The ommonC Uncanny: Ghostlore and the Creation of Virginia History" (2017). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6929 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Common Uncanny: Ghostlore and the Creation of Virginia History By Alena R. Pirok A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Department of History College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Philip Levy, Ph.D. K. Stephen Prince, Ph.D. S. Elizabeth Bird, Ph.D. Julia King, Ph.D. Date of Approval: May 25, 2017 Key words: Public History, Thanatourism, Dark Tourism, The Old Dominion, Hauntings Copyright ©2017, Alena R. Pirok DEDICATION To the hosts, tour guides, storytellers, curators, volunteers, and fans who knew Virginia’s spectral history all along. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many people who contributed to this dissertation in comments, support, direction and encouragement. I would like to name them all, but for lack of room I will name a few.
    [Show full text]
  • Cultural Appropriation in Contemporary Neopaganism and Witchcraft
    The University of Maine DigitalCommons@UMaine Honors College Spring 5-2017 Cultural Appropriation in Contemporary Neopaganism and Witchcraft Kathryn Gottlieb University of Maine Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/honors Part of the Anthropology Commons, and the Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Gottlieb, Kathryn, "Cultural Appropriation in Contemporary Neopaganism and Witchcraft" (2017). Honors College. 304. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/honors/304 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors College by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CULTURAL APPROPRIATION IN CONTEMPORARY WITCHCRAFT AND NEOPAGANISM by Kathryn A. Gottlieb A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for a Degree with Honors (Anthropology and Sociology) The Honors College University of Maine May 2017 Advisory Committee: Lisa K. Neuman, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Native American Studies, Advisor Sarah Harlan-Haughey, Assistant Professor of English and CLAS Honors Preceptor Nancy Lewis, Instructor, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies Darren Ranco, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Chair of Native American Programs Katrina Wynn, Archivist and Humanities Professional Abstract This thesis examines the discourse surrounding cultural appropriation in contemporary witchcraft and neopaganism, particularly online. The aim of this thesis is to look at how cultural appropriation became such a central topic in the witch and neopagan community and to see what can be learned about the community as a whole from this discourse. Definitions, neutralization techniques, and the development of alternative practices and terminologies are all discussed, as well as how cultural appropriation relates to the history of witchcraft as a whole.
    [Show full text]
  • The Spiritist Magazine
    1858 The Spiritist Magazine Allan Kardec ipeak instituto de pesquisas espíritas allan kardec Allan Kardec The Spiritist Magazine Journal of Psychological Studies January 1858 Preface to the English Edition The Spiritist Magazine was written and published by Allan Kardec from January 1858 to April 1869. Kardec died on March 31st, 1869. He had finished the April 1869 issue of the Magazine which was published after his death. In total there are 136 monthly fascicles of the Magazine, bundled in volumes of 12 fascicles per year, yielding 12 volumes. It is the largest spiri- tist productionof Allan Kardec. In The Mediums’ Book, part I, chapter III, about The Method, the author makes the following observation about the Magazine: “Diverse col- lection of facts, theoretical explanations and isolated sections, that comple- ment the scope of what is found in the two preceding works (The Mediums’ Book and The Spirits’ Book), forming in a certain way their application.” While complementing the two main books of the Spiritist Doctrine, and showing their most important applications, the Magazine is indispen- sable to all those willing to have an in-depth understanding of Kardec’s thought. It is the most comprehensive piece of work about the spiritist move- ment of the XIX century, containing the formation and modus operandi of the spiritist groups as well as statistics about the adepts around the world. In addition to the profound study of the spiritist theory and the expla- nations about several questions raised by the spiritists, the Magazine shows the evolution of Kardec’s thought during the construction of the Spiritist Science.
    [Show full text]
  • The Challenge of American Folklore to the Humanities
    humanities Article The Challenge of American Folklore to the Humanities Simon J. Bronner School of Humanities, American Studies Program, The Pennsylvania State University, Middletown, PA 17057-4898, USA; [email protected] Received: 16 November 2017; Accepted: 16 February 2018; Published: 17 February 2018 Abstract: American Folklore consists of traditional knowledge and cultural practices engaged by inhabitants of the United States below Canada and above Mexico. American folklorists were influenced by nineteenth-century European humanistic scholarship that identified in traditional stories, songs, and speech among lower class peasants an artistic quality and claim to cultural nationalism. The United States, however, appeared to lack a peasant class and shared racial and ethnic stock associated in European perceptions with the production of folklore. The United States was a relatively young nation, compared to the ancient legacies of European kingdoms, and geographically the country’s boundaries had moved since its inception to include an assortment of landscapes and peoples. Popularly, folklore in the United States is rhetorically used to refer to the veracity, and significance, of cultural knowledge in an uncertain, rapidly changing, individualistic society. It frequently refers to the expressions of this knowledge in story, song, speech, custom, and craft as meaningful for what it conveys and enacts about tradition in a future-oriented country. The essay provides the argument that folklore studies in the United States challenge Euro-centered humanistic legacies by emphasizing patterns associated with the American experience that are (1) democratic, (2) vernacular, and (3) incipient. Keywords: folklore; folklorist; folkloristics; tradition; folktale; folksong; legend; joke; narrative; performance; practice theory; speech; ritual; rites of passage; internet; romantic nationalism; United States 1.
    [Show full text]
  • About Mary': Children's Use of the Toilet Ghost Story As a Mechanism
    ‘All About Mary’: Children’s use of the toilet ghost story as a mechanism for dealing with fear, but fear of what? Marc Armitage A paper originally published in Contemporary Legend, n.s. 9 (2006): 1-27 Early in the 1990s I was walking around the grounds of a primary school in the north of England (in my role as an independent children’s play consultant and advisor) making a play audit – an assessment of the way children were using the available play-space.1 One of the children helping me pointed to a part of the school building and told me the story of a character said to live there. At the time the story seemed insignificant; I made a note of it and took the conversation no further. Six weeks later, the same character appeared during a play audit at a primary school in a different part of the country. Here the story was almost word-for-word the one I had been told at the first school, and, intriguingly, the central character of the story was said to occupy the same part of the school building. I decided, therefore, to add a question about this character to the list I would ask at the six play audits due to be carried out in schools across the United Kingdom that term. The character was mentioned in four out of the six and in all four cases the story was very similar and the location within each school was the same. All the stories told by the children featured what some people call ‘toilet ghosts’ – a frightening character that resides in a toilet block at school.
    [Show full text]