BELIEF AND THE AMERICAN FOLK BY P.B. MULLEN

SUMMARY:

This article focuses on the impact of scientific rationalization on folk belief and superstition,  while at the same time trying to maintain it's own way of being scientific itself. This article tries to mix science with belief, and goes over a few other authors' attempts to do the same in their own writing, as well as the development/progress of the technique. It details the interactions  some of the authors had when confronted with a 'crude' approach versus a more 'scientific' approach and how that effects the community they're studying. The article goes into detail over terms such as 'superstition', 'folk belief', and 'religion' and details how superstition should be substituted for folk belief.

REACTION

I think this article was longer then it needed to be. The author could of summed it up in a much shorter article instead of drawing it out as long as he did. I will applaud him for pulling so much from other authors' works - I'm sure that took a long time. I didn't find the article that interesting, and I was actually pretty confused with how he was using the term 'belief' in the beginning.  I would of liked a short explanation explaining the use of the word in the beginning.

Q&A

1. How centeral is belief to a community?
2. Why not use the term superstision?
3. What is belief to you?