Faeries in European lore were believed to sometimes steal babies from their parents, replacing them with a difficult and unruly old faerie that looked like the baby. The baby/faerie was then placed in the woods by his parents hoping that the real baby would be returned.
People told faerie tales like this to make the unbearable slightly less so. These faerie babies were very likely disabled or very ill children. Did parents believe this tale? I suspect they did. Infant abandonment still occurs of course, but In the cultural, economic, and historical circumstances in which we live rational people don’t generally attribute natural phenomenon to the actions of faeries.
People profess to believe in all sorts of other supernatural creatures, however. The obvious example is the belief in angels. It’s fortunate though that the only people who really act on such beliefs are generally considered nut-jobs. Devout Catholics are more likely to see a psychiatrist than an exorcist, for instance.
But, like I said, we live in fortunate circumstances. And that could change. In extreme hardship people take to believing all manner of nonsense. What would societal collapse under the weight of environmental damage and resource depletion bring? Likely increased belief in the supernatural as a determining force in the world and a reversion to superstition. Both are waiting in the wings right now, of course.
I’ve no doubt that the belief in child witches in the Democratic Republic of Congo is a multi-dimensional phenomenon. But it’s not hard to guess that privation has a lot to do with it. Religious beliefs are untempered in dire circumstances.
Tags: faeries, fairies, religion, superstition
