word magic

so while we were talking about #3 on ong's list of things that are part of our memory systems (redundancy or copious...ness?), it made me think of my world lit class with professor coffey because on tuesday he talked to us about "word magic" in the norwegian folktale traditions. word magic is kindof like chants or little prayers that we repeat, expecting some sort of awesome result. like at football games - the whole premise of cheerleaders getting the crowd to shout things like "we want a touch down" or "defense!" could somehow improve the performance of the team. even if the crowd knows they're cheering for a team whose record is 0-10. or how some how repeating "hail mary, full of grace..." 15 times will cleanse you of whatever sin you've done.
the redundancy of chanting at games while knowing they probably won't effect (affect?) the game, and the copious amounts of little things we say to ourselves over and over get passed on to others, and that's how "word magic" stays relevant. how else can you explain the fact that we still say "bless you" when someone sneezes over and over again, even though i doubt anyone still believes one can lose their soul through a giant "achoo!"? ...that doesn't sound to homeostatic to moi.