This study focuses on the supernatural belief tradition of a French Newfoundland community. Using a combination of descriptive and analytic techniques from the fields of folklore, linguistic anthropology and discourse analysis, Butler explores the community's use of folklore in everyday social interaction. He relates it to the human context which is ultimately responsible for its creation and continued relevance.

Gary Butler was born and raised in St. John's, Newfoundland, where he completed Bachelor of Education and Bachelor of Arts degrees at Memorial University of Newfoundland. With an honours major in French, he pursued further studies in french cultre at the Université de Bordeaux III, in France. Upon receiving his Maîtrise ès Lettres in 1979, he returned to Memorial to take up postgraduate studies in Folklore. He received his Ph.D. in 1985, and in the same year won the Folklore Fellows Award for best published paper of the year. Since then, Dr. Butler has taught French, Linguistics, and Folklore/Anthropology at York University in North York, Ontario, where he is currently Assistant Professor with the Division of Humanities.

Gary R. Butler's profile page

"[Saying is Believing] is in the forefront of modern folklore, linguistic, and anthropological thinking. [It] will be quoted liberally for a long time to come as a major contribution to belief studies."

Kenneth S. Goldstein, University of Pennsylvania