Abstract
Belief as a term in folklore scholarship encompasses a range of competing concepts. This article posits a number of problems with belief’s standard usage: beliefs are reified and abstracted from social action; beliefs are systematized and explanatory of behavior; and beliefs are rendered as universal, cross-cultural features of social life. This article argues that reconceptualizing belief carries with it a decolonial justice imperative, and folklorists should jettison belief as a keyword of the discipline.
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Copyright 2020 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
2020
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