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

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Research Proposal3 Proposed Timeline8 Budget..9 Contact Information and References..10 Rsums...Appended

Sarah Ruth Carter + Jennifer Joy Jameson JOYCE H. CAUTHEN FELLOWSHIP FUND | ALABAMA FOLKLIFE ASSOCIATION

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 patients 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 Twains 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 communitys 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 3

Sarah Ruth Carter + Jennifer Joy Jameson JOYCE H. CAUTHEN FELLOWSHIP FUND | ALABAMA FOLKLIFE ASSOCIATION homeplace of our respective kin. Jennifer Jameson is a folklore graduate student from Southern California. Jennifers 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. Sarahs 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 Sarahs 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. Sarahs 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, Sarahs uncle, also had warts cured as a child by Cleavus Styvner, a member of the nearby Possum Flat 4

Sarah Ruth Carter + Jennifer Joy Jameson JOYCE H. CAUTHEN FELLOWSHIP FUND | ALABAMA FOLKLIFE ASSOCIATION 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, andif possiblethe 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. 5

Sarah Ruth Carter + Jennifer Joy Jameson JOYCE H. CAUTHEN FELLOWSHIP FUND | ALABAMA FOLKLIFE ASSOCIATION 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 Sarahs academic training

and work experience as an English teacher, and Jennifers 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 Montgomeryperhaps in a space associated 6

Sarah Ruth Carter + Jennifer Joy Jameson JOYCE H. CAUTHEN FELLOWSHIP FUND | ALABAMA FOLKLIFE ASSOCIATION 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.

Sarah Ruth Carter + Jennifer Joy Jameson JOYCE H. CAUTHEN FELLOWSHIP FUND | ALABAMA FOLKLIFE ASSOCIATION

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. Meet with informants, conduct approximately two interviews/documentations Take daily fieldnotes Back up fieldwork materials on hard drives June 8: Winfield, AL. Meet with informants, conduct approximately two interviews/documentations Take daily fieldnotes Back up fieldwork materials on hard drives June 9: 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

Sarah Ruth Carter + Jennifer Joy Jameson JOYCE H. CAUTHEN FELLOWSHIP FUND | ALABAMA FOLKLIFE ASSOCIATION

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

Sarah Ruth Carter + Jennifer Joy Jameson JOYCE H. CAUTHEN FELLOWSHIP FUND | ALABAMA FOLKLIFE ASSOCIATION

CONTACT INFORMATION

Sarah Ruth Carter

Jennifer Joy Jameson

1241 Chestnut St. Apt. B Bowling Green, KY 42101 (temporary address) (760) 805-8002 missjameson@gmail.com

1522 Corder Dr. Nashville, TN 37206 (757) 724-1701 emailsarahcarter@gmail.com

REFERENCES

Sarah Ruth Carter

Bob Zentz, Writer, Educator, Historian P.O. Box 6246 Norfolk, VA 23508 (757) 622-8918 | zentzfolk@aol.com Lori Bryant, English Department Head Norview High School 6501 Chesapeake Boulevard Norfolk, VA 23513-1998 (757) 852-4500 | lbryant@nps.k12.va.us 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 | erika.brady@wku.edu 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 | michael.williams@wku.edu

Jennifer Joy Jameson

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