I took a course at UT back in '73 or so called Vampirism in Eastern Europe. Not only was it a hoot and an easy A, I actually learned quite a bit from it. An interesting intro to Anthropology. The professor said that he got interested in this area as a researcher in rural Canada asking around the farms of immigrants about their myths and beliefs, wanting see how these things might have traveled from the Old World. Mostly, he was welcomed and invited in for food. Except for one farm that did not want to let him in. They were frightened of something. After getting them to talk a little bit, they admitted that Granny was a vampire, something he certainly was not expecting. So he got quite interested in the vampire myths of Eastern Europe, which turned out to vary widely among very small regions.
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