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A review by bashsbooks
Backwoods Witchcraft: Conjure & Folk Magic from Appalachia by Jake Richards
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
I've very picky about witchcraft books. It feels like a subject that can be rife with grift and stolen without credit from the actual people who created and cared for it.
But Richards doesn't strike me as a grifter or a thief - he's extremely upfront about the rocky history of Appalachia, about how many of our own ancestors (particularly for us white folks) undoubtedly participated in the awful history of the region and the nation at large. I especially appreciated his thoughts on how to reconcile this with ancestor veneration. He seems very willing to mark what practices came from which cultures, if he knows the answer. I think sometimes he definitely gets that wrong (I know a lot about Ireland and Scotland, and sometimes he combines traditions and languages - for example, uisce beatha is Irish, not Gaelic (which generally refers to Scottish Gaelic - it's uisge beatha, with a g, in that language) and it means whiskey, not moonshine), and while I don't know as much about the Cherokee, I suspect he sometimes uses them as a catch-all for all the local indigenous people. But he's also upfront about how he's sharing what he knows from his roots, and he never claims to be an expert on anything but his own experience, which I find refreshing.
All in all, I found this to be a thoughtful and nuanced description of the folkcraft traditions of the region my ancestors are from (Richards is from eastern Tennessee, like my great-grandfather; my father's family now resides in the mountains of southwestern Virginia), and I would like to get my own copy eventually, for reference and further research.
(Also, it's based how many charms there are for keeping the law away.)
But Richards doesn't strike me as a grifter or a thief - he's extremely upfront about the rocky history of Appalachia, about how many of our own ancestors (particularly for us white folks) undoubtedly participated in the awful history of the region and the nation at large. I especially appreciated his thoughts on how to reconcile this with ancestor veneration. He seems very willing to mark what practices came from which cultures, if he knows the answer. I think sometimes he definitely gets that wrong (I know a lot about Ireland and Scotland, and sometimes he combines traditions and languages - for example, uisce beatha is Irish, not Gaelic (which generally refers to Scottish Gaelic - it's uisge beatha, with a g, in that language) and it means whiskey, not moonshine), and while I don't know as much about the Cherokee, I suspect he sometimes uses them as a catch-all for all the local indigenous people. But he's also upfront about how he's sharing what he knows from his roots, and he never claims to be an expert on anything but his own experience, which I find refreshing.
All in all, I found this to be a thoughtful and nuanced description of the folkcraft traditions of the region my ancestors are from (Richards is from eastern Tennessee, like my great-grandfather; my father's family now resides in the mountains of southwestern Virginia), and I would like to get my own copy eventually, for reference and further research.
(Also, it's based how many charms there are for keeping the law away.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content
Moderate: Racism, Cultural appropriation, and Alcohol
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Abortion, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism