The Appalachian ‘Other’: Academic Approaches to the Study of Serpent-handling Sects

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 47-57
Author(s):  
Jenna Gray-Hildenbrand
Keyword(s):  
Serpent Handling

Serpent Handling: Toward a Cognitive Account – Honoring the Scholarship of Ralph W. Hood Jr.

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 414-430
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Coleman ◽  
Christopher F. Silver ◽  
Jonathan Jong
Keyword(s):  
Social Functions ◽  
University Of Tennessee ◽  
Cultural Form ◽  
Speaking In Tongues ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cognitive Theories ◽  
Current Article ◽  
The University ◽  
Serpent Handling

Abstract The ritual handling of serpents remains an unnoticed cultural form for the explanatory aims and theoretical insights desired by cognitive scientists of religion. In the current article, we introduce the Hood and Williams archives at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga that contains data culled from Hood’s 40-plus year career of studying serpent handlers. The archives contain hundreds of hours of interviews and recordings of speaking in tongues, handling fire, drinking poison, and taking up serpents by different congregants and congregations. The archive remains a rich but untapped source of data for building, testing, and refining cognitive theories of ritual in general, and serpent handling in specific. We connect Hood’s work to current cognitive theories and engage critically with research on the social functions of ritual. Finally, we discuss several further reasons to pay more attention to SHS communities and practices in cognitive theories of ritual.

Serpent Handling Endorsed by the Church of God

2008 ◽  
pp. 52-78
Author(s):  
Ralph W. Hood Jr. ◽  
W. Paul Williamson
Keyword(s):  
Church Of God ◽  
Serpent Handling ◽  
The Church
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