John,

Your critique of the TV show concerning concealment features not
withstanding, I suggest you read some of the following references on the topic of
vestigial house magic in 20th century England and then consider that some of those
behaviors followed immigrants to Australia, Africa, and North America.

I have been investigating the relationship between concealment features and
revitalization movements in America for several years. In particular, I found
Anthony F.C. Wallace's writings on public dissatisfaction with government and
church during world political or economic failures, as an expression of meaning
and coherence in their otherwise out of control lives. Would, for example,
the appearance of concealment features coincide with periods when people
struggled with political change? Perhaps knowledge of old folkways coincident with
war or economic depression might coincide with loss of faith and revival of
perceived ancient religious practices? There is a fascinating correlation between
industrializatin and progressive reforn in the 1890s in America and the rise
of occultism, for example.

I suggest skimming the following articles that might shed light on
concealment features in the various colonial extensions of the former British Empire:

Braann, Neal
1980 The Conflict Between Reason and Magic in 17th Century England: A Case
Study of the Vaughan-More Debate," Huntington Library Quarterly 43(1980): 103-126

Davies, Owen
no date The Decline in the Popular Belief in Witchcraft and Magic. Lancaster:
Ph.D. dissertation, University of Lancaster

Gardiner, Tom
1981 Broomstick Over Essex and East Anglia: An Introduction to Witchcraft in
the Eastern Counties During the 17th Century. Hornchester, England: I. Henry

Lehman, Arthur C. and James E. Meyers (eds)
1996 Magic, Witchcraft & Religion: An Anthropological Study of the
Supernatural (cant find the publisher, but there is a ISBN 1-55934-688-4) Specific
relevant chapers are:

Chapter 6, Withcraft, Sorcery and Other Forces of Evil
James L. Brain, "An Anthropological Perspective of the Witchcraze"
Phillips Stevens, Jr., "Some Implications of Urban Witchcraft Beliefs"
Naomi M. McPherson, "Sorcery and Concepts of Deviance Among the Kabana, West
New Britian"
Edward J. Moody, "Urban Witches"

Chapter 9
Anthony F.C. Wallace, "Revitalization Movements"

Chapter 10
Carl Sagan, "The Burden of Skepticism"
Barry Singer and Victor A. Benassi, "Occult Beliefs"
Macello Truzzi, "The Occult Revival as Popular Culture: Some Observations on
the Old and Nouveau Witch

And:

Barnett, G.
Folklore Studies and the English Rural Myth, Rural History 4(1993): 77-91

C. Barnett
Ghost and the Witch in the 16th and 17th Centuries, Folklore 96(1986): 3-14

Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.