Out of the Ordinary: Folklore and the Supernatural

Abstract

Out of the Ordinary: Folklore and the SupernaturaL Edited by Barbara Walker. (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1995. Pp. x+ 218, selected bibliography, index. $34.95 cloth, $19.95 paper) Until now, most edited collections on the have been written from a historical, anthropological, or sociological perspective. Folkloristic work on this theme has for the most part been tucked away in journals, making it inaccessible to the general reader and cumbersome for class use. This collection of essays is therefore particularly welcome, as it puts ten articles on various aspects of folk belief and practice regarding the at the disposal of the folklore instructor and the general reader. The book is in part a result of Utah State University's 1991 Fife Conference on folklore and the supernatural, with some articles derived from faculty presentations, plus additional articles the editor solicited from other scholars of the subject. The word supernatural has multiple meanings. As James McClenon explains in his essay Supernatural Experience, Folk Belief, and Spiritual Healing, it emerged from the Enlightenment's separation of reproducible, testable phenomena (part of the natural world) from those that were considered above and beyond nature, and thus not testable or reproducible according to scientific methodology; but in general parlance, it is often used to discredit the beliefs and practices of others. Editor Barbara Walker rightly points out, however, that many things we take for granted are in fact inexplicable-the number pi for example (1). And what is inexplicable according to natural laws in one cultural context is perfectly understandable in another. In other words, what is is culture-specific. This is where this volume excels; it presents a wide range of practices and beliefs from a variety of different cultures: from Native American perceptions of time, space, and interpersonal connections to Taiwanese seances involving ancestor spirits, to the nightmare experience and folk beliefs surrounding it in Hmong immigrant communities in the United States. In all of the articles, the is presented as part of everyday life, not as some mysterious, disconnected, or esoteric force. The beliefs and practices are well contextualized to make sense in the cultural milieus in which they exist. This, along with breadth of cultures covered, makes the book ideal for classroom use in courses on folk religion, folk belief, and the anthropology or sociology of religion. The book is loosely organized into three sections, each consisting of three or four articles: Perception, Belief and Living; Supernatural Power and Other Worlds: Making Contact; and Demons and Gods: Cultural Adaptations and Incorporations-although at times the inclusion of a particular article in one section rather than another seems somewhat arbitrary. One of the most important contributions in this volume is David J. Hufford's essay, Beings Without Bodies: An Experience-Centered Theory of the Belief in Spirits. Here Hufford lays out his experience-centered approach to so-called phenomena. Following his research on the nightmare experience in Newfoundland, Hufford hypothesized that certain supernatural experiences are in fact cross-cultural, somatic experiences which arise independently of preexisting cultural notions and beliefs, though folk beliefs may develop to explain the phenomena. He calls these core experiences, and in this essay he attempts a taxonomy, including the near death experience, or NDE, and the alien abduction experience. Hufford examines the clash and convergence of folk and scientific beliefs in the context of contemporary UFO contact and abduction reports, and notes that scientific knowledge and folk interpretation need not be at odds in attempting to explain this phenomenon. Once again, as in much of his earlier work, he makes a plea for the examination of the phenomenology of belief-the experiences around which beliefs cluster-as a key to understanding belief in spirits and other seemingly experiences. …