Herston's Nuanced Approach to Folk Material

Hurston's training in anthropology encouraged her to see christian rituals as being on a part with hoodo. She can also take an outsider's perspective on the colorful and outlandish stories that southern black people called lies, seeing them through what she called the spy glass of anthropology. Hurston chafed against the expectations of her patrons because they wanted her to deliver information about authentic folk art without taking the further step of creating self conscious art of her own. This is already shown by the ostentatiously literary style of mules and men, and then more dramatically, by her most famous work, the novel, their eyes were watching god.