An Inventory of Fear The Witch: A History of Fear from Ancient Times to the Present, RonaldHutton, Yale University Press, 2017 (ISBN 978-0-3002-2904-2), xv + 360 pp., hb $30The Oxford Illustrated History of Witchcraft and Magic, OwenDavies (ed.), Oxford U (original) (raw)

“In the Study of the Witch: Women, Shadows, and the Academic Study of Religions.”

Religions. Special Issue: Feminism and the Study of “Religions”, 2018

This article examines historically competing categories of magic and religion and their gendered traces in the history of religious studies. On one hand, we have a genealogy that traces the term, “magic”, back to an early modern European Christianity trying to understand itself through contrast with an imagined heresy that comes to be personified with a woman’s face. On the other, we have contemporary political and religious communities that use the identification as Witches to reverse this version of dichotomous Christian gaze and legitimize religious difference, which also comes to be symbolized by a female body. Between these historical moments we have the beginning of the academic study of religion, the theoretical turn in which Christian-dominant scholarship comes to see itself on a continuum with, rather than opposed to, different religions, as first characterized by cultural evolution theories about the origins of religion. Especially given the field’s theological roots, examining the constructed relationships between religion and magic, both of which represent crucial foci for early theorists, through the analytical lens of gender, which does not, provides opportunities to surface implicit assumptions of the current field about what is and is not worth studying.

Witchcraft: A Problem for All Times?

Histoire Sociale-social History, 2006

THE HISTORIOGRAPHY of witchcraft and magic has, like that of any other field of study, evolved over time in response to a number of ideological, methodological, and political influences. It has remained, however, a field dominated by the early modern period and by a sense that beliefs in witchcraft and magic-that is, the kind of beliefs that led to witchcraft trialsbelong to the past. Much of what has been written about witchcraft, and about witch-hunting in particular, includes some sort of statement of the scholar's need to "bridge the gap" between present and past, between modern scepticism and early modern belief. It is probably safe to say that, for most western scholars, mass witch-killings and the world views that produce them seem very distant. While we are, of course, aware of other atrocities, there is something comforting and intellectually liberating in the knowledge that history is unlikely to repeat itself in that particular way. But is it really so unlikely? Recent research shows that belief in witches has never disappeared and that witchcraft is a greater part of our world than we may have thought.

Witchcraft, Religion, and the State Apparatus: The Witch Craze Revisited

This paper revisits the phenomenon of witchcraft in relation to religion and the state apparatuses. It addresses the following questions: 1. How did the ISAs function during the witch hunt trials in Europe’s and USA’s witch craze? 2. What were the reasons behind the rise and fall of the witchcraft “epidemic”? Various scholars have attributed the rise of witchcraft to economic crises leading to a catastrophic rise in poverty and food shortages, to meteorological conditions brought about by the “little ice age,” which destroyed crops leading Europe into a period of famine, to the European religious wars, to some diseases that caused collective hysteria. As the majority of witches were poor women, some feminist argued for structural misogyny rooted in Christian religious doctrine. The persecution spread even to the New World. Social and natural catastrophes were attributed to witches who were perceived as wielding satanic powers that they gained through a covenant with Satan and the powers of the Anti-Christ. Both the Church and the State institutions worked hand in hand to rid their Christian societies of witchcraft, using the worst means available: torture, hanging, and burning victims at the stake. Both Catholics and Protestants had a share in this odious practice. It is still a mystery why the State and the Church suddenly stopped their trials over witchcraft accusations, despite the fact that it is still thriving as a belief system and secular entertainment. Some scholars attribute that shift to the early emergence of rational enlightenment ethos and the rise of the scientific worldview. And last but not least, 3. What are the implications for a critical study of witchcraft as a (counter)religious practice governed by the complex working of the ISAs?

Witchcraft: A Story of Many Questions

Few categories of human conduct evoke greater social concern than violence in any given society. It is for this reason that societies are near unanimous in treating diverse form of violence as evil, regression and a sign of decay. Victims of witch-hunting today represent an island of ignorance where the march of human rights is still to reach or at least it so appears. These victims, mostly women, are in fact, victims of apathy, ignorance and suppression. They still continue to be denied the basic rights in a time which has been described as the age of rights. Lack of basic needs like medical services, security, and education abounds in areas where incidents of witchcraft are generally prevalent. And it requires the State to be pro-active so that hapless women are not crucified at the alter of witchcraft. State has a constitutional obligation, more so in this age of welfare state, to ensure the security and well-being of these women who are being deprived of their most cherished right, that is right to life