Sunday, November 10, 2019

Story Lab: Storybook Research

The next Storybook story I am going to tell involves Brer Rabbit's lucky rabbit foot, so I thought I would do some research on that.

In the story, Brother Rabbit and His Famous Foot, Brer Wolf steals Brer Rabbit's lucky rabbit's foot. In the frame of the story, Uncle Remus has a rabbit's foot, and it falls out of his pocket: "It was the hind foot of a rabbit, and a very large one at that." Uncle Remus is concerned that it might fall in the fire: "Don't let it git in de embers; 'kaze ef dat ar rabbit foot git singe, I'm a goner, sho'!" Uncle Remus then explains that he uses it to ward off ghosts: "dat rabbit foot is fer ter keep off boogers. W'en I hatter run er'n's fer myse'f all times er night, en take nigh cuts thoo de woods, en 'cross by de buryin'-groun', hits monst'us handy fer ter have dat ar rabbit foot." He also explains that it's for good luck: "dish yer rabbit foot 'll gin you good luck."

According to Wikipedia, the rabbit's foot is considered a lucky charm in many different cultures. The article mentions hoodoo in particular, especially a rabbit's foot from a graveyard rabbit. That shows up in J.C. Harris too: A Plantation Witch.


It's possible that some of these beliefs resonate with witches who go abroad as rabbits, so taking the foot of the rabbit is a way to secure the witch's powers (compare a black-cat-bone used as an amulet).

This Scientific American blog brings in the idea of African fetishes: What Makes a Rabbit's Foot Lucky?
The owner of such a token manipulates existing ideology to empower himself. Ellis links the rabbit’s foot lore to African American magical traditions—where the rabbit is a familiar in Anglo traditions, the rabbit is a clever creature in the African tradition of B’rer Rabbit, who consistently employed wit, creativity, and intelligence to manage conflicts:
Bill Ellis (2002). Why Is a Lucky Rabbit's Foot Lucky? Body Parts as Fetishes. Journal of Folklore Research, 39 (1), 51-84. Here it is online with OU Library proxy.





The Rabbit's Foot Company was a long-running minstrel company.



This showed up at the LuckyMojo.com site, ha ha.
Here's another rabbit foot memory from my childhood -- a 1950 roadside advertisement:
On curves ahead
Remember, sonny
That rabbit's foot
Didn't save
The bunny
Burma-Shave




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