tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post7359561456355269044..comments2024-03-28T05:28:46.610-04:00Comments on NEW ENGLAND FOLKLORE: We Don't Celebrate Thanksgiving Because of The PilgrimsPeter Muisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05939949561996555115noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-13976316382575289042019-11-24T10:37:15.914-05:002019-11-24T10:37:15.914-05:00Bell's follow-up isn't quite ready to go t...Bell's follow-up isn't quite ready to go to press yet, so he tells me. I am impatient to read it once it's out.Robert Mathiesenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09189466855334778278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-23922178537334839032019-11-24T09:34:14.262-05:002019-11-24T09:34:14.262-05:00Robert, I've read FOOD FOR THE DEAD (which is ...Robert, I've read FOOD FOR THE DEAD (which is fantastic) but need to get the follow-up. Thank you for the link to Bourgaize's thesis too!<br /><br />Anonymous, thanks for the link to the New Yorker article. It is indeed the season!Peter Muisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05939949561996555115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-70173982421308962082019-11-22T11:54:09.142-05:002019-11-22T11:54:09.142-05:00Rhode Island stood somewhat apart from the rest of...Rhode Island stood somewhat apart from the rest of New England in everything pertaining to witches. Its colonial lawbooks simply reprinted the most recent English statute against witchcraft, without any reference to the Biblical "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (Exodus 22:18) that was the basis of witchcraft law in the rest of New England. <br /><br />The same sort of inexplicable every-day problems that provoked suspicions of witchcraft elsewhere in New England, in Rhode Island provoked instead suspicions of what we would now call "vampires" (not a word used there at that time). See Michael Bell's magnificent study "Food for the Dead" and his eventual follow-up, "The Vampire's Grasp." <br /><br />Yet even Rhode Island did have folklore about witches and old-woman fortune tellers and spell casters (e.g., the famous Silvy Tory). It's just not very well known. One interesting study was done by Eidola Jean Bourgaize, "Supernatural Folklore of Rhode Island" (URI MA thesis, 1956). You can find it online at<br /><br />http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1916&context=thesesRobert Mathiesenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09189466855334778278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-6206551028674630052019-11-21T20:08:01.269-05:002019-11-21T20:08:01.269-05:00Coincidentally (or perhaps not, given the season),...Coincidentally (or perhaps not, given the season), the current New Yorker also has an article discussing the origins of Thanksgiving. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/11/25/the-invention-of-thanksgivingAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-69961264074013725772019-11-21T19:51:42.088-05:002019-11-21T19:51:42.088-05:00Robert, just a couple more thoughts on the the dis...Robert, just a couple more thoughts on the the distribution of witch trials. There weren't a lot of witch trials from Plymouth/Cape Cod, but there is a lot of witch lore. But there isn't much witch lore at all from Rhode Island that I have seen. Any thoughts? Maybe I have just missed some sources.<br /><br />Very interesting about the cemetery distribution!Peter Muisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05939949561996555115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-65521324294513877382019-11-21T13:58:33.825-05:002019-11-21T13:58:33.825-05:00Hi Peter! I'm pretty sure that witch-trials d...Hi Peter! I'm pretty sure that witch-trials do correlate strongly with Puritanism in old New England. There are basically four theologically distinct areas in 17th-century New England. The Puritans settled Massachusetts Bay Colony, New Haven Colony, and Connecticut Colony. (Connecticut was settled out of Massachusetts; New Haven was an independent venture directly from old England.) The Separatists settled old Plymouth Colony, which was swallowed up by Puritan Massachusetts Bay in 1691, but retained its distinct ethos for quite a long time thereafter. Roger Williams ensured that the Colonies of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations remained open to all religions (including non-Christian ones). And what I think of as the "Northern Fringe" (roughly, modern New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont) was fundamentally devoted to profitable activities like fishing and trade, and had little use for theological arguments. Witch-trials occurred (almost without a single exception) only in the Puritan colonies.<br /><br />The same Puritan/non-Puritan divide is also reflected in cemetery location. Towns in the Puritan colonies had town burying-grounds, as a rule next to the town church. Extended families in Rhode Island and the Northern Fringe generally buried their own dead somewhere on their own land in many hundreds of small private cemeteries. I'm not sure which pattern prevailed throughout Plymouth Colony, though the town of Plymouth itself had a town burying-groun ("Burial Hill").Robert Mathiesenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09189466855334778278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-69413888891363670032019-11-21T12:19:25.003-05:002019-11-21T12:19:25.003-05:00Hi JonJim thanks for the comment. It was like one ...Hi JonJim thanks for the comment. It was like one brief Utopian moment around the dinner table. I wish it had lasted longer!Peter Muisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05939949561996555115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-92178979159536872552019-11-21T12:18:26.097-05:002019-11-21T12:18:26.097-05:00Hi Robert! Thanks for the comment. You are of cour...Hi Robert! Thanks for the comment. You are of course absolutely right about the Pilgrims. Interestingly there were almost no witch trials in Plymouth Colony so maybe their theological tolerance had a role there?Peter Muisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05939949561996555115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-88882392033431897552019-11-20T19:34:15.689-05:002019-11-20T19:34:15.689-05:00Yes I concur on your idea that the early Indigenou...Yes I concur on your idea that the early Indigenous people and early settlers's celebration is a model that we should arrive for in both celebrations and in our lives.jonjim1952https://www.blogger.com/profile/09018085501086720672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885320105550742793.post-28810266313743745342019-11-20T16:55:06.062-05:002019-11-20T16:55:06.062-05:00The first settlers of Plymouth weren't actuall...The first settlers of Plymouth weren't actually Puritans, but Separatists--far more radical than Puritans in their ideas of church organization, and somewhat more tolerant of lay-folk exploring theological subjects on their own. Some of them (e.g. Isaac Allerton) even came from from Brownist families. There is also some reason to think that they may have allowed women to speak up in church as well as men, unlike the Puritans.Robert Mathiesenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09189466855334778278noreply@blogger.com