Early Mormon "Magic" : Insights from Folklore and from Literature
Latter-day Lore : Mormon Folklore Studies
Salt Lake City
University of Utah Press
2013
184-197
The most recognized types of Mormon folklore include J. Golden Kimball and Three Nephite stories, hay derricks and Great Basin settlement patterns, or missionary pranks and Pioneer Day parades. However, as significant and well researched as these examples of verbal, material, and customary folklore are, they do not include another, less-recognized— and, for some, the most controversial— example of Mormon folklore: Joseph Smith’s and his f amily’s involvement with money-digging and divination and use of astrology, talismans, and magical parchments and daggers. These cultural practices have been the subject of extensive media and scholarly attention, yet the debates have taken place largely without contributions from folklorists and thus miss or minimize some key insights that the discipline of folklore can provide. [From the text]