Households and ordinary people: who they are and what they do

Households and ordinary people do most of the world's magic: the grandmother who ties a thread on a baby's wrist, the neighbour who throws salt, the shopkeeper who hangs a lemon and chillies, the family that burns incense before a photograph. These people are not specialists and often do not call it magic. This page looks at the domestic side of the subject, which is the commonest and least written about.

Everyday customs

Household practice is woven into daily life: sweeping at new year, a bead on a cradle, a horseshoe over a door, a charm in a car. It tends to be practical, brief and handed down within the family. Many people say they do it because their mother did, or to be safe. It rarely needs a priest, a text or a fee. The hands that do it are those of mothers and grandmothers, who also cook, clean and care, so the magic is part of the labour of the home.

Women and the home

Women are the principal keepers of household custom in many societies, as mothers, grandmothers and aunts. Their knowledge covers birth, child care, food, illness, marriage and death. That knowledge is often undervalued by the formal religion and by scholars, and was also the source of accusations in the witch trials, in which women who were midwives or healers were prominent. A household custom is learned by watching and may never be explained, since the practitioner does not see it as special.

Faith and the home

Religious leaders have seen household custom as faith, as superstition or as a nuisance. Reformers in Protestant Europe, Salafi Islam and some Hindu and Buddhist movements have told people to give up such practices. Many people keep them regardless. In the diaspora, the home customs are sometimes the part of heritage that lasts longest, and are carried to new countries in suitcases. In cities, small shrines, protective charms and everyday rituals often survive in apartments, taxis and shops.

Why scholars care

Anthropologists of everyday religion and folklorists record these customs as evidence of how people manage risk. They show how belief and practice differ, since people may say they do not believe and still knock on wood. Household magic is also the easiest to commercialise, in shops selling charms and kits that detach customs from their homes. A new student or visitor may find that families who say they do not believe still follow such customs carefully, and this gap is one of the more interesting findings.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

Folk healer: calliopejen, CC BY-SA 2.0, source

Louisiana Voodoo: I cropped, original authors are Ridpath, John Clark, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Rainmaking: George Catlin, Public domain, source

Halloween: Toby Ord, CC BY-SA 2.5, source

Hopi mythology: Sailko, CC BY 3.0, source

Baseball superstition: Johnmaxmena2, CC BY 4.0, source

Hex sign: Smallbones, CC0, source

God's eye: Douglas P. Perkins, CC BY-SA 3.0, source

The Gray Man: Phoebe, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Ainu religion: Unknown author, Public domain, source

Ghost shirt: Wolfgang Sauber, CC BY-SA 3.0, source

Aztec religion: Unknown author, Public domain, source

Californian white sage: Stan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0, source

Ghost Dance: Unknown author, Public domain, source

New England vampire panic: no credited author, Public domain, source

Households and ordinary people