Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Crystal Healing Properties

Context:

The informant’s family was very spiritual and held belief in angels. They believe in the healing properties of crystals and nature. Her grandmother, specifically, would often gift crystals and essential oils to her.

Text:

In one of the crystal stores from the informant’s hometown, their family would put their hands on a large crystal for clearing the energy within them. The informant also notes that she has crystals in her car, home, and constantly around her.

Analysis:

This belief is a ritual belief in material culture as crystals act to influence inner emotions and balance. By placing their hands on crystals to “clear energy”, the informant and her family treat crystals as symbolic objects that produce intentional effects. This belief in the power of crystals creates meaning and a sense of comfort as seen in “Placebo Studies and Ritual Healing” by Ted Kaptchuk. The crystals themselves gain power through proximity, mirroring Frazer’s idea of contagious magic. As a belief held amongst the family, the act of buying and displaying crystals reinforces their sense of shared identity.

Knocking on Wood Superstition

Context: The informant considers herself very supposition and aware of what others say. If her or her friends say something she is worried will happen, she and her friends must engage in this superstition.

Text:

A: “Ok, well I am a big believer of knocking on wood. To the point that I will make all of my friends anytime they say it, I will make them knock on wood.”

K: “Do you say it before you don’t want something bad to happen?”

A: “Yeah yeah yeah. So if they say something like ‘Oh this won’t happen” or ‘Hope that doesn’t happen’, I will literally look at them and say ‘Like find some wood’.”

K: “Like a tree or just wood?”

A: “Usually a tree”

Analysis:

This practice is a magical superstition and conversion ritual, where knocking on wood attempts to prevent future bad consequences. These small physical acts try to control for luck and uncertainty. Knocking on wood specifically connects to Frazer’s idea of sympathetic magic as contact with wood or a tree carries a sense of protection. The informant reinforces this behavior amongst her friends to create shared beliefs in smaller folk groups, highlighting the social and relational nature of folklore. This superstition demonstrates how belief is continually performed and situational, helping people manage uncertainty through everyday actions.

University of South Carolina Game Day Tradition: Burning Tiger

Context:

The informant attends the University of South Carolina, which has an intense football rivalry with Clemson University. This ritual is performed a week before the rivalry game each year.

Text:

Before the rivalry game between Clemson and the University of South Carolina, the students in the engineering school build a large tiger out of natural materials. The informant recalls that most recently they built this tiger out of wood. The tiger represents the mascot of Clemson University. The tiger is burned a week before the game occurs on the practice football field in front of all the students.

Analysis:

This ritual is a ritualesque performance that represents a sense of rivalry and shared group identities through the collective action of building and burning the tiger. This act connects to Jack Santino’s idea in “The Carnivalesque and the Ritualesque” that some events intend to create real effects (i.e. USC winning the rivalry game). Additionally, the construction and burning of the tiger reflects a form of homepathic magic that Frazer describes, where destroying a representation of Clemson’s mascot attempts to show superiority over them. This ritual helps reinforce both in-group and out-group boundaries by showing how folklore can strengthen group identity, while simultaneously sowing divisions within larger regional communities.

Kaveri Shankramana Festival

Age: 23

Context:

The informant comes from a cultural community that values agriculture. He comes from a distant line of native farmers and plantation owners. The festival is performed back in the city he is ancestrally from. It is not performed during a specific time, but instead depends on the progression of nature. The informant remembers his mother lamenting on the importance of this festival.

Text:

Kaveri Shankramana celebrates when fresh spring water flows into the Kaveri river. This is an approximate time and people tend to bathe in the river during this festival. Rice is thrown in celebration to honor the goddess Kaveri. A jug of the holy water from Kaveri is kept in each home and when people fall ill, they are to sip from the cup to heal them.

Analysis:

This festival acts as a ritual tied to the time of year according to nature. The acts of bathing in the river and throwing rice turn nature into a sacred, meaningful place that connects the informant to the goddess Kaveri. The use of the stored water for healing invokes the idea of sympathetic magic, as described by James George Frazer. Specifically, the healing property of water reflects contagious magic, in which contact with a sacred source continues to influence others even once separated from the original source itself. As a result, ritual healing appears to produce real perceived effects for those suffering from sickness.

Rituals for Expectant Mothers

Age: 56

Context:

The informant has gone through pregnancy three times and childbirth twice. In each instance, the informant relied on their family during difficult times and found comfort in cultural customs. However, the informant is an immigrant and their experience was influenced by the distance and long travel between them and their family.

Text:

Expectant mothers in India usually must return to their current childhood home to deliver the baby in this house. They must reside here for 3-6 months as they recover from childbirth and settle into their new role. Every day, their family and in-laws with provide them with oil massages and baths to rejuvenate them. The new mothers are fed meal and high-protein meals constantly and told to sleep/rest whenever possible.

Analysis:

This practice is a life-cycle ritual and rite of passage, in which childbirth marks a transition into motherhood. There is separation in the act of returning home, liminality during the recovery period, and reincorporation after the mother re-enters society. The emphasis on care and rest demonstrates how rituals are intentional and promote both mental and physical healing. According to Ted J. Kaptchuk, these performative and symbolic aspects of healing can create real, tangible change. In this way, rituals reinforce cultural values about family responsibility and create communitas, a strong social bond, through caregiving. The informant’s specific experience as an immigrant highlights how folklore adapts to context and yet, traditions persist even when separated from community.