research proposal: traditional wart healing in marion county, alabama

RESEARCH PROPOSAL _____________________________________________________________________________

Joyce H. Cauthen Fellowship Fund

Alabama Folklife Association

TRADITIONAL WART HEALING in MARION COUNTY,

ALABAMA

Prepared by

SARAH RUTH CARTER JENNIFER JOY JAMESON

Nashville, Tennessee January 2012

Sarah Ruth Carter + Jennifer Joy Jameson

JOYCE H. CAUTHEN FELLOWSHIP FUND | ALABAMA FOLKLIFE ASSOCIATION

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Research Proposal………………………………………………………………………3 Proposed Timeline………………………………………………………………………8 Budget………………………………………………………………………………………..9 Contact Information and References…………………………………………..10

Résumés………………………………………………………………………...Appended



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RESEARCH PROPOSAL

In the city of Winfield and greater Marion County, in the northwest portion of the

state of Alabama persists a multi-‐generational tradition of wart healing among a

community of Anglo-‐Protestants. In this community, folk cures take the form of a

customary exercise, where the healer, usually an elder in the community, performs a

curative ritual on the patient which includes steps such as counting the patient’s warts,

tying knots in a string, cutting the string, and throwing it on the ground. The patient is then

instructed to bury the string, not revealing its location to anyone else. The community also

maintains certain specifications for who can serve as a wart healer, for example, the

tradition is only passed down to those who are middle children.

From Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn attempting to remove a wart by burying a cat

at a crossroads at midnight (Clemons was, after all, a charter member of the American

Folklore Society), to hypnosis, to rubbing a wart with a copper penny, the common viral

infection has endured a long history of a different folk cures. (Sammons, 55) Folklorists and

scholars of folk belief and traditional medicine have documented these community-‐specific

curing techniques and rituals throughout history, finding the healing practice of warts and

similar ailments to reveal much about a community’s cultural and spiritual worldview,

traditions, priorities, and identities.

Conducting fieldwork research in Marion County for the Alabama Folklife

Association holds specific significance to us, the writers of this proposal, as it was and is the



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homeplace of our respective kin. Jennifer Jameson is a folklore graduate student from

Southern California. Jennifer’s maternal grandmother, Evelyn Montgomery, was the

youngest of a family of 15, all raised on a farm in nearby Hayleyville (Marion and Winston

County). Sarah Carter is a high school English teacher from Eastern Virginia. Sarah’s

maternal grandparents, Lorene Nichols and William Bonnie Hughes, were both born and

raised right outside of Hamilton in an area they called Possum Flat. Both Sarah and Jennifer

are now based around Nashville, Tennessee.

The idea for this research stems not only from a familial connection to this region,

but from personal experience. Sarah, her extended family (now in Winfield), and other

members of that community have engaged in, or have some knowledge of, this regional

tradition of folk medicinal practice. Making use of the good rapport we have in place with

Sarah’s family and the local community, we plan to interview several individuals who can

speak on the subject.

At this preliminary point, our research will focus specifically on a recently deceased

elder in the community, Ira Baccus, who served as the local specialist in folk cures for

warts. We are interested in tracing the practice, technique, and living legacy of Mr. Baccus’

unique skill. Sarah’s cousin, Kelsey Elmore, of Winfield, AL, and mother, Debbie Carter of

Norfolk, VA, both had warts cured by Mr. Baccus. In addition, the perspective of Baccus’

daughter, who now resides in Nashville, offers the opportunity to see how the tradition has

been continued or varied through state lines. Duane “Hot Dog” Hughes, Sarah’s uncle, also

had warts cured as a child by Cleavus Styvner, a member of the nearby Possum Flat



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community (near Hamilton). These informants, as well as others involved in the practice of

healing warts may serve as a great first-‐hand resource for our research. In addition to

audio-‐recording interviews, we also plan on extensively documenting our informants, their

geographical surroundings and social contexts, and—if possible—the healing tradition

itself, by photography.

In continuity with the legacy of Joyce Cauthen, this research offers a contemporary

look at a long-‐running folk tradition in Alabama. With the financial support of the Cauthen

Fellowship, we will be able to carry out ethnographic fieldwork which seeks to holistically

document regional variations of the tradition in Winfield and surrounding Marion County,

how the practice has been used, held, and passed down through generations, the

contemporary status of the tradition, who is participating in these folk cures, and what the

practice means to, and for, the local community. Further questions may be explored such as

the perceived scientific legitimacy of the wart healings, and how these regional folk cures

have been used separately or alongside Western medicine.

Our proposed fieldwork and documentation builds on previous research on

Alabama folk belief and traditional medicine carried out by participants of the Alabama

Community Scholars program and folklorists with the Alabama Center for Traditional

Cultures. This research offers a unique, focused study of a folk medicinal practice among

an Anglo-‐Protestant community of northwestern Alabama for local, state, and national or

international audiences to make use of for years to come, once the research materials are

placed into the Archive of Alabama Folk Culture.



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To sufficiently carry out this research, we are requesting $3,000 to underwrite

travel, clerical, archival, and editorial expenses for our estimated 3-‐5 days in the field, and

for the hours later spent on processing the multimedia documentation materials and

archival logs. We plan on carrying out this fieldwork early summer, specifically at the start

of June, and plan to submit the documentation materials and logs to the Archive of Alabama

Folk Culture as soon as possible, with a late August deadline.

While the documentation alone may serve as an excellent resource for a variety of

communities and constituents interested in northwest Alabama folk medicine, we, the

research team, plan on applying for additional Fellowship funding to create a readily

accessible product or programmatic event for the Alabama Folklife Association, which

utilizes and presents our folklife documentation in creative and contemporary ways.

With our collective experience and expertise, including Sarah’s academic training

and work experience as an English teacher, and Jennifer’s academic training in folklore and

folklife studies, with graduate courses in Folk Belief (Dr. Erika Brady) and Folk Arts in

Education (Dr. Tim Evans), a K-‐12 Education lesson plan on traditional medicine and folk

belief in northwest Alabama provides an example of the possibilities of our collaborative

endeavor. Another possibility, making use of our collective skills and interests in museum

studies, would be a multimedia exhibit featuring text, photos, and audio from our

fieldwork. A small exhibit such as this could be situated in a local, public space such as the

Marion County public library, a storefront in downtown Winfield, or even in a more

metropolitan area such as Birmingham or Montgomery—perhaps in a space associated



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with the Alabama Folklife Association. If held locally in northwest Alabama, interviewees

could participate in an opening reception, including a narrative stage session led by the

researchers.

The practice of wart healing and other folk medicine often transcend the realm of

modern-‐day scientific understanding. This transcendence reminds younger generations

that though modern ideas and practices sometimes replace traditional methods, they hold

deep cultural significance. We believe this fieldwork (and all the conversations that may

take place during and in-‐between) has great potential to tap into that cultural significance.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES

Brady, Erika, Ed. 2001. Healing Logics: Culture and Medicine in Modern Health Belief Systems. Logan: Utah State University Press. Halper, Violetta. 1949. Indiana Wart Cures. Hoosier Folklore 8(2/3):37-‐43. Hand, Wayland D., Ed. 1973. American Folk Medicine: A Symposium. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ________. 1980. Magical Medicine. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Hardy, James. 1878. Wart and Wen Cures. The Folk-Lore Record 1:216-‐228. Price, Sadie F. 1901. Kentucky Folk-‐Lore. Journal of American Folklore 14(52):30-‐38. Sammons, Robert. 1992. Parallels Between Magico-‐Religious Healing and Clinical Hypnosis Therapy. In Herbal and Magical Medicine, ed. James Kirkland et al, pp 53-‐67. Durham and London: Duke University Press. Twain, Mark. 1876. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. New York: Harper & Brothers.



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PROPOSED TIMELINE START DATE: June 4, 2012

• Coordinate interviews with informants by phone • Continue research with scholarly books and articles

CONTINUED RESEARCH and PRELIMINARY TASKS June 5: Drive to Montgomery, AL from Nashville, TN

• Meet with staff of the A.F.A. • Check out recording and photography equipment from A.F.A. (May also check out from WKU, if

need be) • Prepare A.F.A. release forms • Conduct additional preliminary research on wart healing in folklore scholarship; utilize the

Archive of Alabama Folk Culture • Draft interview questions for informants • Familiarize ourselves with the fieldwork equipment

FIELDWORK June 6: Winfield, AL.

• Meet with informants, conduct approximately two interviews/documentations • Take daily fieldnotes • Back up fieldwork materials on hard drives

June 7: Winfield, AL.





• Assess need for further or follow-‐up interviews • Additional photography of Marion County, etc.; Take daily fieldnotes

PROCESSING and LOGGING of FIELDWORK MATERIALS: June 11 -‐ late August (or sooner)

• Organize and digitize signed release forms • Assign archival labels to all media • Log all photos • Log/transcribe all media • Prepare all media and logs for submission to the Archive of Alabama Folk Culture



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BUDGET TRAVEL EXPENSES: $485.00 Archive of Alabama Folk Culture From Nashville, TN to Montgomery, AL 300 miles x .50 per mile = $150.00 total Meals and incidentals = $25.00 (x2 persons = $50.00 total) From Montgomery, AL to Winfield, AL (via Birmingham, AL) 170 miles x .50 per mile = $85.00 total Meals and incidentals = $25.00 (x2 persons = $50.00 total) From Winfield, AL to Nashville, TN 200 miles x .50 per mile = $100.00 total Meals and incidentals = $25.00 (x2 persons = $50.00 total) HOUSING: $0.00 Staying with family or friends in Birmingham and Winfield, AL CLERICAL/EDITORIAL EXPENSES: $2,520.00 RESEARCH: 2 days (paid) $100.00/2 days = $200.00 (x2 persons = $400.00 total) FIELDWORK: 4 days $115.00/4 days = $460.00 (x2 persons = $920.00 total) PROCESSING: 6 days $100.00/ 6 days = 600.00 total (x2 persons = $1,200.00) TOTAL EXPENSES: $3,005.00 TOTAL REQUESTED from the ALABAMA FOLKLIFE ASSOCIATION: $3,000.00



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CONTACT INFORMATION Sarah Ruth Carter Jennifer Joy Jameson 1522 Corder Dr. 1241 Chestnut St. Apt. B Nashville, TN Bowling Green, KY 37206 42101 (temporary address) (757) 724-‐1701 (760) 805-‐8002 [email protected] [email protected] REFERENCES Sarah Ruth Carter Bob Zentz, Writer, Educator, Historian P.O. Box 6246 Norfolk, VA 23508 (757) 622-8918 | [email protected] Lori Bryant, English Department Head Norview High School 6501 Chesapeake Boulevard

Norfolk, VA 23513-‐1998 (757) 852-4500 | [email protected]

Jennifer Joy Jameson Dr. Erika Brady, Professor of Folk Studies Department of Folk Studies and Anthropology Western Kentucky University 268 Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Center 1906 College Heights Blvd. #61029 Bowling Green, KY 42101-‐1029 (270) 745-5902 | [email protected] Dr. Michael Ann Williams, Professor of Folk Studies and Department Head Department of Folk Studies and Anthropology Western Kentucky University 237 Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Center 1906 College Heights Blvd. #61029 Bowling Green, KY 42101-‐1029 (270) 745-5898 | [email protected]

research proposal: traditional wart healing in marion county, alabama

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