Author: M. G. Marwick
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN:
Category : Chewa (African people)
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Author: John Putnam Demos
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199884064
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 560

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In the first edition of the Bancroft Prize-winning Entertaining Satan, John Putnam Demos presented an entirely new perspective on American witchcraft. By investigating the surviving historical documents of over a hundred actual witchcraft cases, he vividly recreated the world of New England during the witchcraft trials and brought to light fascinating information on the role of witchcraft in early American culture. Now Demos has revisited his original work and updated it to illustrate why these early Americans' strange views on witchcraft still matter to us today. He provides a new preface that puts forth a broader overview of witchcraft and looks at its place around the world--from ancient times right up to the present.

Author: Mariano Pavanello
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315439905
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
This volume draws on a range of ethnographic and historical material to provide insight into witchcraft in sub-Saharan Africa. The chapters explore a variety of cultural contexts, with contributions focusing on Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ghana, Mali, Ethiopia and Eritrean diaspora. The book considers the concept of witchcraft itself, the interrelations with religion and medicine, and the theoretical frameworks employed to explain the nature of modern African witchcraft representations.

Author: Francis X. Grollig
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110807505
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 521

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Author: Katerina Mildnerová
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
ISBN: 3643902735
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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This study deals with the phenomenon of spiritual healing and witchcraft within the field of indigenous medicine and African Independent Churches in the contemporary urban setting of Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. Grounded in theoretical concepts of medical and symbolical anthropology, the book analyzes the syncretic character of medical culture and the so-called "therapy shopping" phenomenon. Special attention is paid to the local conceptualization of health, illness and body, cultural aetiology, the social and cultural representation of spirit possession and witchcraft, as well as a description of different types of healers along with their diagnostic and therapeutic praxis. A separate section is dedicated to the symbolical interpretation of witchcraft on the level of theory, system, and practice, based on different case studies. (Series: Anthropology / Ethnologie - Vol. 49) [Subject: Anthropology, African Studies, Religious Studies, Spiritualism, Cultural Studies]

Author: C. W. Watson
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824815158
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Witchcraft holds a perennial fascination for scholars and the public at large. In Southeast Asia malign magic and sorcery are part of the routine experience of villagers and urban dwellers alike, and stories appearing in the press from time to time bear witness to a persisting public concern. The essays presented in this volume describe what people believe and what actions result from those beliefs. Not surprisingly, given the range and variety of cultures, considerable differences exist in the region. Among some cultures, in Thailand and Indonesia for example, sorcerers are said to possess spirits that empower them to cause illness and misfortune. Elsewhere, in Malaysia and Sumatra, the power of the dukun derives from the accumulation of arcane knowledge and mystical practice. Contributors describe the witches and sorcerers they have met and suggest both how their societies look upon them and how we in turn should regard them. Understanding Witchcraft and Sorcery in Southeast Asia will appeal to scholars and students of social anthropology and comparative religion. Its substantial contribution to theoretical and comparative issues in a Southeast Asian context provides a fresh perspective on a stimulating topic.

Author: Mary Douglas
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135032971
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
Historians as well as anthropologists have contributed to this volume of studies on aspects of witchcraft in a variety of cultures and periods from Tudor England to twentieth-century Africa and New Guinea. Contributors include: Mary Douglas, Norman Cohn, Peter Brown, Keith Thomas, Alan Macfarlane, Alison Redmayne, R.G. Willis, Edwin Ardener, Robert Brain, Julian Pitt-Rivers, Esther Goody, Peter Rivière, Anthony Forge, Godfrey Lienhardt, I.M. Lewis, Brian Spooner, G.I. Jones, Malcolm Ruel and T.O. Beidelman. First published in 1970.

Author: Helen Macdonald
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000225712
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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This book unravels the institutions surrounding witchcraft in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh through theoretical and empirical research on witchcraft, violence and modernity in contemporary times. The author pieces together ‘fragments’ of stories gathered utilising ethnographic methods to examine the meanings associated with witches and witchcraft, and how they connect with social relations, gender, notions of agency, law, media and the state. The volume uses the metaphor of the shattered urn to tell the story of the accusations, punishment, rescue and the aftermath of the events of the trial of women accused of being witches. It situates the ṭonhī or witch as a key elaborating symbol that orders behaviour to determine who the socially included and excluded are in communities. Through the personal interviews and other ethnographic methods conducted over the course of many years, the author delves into the stories and practices related to witchcraft, its relations with modernity, and the relationship between violence and ideological norms in society. Insightful and detailed, this book will be of great interest to academics and researchers of anthropology, development studies, sociology, history, violence, gender studies, tribal studies and psychology. It will also be useful for readers in both historic and contemporary witchcraft practices as well as policy makers.

Author: Robert Beaton
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9996025497
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
In this volume, the author presents much of his field research into the use of African traditional religious charms, in the Zambezi Evangelical churches of South-Central Malawi. He details the kinds of charms used, by whom, exactly how, the underlying motives, and the particular purposes. He shows how charm-dependency creates a problem for discipleship within the churches. An anthology of real-life stories of charm-usage is presented which makes for interesting reading. The basic tenets of a Chewa worldview are also articulated to demonstrate how charm-dependency and other witchcraft related activities are stimulated and perpetuated by deep-seated worldview assumptions. The voices of local pastors, student-pastors, and African authors are ‘heard’ throughout, providing a contextual feel. This book is an excellent practical resource for teaching and learning, for those involved in discipleship, theology, ATR, missions and cultural perspectives.

Author: John Joseph Collins
Publisher: Oxford Handbooks
ISBN: 0199856494
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 565

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Book Description
Apocalypticism arose in ancient Judaism in the last centuries BCE and played a crucial role in the rise of Christianity. It is not only of historical interest: there has been a growing awareness, especially since the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, of the prevalence of apocalyptic beliefs in the contemporary world. To understand these beliefs, it is necessary to appreciate their complex roots in the ancient world, and the multi-faceted character of the phenomenon of apocalypticism. The Oxford Handbook of Apocalyptic Literature is a thematic and phenomenological exploration of apocalypticism in the Judaic and Christian traditions. Most of the volume is devoted to the apocalyptic literature of antiquity. Essays explore the relationship between apocalypticism and prophecy, wisdom and mysticism; the social function of apocalypticism and its role as resistance literature; apocalyptic rhetoric from both historical and postmodern perspectives; and apocalyptic theology, focusing on phenomena of determinism and dualism and exploring apocalyptic theology's role in ancient Judaism, early Christianity, and Gnosticism. The final chapters of the volume are devoted to the appropriation of apocalypticism in the modern world, reviewing the role of apocalypticism in contemporary Judaism and Christianity, and more broadly in popular culture, addressing the increasingly studied relation between apocalypticism and violence, and discussing the relationship between apocalypticism and trauma, which speaks to the underlying causes of the popularity of apocalyptic beliefs. This volume will further the understanding of a vital religious phenomenon too often dismissed as alien and irrational by secular western society.