This one is about superstitions / folk beliefs :)
In both Hoodoo and Appalachian folk beliefs, there is a motif of backwardness or inversion as a protective measure.
Some examples recorded by Zora Neale Hurston in "Hoodoo in America" and Mules and Men are:
If you want to be sure to return (be welcomed) to any place, wear your hat backwards as you leave.
To prevent anyone's harming you, get up early in the morning and walk barefoot out of your house backwards into the road without looking back. Pick up your tracks and walk forward into your house again, and stop the tracks with sugar and rum and drink water, and no one can hurt you.
If you k*ll someone, step backwards over the body and you will never be found. (Please, for the love of G-d, no one do this. This example is just for illustrative purposes!!!)
Similar examples and motivations can be found in Appalachia, like these superstitions, as recorded by Jake Richards in Backwoods Witchcraft (2019):
Turning your hat backwards when a black cat crosses your path, until you get to where you're going, in order to avert bad luck.
If you accidentally put an article of clothing on inside-out, you should leave it that way because it means someone's trying to charm you.
When a mother is in labor, all empty vessels in the room are turned upside down to prevent the baby from being breech.
To prevent being conjured by walking over a trick, cut out the soles of your shoes, flip them over and then place them in the opposite shoe.
Bonus folk belief (though I can't remember for the life of me where I read it or what tradition it belongs to):
If you encounter a spirit or creature in the woods, turn around and look at it from between your legs to scare it off.