BASIC CATEGORIES FOR STUDY OF WITCH BELIEFS

I. RELIGION VERSUS MAGIC

        Emile Durkheim, Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1915)
             religion as social:                                  
                 organized around central events of human life,
                        birth, initiation rites, marriage, death
                mediates human relationship to supernatural realm

       Bruno Malinowski, Magic, Science and Religion  (1925)
                anthropologist in South Pacific, Trobriand islands
                religion as social, collective source of meaning
           versus
                magic as instrumental, limited, goal oriented
                        picks up where technology leaves off
                        “ritualization of man’s optimism”

II. WITCHCRAFT VERSUS SORCERY

      British anthropologists in Africa: 
            source of term “witch doctors” : separate social group
                                                          repair witches’ damage   
     Evans Pritchard,
                Witchcraft, Oracles & Magic Among Azande 1l933)
                    - witchcraft as innate, hereditary, malevolent
                                organic, confirmed by autopsy
                    - sorcery as acquired, learned skill  
                                  ambivalent: used for good or evil

III. RELIGION VERSUS SUPERSTITION

SUPERSTITION: judgmental, negative term for beliefs
                        not approved of by mainstream religion

     Latin: “super stare” = to stand outside of
     Ancient Rome: refers to excessive fear of gods,
                           compulsive repetition of rituals

     Christianity:  refers to any practices (espec. magic)
                        outside or beyond approved rituals
        Orthodoxy = correct doctrine or teaching
        Orthopraxy = correct religious practice

Lucy Mair, Witchcraft  -- British anthropologist
                (1969)           survey of  African witch beliefs

Why should there be witches? 
      explanation for random misfortune and unmerited suffering
                  - rejection of coincidence, chance, randomness
      lack of alternative techniques, espec. medical knowledge
      small scale societies: "face to face" setting

   What are witches like?
      universal elements in image of the witch:
            greed, hunger, sexual insatiability, perversion
      witches as anti-social beings:
            need to maintain standards of social behavior
            public sanction against displays of hostility
      inversion and perversion as witch characteristics

      enemies of life and fertility
             nightmare witch versus everyday witch
             image of the limited good

  How can society deal with witches in its midst?
        1) witch detection: divination
        2) combat against witches: counter-witches
               Africa: category of “witch doctor” introduced by
                         British anthropologists
              Europe:  benandanti vs malandanti
        3) remedies against the effects of witchcraft
             counter-magic; expulsion of witch;
             in Europe, "final solution" = witch hunting

WITCHCRAFT AS A BELIEF SYSTEM

 "CLASSIC" IMAGE OF EUROPEAN WITCH    15 - 17TH C.   

      SABBATH:  devil worshippers meet, cannibalistic feast,
               sexual orgy, compulsory intercourse with devil

      Magical transportation to Sabbath:  nightflying,
             "shapeshifting" (witch turns into animal)

      DIABOLICAL PACT -- "selling soul" to devil
         witches gain power to do harm (maleficium)

      Evidence of witches' alliance with devil:                     
             witches’ familiar -- animal pets (seen as  demons)
            witches' teat or tit -- for nursing/feeding her familiar
            witches' mark -- left on  body by devil as sign of pact