Close enough

Fact and Fiction have the same source. This paper is a test of the hypothesis that the creation of both factual and fictional narrative derive from the same social and cognitive processes, mechanisms and conditions. The hypothesis of this paper was developed from an observation made during previous research projects conducted by the author. It was noted that the development of an ethnographic description and analysis, as well as other objective factual reports, bears a resemblance to what other authors have identified for the creation and perpetuation of rumor and other types of fictional narratives. Their works indicate that what is "believed" to be true is socially more important than what is "actually" true. The hypothesis that factual and fictional narrative have the same source was tested by observing the formation of factual reports, and comparing these to the features that have been identified for the creation of fictional narrative. The test vehicle was the process of gathering ethnographic information and writing essays on the meaning of blades in the Neo-Pagan religion. Observation was made of interviews conducted by anthropology graduate students as they gathered information directly from Neo-Pagan witches on the topic. The students then wrote essays based on what they collected, and these were reviewed by the interviewed witches in order to verify that what was written was what they intended. The essays were then analyzed to determine if the hallmarks of fictional narratives were present in these factual reports. This thesis is divided into four parts. The introduction is followed by a section covering the specific features that have been identified for fictional narrative. The last two sections of this paper cover the test of the hypothesis and the conclusions drawn from that test. For background information on the social group and topic used as the test, there is an appendix on Neo-Paganism and the Athame (Uh-thah'-may), a knife-like implement used in that religion. Neo-Paganism will also be referred to as Paganism, Wicca, Witchcraft and the Craft in this paper. In this paper the capitalized proper noun "Witch", refers to both male and female practitioners of some types of Neo-paganism, specifically the individuals interviewed about blades in Neo-Paganism. This paper provides a repeatable demonstration of how an object or behavior acquires social meaning, whether the meaning is fact or fiction, and refutes the assumption that fact and fiction are fundamentally different.