Ron-
The black stones are definitely Cherokee tradition, though I can't tell
you how they were used. Their function seems to have been in
spellcasting. Are you sure it was a chicken foot? Could it have been
hawk, turkey or eagle? These are used in driving out magical afflictions
by the power of lightning, as a raptor "strikes" like lightning.
The idea that because items had a ritual function in another culture
their meaning is unknowable is simply not true. Religious and magical
symbology is simply another specialization, and if you consult the right
people, particularly people who participate in these traditions, you can
often find out what the cache meant.
As an example, one of my co-workers uncovered a concealment feature in
the form of a cavity unter a stone stove platform. It contained an
inverted flowerpot covering a couple of sherds of ceramic and nails.
Knowing the inhabitants to have been Irish millworkers, I asked an
acquaintance from Ireland who was extremely well informed about Irish
folk customs. She told me that it was a custom in the south and west of
Ireland to bury a bit of the old homestead, usually just a few bits and
pieces like what we had found, under the hearth of a new home, just to
bring a bit of the old home into the new.
Marty Pickands
New York State Museum
>>> [log in to unmask] 08/24/06 12:57 PM >>>
Actually, I have heard the term "hoodoo" from African American
co-workers at
the County of San Diego before I retired. One woman came to me with her
grandmother's medicine bag and asked me to comment on her hoodoo stuff.
Her
grandmother was Cherokee, although you would never know it. The
blackened leather
bag contained a chicken foot and several small, black, rounded stones.
I had
nothing to contribute, but praised her for keeping the tradition alive
and
honoring her grandmother. In other words, the term hoodoo has been
part of the
20th century common language among African Americans and most likely
continues in common use today. But I would also like to add that it
implies ignorance
of the true customs and religious beliefs behind ritual objects and
beliefs
passed down in families. Those lost beliefs are probably doomed to
extinction
when the term hoodoo is applied.
Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.
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