citation from Charles Frakes’ book

• [A]s Joseph Greenberg is fond of advising: "Whenever you are not surprised, stop and ask yourself: 'Why am I not surprised?," p.62
• If one conceives of multiple realities, realities like those of the Faiwol of New Guinea (Jones 1976) where cassowaries are people and people cassowaries, sickness, wherever else it might be imagined to be, is still inescapably here in the real reality where people are people.p.64
• Among Philippine pagans [may be the Sanboanquen~o,or Chabacano / or the Subanun?] I studied, "supernaturals" are ''people'' (along with their pets and paraphernalia) who are not ordinarily viSible to ordinary

people. They really exist and cause a lot of trouble, including sickness. But they are special, out of the ordinary; and have to be handled in special ways, ways that make upa religious system (Frake 1964).p.69

• A Mayan Indian from Highland Guatemala informs us: ''When your eyes twitch a lot, that is a sign that you are being talked about by people. But it is not clear whether good words are being said about your or whether you are being mocked. But this much is certain-your eyes will always

twitch when you are being talked about" (Butler and Fleming 1976). (Note the reversal of the terms of the implication between the first and last sentence. This characteristic twist of common-sense logic we will encounter again.)- p.70

• Folk logic is fuzzy logic, with a hedge around every bend. But it has a rough implicative structure (cf. Hutchins 1974, 1978; D'Andrade 1971). If X points to Y (is a sign ofY), then Y (more or less) implies X. In the logic of the Mayan Indian cited previously, an eye twitch is a sign that people are talking about you (it can perhaps have other meanings as well), but people talking about you implies that your eyes will twitch.- p.75