On 22/02/07, Greg Stafford <Greg_at_9R4k0onI_pcV7ogbCV09sf56nxH8VI8sPHalsuOsYX6MEj08IhyQOP-Th4Es9ohI00oRRZnAPIEZYayIGA.yahoo.invalid> wrote:
>
>
> Wikipedia 2: In the academic discipline of folkloristics the term
> "superstition" is used to denote any folk belief expressed in if/then
> (with an optional "unless" clause) format. If you break a mirror, then
> you will have seven years of bad luck unless you throw all of the
> pieces into a body of running water.
>
We're having a bit of a problem with terminology here. Speaking as someone
who working on a PhD in Folklore Studies (aka Folkloristics) superstition as
a term in popular use tends to mean "something I don't believe in."
Something you believe works is not, therefore, a superstition in your
worldview. Popularly, however, people often take a precautionary principle
with superstitions and avoid prohibitions were possible. A small number as
well actively walk under ladders to "disprove" superstitions.
In my Glorantha, labelling something a superstition is a God Learner
activity because it is a label you put on others' beliefs. If I ever get a
chance to run some 2nd age, I'm toying with a scenario where a foolish God
Learner project starts trying to create superstitions only to have them come
back and bite them for real. I have a somewhat whimsical image of a ladder
demon clumping across the fields followed by seven magpies.
It seems to me that things like lucky charms, measures to avoid the evil
eye, use of fetishes, divinations actions taken to avoid "bad luck" in
Glorantha are more likely than not to have some efficacy. One implication of
this might well be that authorities in established churches might well be
rather hostile to practises they see as "superstitious" if they don't appear
to coincide with the beliefs of organised religion.
Bruce