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Wikipedia

Witchcraft

January 01, 1970

This article is about worldwide views of witchcraft. For an overview of Neopagan witchcraft, see Neopagan witchcraft. For the modern pagan religion, see Wicca. For other uses, see Witchcraft (disambiguation).
"Witch" redirects here. For other uses, see Witch (disambiguation).

Witchcraft, as most commonly understood in both historical and present-day communities, is the use of alleged supernatural powers of magic. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic or supernatural powers to inflict harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meaning.[1]: ix [2] According to Encyclopedia Britannica, "Witchcraft thus defined exists more in the imagination of contemporaries than in any objective reality. Yet this stereotype has a long history and has constituted for many cultures a viable explanation of evil in the world".[3] The belief in witchcraft has been found in a great number of societies worldwide. Anthropologists have applied the English term "witchcraft" to similar beliefs in occult practices in many different cultures, and societies that have adopted the English language have often internalised the term.[4][2][5]

In Europe, belief in witchcraft traces back to classical antiquity. In medieval and early modern Europe, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have used black magic or maleficium against their own community. Usually, accusations of witchcraft were made by their neighbors and followed from social tensions. Witches were sometimes said to have communed with evil beings or with the Devil, though anthropologist Jean La Fontaine notes that such accusations were mainly made against "enemies of the Church".[6] It was thought witchcraft could be thwarted by protective magic or counter-magic, which could be provided by the 'cunning folk' or 'wise people'. Suspected witches were also intimidated, banished, attacked or killed. Often they would be formally prosecuted and punished, if found guilty or simply believed to be guilty. European witch-hunts and witch trials in the early modern period led to tens of thousands of executions. While magical healers and midwives were sometimes accused of witchcraft themselves,[7]: 7–13 [2]: 519 [8][9]: 31-59  they made up a minority of those accused. European belief in witchcraft gradually dwindled during and after the Age of Enlightenment.

Many indigenous belief systems that include the concept of witchcraft likewise define witches as malevolent, and seek healers and medicine people for protection against witchcraft.[10][11] Some African and Melanesian peoples believe witches are driven by an evil spirit or substance inside them. Modern witch-hunting takes place in parts of Africa and Asia.

Today, followers of certain types of modern paganism self-identify as witches and use the term witchcraft for their beliefs and practices.[12][13][14] Other neo-pagans avoid the term due to its negative connotations.[15]

Concept edit

 
The Witches by Hans Baldung (woodcut), 1508

The concept of witchcraft and the belief in its existence have persisted throughout recorded history. According to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions there is "difficulty of defining 'witches' and 'witchcraft' across cultures—terms that, quite apart from their connotations in popular culture, may include an array of traditional or faith healing practices and are not easily defined".[16]

The most common meaning of "witchcraft" worldwide is the use of harmful magic.[1]: 3–4  Belief in malevolent magic has been found in cultures worldwide, regardless of development.[4][17]: xiii  Most societies have feared an ability by some individuals to cause supernatural harm and misfortune to others. This may come from mankind's tendency "to want to assign occurrences of remarkable good or bad luck to agency, either human or superhuman".[1]: 10  Historians and anthropologists see the concept of "witchcraft" as one of the ways humans have tried to explain strange misfortune.[1]: 10 [18] Some cultures have feared witchcraft much less than others, because they tend to have other explanations for strange misfortune.[1]: 10  For example, the Gaels of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands historically held a strong belief in fairy folk, who could cause supernatural harm, and witch-hunting was very rare in these regions compared to other regions of the British Isles.[1]: 245 

Historian Ronald Hutton outlined five key characteristics ascribed to witches and witchcraft by most cultures that believe in this concept: the use of magic to cause harm or misfortune to others; it was used by the witch against their own community; powers of witchcraft were believed to have been acquired through inheritance or initiation; it was seen as immoral and often thought to involve communion with evil beings; and witchcraft could be thwarted by defensive magic, persuasion, intimidation or physical punishment of the alleged witch.[1]: 3–4 [a]

It is commonly believed that witches use objects, words, and gestures to cause supernatural harm or that they simply have an innate power to do so. Hutton notes that both kinds of practitioners are often believed to exist in the same culture and that the two often overlap, in that someone with an inborn power could wield that power through material objects.[1]: 19–22 

One of the most influential works on witchcraft and concepts of magic was E. E. Evans-Pritchard's Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic Among the Azande, a study of Azande witchcraft beliefs published in 1937. This provided definitions for witchcraft which became a convention in anthropology.[18] However, some researchers argue that the general adoption of Evans-Pritchard's definitions constrained discussion of witchcraft beliefs, and even broader discussion of magic and religion, in ways that his work does not support.[19] Evans-Pritchard reserved the term "witchcraft" for the actions of those who inflict harm by their inborn power and used "sorcery" for those who needed tools to do so.[20] Historians found these definitions difficult to apply to European witchcraft, where witches were believed to use physical techniques, as well as some who were believed to cause harm by thought alone.[2]: 464–465 [21] The distinction "has now largely been abandoned, although some anthropologists still sometimes find it relevant to the particular societies with which they are concerned".[1]: 19–22 

While most cultures believe witchcraft to be something willful, some Indigenous peoples in Africa and Melanesia believe witches have a substance or an evil spirit in their bodies that drives them to do harm.[1]: 19–22  However, such substances are described in other accounts as being able to act on their own while the witch is sleeping or unaware.[19] The Dobu people believe women work harmful magic in their sleep while men work it while awake.[1]: 18-19  Further, in cultures where substances within the body are believed to grant supernatural powers, the substance may be good, bad, or morally neutral.[22][23] Hutton draws a distinction between those who unwittingly cast the evil eye and those who deliberately do so, describing only the latter as witches.[1]: 10 

The universal or cross-cultural validity of these terms are debated.[18] Hutton states:

[Malevolent magic] is, however, only one current usage of the word. In fact, Anglo-American senses of it now take at least four different forms, although the one discussed above seems still to be the most widespread and frequent. The others define the witch figure as any person who uses magic ... or as the practitioner of nature-based Pagan religion; or as a symbol of independent female authority and resistance to male domination. All have validity in the present.[1]: 10 

Dr. Fiona Bowie notes that the terms "witchcraft" and "witch" are used differently by scholars and the general public in at least four different ways that must be treated separately.[18] Neopagan writer Isaac Bonewits proposed dividing witches into even more distinct types including, but not limited to: Neopagan, Feminist, Neogothic, Neoclassical, Classical, Family Traditions, Immigrant Traditions, and Ethnic.[24]: 65–68 

Etymology edit

Further information: Witch (word)

The word is over a thousand years old: Old English formed the compound wiccecræft from wicce ('witch') and cræft ('craft').[25] The masculine form was wicca ('male sorcerer').[26]

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, wicce and wicca were probably derived from the Old English verb wiccian, meaning 'to practice witchcraft'.[27] Wiccian has a cognate in Middle Low German wicken (attested from the 13th century). The further etymology of this word is problematic. It has no clear cognates in other Germanic languages outside of English and Low German, and there are numerous possibilities for the Indo-European root from which it may have derived.

Another Old English word for 'witch' was hægtes or hægtesse, which became the modern English word "hag" and is linked to the word "hex". In most other Germanic languages, their word for 'witch' comes from the same root as these; for example German Hexe and Dutch heks.[28]

In colloquial modern English, the word witch is particularly used for women.[29] A male practitioner of magic or witchcraft is more commonly called a 'wizard', or sometimes, 'warlock'. When the word witch is used to refer to a member of a neo-pagan tradition or religion (such as Wicca), it can refer to a person of any gender.[citation needed]

Beliefs about practices edit

 
Preparation for the Witches' Sabbath by David Teniers the Younger. It shows a witch brewing a potion overlooked by her familiar spirit or a demon; items on the floor for casting a spell; and another witch reading from a grimoire while anointing the buttocks of a young witch about to fly upon an inverted besom.

Witches are commonly believed to cast curses; a spell or set of magical words and gestures intended to inflict supernatural harm.[30]: 54  Cursing could also involve inscribing runes or sigils on an object to give that object magical powers; burning or binding a wax or clay image (a poppet) of a person to affect them magically; or using herbs, animal parts and other substances to make potions or poisons.[31][32][33][1]: 19-22  Witchcraft has been blamed for many kinds of misfortune. In Europe, by far the most common kind of harm attributed to witchcraft was illness or death suffered by adults, their children, or their animals. "Certain ailments, like impotence in men, infertility in women, and lack of milk in cows, were particularly associated with witchcraft". Illnesses that were poorly understood were more likely to be blamed on witchcraft. Edward Bever writes: "Witchcraft was particularly likely to be suspected when a disease came on unusually swiftly, lingered unusually long, could not be diagnosed clearly, or presented some other unusual symptoms".[30]: 54-55 

A common belief in cultures worldwide is that witches tend to use something from their target's body to work magic against them; for example hair, nail clippings, clothing, or bodily waste. Such beliefs are found in Europe, Africa, South Asia, Polynesia, Melanesia, and North America.[1]: 19-22  Another widespread belief among Indigenous peoples in Africa and North America is that witches cause harm by introducing cursed magical objects into their victim's body; such as small bones or ashes.[1]: 19-22  James George Frazer described this kind of magic as imitative.[b]

In some cultures, witches are believed to use human body parts in magic,[1]: 19-22  and they are commonly believed to murder children for this purpose. In Europe, "cases in which women did undoubtedly kill their children, because of what today would be called postpartum psychosis, were often interpreted as yielding to diabolical temptation".[35]

Witches are believed to work in secret, sometimes alone and sometimes with other witches. Hutton writes: "Across most of the world, witches have been thought to gather at night, when normal humans are inactive, and also at their most vulnerable in sleep".[1]: 19-22  In most cultures, witches at these gatherings are thought to transgress social norms by engaging in cannibalism, incest and open nudity.[1]: 19-22 

Witches around the world commonly have associations with animals.[1]: 264-277  Rodney Needham identified this as a defining feature of the witch archetype.[36] In some parts of the world, it is believed witches can shapeshift into animals,[1]: 264  or that the witch's spirit travels apart from their body and takes an animal form, an activity often associated with shamanism.[1]: 264  Another widespread belief is that witches have an animal helper.[1]: 264  In English these are often called "familiars", and meant an evil spirit or demon that had taken an animal form.[1]: 264  As researchers examined traditions in other regions, they widened the term to servant spirit-animals which are described as a part of the witch's own soul.[1]: 269 

Necromancy is the practice of conjuring the spirits of the dead for divination or prophecy, although the term has also been applied to raising the dead for other purposes. The biblical Witch of Endor performed it (1 Samuel 28th chapter), and it is among the witchcraft practices condemned by Ælfric of Eynsham:[37][38][39] "Witches still go to cross-roads and to heathen burials with their delusive magic and call to the devil; and he comes to them in the likeness of the man that is buried there, as if he arises from death."[40]

Witchcraft and folk healers edit

Main article: Cunning folk
 
Diorama of a cunning woman or wise woman in the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic

Most societies that have believed in harmful or black magic have also believed in helpful magic. Some have called it white magic, at least in more recent times.[1]: 24-25  Where belief in harmful magic exists, its use is typically forbidden by law as well as hated and feared by the general populace, while helpful "white" or apotropaic magic is tolerated or even accepted wholesale by the population, even if the orthodox establishment opposes it.[41]: 203 

In these societies, practitioners of helpful magic, usually known as cunning folk, have traditionally[timeframe?] provided services such as breaking the effects of witchcraft, healing, divination, finding lost or stolen goods, and love magic.[1]: x-xi  In Britain, and some other parts of Europe, they were commonly known as cunning folk or wise people.[1]: x-xi  Alan McFarlane wrote that while cunning folk is the usual name, some are also known as 'blessers' or 'wizards', but might also be known as 'white', 'good', or 'unbinding witches'.[42] Historian Owen Davies says the term "white witch" was rarely used before the 20th century.[7]: xiii  Ronald Hutton uses the general term "service magicians".[1]: x-xi  Often these people were involved in identifying alleged witches.[1]: 24-25 

Such helpful magic-workers "were normally contrasted with the witch who practiced maleficium—that is, magic used for harmful ends".[43]: 27-28  In the early years of the witch hunts "the cunning folk were widely tolerated by church, state and general populace".[43]: 27-28  Some of the more hostile churchmen and secular authorities tried to smear folk-healers and magic-workers by falsely branding them 'witches' and associating them with harmful 'witchcraft',[1]: x-xi  but generally the masses did not accept this and continued to make use of their services.[44] The English MP and skeptic Reginald Scot sought to disprove magic and witchcraft, writing in The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), "At this day, it is indifferent to say in the English tongue, 'she is a witch' or 'she is a wise woman'".[45] Historian Keith Thomas adds "Nevertheless, it is possible to isolate that kind of 'witchcraft' which involved the employment (or presumed employment) of some occult means of doing harm to other people in a way which was generally disapproved of. In this sense the belief in witchcraft can be defined as the attribution of misfortune to occult human agency".[2]: 519 

Emma Wilby says folk magicians in Europe were viewed ambivalently by communities, and were considered as capable of harming as of healing,[46]: 51–54  which could lead to their being accused as malevolent witches. She suggests some English "witches" convicted of consorting with demons may have been cunning folk whose supposed fairy familiars had been demonised.[46]: 123 

Hutton says that healers and cunning folk "were sometimes denounced as witches, but seem to have made up a minority of the accused in any area studied".[1]: 24-25  Likewise, Davies says "relatively few cunning-folk were prosecuted under secular statutes for witchcraft" and were dealt with more leniently than alleged witches. The Constitutio Criminalis Carolina (1532) of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Danish Witchcraft Act of 1617, stated that workers of folk magic should be dealt with differently from witches.[7]: 164  It was suggested by Richard Horsley that cunning folk (devins-guerisseurs, 'diviner-healers') made up a significant proportion of those tried for witchcraft in France and Switzerland, but more recent surveys conclude that they made up less than 2% of the accused.[7]: 167  However, Éva Pócs says that half the accused witches in Hungary seem to have been healers,[47]: 12  and Kathleen Stokker says the "vast majority" of Norway's accused witches were folk healers.[48]

Witch-hunts and thwarting witchcraft edit

 
A witch bottle, used as counter-magic against witchcraft

Societies that believed in witchcraft also believed that it could be thwarted in various ways. One common way was to use protective magic or counter-magic, of which the cunning folk were experts.[1]: 24-25  This included charms, talismans and amulets, anti-witch marks, witch bottles, witch balls, and burying objects such as horse skulls inside the walls of buildings.[49] Another believed cure for bewitchment was to persuade or force the alleged witch to lift their spell.[1]: 24-25  Often, people would attempt to thwart the witchcraft by physically punishing the alleged witch, such as by banishing, wounding, torturing or killing them. "In most societies, however, a formal and legal remedy was preferred to this sort of private action", whereby the alleged witch would be prosecuted and then formally punished if found guilty.[1]: 24-25  This often resulted in execution.

Accusations of witchcraft edit

 
Alleged witches being accused in the Salem witch trials

Throughout the world, accusations of witchcraft are often linked to social and economic tensions. Females are most often accused, but in some cultures it is mostly males. In many societies, accusations are directed mainly against the elderly, but in others age is not a factor, and in some cultures it is mainly adolescents who are accused.[1]: 15 

Éva Pócs writes that reasons for accusations of witchcraft fall into four general categories. The first three of which were proposed by Richard Kieckhefer, and the fourth added by Christina Larner:[47]: 9-10 

  1. A person was caught in the act of positive or negative sorcery
  2. A well-meaning sorcerer or healer lost their clients' or the authorities' trust
  3. A person did nothing more than gain the enmity of their neighbors
  4. A person was reputed to be a witch and surrounded with an aura of witch-beliefs or occultism.

Modern witch-hunts edit

Main articles: Witch-hunt, Witch trials in the early modern period, and Modern witch-hunts

Witch-hunts, scapegoating, and the shunning or murder of suspected witches still occurs.[50] Many cultures worldwide continue to have a belief in the concept of "witchcraft" or malevolent magic.[17] Apart from extrajudicial violence, state-sanctioned violence also occurs in some jurisdictions. For instance, in Saudi Arabia practicing witchcraft and sorcery is a crime punishable by death and the country has executed people for this crime in 2011, 2012 and 2014.[51][52][53]

Witchcraft-related violence is often discussed as a serious issue in the broader context of violence against women.[54][55][56][57][58] In Tanzania, an estimated 500 older women are murdered each year following accusations of witchcraft or accusations of being a witch, according to a 2014 World Health Organization report.[59]

Children who live in some regions of the world, such as parts of Africa, are also vulnerable to violence that is related to witchcraft accusations.[60][61][62][63] Such incidents have also occurred in immigrant communities in the UK, including the much publicized case of the murder of Victoria Climbié.[64][65]

Religious perspectives edit

Ancient Mesopotamian religion edit

Main article: Witchcraft in the Middle East

Working magic was widely accepted and deeply integrated into the religion and the wider Mesopotamian society.[1]: 49  According to Tzvi Abusch, the early stages of the development of witchcraft (ipšū or kišpū[66]) in ancient Mesopotamia were "comparable to the archaic shamanistic stage of European witchcraft".[67]: 65–66  In this early stage, witches were not necessarily considered evil, but took white and black forms and could help others using a combination of magical and medical knowledge.[67]: 65–66  They generally lived in rural areas and sometimes exhibited ecstatic behavior,[67]: 65–66  which was more usually associated with the ašipu (exorcist), whose main function at this stage of development was to battle non-human supernatural forces.[67]: 65–66 

In ancient Mesopotamian religion, witches (m. kaššāpu, f. kaššāptu, from kašāpu ['to bewitch'][66]) eventually[when?] came to be "regarded as an anti-social and illegitimate practitioner of destructive magic ... whose activities were motivated by malice and evil intent and who was opposed by the ašipu, an exorcist or incantation-priest",[67]: 65–66  who were predominantly male representatives of the official state religion.[67] The individuals mentioned in records of Mesopotamian society as witches tended to be those of low status who were weak or otherwise marginalized, including women, foreigners, actors, and peddlers.[1]: 49 

By the time of the Code of Hammurabi (about 2000 BC), the use of magic to harm others without justification was subject to legal repercussions:

If a man has put a spell upon another man and it is not justified, he upon whom the spell is laid shall go to the holy river; into the holy river shall he plunge. If the holy river overcome him and he is drowned, the man who put the spell upon him shall take possession of his house. If the holy river declares him innocent and he remains unharmed the man who laid the spell shall be put to death. He that plunged into the river shall take possession of the house of him who laid the spell upon him.[68][c]

The ašipu, in their continued efforts to suppress witchcraft,[67] developed an Akkadian anti-witchcraft ritual, the Maqlû, probably composed in the early first millennium BC.[70]

Confucianism edit

Main article: Chinese shamanism

During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han (141 BCE to 87 BCE) in the Western Han Dynasty of China, there were instances where the imperial court took measures to suppress certain religious or spiritual practices, including those associated with shamanism. Emperor Wu was known for his strong support of Confucianism, which was the dominant ideology of the Han Dynasty, and he promoted policies that aimed to consolidate central authority and unify the cultural and social landscape of the empire.[71]

One notable event related to the suppression of shamanism occurred in 91 BCE, when Emperor Wu issued an edict that banned a range of "heterodox" practices, including shamanistic rituals and divination, in favor of Confucianism. The primary target of these measures was the Wuism or Wu (巫) tradition, which involved the worship of spirits and the use of shamanic practices to communicate with them. Wuism was considered by the Confucian elite to be superstitious witchcraft and at odds with Confucian principles.[71]: 1 

Emperor Wu's suppression of shamanism was part of a larger effort to centralize power, promote Confucian ethics, and standardize cultural practices. While the ban on shamanistic practices did impact certain communities and religious groups, these measures were not universally applied across the vast territory of the empire. Local variations and practices persisted in some regions despite imperial edicts.[71]

The historical record from that time is limited, and our understanding of these events can be influenced by the perspectives of the Confucian scholars and officials who documented them. As a result, there might be some variations in the interpretation of the exact nature and extent of the expulsion of shamans and other religious practitioners during Emperor Wu's reign.[71]

Abrahamic religions edit

Witchcraft's historical evolution in the Middle East reveals a multi-phase journey influenced by culture, spirituality, and societal norms. Ancient witchcraft in the Near East intertwined mysticism with nature through rituals and incantations aligned with local beliefs. In ancient Judaism, magic had a complex relationship, with some forms accepted due to mysticism[72] while others were considered heretical.[69] The medieval Middle East experienced shifting perceptions of witchcraft under Islamic and Christian influences, sometimes revered for healing and other times condemned as heresy.

Jewish edit

See also: Witchcraft and divination in the Hebrew Bible

Jewish attitudes toward witchcraft were rooted in its association with idolatry and necromancy, and some rabbis even practiced certain forms of magic themselves.[73][74] References to witchcraft in the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, highlighted strong condemnations rooted in the "abomination" of magical belief. Christianity similarly condemned witchcraft, considering it an abomination and even citing specific verses to justify witch-hunting during the early modern period.

Christian edit

Main article: Christian views on magic

Historically, the Christian concept of witchcraft derives from Old Testament laws against it. In medieval and early modern Europe, many Christians believed in magic. As opposed to the helpful magic of the cunning folk, witchcraft was seen as evil and associated with Satan and Devil worship. This often resulted in deaths, torture and scapegoating (casting blame for misfortune),[75][47]: 9–12  and many years of large scale witch-trials and witch hunts, especially in Protestant Europe, before largely ending during the Age of Enlightenment. Christian views in the modern day are diverse, ranging from intense belief and opposition (especially by Christian fundamentalists) to non-belief. During the Age of Colonialism, many cultures were exposed to the Western world via colonialism, usually accompanied by intensive Christian missionary activity (see Christianization). In these cultures, beliefs about witchcraft were partly influenced by the prevailing Western concepts of the time.

 
A 1613 English pamphlet showing "Witches apprehended, examined and executed"

In Christianity, sorcery came to be associated with heresy and apostasy and to be viewed as evil. Among Catholics, Protestants, and the secular leadership of late medieval/early modern Europe, fears about witchcraft rose to fever pitch and sometimes led to large-scale witch-hunts. The fifteenth century saw a dramatic rise in awareness and terror of witchcraft. Tens of thousands of people were executed, and others were imprisoned, tortured, banished, and had lands and possessions confiscated. The majority of those accused were women, though in some regions the majority were men.[76][77]: 23  In Scots, the word warlock came to be used as the male equivalent of witch (which can be male or female, but is used predominantly for females).[78][79][80]

The Malleus Maleficarum (Latin for 'Hammer of The Witches') was a witch-hunting manual written in 1486 by two German monks, Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger. It was used by both Catholics and Protestants[81] for several hundred years, outlining how to identify a witch, what makes a woman more likely than a man to be a witch, how to put a witch on trial, and how to punish a witch. The book defines a witch as evil and typically female. It became the handbook for secular courts throughout Europe, but was not used by the Inquisition, which even cautioned against relying on it.[82] It was the most sold book in Europe for over 100 years, after the Bible.[83]

Islamic edit

Main article: Islam and magic

Islamic perspectives on magic encompass a wide range of practices,[84] with belief in black magic and the evil eye coexisting alongside strict prohibitions against its practice.[85] The Quran acknowledges the existence of magic and seeks protection from its harm. Islam's stance is against the practice of magic, considering it forbidden, and emphasizes divine miracles rather than magic or witchcraft.[86] The historical continuity of witchcraft in the Middle East underlines the complex interaction between spiritual beliefs and societal norms across different cultures and epochs.

Modern paganism edit

Main articles: Neopagan witchcraft and Semitic neopaganism

During the 20th century, interest in witchcraft rose in English-speaking and European countries. From the 1920s, Margaret Murray popularized the 'witch-cult hypothesis': the idea that those persecuted as 'witches' in early modern Europe were followers of a benevolent pagan religion that had survived the Christianization of Europe. This has been discredited by further historical research.[24]: 45–47, 84–85 [1]: 121 [87][88][89]

From the 1930s, occult neopagan groups began to emerge who called their religion a kind of 'witchcraft'. They were initiatory secret societies inspired by Murray's 'witch cult' theory, ceremonial magic, Aleister Crowley's Thelema, and historical paganism.[89]: 205–252 [90][91] The biggest religious movement to emerge from this is Wicca. Today, some Wiccans and members of related traditions self-identify as "witches" and use the term "witchcraft" for their magico-religious beliefs and practices, primarily in Western anglophone countries.[12]

Regional perspectives edit

 
Prevalence of belief in witchcraft by country[92]
 
Socio-demographic correlates of witchcraft beliefs[92]

A 2022 study found that belief in witchcraft, as in the use of malevolent magic or powers, is still widespread in some parts of the world. It found that belief in witchcraft varied from 9% of people in some countries to 90% in others, and was linked to cultural and socioeconomic factors. Stronger belief in witchcraft correlated with poorer economic development, weak institutions, lower levels of education, lower life expectancy, lower life satisfaction, and high religiosity.[93][92]

It contrasted two hypotheses about future changes in witchcraft belief:[92]

  • witchcraft beliefs should decline "in the process of development due to improved security and health, lower exposure to shocks, spread of education and scientific approach to explaining life events" according to standard modernization theory
  • "some aspects of development, namely rising inequality, globalization, technological change, and migration, may instead revive witchcraft beliefs by disrupting established social order" according to literature largely inspired by observations from Sub-Saharan Africa.

Africa edit

Main article: Witchcraft in Africa
 
An Azande witch doctor, who is believed to cure bewitchment

African witchcraft encompasses various beliefs and practices. These beliefs often play a significant role in shaping social dynamics and can influence how communities address challenges and seek spiritual assistance. Much of what witchcraft represents in Africa has been susceptible to misunderstandings and confusion, thanks in no small part to a tendency among western scholars since the time of the now largely discredited Margaret Murray to approach the subject through a comparative lens vis-a-vis European witchcraft.[94]

While some colonialists tried to eradicate witch hunting by introducing legislation to prohibit accusations of witchcraft, some of the countries where this was the case have formally recognized the existence of witchcraft via the law. This has produced an environment that encourages persecution of suspected witches.[95]

In Cameroon among the Maka people, witchcraft is known as "djambe" and encompasses occult, transformative, killing, and healing aspects.[96] In the Central African Republic, hundreds of people are convicted of witchcraft annually, with reports of violent acts against accused women.[97] The Democratic Republic of the Congo witnessed a disturbing trend of child witchcraft accusations in Kinshasa, leading to abuse and exorcisms supervised by self-styled pastors.[98] Ghana grapples with accusations against women, leading to the existence of witch camps where accused individuals can seek refuge, though the government plans to close them.[99]

In Kenya, there have been reports of mobs burning people accused of witchcraft, reflecting the deep-seated beliefs in the supernatural.[100] Malawi faces a similar issue of child witchcraft accusations, with traditional healers and some Christian counterparts involved in exorcisms, causing abandonment and abuse of children.[101] In Nigeria, Pentecostal pastors have intertwined Christianity with witchcraft beliefs for profit, leading to the torture and killing of accused children.[102] Sierra Leone's Mende people see witchcraft convictions as beneficial, as the accused receive support and care from the community.[103]

Lastly, in Zulu culture, healers known as sangomas protect people from witchcraft and evil spirits through divination and ancestral connections.[104] However, concerns arise regarding the training and authenticity of some sangomas.

In parts of Africa, beliefs about illness being caused by witchcraft continue to fuel suspicion of modern medicine, with serious healthcare consequences. HIV/AIDS[105] and Ebola[106] are two examples of often-lethal infectious disease epidemics whose medical care and containment has been severely hampered by regional beliefs in witchcraft. Other severe medical conditions whose treatment is hampered in this way include tuberculosis, leprosy, epilepsy and the common severe bacterial Buruli ulcer.[107][108]

Americas edit

North America edit

Main article: Witchcraft in North America

The views of witchcraft in North America have evolved through an interlinking history of cultural beliefs and interactions. These forces contribute to complex and evolving views of witchcraft. Today, North America hosts a diverse array of beliefs about witchcraft.[109][110]

Indigenous communities such as the Cherokee,[111] Hopi,[112] the Navajo[5] among others,[113] included in their folklore and beliefs which malevolent figures who could harm their communities, often resulting in severe punishments, including death.[114] These communities also recognized the role of medicine people as healers and protectors against these malevolent forces.[citation needed]

The term witchcraft arrived with European colonists, along with European views on witchcraft.[109] This term would be adopted by many Indigenous communities for those beliefs about harmful supernatural powers. In colonial America and the United States, views of witchcraft were further shaped by European colonists. The infamous Salem witch trials in Massachusetts, along with other witch hunts in places like Maryland and Pennsylvania, exemplified European and Christian fear and hysteria surrounding accusations of witchcraft. These trials led to the execution of numerous individuals accused of practicing witchcraft. Despite changes in laws and perspectives over time, accusations of witchcraft persisted into the 19th century in some regions, such as Tennessee, where prosecutions occurred as late as 1833.

The influences on Witchcraft in Latin America impacted North American views both directly and indirectly, including the diaspora of African witchcraft beliefs through the slave trade[115][116][110] and suppressed Indigenous cultures adopting the term for their own cultural practices.[117] Neopagan witchcraft practices such as Wicca then emerged in the mid-20th century.[109][110]

Latin America edit

Main article: Witchcraft in Latin America

When Franciscan friars from New Spain arrived in the Americas in 1524, they introduced Diabolism—belief in the Christian Devil—to the Indigenous peoples of the Americas.[118] Bartolomé de las Casas believed that human sacrifice was not diabolic, in fact far off from it, and was a natural result of religious expression.[118] Mexican Indians gladly took in the belief of Diabolism and still managed to keep their belief in creator-destroyer deities.[119]

Witchcraft was an important part of the social and cultural history of late-Colonial Mexico, during the Mexican Inquisition. Spanish Inquisitors viewed witchcraft as a problem that could be cured simply through confession. Yet, as anthropologist Ruth Behar writes, witchcraft, not only in Mexico but in Latin America in general, was a "conjecture of sexuality, witchcraft, and religion, in which Spanish, indigenous, and African cultures converged."[120] Furthermore, witchcraft in Mexico generally required an interethnic and interclass network of witches.[121] Yet, according to anthropology professor Laura Lewis, witchcraft in colonial Mexico ultimately represented an "affirmation of hegemony" for women, Indians, and especially Indian women over their white male counterparts as a result of the casta system.[122]

The presence of the witch is a constant in the ethnographic history of colonial Brazil, especially during the several denunciations and confessions given to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of Bahia (1591–1593), Pernambuco and Paraíba (1593–1595).[123]

Brujería, often called a Latin American form of witchcraft, is a syncretic Afro-Caribbean tradition that combines Indigenous religious and magical practices from Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao in the Dutch Caribbean, Catholicism, and European witchcraft.[124]: 174  The tradition and terminology is considered to encompass both helpful and harmful practices.[124]: 175  A male practitioner is called a brujo, a female practitioner, a bruja.[124]: 175  Healers may be further distinguished by the terms kurioso or kuradó, a man or woman who performs trabou chikí ("little works") and trabou grandi ("large treatments") to promote or restore health, bring fortune or misfortune, deal with unrequited love, and more serious concerns. Sorcery usually involves reference to an entity referred to as the almasola or homber chiki.[125]

Asia edit

Main article: Asian witchcraft
 
Okabe – The cat witch, by Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Asian witchcraft encompasses various types of witchcraft practices across Asia. In ancient times, magic played a significant role in societies such as ancient Egypt and Babylonia, as evidenced by historical records. In the Middle East, references to magic can be found in the Torah, where witchcraft is condemned due to its association with belief in magic.

In Chinese culture, the practice of "Gong Tau" involves black magic for purposes such as revenge and financial assistance. Japanese folklore features witch figures who employ foxes as familiars. Korean history includes instances of individuals being condemned for using spells. The Philippines has its own tradition of witches, distinct from Western portrayals, with their practices often countered by indigenous shamans.

Overall, witchcraft beliefs and practices in Asia vary widely across cultures, reflecting historical, religious, and social contexts.

Middle East edit

Main article: Witchcraft in the Middle East

The practice of witchcraft in southwest Asia, sometimes referred to as the Middle East, has a long history. The ancient cultures of the region had complex relationships with magic, often integrating them deeply into both their religion and wider culture. [1]: 47-54  The ancient Hittites focused sanctioned mystical power in the hands of the state, and often used accusations of witchcraft to control political enemies.[1]: 50-51  As the ancient Hebrews focused on their worship on Yahweh, Judaism clearly separated between with forms of magic and mystical practices which were accepted, versus those which were viewed as forbidden or heretical, and thus "witchcraft".[1]: 51-52  In the medieval Middle East, under Islamic and Christian influences, witchcraft's perception fluctuated between healing and heresy, revered by some and condemned by others. In the present day diverse witchcraft communities have emerged.

Europe edit

Main article: European witchcraft
 
Elizabeth Sawyer, witch executed in 1620

European witchcraft is a multifaceted historical and cultural phenomenon that unfolded over centuries, leaving a mark on the continent's social, religious, and legal landscapes. The roots of European witchcraft trace back to classical antiquity when concepts of magic and religion were closely related, and society closely integrated magic and supernatural beliefs. During the Middle Ages, accusations of heresy and devil worship grew more prevalent. By the early modern period, major witch hunts began to take place, partly fueled by religious tensions, societal anxieties, and economic upheaval. Witches were often viewed as dangerous sorceresses or sorcerers in a pact with the Devil, capable of causing harm through black magic.[9]: 29, 54  A feminist interpretation of the witch trials is that misogynist views led to the association of women and malevolent witchcraft.[9]: 29, 54 

One pivotal text that shaped the witch-hunts was the Malleus Maleficarum, a 1486 treatise that provided a framework for identifying, prosecuting, and punishing witches. The burgeoning influence of the Catholic Church[citation needed] led to a wave of witch trials across Europe. Usually, accusations of witchcraft were made by neighbours and followed from social tensions. Accusations often targeted marginalized individuals, including women, the elderly, and those who did not conform to societal norms. Women made accusations as often as men. The common people believed that magical healers (called 'cunning folk' or 'wise people') could undo bewitchment. Hutton says that healers and cunning folk "were sometimes denounced as witches, but seem to have made up a minority of the accused in any area studied".[1]: 24-25  The witch-craze reached its peak between the 16th and 17th centuries, resulting in the execution of tens of thousands of people. This dark period of history reflects the confluence of superstition, fear, and authority, as well as the societal tendency to find scapegoats for complex problems.

The Tsardom of Russia also experienced its own iteration of witchcraft trials during the 17th century. Witches were often accused of practicing sorcery and engaging in supernatural activities, leading to their excommunication and execution. The blending of ecclesiastical and secular jurisdictions in Russia's approach to witchcraft trials highlighted the intertwined nature of religious and political power during that time. As the 17th century progressed, the fear of witches shifted from mere superstition to a tool for political manipulation, with accusations used to target individuals who posed threats to the ruling elite.

Since the 1940s, neopagan witchcraft movements have emerged in Europe, seeking to revive and reinterpret ancient pagan and mystical practices. Wicca, pioneered by Gerald Gardner, stands out as one of the most influential neopagan traditions. Drawing inspiration from ceremonial magic, historical paganism, and the now-discredited witch-cult theory, Wicca emphasizes a connection to nature, the divine, and personal growth. Similarly, Stregheria in Italy reflects a desire to reconnect with the country's pre-Christian spiritual roots. Many of these neopagans choose to self-identify as "witches". Contemporary, neopagan witchcraft in Europe encompasses a wide range of traditions, reflecting a blend of historical influences, modern interpretations, new religious movements, and a search for spiritual authenticity in a rapidly changing world.

Ancient Roman world edit

Main article: European witchcraft § Antiquity
 
Caius Furius Cressinus Accused of Sorcery, Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours, 1792

During the pagan era of ancient Rome, there were laws against harmful magic.[126] According to Pliny, the 5th century BC laws of the Twelve Tables laid down penalties for uttering harmful incantations and for stealing the fruitfulness of someone else's crops by magic.[126] The only recorded trial involving this law was that of Gaius Furius Cresimus.[126]

The Classical Latin word veneficium meant both poisoning and causing harm by magic (such as magic potions), although ancient people would not have distinguished between the two.[1]: 59-66  In 331 BC, a deadly epidemic hit Rome and at least 170 women were executed for causing it by veneficium. In 184–180 BC, another epidemic hit Italy, and about 5,000 were executed for veneficium.[1]: 59-66  If the reports are accurate, writes Hutton, "then the Republican Romans hunted witches on a scale unknown anywhere else in the ancient world".[1]: 59-66 

Under the Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis of 81 BC, killing by veneficium carried the death penalty. During the early Imperial era, the Lex Cornelia began to be used more broadly against other kinds of magic,[1]: 59-66  including sacrifices made for evil purposes. The magicians were to be burnt at the stake.[126]

Witch characters—women who work powerful evil magic—appear in ancient Roman literature from the first century BC onward. They are typically hags who chant harmful incantations; make poisonous potions from herbs and the body parts of animals and humans; sacrifice children; raise the dead; can control the natural world; can shapeshift themselves and others into animals; and invoke underworld deities and spirits. They include Lucan's Erichtho, Horace's Canidia, Ovid's Dipsas, and Apuleius's Meroe.[1]: 59-66 

Oceania edit

Cook Islands edit

In pre-Christian times, witchcraft was a common practice in the Cook Islands. The native name for a sorcerer was tangata purepure (a man who prays).[127]: 372  The prayers offered by the ta'unga (priests)[127]: 471  to the gods worshiped on national or tribal marae (temples) were termed karakia;[127]: 156  those on minor occasions to the lesser gods were named pure. All these prayers were metrical, and were handed down from generation to generation with the utmost care. There were prayers for every such phase in life; for success in battle; for a change in wind (to overwhelm an adversary at sea, or that an intended voyage be propitious); that his crops may grow; to curse a thief; or wish ill-luck and death to his foes. Few men of middle age were without a number of these prayers or charms. The succession of a sorcerer was from father to son, or from uncle to nephew. So too of sorceresses: it would be from mother to daughter, or from aunt to niece. Sorcerers and sorceresses were often slain by relatives of their supposed victims.[128]: 21 

A singular enchantment was employed to kill off a husband of a pretty woman desired by someone else. The expanded flower of a Gardenia was stuck upright—a very difficult performance—in a cup (i.e., half a large coconut shell) of water. A prayer was then offered for the husband's speedy death, the sorcerer earnestly watching the flower. Should it fall the incantation was successful. But if the flower still remained upright, he will live. The sorcerer would in that case try his skill another day, with perhaps better success.[128]: 22 

Papua New Guinea edit

A local newspaper informed that more than fifty people were killed in two Highlands provinces of Papua New Guinea in 2008 for allegedly practicing witchcraft.[129] An estimated 50–150 alleged witches are killed each year in Papua New Guinea.[130]

Belief and practice of witchcraft are prevalent in Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea.[131] Unlike other provinces, the Samarai Islands and Milne Bay particularly sees much less violence against both those accused of witchcraft and women in general than other parts of the country.[131] It is suggested the history of witchcraft in the area contributes to a raise in status of women in the area overall.[131]

Witches in art and literature edit

Further information: Witch (archetype) § In art and literature, and List of fictional witches
 
Albrecht Dürer c. 1500: Witch riding backwards on a goat

Witches have a long history of being depicted in art, although most of their earliest artistic depictions seem to originate in Early Modern Europe, particularly the Medieval and Renaissance periods. Many scholars attribute their manifestation in art as inspired by texts such as Canon Episcopi, a demonology-centered work of literature, and Malleus Maleficarum, a "witch-craze" manual published in 1487, by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger.[132] Witches in fiction span a wide array of characterizations. They are typically, but not always, female, and generally depicted as either villains or heroines.[133]

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ An extract from Hutton's The Witch covering this topic can be read online at https://yalebooksblog.co.uk/2017/07/31/five-characteristics-of-a-witch-an-extract-by-ronald-hutton/ [1]: 3-4 
  2. ^ "If we analyze the principles of thought on which magic is based, they will probably be found to resolve themselves into two: first, that like produces like, or that an effect resembles its cause; and, second, that things which have once been in contact with each other continue to act on each other at a distance after the physical contact has been severed. The former principle may be called the Law of Similarity, the latter the Law of Contact or Contagion. From the first of these principles, namely the Law of Similarity, the magician infers that he can produce any effect he desires merely by imitating it: from the second he infers that whatever he does to a material object will affect equally the person with whom the object was once in contact, whether it formed part of his body or not."[34]
  3. ^ There is some discrepancy between translations; compare the displayed text with that of the Catholic Encyclopedia article on Witchcraft 2021-02-11 at the Wayback Machine (accessed 31 March 2006)[69] and the L. W. King translation 2007-09-16 at the Wayback Machine (accessed 31 March 2006).

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Works cited edit

  • Abusch, Tzvi (2002). Mesopotamian Witchcraft: Toward a History and Understanding of Babylonian Witchcraft Beliefs and Literature. Brill Styx. ISBN 9789004123878.
  • Reiner, E. (1995). Astral magic in Babylonia. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. ISBN 978-0871698544.

Further reading edit

  • Bristol, J. C. (2007). Christians, Blasphemers, and Witches: Afro-Mexican Ritual Practice in the Seventeenth Century. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
  • Epstein, I. (2008). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Children's Issues Worldwide. Greenwood Press.
  • Ginzburg, Carlo; Translated by Raymond Rosenthal (2004) [Originally published in Italy as Storia Notturna (1989 Giulio Einaudi)]. Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226296937.
  • Gittins, Anthony J. (1987). "Mende Religion". Studia Instituti Anthropos. 41. Nettetal: Steyler Verlag.
  • Hutton, R. (2006). Witches, Druids and King Arthur. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-1852855550
  • Janzen, John M.; MacGaffey, Wyatt (1974). "An Anthology of Kongo Religion: Primary Texts from Lower Zaïre". University of Kansas Publications in Anthropology (5). Lawrence.
  • Kent, Elizabeth. "Masculinity and Male Witches in Old and New England." History Workshop 60 (2005): 69–92.
  • Lima, R. (2005). Stages of Evil: Occultism in Western Theater and Drama. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0813123622.
  • Murray, D. (2013). Matter, Magic, and Spirit: Representing Indian and African American Belief. University of Pennsylvania Press.
  • Narby, J. (1998). The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge. TarcherPerigee.
  • Pentikainen, J (1978). "Marina Takalo as an Individual in Oral Repertoire and World View. An Anthropological study of Marina Takalo's Life History". F. F. Communications Turku. 93 (219): 58–76. INIST 12698358.
  • Pentikainen, Juha. "The Supernatural Experience." F. Jstor. 26 February 2007.
  • Rasbold, K. (2019). Crossroads of Conjure: The Roots and Practices of Granny Magic, Hoodoo, Brujería, and Curanderismo. Llewellyn Worldwide.
  • Ruickbie, Leo (2004) Witchcraft out of the Shadows: A History, London, Robert Hale.[ISBN missing]
  • Williams, Howard (1865). The Superstitions of Witchcraft. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green – via Project Gutenberg.

External links edit

 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Witchcraft.
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Witchcraft.
 
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Witchcraft".
 
Scholia has a topic profile for Witchcraft.
  • Witchcraft on In Our Time at the BBC
  • Kabbalah On Witchcraft – A Jewish view (Audio) chabad.org

January 01, 1970
witchcraft, this, article, about, worldwide, views, witchcraft, overview, neopagan, witchcraft, neopagan, witchcraft, modern, pagan, religion, wicca, other, uses, disambiguation, witch, redirects, here, other, uses, witch, disambiguation, most, commonly, under. This article is about worldwide views of witchcraft For an overview of Neopagan witchcraft see Neopagan witchcraft For the modern pagan religion see Wicca For other uses see Witchcraft disambiguation Witch redirects here For other uses see Witch disambiguation Witchcraft as most commonly understood in both historical and present day communities is the use of alleged supernatural powers of magic A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft Traditionally witchcraft means the use of magic or supernatural powers to inflict harm or misfortune on others and this remains the most common and widespread meaning 1 ix 2 According to Encyclopedia Britannica Witchcraft thus defined exists more in the imagination of contemporaries than in any objective reality Yet this stereotype has a long history and has constituted for many cultures a viable explanation of evil in the world 3 The belief in witchcraft has been found in a great number of societies worldwide Anthropologists have applied the English term witchcraft to similar beliefs in occult practices in many different cultures and societies that have adopted the English language have often internalised the term 4 2 5 In Europe belief in witchcraft traces back to classical antiquity In medieval and early modern Europe accused witches were usually women who were believed to have used black magic or maleficium against their own community Usually accusations of witchcraft were made by their neighbors and followed from social tensions Witches were sometimes said to have communed with evil beings or with the Devil though anthropologist Jean La Fontaine notes that such accusations were mainly made against enemies of the Church 6 It was thought witchcraft could be thwarted by protective magic or counter magic which could be provided by the cunning folk or wise people Suspected witches were also intimidated banished attacked or killed Often they would be formally prosecuted and punished if found guilty or simply believed to be guilty European witch hunts and witch trials in the early modern period led to tens of thousands of executions While magical healers and midwives were sometimes accused of witchcraft themselves 7 7 13 2 519 8 9 31 59 they made up a minority of those accused European belief in witchcraft gradually dwindled during and after the Age of Enlightenment Many indigenous belief systems that include the concept of witchcraft likewise define witches as malevolent and seek healers and medicine people for protection against witchcraft 10 11 Some African and Melanesian peoples believe witches are driven by an evil spirit or substance inside them Modern witch hunting takes place in parts of Africa and Asia Today followers of certain types of modern paganism self identify as witches and use the term witchcraft for their beliefs and practices 12 13 14 Other neo pagans avoid the term due to its negative connotations 15 Contents 1 Concept 2 Etymology 3 Beliefs about practices 4 Witchcraft and folk healers 5 Witch hunts and thwarting witchcraft 5 1 Accusations of witchcraft 5 2 Modern witch hunts 6 Religious perspectives 6 1 Ancient Mesopotamian religion 6 2 Confucianism 6 3 Abrahamic religions 6 3 1 Jewish 6 3 2 Christian 6 3 3 Islamic 6 4 Modern paganism 7 Regional perspectives 7 1 Africa 7 2 Americas 7 2 1 North America 7 2 2 Latin America 7 3 Asia 7 3 1 Middle East 7 4 Europe 7 4 1 Ancient Roman world 7 5 Oceania 7 5 1 Cook Islands 7 5 2 Papua New Guinea 8 Witches in art and literature 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 11 1 Works cited 12 Further reading 13 External linksConcept edit nbsp The Witches by Hans Baldung woodcut 1508 The concept of witchcraft and the belief in its existence have persisted throughout recorded history According to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Summary or Arbitrary Executions there is difficulty of defining witches and witchcraft across cultures terms that quite apart from their connotations in popular culture may include an array of traditional or faith healing practices and are not easily defined 16 The most common meaning of witchcraft worldwide is the use of harmful magic 1 3 4 Belief in malevolent magic has been found in cultures worldwide regardless of development 4 17 xiii Most societies have feared an ability by some individuals to cause supernatural harm and misfortune to others This may come from mankind s tendency to want to assign occurrences of remarkable good or bad luck to agency either human or superhuman 1 10 Historians and anthropologists see the concept of witchcraft as one of the ways humans have tried to explain strange misfortune 1 10 18 Some cultures have feared witchcraft much less than others because they tend to have other explanations for strange misfortune 1 10 For example the Gaels of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands historically held a strong belief in fairy folk who could cause supernatural harm and witch hunting was very rare in these regions compared to other regions of the British Isles 1 245 Historian Ronald Hutton outlined five key characteristics ascribed to witches and witchcraft by most cultures that believe in this concept the use of magic to cause harm or misfortune to others it was used by the witch against their own community powers of witchcraft were believed to have been acquired through inheritance or initiation it was seen as immoral and often thought to involve communion with evil beings and witchcraft could be thwarted by defensive magic persuasion intimidation or physical punishment of the alleged witch 1 3 4 a It is commonly believed that witches use objects words and gestures to cause supernatural harm or that they simply have an innate power to do so Hutton notes that both kinds of practitioners are often believed to exist in the same culture and that the two often overlap in that someone with an inborn power could wield that power through material objects 1 19 22 One of the most influential works on witchcraft and concepts of magic was E E Evans Pritchard s Witchcraft Oracles and Magic Among the Azande a study of Azande witchcraft beliefs published in 1937 This provided definitions for witchcraft which became a convention in anthropology 18 However some researchers argue that the general adoption of Evans Pritchard s definitions constrained discussion of witchcraft beliefs and even broader discussion of magic and religion in ways that his work does not support 19 Evans Pritchard reserved the term witchcraft for the actions of those who inflict harm by their inborn power and used sorcery for those who needed tools to do so 20 Historians found these definitions difficult to apply to European witchcraft where witches were believed to use physical techniques as well as some who were believed to cause harm by thought alone 2 464 465 21 The distinction has now largely been abandoned although some anthropologists still sometimes find it relevant to the particular societies with which they are concerned 1 19 22 While most cultures believe witchcraft to be something willful some Indigenous peoples in Africa and Melanesia believe witches have a substance or an evil spirit in their bodies that drives them to do harm 1 19 22 However such substances are described in other accounts as being able to act on their own while the witch is sleeping or unaware 19 The Dobu people believe women work harmful magic in their sleep while men work it while awake 1 18 19 Further in cultures where substances within the body are believed to grant supernatural powers the substance may be good bad or morally neutral 22 23 Hutton draws a distinction between those who unwittingly cast the evil eye and those who deliberately do so describing only the latter as witches 1 10 The universal or cross cultural validity of these terms are debated 18 Hutton states Malevolent magic is however only one current usage of the word In fact Anglo American senses of it now take at least four different forms although the one discussed above seems still to be the most widespread and frequent The others define the witch figure as any person who uses magic or as the practitioner of nature based Pagan religion or as a symbol of independent female authority and resistance to male domination All have validity in the present 1 10 Dr Fiona Bowie notes that the terms witchcraft and witch are used differently by scholars and the general public in at least four different ways that must be treated separately 18 Neopagan writer Isaac Bonewits proposed dividing witches into even more distinct types including but not limited to Neopagan Feminist Neogothic Neoclassical Classical Family Traditions Immigrant Traditions and Ethnic 24 65 68 Etymology editFurther information Witch word The word is over a thousand years old Old English formed the compound wiccecraeft from wicce witch and craeft craft 25 The masculine form was wicca male sorcerer 26 According to the Oxford English Dictionary wicce and wicca were probably derived from the Old English verb wiccian meaning to practice witchcraft 27 Wiccian has a cognate in Middle Low German wicken attested from the 13th century The further etymology of this word is problematic It has no clear cognates in other Germanic languages outside of English and Low German and there are numerous possibilities for the Indo European root from which it may have derived Another Old English word for witch was haegtes or haegtesse which became the modern English word hag and is linked to the word hex In most other Germanic languages their word for witch comes from the same root as these for example German Hexe and Dutch heks 28 In colloquial modern English the word witch is particularly used for women 29 A male practitioner of magic or witchcraft is more commonly called a wizard or sometimes warlock When the word witch is used to refer to a member of a neo pagan tradition or religion such as Wicca it can refer to a person of any gender citation needed Beliefs about practices edit nbsp Preparation for the Witches Sabbath by David Teniers the Younger It shows a witch brewing a potion overlooked by her familiar spirit or a demon items on the floor for casting a spell and another witch reading from a grimoire while anointing the buttocks of a young witch about to fly upon an inverted besom Witches are commonly believed to cast curses a spell or set of magical words and gestures intended to inflict supernatural harm 30 54 Cursing could also involve inscribing runes or sigils on an object to give that object magical powers burning or binding a wax or clay image a poppet of a person to affect them magically or using herbs animal parts and other substances to make potions or poisons 31 32 33 1 19 22 Witchcraft has been blamed for many kinds of misfortune In Europe by far the most common kind of harm attributed to witchcraft was illness or death suffered by adults their children or their animals Certain ailments like impotence in men infertility in women and lack of milk in cows were particularly associated with witchcraft Illnesses that were poorly understood were more likely to be blamed on witchcraft Edward Bever writes Witchcraft was particularly likely to be suspected when a disease came on unusually swiftly lingered unusually long could not be diagnosed clearly or presented some other unusual symptoms 30 54 55 A common belief in cultures worldwide is that witches tend to use something from their target s body to work magic against them for example hair nail clippings clothing or bodily waste Such beliefs are found in Europe Africa South Asia Polynesia Melanesia and North America 1 19 22 Another widespread belief among Indigenous peoples in Africa and North America is that witches cause harm by introducing cursed magical objects into their victim s body such as small bones or ashes 1 19 22 James George Frazer described this kind of magic as imitative b In some cultures witches are believed to use human body parts in magic 1 19 22 and they are commonly believed to murder children for this purpose In Europe cases in which women did undoubtedly kill their children because of what today would be called postpartum psychosis were often interpreted as yielding to diabolical temptation 35 Witches are believed to work in secret sometimes alone and sometimes with other witches Hutton writes Across most of the world witches have been thought to gather at night when normal humans are inactive and also at their most vulnerable in sleep 1 19 22 In most cultures witches at these gatherings are thought to transgress social norms by engaging in cannibalism incest and open nudity 1 19 22 Witches around the world commonly have associations with animals 1 264 277 Rodney Needham identified this as a defining feature of the witch archetype 36 In some parts of the world it is believed witches can shapeshift into animals 1 264 or that the witch s spirit travels apart from their body and takes an animal form an activity often associated with shamanism 1 264 Another widespread belief is that witches have an animal helper 1 264 In English these are often called familiars and meant an evil spirit or demon that had taken an animal form 1 264 As researchers examined traditions in other regions they widened the term to servant spirit animals which are described as a part of the witch s own soul 1 269 Necromancy is the practice of conjuring the spirits of the dead for divination or prophecy although the term has also been applied to raising the dead for other purposes The biblical Witch of Endor performed it 1 Samuel 28th chapter and it is among the witchcraft practices condemned by AElfric of Eynsham 37 38 39 Witches still go to cross roads and to heathen burials with their delusive magic and call to the devil and he comes to them in the likeness of the man that is buried there as if he arises from death 40 Witchcraft and folk healers editMain article Cunning folk nbsp Diorama of a cunning woman or wise woman in the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic Most societies that have believed in harmful or black magic have also believed in helpful magic Some have called it white magic at least in more recent times 1 24 25 Where belief in harmful magic exists its use is typically forbidden by law as well as hated and feared by the general populace while helpful white or apotropaic magic is tolerated or even accepted wholesale by the population even if the orthodox establishment opposes it 41 203 In these societies practitioners of helpful magic usually known as cunning folk have traditionally timeframe provided services such as breaking the effects of witchcraft healing divination finding lost or stolen goods and love magic 1 x xi In Britain and some other parts of Europe they were commonly known as cunning folk or wise people 1 x xi Alan McFarlane wrote that while cunning folk is the usual name some are also known as blessers or wizards but might also be known as white good or unbinding witches 42 Historian Owen Davies says the term white witch was rarely used before the 20th century 7 xiii Ronald Hutton uses the general term service magicians 1 x xi Often these people were involved in identifying alleged witches 1 24 25 Such helpful magic workers were normally contrasted with the witch who practiced maleficium that is magic used for harmful ends 43 27 28 In the early years of the witch hunts the cunning folk were widely tolerated by church state and general populace 43 27 28 Some of the more hostile churchmen and secular authorities tried to smear folk healers and magic workers by falsely branding them witches and associating them with harmful witchcraft 1 x xi but generally the masses did not accept this and continued to make use of their services 44 The English MP and skeptic Reginald Scot sought to disprove magic and witchcraft writing in The Discoverie of Witchcraft 1584 At this day it is indifferent to say in the English tongue she is a witch or she is a wise woman 45 Historian Keith Thomas adds Nevertheless it is possible to isolate that kind of witchcraft which involved the employment or presumed employment of some occult means of doing harm to other people in a way which was generally disapproved of In this sense the belief in witchcraft can be defined as the attribution of misfortune to occult human agency 2 519 Emma Wilby says folk magicians in Europe were viewed ambivalently by communities and were considered as capable of harming as of healing 46 51 54 which could lead to their being accused as malevolent witches She suggests some English witches convicted of consorting with demons may have been cunning folk whose supposed fairy familiars had been demonised 46 123 Hutton says that healers and cunning folk were sometimes denounced as witches but seem to have made up a minority of the accused in any area studied 1 24 25 Likewise Davies says relatively few cunning folk were prosecuted under secular statutes for witchcraft and were dealt with more leniently than alleged witches The Constitutio Criminalis Carolina 1532 of the Holy Roman Empire and the Danish Witchcraft Act of 1617 stated that workers of folk magic should be dealt with differently from witches 7 164 It was suggested by Richard Horsley that cunning folk devins guerisseurs diviner healers made up a significant proportion of those tried for witchcraft in France and Switzerland but more recent surveys conclude that they made up less than 2 of the accused 7 167 However Eva Pocs says that half the accused witches in Hungary seem to have been healers 47 12 and Kathleen Stokker says the vast majority of Norway s accused witches were folk healers 48 Witch hunts and thwarting witchcraft editThe examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject You may improve this section discuss the issue on the talk page or create a new section as appropriate August 2023 Learn how and when to remove this template message nbsp A witch bottle used as counter magic against witchcraft Societies that believed in witchcraft also believed that it could be thwarted in various ways One common way was to use protective magic or counter magic of which the cunning folk were experts 1 24 25 This included charms talismans and amulets anti witch marks witch bottles witch balls and burying objects such as horse skulls inside the walls of buildings 49 Another believed cure for bewitchment was to persuade or force the alleged witch to lift their spell 1 24 25 Often people would attempt to thwart the witchcraft by physically punishing the alleged witch such as by banishing wounding torturing or killing them In most societies however a formal and legal remedy was preferred to this sort of private action whereby the alleged witch would be prosecuted and then formally punished if found guilty 1 24 25 This often resulted in execution Accusations of witchcraft edit nbsp Alleged witches being accused in the Salem witch trials Throughout the world accusations of witchcraft are often linked to social and economic tensions Females are most often accused but in some cultures it is mostly males In many societies accusations are directed mainly against the elderly but in others age is not a factor and in some cultures it is mainly adolescents who are accused 1 15 Eva Pocs writes that reasons for accusations of witchcraft fall into four general categories The first three of which were proposed by Richard Kieckhefer and the fourth added by Christina Larner 47 9 10 A person was caught in the act of positive or negative sorcery A well meaning sorcerer or healer lost their clients or the authorities trust A person did nothing more than gain the enmity of their neighbors A person was reputed to be a witch and surrounded with an aura of witch beliefs or occultism Modern witch hunts edit Main articles Witch hunt Witch trials in the early modern period and Modern witch hunts Witch hunts scapegoating and the shunning or murder of suspected witches still occurs 50 Many cultures worldwide continue to have a belief in the concept of witchcraft or malevolent magic 17 Apart from extrajudicial violence state sanctioned violence also occurs in some jurisdictions For instance in Saudi Arabia practicing witchcraft and sorcery is a crime punishable by death and the country has executed people for this crime in 2011 2012 and 2014 51 52 53 Witchcraft related violence is often discussed as a serious issue in the broader context of violence against women 54 55 56 57 58 In Tanzania an estimated 500 older women are murdered each year following accusations of witchcraft or accusations of being a witch according to a 2014 World Health Organization report 59 Children who live in some regions of the world such as parts of Africa are also vulnerable to violence that is related to witchcraft accusations 60 61 62 63 Such incidents have also occurred in immigrant communities in the UK including the much publicized case of the murder of Victoria Climbie 64 65 Religious perspectives editAncient Mesopotamian religion edit Main article Witchcraft in the Middle East Working magic was widely accepted and deeply integrated into the religion and the wider Mesopotamian society 1 49 According to Tzvi Abusch the early stages of the development of witchcraft ipsu or kispu 66 in ancient Mesopotamia were comparable to the archaic shamanistic stage of European witchcraft 67 65 66 In this early stage witches were not necessarily considered evil but took white and black forms and could help others using a combination of magical and medical knowledge 67 65 66 They generally lived in rural areas and sometimes exhibited ecstatic behavior 67 65 66 which was more usually associated with the asipu exorcist whose main function at this stage of development was to battle non human supernatural forces 67 65 66 In ancient Mesopotamian religion witches m kassapu f kassaptu from kasapu to bewitch 66 eventually when came to be regarded as an anti social and illegitimate practitioner of destructive magic whose activities were motivated by malice and evil intent and who was opposed by the asipu an exorcist or incantation priest 67 65 66 who were predominantly male representatives of the official state religion 67 The individuals mentioned in records of Mesopotamian society as witches tended to be those of low status who were weak or otherwise marginalized including women foreigners actors and peddlers 1 49 By the time of the Code of Hammurabi about 2000 BC the use of magic to harm others without justification was subject to legal repercussions If a man has put a spell upon another man and it is not justified he upon whom the spell is laid shall go to the holy river into the holy river shall he plunge If the holy river overcome him and he is drowned the man who put the spell upon him shall take possession of his house If the holy river declares him innocent and he remains unharmed the man who laid the spell shall be put to death He that plunged into the river shall take possession of the house of him who laid the spell upon him 68 c The asipu in their continued efforts to suppress witchcraft 67 developed an Akkadian anti witchcraft ritual the Maqlu probably composed in the early first millennium BC 70 Confucianism edit Main article Chinese shamanism During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han 141 BCE to 87 BCE in the Western Han Dynasty of China there were instances where the imperial court took measures to suppress certain religious or spiritual practices including those associated with shamanism Emperor Wu was known for his strong support of Confucianism which was the dominant ideology of the Han Dynasty and he promoted policies that aimed to consolidate central authority and unify the cultural and social landscape of the empire 71 One notable event related to the suppression of shamanism occurred in 91 BCE when Emperor Wu issued an edict that banned a range of heterodox practices including shamanistic rituals and divination in favor of Confucianism The primary target of these measures was the Wuism or Wu 巫 tradition which involved the worship of spirits and the use of shamanic practices to communicate with them Wuism was considered by the Confucian elite to be superstitious witchcraft and at odds with Confucian principles 71 1 Emperor Wu s suppression of shamanism was part of a larger effort to centralize power promote Confucian ethics and standardize cultural practices While the ban on shamanistic practices did impact certain communities and religious groups these measures were not universally applied across the vast territory of the empire Local variations and practices persisted in some regions despite imperial edicts 71 The historical record from that time is limited and our understanding of these events can be influenced by the perspectives of the Confucian scholars and officials who documented them As a result there might be some variations in the interpretation of the exact nature and extent of the expulsion of shamans and other religious practitioners during Emperor Wu s reign 71 Abrahamic religions edit Witchcraft s historical evolution in the Middle East reveals a multi phase journey influenced by culture spirituality and societal norms Ancient witchcraft in the Near East intertwined mysticism with nature through rituals and incantations aligned with local beliefs In ancient Judaism magic had a complex relationship with some forms accepted due to mysticism 72 while others were considered heretical 69 The medieval Middle East experienced shifting perceptions of witchcraft under Islamic and Christian influences sometimes revered for healing and other times condemned as heresy Jewish edit See also Witchcraft and divination in the Hebrew Bible Jewish attitudes toward witchcraft were rooted in its association with idolatry and necromancy and some rabbis even practiced certain forms of magic themselves 73 74 References to witchcraft in the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible highlighted strong condemnations rooted in the abomination of magical belief Christianity similarly condemned witchcraft considering it an abomination and even citing specific verses to justify witch hunting during the early modern period Christian edit Main article Christian views on magic Historically the Christian concept of witchcraft derives from Old Testament laws against it In medieval and early modern Europe many Christians believed in magic As opposed to the helpful magic of the cunning folk witchcraft was seen as evil and associated with Satan and Devil worship This often resulted in deaths torture and scapegoating casting blame for misfortune 75 47 9 12 and many years of large scale witch trials and witch hunts especially in Protestant Europe before largely ending during the Age of Enlightenment Christian views in the modern day are diverse ranging from intense belief and opposition especially by Christian fundamentalists to non belief During the Age of Colonialism many cultures were exposed to the Western world via colonialism usually accompanied by intensive Christian missionary activity see Christianization In these cultures beliefs about witchcraft were partly influenced by the prevailing Western concepts of the time nbsp A 1613 English pamphlet showing Witches apprehended examined and executed In Christianity sorcery came to be associated with heresy and apostasy and to be viewed as evil Among Catholics Protestants and the secular leadership of late medieval early modern Europe fears about witchcraft rose to fever pitch and sometimes led to large scale witch hunts The fifteenth century saw a dramatic rise in awareness and terror of witchcraft Tens of thousands of people were executed and others were imprisoned tortured banished and had lands and possessions confiscated The majority of those accused were women though in some regions the majority were men 76 77 23 In Scots the word warlock came to be used as the male equivalent of witch which can be male or female but is used predominantly for females 78 79 80 The Malleus Maleficarum Latin for Hammer of The Witches was a witch hunting manual written in 1486 by two German monks Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger It was used by both Catholics and Protestants 81 for several hundred years outlining how to identify a witch what makes a woman more likely than a man to be a witch how to put a witch on trial and how to punish a witch The book defines a witch as evil and typically female It became the handbook for secular courts throughout Europe but was not used by the Inquisition which even cautioned against relying on it 82 It was the most sold book in Europe for over 100 years after the Bible 83 Islamic edit Main article Islam and magic Islamic perspectives on magic encompass a wide range of practices 84 with belief in black magic and the evil eye coexisting alongside strict prohibitions against its practice 85 The Quran acknowledges the existence of magic and seeks protection from its harm Islam s stance is against the practice of magic considering it forbidden and emphasizes divine miracles rather than magic or witchcraft 86 The historical continuity of witchcraft in the Middle East underlines the complex interaction between spiritual beliefs and societal norms across different cultures and epochs Modern paganism edit Main articles Neopagan witchcraft and Semitic neopaganism During the 20th century interest in witchcraft rose in English speaking and European countries From the 1920s Margaret Murray popularized the witch cult hypothesis the idea that those persecuted as witches in early modern Europe were followers of a benevolent pagan religion that had survived the Christianization of Europe This has been discredited by further historical research 24 45 47 84 85 1 121 87 88 89 From the 1930s occult neopagan groups began to emerge who called their religion a kind of witchcraft They were initiatory secret societies inspired by Murray s witch cult theory ceremonial magic Aleister Crowley s Thelema and historical paganism 89 205 252 90 91 The biggest religious movement to emerge from this is Wicca Today some Wiccans and members of related traditions self identify as witches and use the term witchcraft for their magico religious beliefs and practices primarily in Western anglophone countries 12 Regional perspectives editThis section should specify the language of its non English content using lang transliteration for transliterated languages and IPA for phonetic transcriptions with an appropriate ISO 639 code Wikipedia s multilingual support templates may also be used See why August 2021 nbsp Prevalence of belief in witchcraft by country 92 nbsp Socio demographic correlates of witchcraft beliefs 92 A 2022 study found that belief in witchcraft as in the use of malevolent magic or powers is still widespread in some parts of the world It found that belief in witchcraft varied from 9 of people in some countries to 90 in others and was linked to cultural and socioeconomic factors Stronger belief in witchcraft correlated with poorer economic development weak institutions lower levels of education lower life expectancy lower life satisfaction and high religiosity 93 92 It contrasted two hypotheses about future changes in witchcraft belief 92 witchcraft beliefs should decline in the process of development due to improved security and health lower exposure to shocks spread of education and scientific approach to explaining life events according to standard modernization theory some aspects of development namely rising inequality globalization technological change and migration may instead revive witchcraft beliefs by disrupting established social order according to literature largely inspired by observations from Sub Saharan Africa Africa edit Main article Witchcraft in Africa nbsp An Azande witch doctor who is believed to cure bewitchment African witchcraft encompasses various beliefs and practices These beliefs often play a significant role in shaping social dynamics and can influence how communities address challenges and seek spiritual assistance Much of what witchcraft represents in Africa has been susceptible to misunderstandings and confusion thanks in no small part to a tendency among western scholars since the time of the now largely discredited Margaret Murray to approach the subject through a comparative lens vis a vis European witchcraft 94 While some colonialists tried to eradicate witch hunting by introducing legislation to prohibit accusations of witchcraft some of the countries where this was the case have formally recognized the existence of witchcraft via the law This has produced an environment that encourages persecution of suspected witches 95 In Cameroon among the Maka people witchcraft is known as djambe and encompasses occult transformative killing and healing aspects 96 In the Central African Republic hundreds of people are convicted of witchcraft annually with reports of violent acts against accused women 97 The Democratic Republic of the Congo witnessed a disturbing trend of child witchcraft accusations in Kinshasa leading to abuse and exorcisms supervised by self styled pastors 98 Ghana grapples with accusations against women leading to the existence of witch camps where accused individuals can seek refuge though the government plans to close them 99 In Kenya there have been reports of mobs burning people accused of witchcraft reflecting the deep seated beliefs in the supernatural 100 Malawi faces a similar issue of child witchcraft accusations with traditional healers and some Christian counterparts involved in exorcisms causing abandonment and abuse of children 101 In Nigeria Pentecostal pastors have intertwined Christianity with witchcraft beliefs for profit leading to the torture and killing of accused children 102 Sierra Leone s Mende people see witchcraft convictions as beneficial as the accused receive support and care from the community 103 Lastly in Zulu culture healers known as sangoma s protect people from witchcraft and evil spirits through divination and ancestral connections 104 However concerns arise regarding the training and authenticity of some sangomas In parts of Africa beliefs about illness being caused by witchcraft continue to fuel suspicion of modern medicine with serious healthcare consequences HIV AIDS 105 and Ebola 106 are two examples of often lethal infectious disease epidemics whose medical care and containment has been severely hampered by regional beliefs in witchcraft Other severe medical conditions whose treatment is hampered in this way include tuberculosis leprosy epilepsy and the common severe bacterial Buruli ulcer 107 108 Americas edit North America edit Main article Witchcraft in North America The views of witchcraft in North America have evolved through an interlinking history of cultural beliefs and interactions These forces contribute to complex and evolving views of witchcraft Today North America hosts a diverse array of beliefs about witchcraft 109 110 Indigenous communities such as the Cherokee 111 Hopi 112 the Navajo 5 among others 113 included in their folklore and beliefs which malevolent figures who could harm their communities often resulting in severe punishments including death 114 These communities also recognized the role of medicine people as healers and protectors against these malevolent forces citation needed The term witchcraft arrived with European colonists along with European views on witchcraft 109 This term would be adopted by many Indigenous communities for those beliefs about harmful supernatural powers In colonial America and the United States views of witchcraft were further shaped by European colonists The infamous Salem witch trials in Massachusetts along with other witch hunts in places like Maryland and Pennsylvania exemplified European and Christian fear and hysteria surrounding accusations of witchcraft These trials led to the execution of numerous individuals accused of practicing witchcraft Despite changes in laws and perspectives over time accusations of witchcraft persisted into the 19th century in some regions such as Tennessee where prosecutions occurred as late as 1833 The influences on Witchcraft in Latin America impacted North American views both directly and indirectly including the diaspora of African witchcraft beliefs through the slave trade 115 116 110 and suppressed Indigenous cultures adopting the term for their own cultural practices 117 Neopagan witchcraft practices such as Wicca then emerged in the mid 20th century 109 110 Latin America edit Main article Witchcraft in Latin America When Franciscan friars from New Spain arrived in the Americas in 1524 they introduced Diabolism belief in the Christian Devil to the Indigenous peoples of the Americas 118 Bartolome de las Casas believed that human sacrifice was not diabolic in fact far off from it and was a natural result of religious expression 118 Mexican Indians gladly took in the belief of Diabolism and still managed to keep their belief in creator destroyer deities 119 Witchcraft was an important part of the social and cultural history of late Colonial Mexico during the Mexican Inquisition Spanish Inquisitors viewed witchcraft as a problem that could be cured simply through confession Yet as anthropologist Ruth Behar writes witchcraft not only in Mexico but in Latin America in general was a conjecture of sexuality witchcraft and religion in which Spanish indigenous and African cultures converged 120 Furthermore witchcraft in Mexico generally required an interethnic and interclass network of witches 121 Yet according to anthropology professor Laura Lewis witchcraft in colonial Mexico ultimately represented an affirmation of hegemony for women Indians and especially Indian women over their white male counterparts as a result of the casta system 122 The presence of the witch is a constant in the ethnographic history of colonial Brazil especially during the several denunciations and confessions given to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of Bahia 1591 1593 Pernambuco and Paraiba 1593 1595 123 Brujeria often called a Latin American form of witchcraft is a syncretic Afro Caribbean tradition that combines Indigenous religious and magical practices from Aruba Bonaire and Curacao in the Dutch Caribbean Catholicism and European witchcraft 124 174 The tradition and terminology is considered to encompass both helpful and harmful practices 124 175 A male practitioner is called a brujo a female practitioner a bruja 124 175 Healers may be further distinguished by the terms kurioso or kurado a man or woman who performs trabou chiki little works and trabou grandi large treatments to promote or restore health bring fortune or misfortune deal with unrequited love and more serious concerns Sorcery usually involves reference to an entity referred to as the almasola or homber chiki 125 Asia edit Main article Asian witchcraft nbsp Okabe The cat witch by Utagawa Kuniyoshi Asian witchcraft encompasses various types of witchcraft practices across Asia In ancient times magic played a significant role in societies such as ancient Egypt and Babylonia as evidenced by historical records In the Middle East references to magic can be found in the Torah where witchcraft is condemned due to its association with belief in magic In Chinese culture the practice of Gong Tau involves black magic for purposes such as revenge and financial assistance Japanese folklore features witch figures who employ foxes as familiars Korean history includes instances of individuals being condemned for using spells The Philippines has its own tradition of witches distinct from Western portrayals with their practices often countered by indigenous shamans Overall witchcraft beliefs and practices in Asia vary widely across cultures reflecting historical religious and social contexts Middle East edit Main article Witchcraft in the Middle East The practice of witchcraft in southwest Asia sometimes referred to as the Middle East has a long history The ancient cultures of the region had complex relationships with magic often integrating them deeply into both their religion and wider culture 1 47 54 The ancient Hittites focused sanctioned mystical power in the hands of the state and often used accusations of witchcraft to control political enemies 1 50 51 As the ancient Hebrews focused on their worship on Yahweh Judaism clearly separated between with forms of magic and mystical practices which were accepted versus those which were viewed as forbidden or heretical and thus witchcraft 1 51 52 In the medieval Middle East under Islamic and Christian influences witchcraft s perception fluctuated between healing and heresy revered by some and condemned by others In the present day diverse witchcraft communities have emerged Europe edit Main article European witchcraft This section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section Unsourced material may be challenged and removed October 2023 Learn how and when to remove this template message nbsp Elizabeth Sawyer witch executed in 1620 European witchcraft is a multifaceted historical and cultural phenomenon that unfolded over centuries leaving a mark on the continent s social religious and legal landscapes The roots of European witchcraft trace back to classical antiquity when concepts of magic and religion were closely related and society closely integrated magic and supernatural beliefs During the Middle Ages accusations of heresy and devil worship grew more prevalent By the early modern period major witch hunts began to take place partly fueled by religious tensions societal anxieties and economic upheaval Witches were often viewed as dangerous sorceresses or sorcerers in a pact with the Devil capable of causing harm through black magic 9 29 54 A feminist interpretation of the witch trials is that misogynist views led to the association of women and malevolent witchcraft 9 29 54 One pivotal text that shaped the witch hunts was the Malleus Maleficarum a 1486 treatise that provided a framework for identifying prosecuting and punishing witches The burgeoning influence of the Catholic Church citation needed led to a wave of witch trials across Europe Usually accusations of witchcraft were made by neighbours and followed from social tensions Accusations often targeted marginalized individuals including women the elderly and those who did not conform to societal norms Women made accusations as often as men The common people believed that magical healers called cunning folk or wise people could undo bewitchment Hutton says that healers and cunning folk were sometimes denounced as witches but seem to have made up a minority of the accused in any area studied 1 24 25 The witch craze reached its peak between the 16th and 17th centuries resulting in the execution of tens of thousands of people This dark period of history reflects the confluence of superstition fear and authority as well as the societal tendency to find scapegoats for complex problems The Tsardom of Russia also experienced its own iteration of witchcraft trials during the 17th century Witches were often accused of practicing sorcery and engaging in supernatural activities leading to their excommunication and execution The blending of ecclesiastical and secular jurisdictions in Russia s approach to witchcraft trials highlighted the intertwined nature of religious and political power during that time As the 17th century progressed the fear of witches shifted from mere superstition to a tool for political manipulation with accusations used to target individuals who posed threats to the ruling elite Since the 1940s neopagan witchcraft movements have emerged in Europe seeking to revive and reinterpret ancient pagan and mystical practices Wicca pioneered by Gerald Gardner stands out as one of the most influential neopagan traditions Drawing inspiration from ceremonial magic historical paganism and the now discredited witch cult theory Wicca emphasizes a connection to nature the divine and personal growth Similarly Stregheria in Italy reflects a desire to reconnect with the country s pre Christian spiritual roots Many of these neopagans choose to self identify as witches Contemporary neopagan witchcraft in Europe encompasses a wide range of traditions reflecting a blend of historical influences modern interpretations new religious movements and a search for spiritual authenticity in a rapidly changing world Ancient Roman world edit Main article European witchcraft Antiquity nbsp Caius Furius Cressinus Accused of Sorcery Jean Pierre Saint Ours 1792 During the pagan era of ancient Rome there were laws against harmful magic 126 According to Pliny the 5th century BC laws of the Twelve Tables laid down penalties for uttering harmful incantations and for stealing the fruitfulness of someone else s crops by magic 126 The only recorded trial involving this law was that of Gaius Furius Cresimus 126 The Classical Latin word veneficium meant both poisoning and causing harm by magic such as magic potions although ancient people would not have distinguished between the two 1 59 66 In 331 BC a deadly epidemic hit Rome and at least 170 women were executed for causing it by veneficium In 184 180 BC another epidemic hit Italy and about 5 000 were executed for veneficium 1 59 66 If the reports are accurate writes Hutton then the Republican Romans hunted witches on a scale unknown anywhere else in the ancient world 1 59 66 Under the Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis of 81 BC killing by veneficium carried the death penalty During the early Imperial era the Lex Cornelia began to be used more broadly against other kinds of magic 1 59 66 including sacrifices made for evil purposes The magicians were to be burnt at the stake 126 Witch characters women who work powerful evil magic appear in ancient Roman literature from the first century BC onward They are typically hags who chant harmful incantations make poisonous potions from herbs and the body parts of animals and humans sacrifice children raise the dead can control the natural world can shapeshift themselves and others into animals and invoke underworld deities and spirits They include Lucan s Erichtho Horace s Canidia Ovid s Dipsas and Apuleius s Meroe 1 59 66 Oceania edit This section needs expansion You can help by adding to it Find sources Pacific Witchcraft news newspapers books scholar JSTOR October 2023 It has been suggested that this section be split out into another article titled Witchcraft in Oceania Discuss September 2023 Cook Islands edit In pre Christian times witchcraft was a common practice in the Cook Islands The native name for a sorcerer was tangata purepure a man who prays 127 372 The prayers offered by the ta unga priests 127 471 to the gods worshiped on national or tribal marae temples were termed karakia 127 156 those on minor occasions to the lesser gods were named pure All these prayers were metrical and were handed down from generation to generation with the utmost care There were prayers for every such phase in life for success in battle for a change in wind to overwhelm an adversary at sea or that an intended voyage be propitious that his crops may grow to curse a thief or wish ill luck and death to his foes Few men of middle age were without a number of these prayers or charms The succession of a sorcerer was from father to son or from uncle to nephew So too of sorceresses it would be from mother to daughter or from aunt to niece Sorcerers and sorceresses were often slain by relatives of their supposed victims 128 21 A singular enchantment was employed to kill off a husband of a pretty woman desired by someone else The expanded flower of a Gardenia was stuck upright a very difficult performance in a cup i e half a large coconut shell of water A prayer was then offered for the husband s speedy death the sorcerer earnestly watching the flower Should it fall the incantation was successful But if the flower still remained upright he will live The sorcerer would in that case try his skill another day with perhaps better success 128 22 Papua New Guinea edit A local newspaper informed that more than fifty people were killed in two Highlands provinces of Papua New Guinea in 2008 for allegedly practicing witchcraft 129 An estimated 50 150 alleged witches are killed each year in Papua New Guinea 130 Belief and practice of witchcraft are prevalent in Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea 131 Unlike other provinces the Samarai Islands and Milne Bay particularly sees much less violence against both those accused of witchcraft and women in general than other parts of the country 131 It is suggested the history of witchcraft in the area contributes to a raise in status of women in the area overall 131 Witches in art and literature editFurther information Witch archetype In art and literature and List of fictional witches nbsp Albrecht Durer c 1500 Witch riding backwards on a goat Witches have a long history of being depicted in art although most of their earliest artistic depictions seem to originate in Early Modern Europe particularly the Medieval and Renaissance periods Many scholars attribute their manifestation in art as inspired by texts such as Canon Episcopi a demonology centered work of literature and Malleus Maleficarum a witch craze manual published in 1487 by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger 132 Witches in fiction span a wide array of characterizations They are typically but not always female and generally depicted as either villains or heroines 133 See also editAradia or the Gospel of the Witches 1899 book by Charles Godfrey Leland Feminist interpretations of witch trials in the early modern period Flying ointment Hallucinogenic salve used in the practice of witchcraft History of goetia Magical practice involving evocation of demonsPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets Kitchen witch Witch doll Witches Sabbath Gathering of those believed to practice witchcraftNotes edit An extract from Hutton s The Witch covering this topic can be read online at https yalebooksblog co uk 2017 07 31 five characteristics of a witch an extract by ronald hutton 1 3 4 If we analyze the principles of thought on which magic is based they will probably be found to resolve themselves into two first that like produces like or that an effect resembles its cause and second that things which have once been in contact with each other continue to act on each other at a distance after the physical contact has been severed The former principle may be called the Law of Similarity the latter the Law of Contact or Contagion From the first of these principles namely the Law of Similarity the magician infers that he can produce any effect he desires merely by imitating it from the second he infers that whatever he does to a material object will affect equally the person with whom the object was once in contact whether it formed part of his body or not 34 There is some discrepancy between translations compare the displayed text with that of the Catholic Encyclopedia article on Witchcraft Archived 2021 02 11 at the Wayback Machine accessed 31 March 2006 69 and the L W King translation Archived 2007 09 16 at the Wayback Machine accessed 31 March 2006 References edit a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw Hutton Ronald 2017 The Witch A History of Fear from Ancient Times to the Present Yale University Press a b c d e Thomas Keith 1997 Religion and the Decline of Magic Oxford England Oxford University Press p 519 ISBN 978 0297002208 Russell Jeffrey Burton Lewis Ioan M 21 June 2023 Witchcraft Encyclopedia Britannica Archived from the original on 28 June 2023 Retrieved 28 July 2023 Although defined differently in disparate historical and cultural contexts witchcraft has often been seen especially in the West as the work of crones who meet secretly at night indulge in cannibalism and orgiastic rites with the Devil or Satan and perform black magic Witchcraft thus defined exists more in the imagination of contemporaries than in any objective reality Yet this stereotype has a long history and has constituted for many cultures a viable explanation of evil in the world a b Singh Manvir 2 February 2021 Magic Explanations and Evil The Origins and Design of Witches and Sorcerers Current Anthropology 62 1 2 29 doi 10 1086 713111 ISSN 0011 3204 S2CID 232214522 Archived from the original on 18 July 2021 Retrieved 28 April 2021 a b Perrone Bobette Stockel H Henrietta Krueger Victoria 1993 Medicine women curanderas and women doctors University of Oklahoma Press p 189 ISBN 978 0806125121 Archived from the original on 23 April 2017 Retrieved 8 October 2010 La Fontaine J 2016 Witches and Demons A Comparative Perspective on Witchcraft and Satanism Berghahn Books pp 33 34 ISBN 978 1785330865 a b c d Davies Owen 2003 Cunning Folk Popular Magic in English History London Hambledon Continuum ISBN 978 1 85285 297 9 Riddle John M 1997 Eve s Herbs A History of Contraception and Abortion in the West Cambridge Mass Harvard University Press pp 110 119 ISBN 0674270266 a b c Ehrenreich Barbara English Deirdre 2010 Witches Midwives amp Nurses A History of Women Healers Second ed New York Feminist Press at CUNY ISBN 978 1558616905 Demetrio F R 1988 Philippine Studies Vol 36 No 3 Shamans Witches and Philippine Society pp 372 380 Ateneo de Manila University Tan Michael L 2008 Revisiting Usog Pasma Kulam University of the Philippines Press ISBN 978 9715425704 Archived from the original on 26 January 2021 Retrieved 17 September 2020 a b Doyle White Ethan 2016 Wicca History Belief and Community in Modern Pagan Witchcraft Liverpool University Press pp 1 9 73 ISBN 978 1 84519 754 4 Berger Helen A Ezzy Douglas September 2009 Mass Media and Religious Identity A Case Study of Young Witches Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 48 3 501 514 doi 10 1111 j 1468 5906 2009 01462 x JSTOR 40405642 Kelly Aidan A 1992 An Update on Neopagan Witchcraft in America In James R Lewis J Gordon Melton eds Perspectives on the New Age Albany State University of New York Press pp 136 151 ISBN 978 0791412138 Lewis James 1996 Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft SUNY Press p 376 https www ohchr org en special procedures ie albinism witchcraft and human rights a b Ankarloo Bengt Clark Stuart 2001 Witchcraft and Magic in Europe Biblical and Pagan Societies Philadelphia Pennsylvania University of Philadelphia Press ISBN 978 0826486066 a b c d Moro Pamela A 2017 Witchcraft Sorcery and Magic The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology pp 1 9 doi 10 1002 9781118924396 wbiea1915 ISBN 9780470657225 a b https www jstor org stable 42002806 The opposite of witchcraft Evans Pritchard and the problem of the person Martin A Mills The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute Vol 19 No 1 March 2013 Evans Pritchard Edward Evan 1937 Witchcraft Oracles and Magic Among the Azande Oxford Oxford University Press pp 8 9 ISBN 978 0198740292 Ankarloo Bengt and Henningsen Gustav 1990 Early Modern European Witchcraft Centres and Peripheries Oxford Oxford University Press pp 1 14 https www nigerianjournalsonline com index php najp article download 1925 1881 Gbule NJ Odili JU 2015 Socio Missiological Significance of Witchcraft Belief and Practice in Africa African Research Review 9 3 99 doi 10 4314 afrrev v9i3 9 a b Adler Margot 2006 Drawing Down the Moon Witches Druids Goddess Worshippers and Other Pagans in America Today New York City Penguin Books OCLC 515560 Harper Douglas witchcraft n Online Etymology Dictionary Archived from the original on 5 November 2013 Retrieved 29 October 2013 Home Oxford English Dictionary oed com Archived from the original on 18 July 2021 Retrieved 18 July 2021 witch Oxford English Dictionary Online ed Oxford University Press Subscription or participating institution membership required hag n Online Etymology Dictionary Definition of WITCH www merriam webster com Retrieved 12 October 2023 a b Levack Brian 2013 The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America Oxford University Press Luck Georg 1985 Arcana Mundi Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds a Collection of Ancient Texts Baltimore Maryland Johns Hopkins University Press pp 254 260 394 ISBN 978 0801825231 Kittredge George Lyman 1929 Witchcraft in Old and New England New York City Russell amp Russell p 172 ISBN 978 0674182325 Davies Owen 1999 Witchcraft Magic and Culture 1736 1951 Manchester England Manchester University Press ISBN 978 0719056567 Frazer James 1922 The Golden Bough Bartleby Burns William 2003 Witch Hunts in Europe and America An Encyclopedia Bloomsbury Publishing pp 141 142 Rodney Needham Primordial Characters Charlottesville Va 1978 26 42 Semple Sarah December 2003 Illustrations of damnation in late Anglo Saxon manuscripts PDF Anglo Saxon England 32 231 245 doi 10 1017 S0263675103000115 S2CID 161982897 Archived PDF from the original on 31 July 2020 Retrieved 26 October 2018 Semple Sarah June 1998 A fear of the past The place of the prehistoric burial mound in the ideology of middle and later Anglo Saxon England World Archaeology 30 1 109 126 doi 10 1080 00438243 1998 9980400 JSTOR 125012 Pope J C 1968 Homilies of Aelfric a supplementary collection Early English Text Society 260 Vol II Oxford England Oxford University Press p 796 Meaney Audrey L December 1984 AEfric and Idolatry Journal of Religious History 13 2 119 135 doi 10 1111 j 1467 9809 1984 tb00191 x Hutton Ronald 2006 Witches Druids and King Arthur London A amp C Black ISBN 978 1852855550 Archived from the original on 18 July 2021 Retrieved 22 November 2020 Macfarlane Alan 1999 Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England A Regional and Comparative Study Psychology Press p 130 ISBN 978 0415196123 a b Willis Deborah 2018 Malevolent Nurture Witch Hunting and Maternal Power in Early Modern England Cornell University Press Ole Peter Grell and Robert W Scribner 2002 Tolerance and Intolerance in the European Reformation Cambridge University Press p 45 Not all the stereotypes created by elites were capable of popular reception The most interesting example concerns cunning folk whom secular and religious authorities consistently sought to associate with negative stereotypes of superstition or witchcraft This proved no deterrent to their activities or to the positive evaluation in the popular mind of what they had to offer Scot Reginald 1584 Chapter 9 The Discoverie of Witchcraft Vol Booke V a b Wilby Emma 2006 Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits a b c Pocs E 1999 Between the Living and the Dead A Perspective on Witches and Seers in the Early Modern Age Hungary Central European University Press ISBN 978 9639116191 Stokker Kathleen 2007 Remedies and Rituals Folk Medicine in Norway and the New Land St Paul MN Minnesota Historical Society Press pp 81 82 ISBN 978 0873517508 Supernatural healing of the sort practiced by Inger Roed and Lisbet Nypan known as signeri played a role in the vast majority of Norway s 263 documented witch trials In trial after trial accused witches came forward and freely testified about their healing methods telling about the salves they made and the bonner prayers they read over them to enhance their potency Hoggard Brian 2004 The archaeology of counter witchcraft and popular magic in Beyond the Witch Trials Witchcraft and Magic in Enlightenment Europe Manchester University Press p 167 ISBN missing Pearlman Jonathan 11 April 2013 Papua New Guinea urged to halt witchcraft violence after latest sorcery case The Telegraph London England Telegraph Media Group Archived from the original on 11 February 2018 Retrieved 5 April 2018 Saudi woman beheaded for witchcraft and sorcery Edition cnn com 13 December 2011 Archived from the original on 21 May 2020 Retrieved 7 June 2014 Saudi man executed for witchcraft and sorcery BBC News Bbc com 19 June 2012 Archived from the original on 30 May 2019 Retrieved 7 June 2014 di Giovanni Janine 14 October 2014 When It Comes to Beheadings ISIS Has Nothing Over Saudi Arabia Newsweek Archived from the original on 16 October 2014 Retrieved 17 October 2014 A Global Issue that Demands Action PDF the Academic Council on the United Nations System ACUNS Vienna Liaison Office 2013 Archived PDF from the original on 30 June 2014 Retrieved 7 June 2014 Diwan Mohammed 1 July 2004 Conflict between State Legal Norms and Norms Underlying Popular Beliefs Witchcraft in Africa as a Case Study Duke Journal of Comparative amp International Law 14 2 351 388 Archived from the original on 25 February 2021 Retrieved 28 March 2021 Witch Hunts in Modern South Africa An Under represented Facet of Gender based Violence PDF MRC UNISA Crime Violence and Injury Lead Programm 2009 CiteSeerX 10 1 1 694 6630 Archived from the original PDF on 25 April 2012 Retrieved 7 June 2014 Nepal Witchcraft as a Superstition and a form of violence against women in Nepal Humanrights asia Asian Human Rights Commission Archived from the original on 25 June 2014 Retrieved 7 June 2014 Adinkrah Mensah April 2004 Witchcraft Accusations and Female Homicide Victimization in Contemporary Ghana Violence Against Women 10 4 325 356 doi 10 1177 1077801204263419 S2CID 146650565 World Report on Violence and Health PDF World Health Organization Archived PDF from the original on 24 January 2014 Retrieved 7 June 2014 Bussien Nathaly et al 2011 Breaking the spell Responding to witchcraft accusations against children in New Issues in refugee Research 197 Geneva Switzerland UNHCR Cimpric Aleksandra 2010 Children accused of witchcraft An anthropological study of contemporary practices in Africa Dakar Senegal UNICEF WCARO Molina Javier Aguilar 2006 The Invention of Child Witches in the Democratic Republic of Congo Social cleansing religious commerce and the difficulties of being a parent in an urban culture London Save the Children Human Rights Watch 2006 Children in the DRC Human Rights Watch report 18 2 Witchcraft murder Couple jailed for Kristy Bamu killing BBC News Bbc co uk 5 March 2012 Archived from the original on 8 April 2014 Retrieved 8 June 2014 Dangerfield Andy 1 March 2012 Government urged to tackle witchcraft belief child abuse BBC News Bbc co uk Archived from the original on 8 October 2014 Retrieved 8 June 2014 a b Reiner 1995 p 97 a b c d e f g Abusch 2002 The Oldest Code of Laws in the World By C H W Johns https www gutenberg org files 17150 17150 h 17150 h htm a b Catholic Encyclopedia Witchcraft Newadvent org 1 October 1912 Archived from the original on 11 February 2021 Retrieved 31 October 2013 Abusch Tzvi 2015 The Witchcraft Series Maqlu Writings from the Ancient World Vol 37 SBL Press p 5 ISBN 978 1628370829 a b c d Cai L 2014 Witchcraft and the Rise of the First Confucian Empire State University of New York Press ISBN 978 1438448497 Sanhedrin 67b Green Kayla The Golem in the Attic Archived 25 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine Moment 1 February 2011 25 August 2017 Bilefsky Dan 10 May 2009 Hard Times Give New Life to Prague s Golem The New York Times Archived from the original on 9 May 2013 Retrieved 19 March 2013 According to Czech legend the Golem was fashioned from clay and brought to life by a rabbi to protect Prague s 16th century ghetto from persecution and is said to be called forth in times of crisis True to form he is once again experiencing a revival and in this commercial age has spawned a one monster industry Russell Jeffrey Burton Witchcraft Britannica com Archived from the original on 10 May 2013 Retrieved 29 June 2013 Gibbons Jenny 1998 Recent Developments in the Study of the Great European Witch Hunt in The Pomegranate Archived 2009 01 26 at the Wayback Machine 5 Lammas 1998 Barstow Anne Llewellyn 1994 Witchcraze A New History of the European Witch Hunts San Francisco Pandora ISBN 978 0062500496 McNeill F Marian 1957 The Silver Bough A Four Volume Study of the National and Local Festivals of Scotland Vol 1 Edinburgh Canongate Books ISBN 978 0862412319 Chambers Robert 1861 Domestic Annals of Scotland Edinburgh Scotland ISBN 978 1298711960 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Sinclair George 1871 Satan s Invisible World Discovered Edinburgh a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Campbell Heather M ed 2011 The Emergence of Modern Europe c 1500 to 1788 Britannica Educational Publishing p 27 ISBN 978 1615303434 Archived from the original on 26 January 2021 Retrieved 29 June 2013 Jolly Karen Raudvere Catharina Peters Edward 2002 Witchcraft and Magic in Europe The Middle Ages New York City A amp C Black p 241 ISBN 978 0485890037 In 1538 the Spanish Inquisition cautioned its members not to believe everything the Malleus said even when it presented apparently firm evidence History of Witches History com 20 October 2020 Retrieved 26 October 2021 Savage Smith Emilie 2004 Magic and Divination in Early Islam Ashgate Variorum ISBN 978 0860787150 Archived from the original on 18 July 2021 Retrieved 25 August 2020 Khaldun Ibn 2015 The Muqaddimah An Introduction to History Abridged ed Princeton University Press p 578 ISBN 978 0691166285 Archived from the original on 18 July 2021 Retrieved 4 May 2021 Savage Smith Emilie ed Magic and divination in early Islam Routledge 2021 p 87 Rose Elliot A Razor for a Goat University of Toronto Press 1962 Hutton Ronald The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles Cambridge Mass Blackwell Publishers 1993 a b Hutton Ronald The Triumph of the Moon A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft Oxford University Press 1999 ISBN missing Kelly A A Crafting the Art of Magic Book I a History of Modern Witchcraft 1939 1964 Minnesota Llewellyn Publications 1991 ISBN missing Valiente D The Rebirth of Witchcraft London Robert Hale pp 35 62 1989 ISBN missing a b c d Gershman Boris 23 November 2022 Witchcraft beliefs around the world An exploratory analysis PLOS ONE 17 11 e0276872 Bibcode 2022PLoSO 1776872G doi 10 1371 journal pone 0276872 PMC 9683553 PMID 36417350 Witchcraft beliefs are widespread highly variable around the world Public Library of Science via phys org Retrieved 17 December 2022 Okeja Uchenna 2011 An African Context of the Belief in Witchcraft and Magic in Rational Magic Fisher Imprints ISBN 978 1848880610 page needed Igwe Leo September October 2020 Accused Witches Burned Killed in Nigeria Skeptical Inquirer Amherst New York Center for Inquiry Geschiere Peter 1997 The Modernity of Witchcraft Politics and the Occult in Postcolonial Africa Translated by Peter Geschiere and Janet Roitman University of Virginia Press p 13 ISBN 0813917034 The dangers of witchcraft Archived from the original on 12 March 2010 Retrieved 26 March 2010 Kolwezi Accused of witchcraft by parents and churches children in the Democratic Republic of Congo are being rescued by Christian activists Christianity Today September 2009 Archived from the original on 14 November 2011 Retrieved 14 October 2011 Whitaker Kati September 2012 Ghana witch camps Widows lives in exile BBC News BBC Archived from the original on 20 October 2018 Retrieved 1 September 2012 Kanina Wangui 21 May 2008 Mob burns to death 11 Kenyan witches Reuters Archived from the original on 20 June 2017 Retrieved 15 September 2016 Byrne Carrie 2011 Hunting the vulnerable Witchcraft and the law in Malawi Consultancy Africa Intelligence 16 June Stepping Stones Nigeria 2007 Supporting Victims of Witchcraft Abuse and Street Children in Nigeria humantrafficking org Archived from the original on 17 October 2012 West Harry G Ethnographic Sorcery p 24 2007 The University of Chicago Press ISBN 978 0226893983 pbk Cumes David 2004 Africa in my bones Claremont New Africa Books p 14 ISBN 978 0 86486 556 4 Kielburger Craig Kielburger Marc 18 February 2008 HIV in Africa Distinguishing disease from witchcraft Toronto Star Toronto Ontario Canada Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd Archived from the original on 19 October 2017 Retrieved 18 September 2017 Ebola outbreak Witchcraft hampering treatment says doctor BBC News London BBC 2 August 2014 Archived from the original on 18 July 2021 Retrieved 22 June 2018 citing a doctor from Medecins Sans Frontieres A widespread belief in witchcraft is hampering efforts to halt the Ebola virus from spreading Social stigma as an epidemiological determinant for leprosy elimination in Cameroon Journal of Public Health in Africa Archived from the original on 31 July 2017 Retrieved 27 August 2014 Akosua Adu 3 September 2014 Ebola Human Rights Group Warns Disease Is Not Caused By Witchcraft The Ghana Italy News Archived from the original on 3 September 2014 Retrieved 31 October 2017 a b c Breslaw E G 2011 Witchcraft in Early North America Journal of American History p 504 doi 10 1093 jahist jar254 a b c Witchcraft and Magic Contemporary North America Edited by HELEN A BERGER Copyright 2005 Published by University of Pennsylvania Press https www jstor org stable j ctt3fh7kf Kilpatrick Alan 1998 The Night Has a Naked Soul Witchcraft and Sorcery Among the Western Cherokee Syracuse University Press Geertz Armin W Summer 2011 Hopi Indian Witchcraft and Healing On Good Evil and Gossip American Indian Quarterly 35 3 372 393 doi 10 1353 aiq 2011 a447052 ISSN 0095 182X OCLC 659388380 PMID 22069814 To the Hopis witches or evil hearted persons deliberately try to destroy social harmony by sowing discontent doubt and criticism through evil gossip as well as by actively combating medicine men Admitting he practiced witchcraft could cost him his life and occult power Simmons Marc 1980 Witchcraft in the Southwest Spanish and Indian Supernaturalism on the Rio Grande University of Nebraska Press ISBN 978 0803291164 Wall Leon and William Morgan Navajo English Dictionary Hippocrene Books New York City 1998 ISBN 0781802474 Wallace Dale Lancaster January 2015 Rethinking religion magic and witchcraft in South Africa From colonial coherence to postcolonial conundrum Journal for the Study of Religion 28 1 23 51 Retrieved 15 September 2023 via Acaemdia edu Bachmann Judith 2021 African Witchcraft and Religion among the Yoruba Translation as Demarcation Practice within a Global Religious History Method amp Theory in the Study of Religion 33 3 4 381 409 doi 10 1163 15700682 12341522 S2CID 240055921 Silverblatt I 1983 The evolution of witchcraft and the meaning of healing in colonial Andean society Culture Medicine and Psychiatry 7 4 413 427 doi 10 1007 BF00052240 PMID 6362989 S2CID 23596915 a b Diabolism in the New World ABCCLIO 2005 Archived from the original on 18 July 2021 Retrieved 10 February 2013 Young Eric Van Cervantes Fernando Mills Kenneth November 1996 The Devil in the New World The Impact of Diabolism in New Spain The Hispanic American Historical Review 76 4 789 doi 10 2307 2517981 JSTOR 2517981 Behar Ruth 1987 Sex and Sin Witchcraft and the Devil in Late Colonial Mexico American Ethnologist 14 1 34 54 doi 10 1525 ae 1987 14 1 02a00030 hdl 2027 42 136539 JSTOR 645632 Lavrin Asuncion Sexuality amp Marriage in Colonial Latin America Reprint ed Lincoln University of Nebraska Press 1992 p 192 ISBN missing Lewis Laura A Hall of mirrors power witchcraft and caste in colonial Mexico Durham N C Duke University Press 2003 p 13 ISBN missing in Portuguese Joao Ribeiro Junior O Que e Magia pp 48 49 Ed Abril Cultural ISBN missing a b c Maria Herrera Sobek 2012 Celebrating Latino Folklore An Encyclopedia of Cultural Traditions ABC CLIO ISBN 978 0313343391 Blom Jan Dirk Poulina Igmar T van Gellecum Trevor L Hoek Hans W December 2015 Traditional healing practices originating in Aruba Bonaire and Curacao A review of the literature on psychiatry and Brua Transcultural Psychiatry 52 6 840 860 doi 10 1177 1363461515589709 PMID 26062555 S2CID 27804741 a b c d Dickie Matthew 2003 Magic and Magicians in the Greco Roman World Routledge pp 138 142 a b c Jasper Buse 1995 Cook Islands Maori Dictionary Cook Islands Ministry of Education ISBN 978 0728602304 Archived from the original on 8 August 2016 Retrieved 27 February 2016 a b William Wyatt Gill 1892 Wizards The south Pacific and New Guinea past and present with notes on the Hervey group an illustrative song and various myths Sydney Charles Potter Government Printer Woman suspected of witchcraft burned alive Archived 2009 04 29 at the Wayback Machine CNN com January 8 2009 Papua New Guinea s Sorcery Refugees Women Accused of Witchcraft Flee Homes to Escape Violence Archived 2017 03 20 at the Wayback Machine Vice News January 6 2015 a b c Lawrence Salmah Eva Lina 2015 Witchcraft Sorcery Violence Matrilineal and Decolonial Reflections In Forsyth Miranda Eves Richard eds Talking it Through Responses to Sorcery and Witchcraft Beliefs and Practices in Melanesia Canberra Australia ANU Press Simons Patricia September 2014 The Incubus and Italian Renaissance art Source Notes in the History of Art 34 1 1 8 doi 10 1086 sou 34 1 23882368 JSTOR 23882368 S2CID 191376143 Hutton Ronald 16 March 2018 Witches and Cunning Folk in British Literature 1800 1940 Preternature Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural 7 1 27 doi 10 5325 preternature 7 1 0027 hdl 1983 c91bdc34 80d8 49f6 92df 9147f2bef535 ISSN 2161 2188 S2CID 194795666 Archived from the original on 18 May 2021 Retrieved 18 May 2021 Works cited edit Abusch Tzvi 2002 Mesopotamian Witchcraft Toward a History and Understanding of Babylonian Witchcraft Beliefs and Literature Brill Styx ISBN 9789004123878 Reiner E 1995 Astral magic in Babylonia Philadelphia American Philosophical Society ISBN 978 0871698544 Further reading editThis further reading section may need cleanup Please read the editing guide and help improve the section March 2024 Learn how and when to remove this template message Bristol J C 2007 Christians Blasphemers and Witches Afro Mexican Ritual Practice in the Seventeenth Century Albuquerque University of New Mexico Press Epstein I 2008 The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Children s Issues Worldwide Greenwood Press Ginzburg Carlo Translated by Raymond Rosenthal 2004 Originally published in Italy as Storia Notturna 1989 Giulio Einaudi Ecstasies Deciphering the Witches Sabbath University of Chicago Press ISBN 978 0226296937 Gittins Anthony J 1987 Mende Religion Studia Instituti Anthropos 41 Nettetal Steyler Verlag Hutton R 2006 Witches Druids and King Arthur Bloomsbury Academic ISBN 978 1852855550 Janzen John M MacGaffey Wyatt 1974 An Anthology of Kongo Religion Primary Texts from Lower Zaire University of Kansas Publications in Anthropology 5 Lawrence Kent Elizabeth Masculinity and Male Witches in Old and New England History Workshop 60 2005 69 92 Lima R 2005 Stages of Evil Occultism in Western Theater and Drama University Press of Kentucky ISBN 978 0813123622 Murray D 2013 Matter Magic and Spirit Representing Indian and African American Belief University of Pennsylvania Press Narby J 1998 The Cosmic Serpent DNA and the Origins of Knowledge TarcherPerigee Pentikainen J 1978 Marina Takalo as an Individual in Oral Repertoire and World View An Anthropological study of Marina Takalo s Life History F F Communications Turku 93 219 58 76 INIST 12698358 Pentikainen Juha The Supernatural Experience F Jstor 26 February 2007 Rasbold K 2019 Crossroads of Conjure The Roots and Practices of Granny Magic Hoodoo Brujeria and Curanderismo Llewellyn Worldwide Ruickbie Leo 2004 Witchcraft out of the Shadows A History London Robert Hale ISBN missing Williams Howard 1865 The Superstitions of Witchcraft London Longman Green Longman Roberts amp Green via Project Gutenberg External links edit nbsp Wikiquote has quotations related to Witchcraft nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Witchcraft nbsp Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica article Witchcraft nbsp Scholia has a topic profile for Witchcraft Witchcraft on In Our Time at the BBC Kabbalah On Witchcraft A Jewish view Audio chabad org Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Witchcraft amp oldid 1220975081, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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