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
magical healers: 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
19th C. Emile Durkheim, Elementary Forms of Religious Life
sociological definition of religion
20th C. Bruno Malinowski, Magic, Science & Religion
anthropological model -- magic takes up where technology leaves off
practical, goal oriented nature of magical activities -- "ritualization of man's optimism"