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If asked to name common superstitious practices in the United States, many people are likely to mention the "lucky rabbit's foot." Far fewer, however, could explain why such an object is considered lucky. Surprisingly, folkloristic analyses of its cultural origins and rationale are equally scarce.
There are, of course, explanations of the belief in the popular press. R. Brasch, for instance, has discussed the topic in his book How Did It Begin ? Customs ¿if Superstitions and Thar Romantic Origins ( 1 965 ) . His quasi-Freudian approach speculates that folk beliefs originated in "earliest times," when humans tried to appease higher powers using customs that amounted to "almost an obsession neurosis." Even in "the scientific age of today," he notes, many of these customs are still practiced, for "everybody, no matter what his [sic] education or place in life, is a slave to superstition." By tracing the origins of these customs, Brasch aims to help readers choose "whether or not to be superstitious" (1965:1).
Brasch's "modern" analysis of the rabbit's foot belief is hardly scientific. In a series of guesses unsupported by historical or anthropological data, he suggests that the rabbit's foot "may be a survival of ancient Totemism," in which a primitive tribe traced its origins to an animal ancestor. "It is probable," Brasch continues, that die rabbit "is a long-forgotten totem which became the guardian spirit of its descendents. Thus its foot is still considered a bringer of good luck." In die minds of Brasch's archaic folk, underground burrows are connected to die underworld, rabbits to chthonic powers, and short gestation periods to creative forces. Given such thinking, Brasch concludes, "it did not take . . . long to assume that by carrying part of a rabbit, its proximity or touch would transfer to them the rabbit's good fortune." The foot, of course, was a potent phallic symbol even before Freud, "regarded as a sure means to foster fertility" (1965:14-15). Such an explication perpetuates the idea that "superstitious" practices have little or no meaning in contemporary culture but are simply survivals of illogical thought; furthermore, Brasch's argument implies diat modern superstition should be shelved with otiier meaningless ideas from humanity's childhood.
To be sure , many people who carry rabbits' feet do...