Groundhog Oracles and Their Forebears

Groundhog Day animal weather forecasting ceremonies continue to proliferate around the United States despite a lack of public confidence in the oracles. This essay probes religio-historical and original ethnographic perspectives to offer a psychological argument for why these ceremonies exist. Emplo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Zygon
Main Author: Capper, Daniel 1962- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Wiley-Blackwell [2016]
In: Zygon
Further subjects:B Groundhog Day
B animal veneration
B relationships with nature
B Mourning
B Oracles
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Summary:Groundhog Day animal weather forecasting ceremonies continue to proliferate around the United States despite a lack of public confidence in the oracles. This essay probes religio-historical and original ethnographic perspectives to offer a psychological argument for why these ceremonies exist. Employing Paul Shepard's notion of a felt loss of sacred, intimate relationships with nonhuman nature, as well as Peter Homans's concept of the monument that enables mourning, this essay argues that groundhog oracles serve as monuments that allow humans experientially to attempt to heal lost sacred relationships with animals like weather forecasting bears, hedgehogs, and badgers.
ISSN:1467-9744
Contains:Enthalten in: Zygon
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/zygo.12247