Abstract

This introduction briefly surveys the vast literature on the history of witchcraft in Europe and the far more limited historiography of Russian and East European witchcraft. It highlights a number of common themes emerging from the essays, including the interactions of religion and witchcraft beliefs, modes of persecution, the role of literacy and of gender, the mutability or stability of witchcraft belief over time, and the significance of ethnicity in beliefs about magic. The introduction identifies points of agreement and divergence among the authors and comments on the value of collecting detailed case studies.

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