Abstract
The village elders of Franconian Switzerland, a province in central Germany, respect a tradition of witchcraft Inquiry was by participant observation, because the author was born and raised in the peasant society, speaks the dialect, and has access to informants, many of whom are members of his clan. Findings are discussed in a functional framework modified by an activist model. The research corroborates a number of established elements of witchcraft and also reveals a number of unique features, including conterminousness of belief and isolated geographic condition, strict polarization of healer and witch, suppression of crime through fear of witchery, preponderance of married over unmarried women dabbling in witchery, and the rapid shift from trusting supernatural forces to trusting scientific‐technological forces.
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