Book
Open Access
Witchcraft continued
-
Edited by:
Willem De Blecourt
and Owen Davies
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2004
About this book
This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. The study of witchcraft accusations in Europe during the period after the end of the witch trials is still in its infancy. Witches were scratched in England, swum in Germany, beaten in the Netherlands and shot in France. The continued widespread belief in witchcraft and magic in nineteenth- and twentieth-century France has received considerable academic attention. The book discusses the extent and nature of witchcraft accusations in the period and provides a general survey of the published work on the subject for an English audience. It explores the presence of magical elements in everyday life during the modern period in Spain. The book provides a general overview of vernacular magical beliefs and practices in Italy from the time of unification to the present, with particular attention to how these traditions have been studied. By functioning as mechanisms of social ethos and control, narratives of magical harm were assured a place at the very heart of rural Finnish social dynamics into the twentieth century. The book draws upon over 300 narratives recorded in rural Finland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that provide information concerning the social relations, tensions and strategies that framed sorcery and the counter-magic employed against it. It is concerned with a special form of witchcraft that is practised only amongst Hungarians living in Transylvania.
Author / Editor information
De Blecourt Willem :
Willem de Blécourt is an historical anthropologist and independent researcher, and Honorary Research Fellow at the Meertens Institute in AmsterdamDavies Owen :
Owen Davies is a cultural historian who has published widely on the subject of witchcraft and magic.
Topics
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Front matter
i -
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Contents
v -
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List of contributors
vii -
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Introduction
1 -
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1 A case of witchcraft assault in early nineteenth-century England as ostensive action
14 -
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2 Witchcraft, witch doctors and the fight against ‘superstition’ in nineteenth-century Germany
29 -
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3 The witch and the detective
46 -
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4 Narrative and the social dynamics of magical harm in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Finland
69 -
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5 Boiling chickens and burning cats
89 -
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6 Witchcraft accusations in France, 1850–1990
107 -
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7 Magical healing in Spain (1875–1936)
133 -
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8 Witchcraft, healing and vernacular magic in Italy
151 -
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9 Curse, maleficium, divination
174 -
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10 Spooks and spooks
191 -
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Index
213
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
July 30, 2018
eBook ISBN:
9781526137975
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
232
eBook ISBN:
9781526137975
Keywords for this book
England; Europe; Finland; France; Germany; Italy; magical harm; Netherlands; popular magic; Spain; vernacular magical beliefs; vernacular magical practices; witchcraft
Audience(s) for this book
General/trade;
Creative Commons
BY-NC-ND 4.0