I. WITCH TRIALS 15th – 17th C. versus
maleficium Latin for
“wrongdoing”
term for magical harm
“witch” as projected category:
people see others
as
witches, project this identity onto
"likely
suspects" whom they know.
malefica = female witch
remedies for harm done witchcraft
as
“missing
other half” of witch belief systems
Carlo
Ginzburg, The Night Battles (reading Wk 9)
study of witch beliefs in Friuli (northeastern Italy)
people believe in both
malandanti
"those who walk badly" = witches
and
benandanti
"those who walk well" = counter witches
magical
healers "lift spells" cast by witches
separate
group, don't see themselves as witches
II. LEVELS OF BELIEF
learned, literate versus popular, oral
clergy, theology " peasantry, folklore
orthodoxy " “superstition”
official " unofficial
III. RELIGION versus MAGIC (continued Thurs)i
19th C. Durkheim, Elementary Forms of Religious Life
sociological definition of religion
20th C. Malinowski, Magic, Science & Religion
anthropological model