ABSTRACT
Legends about contamination lie at the heart of the contemporary legend canon. These may be contaminations of the human body through the invasion of reptiles, spiders or insects, or of the home through the purchase of clothes, plants or household goods which harbor unseen danger in the form of snakes or tarantulas, or of the environment through the deliberate release of dangerous animals. Among the most abiding themes, however, is the contamination of foodstuffs. These legends and rumors have been studied by contemporary legend scholars, of course, but they have been of special interest to marketing professors and sociologists too. The agenda for such studies was set comparatively early by Gary Alan Fine’s much-quoted Cokelore and Coke Law: Urban Belief Tales and the Problem of Multiple Origins.” Journal of American Folklore 92 (1979):477–82. More recently attention has spread to flyers warning of dangers to children through the ingestion of poisonous or addictive substances—see, for example, Jean-Bruno Renard, “Les décalcomanies au LSD: Un cas limite de rumeur de contamination.” Communications 52 (1990):11–50. In this essay, Jean-Noel Kapferer, one of the foremost French rumor-scholars, presents a sociological analysis of a notorious leaflet, the “Villejuif Flyer.” He has also presented an analysis of the similar “Mickey Mouse Acid” rumor in Contemporary Legend 3 (1993):85–102, and he is the author of many publications on the sociology of rumor. He is especially well known for Rumeurs: Le plus vieux média du monde. Paris: Seuil, 1987 (edited, revised and translated into English as Rumors: Uses, Interpretations, and Images. New Brunswick and London: Transaction Publications, 1990). The essay below is reprinted from Public Opinion Quarterly 53 (1989):467–81.
