ABSTRACT
In this essay, anthropologist Phillips Stevens, Jr. tackles the problem of what happens (or should happen) when dangerous folklore grabs the political agenda. The author has written extensively on the theme of contemporary satanic panics including: “‘New’ Legends: Some Perspectives from Anthropology. “ Western Folklore 49 (1990):121–33, “The Dangerous Folklore of Satanism.” Free Inquiry 10.3 (1990):28–34; and “The Demonology of Satanism: An Anthropological View” in The Satanism Scare, eds. James T. Richardson, Joel Best and David G. Bromley. 21–39. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1991. The essay below is a slightly revised version of an editorial essay from New York Folklore 15.1-2 (1989). In a separate note, written as an appendix especially for this volume, the author updates his report and reflects on recent developments.
