Document Type
Book Review
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
Summer 2006
Journal or Book Title
Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft
Volume
1
Issue
1
First Page
121
Last Page
124
DOI
10.1353/mrw.0.0032
Abstract
When Alan Macfarlane and Keith Thomas reinvigorated the study of historical European and particularly English witchcraft in the early 1970s, they were heavily influenced by studies of witchcraft in Africa, particularly the work of E. E. Evans-Pritchard done decades earlier. While they did not primarily [End Page 121] write comparative histories (only the final section of Macfarlane’s book is explicitly comparative), they drew on anthropological models to help them understand how belief in and fear of witches might have functioned in early modern English society. A door could have been flung open between the study of European and non-European systems of witchcraft. Instead, as histories of the European witch hunts proliferated in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, most scholars avoided broad, comparative arguments. Instead they stressed the particular nature of witchcraft in early modern Europe, with conceptions of “the witch” deeply rooted in Christian theology and demonology. Now Wolfgang Behringer, a major scholar of early modern witchcraft, wants to redress this tendency. His focus is witch-hunting—legal or quasi-legal actions taken against those supposed to have performed some type of maleficent magic against their neighbors. He begins not in Europe but in modern South Africa, where in 1990 a hunt claimed thirty victims. Throughout the 1990s, he notes, witch-hunting actually increased in South Africa and other parts of the African continent. He therefore contends that a purely Eurocentric, predominantly Christian conception of witchcraft is “no longer acceptable” (p. 3), nor is the comfortable notion that witch-hunting is an essentially “closed chapter in the history of mankind” (p. 8).
Rights
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of scholarly citation, none of this work may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher. For information address the University of Pennsylvania Press, 3905 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112.
Copyright Owner
University of Pennsylvania Press
Copyright Date
2006
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Bailey, Michael D., "Witches and Witch-Hunts: A Global History (review)" (2006). History Publications. 30.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/history_pubs/30
Included in
Cultural History Commons, History of Religion Commons, Other History Commons, Social History Commons
Comments
This is a book review from Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 1 (2006): 121, doi:10.1353/mrw.0.0032. Posted with permission.