Conjuring in the Big House Kitchen: An Interpretation of African American Belief Systems Based on the Uses of Archaeology and Folklore Sources

Abstract

Abstract Joining archaeological and folkloristic methods, the authors compare the archaeological remains of African religious practices found in Virginia sites from the 18th and 19th centuries with historical data on conjuring and divining. The contents of diviners’ bundles buried beneath hearths and sills and in northeast corners are presented from Virginia sites occupied by enslaved Africans and free African Americans. Those bundles are contextualized using data from narratives of former slaves and the ideas of West African religion.

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