Study Of Witchcraft Research Articles

Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe

EVEN TO THOSE who profess to have made a study of Scottish literature, Sharpe's name is comparatively unknown. He is often thought of as an obscure antiquarian friend of Scott's, the original of Malachi Malagrowther, an eccentric in a city always famed for its eccentrics. Yet one cannot go very far in the study of ballads and of Scottish popular poetry without coming across his name: it was he who contributed one of the finest and most tersely expressed of all the ballads to Scott's Minstrelsy—‘The Twa Corbies’—as well as giving Scott his version of ‘The Douglas Tragedy’ and ‘Bessie Bell and Mary Gray’. A great deal of the material in Chambers's Popular Rhymes of Scotland—that pioneering work which, like most of Robert Chambers's, has not received the attention it deserves—was provided by Sharpe. In the field of demonology and the study of witchcraft, too, he was an authority: his edition of Law's Memorialls was enriched by copious and erudite footnotes and in his introduction, amounting to 254 quarto pages, he wrote a lively and informative historical survey of witchcraft in Scotland from the earliest times until the end of the eighteenth century.

Anxiety and Witchcraft in Mexican-American Acculturation

This paper attempts to analyze the relationship between witchcraft belief and acculturation anxiety among the MexicanAmericans of South Texas. The analysis is based on research conducted by the staff of the Hidalgo Project on Differential Culture Change and Mental Health.' Anthropological studies of witchcraft have dealt primarily with primitive societies (Kluckhohn 1944; Whiting 1950; Rosenthal and Siegel 1959; Evans-Pritchard 1937). Some of the most common functions of witchcraft belief discussed in the litera-

A Razor for a Goat: A Discussion of Certain Problems in the History of Witchcraft and Diabolism

First published in 1962, Elliot Rose's A Razor for a Goat is a study of witchcraft as a religion, whether the religion was a form of pagan survival or a depraved Christian (or anti-Christian) heresy. Rose surveyed witch-scares, fairy folklore, 'ritual' deaths, the Canon Episcopi, and goliards for evidence for witchcraft, and to make some suggestions about the reality behind the popular beliefs on witchcraft societies and Sabbats. One of the first studies to debunk the dominant theory of the time that witchcraft had been an organized pre-Christian religion, A Razor for a Goat is listed on many anthropology, religion, and history course bibliographies. This reprint has a ten-page foreword by Richard Kieckhefer that gives a historiographical examination of the importance of this book, and situates it within the discipline today. Closely reasoned, and written with a rare wit, A Razor for a Goat is a classic study and excellent survey of the literature and history of witchcraft.

Drama of the "Siglo de Oro," a Study of Magic, Witchcraft, and Other Occult Beliefs

Drama of the "Siglo de Oro," a Study of Magic, Witchcraft, and Other Occult Beliefs

M. N. Pavia, "Drama of the Siglo de Oro: A Study of Magic, Witchcraft and Other Occult Beliefs" (Book Review)

M. N. Pavia, "Drama of the Siglo de Oro: A Study of Magic, Witchcraft and Other Occult Beliefs" (Book Review)

A Neglected Aspect of Witchcraft Studies

\W IT CHCRAFT and witch hunting have been the subject of many papers, monographs and books. To date there are at least three intensive anthropological inquiries1 and a number of shorter works.2 The usual conclusions on witchcraft and witch hunting are that they are related to law and order, that witchcraft can have serious effect among people who believe in it, and that witch hunting is an outlet for psychological tensions. But such works remain partial analyses because none has highlighted the absolutistic attitude of the West toward witchcraft and witch hunting, as contrasted with the relativistic attitude of the rest of the world in this regard. Witch hunting, as it occurred in Western countries, whether it be England, France, or Italy, had one outcome. Occasionally, the lives of some witches, confessed or alleged, might be spared, but more usually such persons were burned, hanged, drowned or otherwise because of their public offense. The estimates of scholars on the number of witches put to death in Europe vary enormously, from 30,000 to several million.3 But even if we take the lowest possible figure given here, there is no match for it among the more populous Asia or the rest of mankind. There was no way in Western societies for such persons to redeem themselves or to compensate their victims for their alleged wrongdoing. There would certainly be no counter-witchcraft to which their alleged victims could safely and openly resort, for to possess counter-witchcraft would be maintaining traffic with devils and hence the victims themselves would be subject to accusation and persecution as witches.4 In contrast, witch hunting as it occurs in all non-Western societies has usually the following relativistic characteristics unknown in the West: 1) The lives of witches or sorcerers,5 even after conviction, can be spared if the guilty ones or their kinsmen make compensation to the victims. Sometimes public confession of guilt on the part of the witches is enough. In other instances, the victims take action with only the intention of getting retribution payments. After confession and/or retribution, the guilty one will return to his or her former place in society without further difficulty. 2) There are always counter-witchcraft measures or white magic which are essentially the same sort of acts as those employed by the witches (alleged) or sorcerers (actual), but which are greatly valued by the people.6 Possessors of such counter-witchcraft measures may even achieve positions of influence.7 3) Where witches or sorcerers are reportedly executed, they are more commonly put to death by angry private avengers related to the victim or by mob action. Even where there is a proper chieftainship with regular trial-conviction procedures, the penalty more usually befalls only those sorcerers who have killed by resorting to plain poison to aid their sorcery.

Witches and Warlocks

DR. MARGARET MURRAY'S study of witchcraft in western Europe, which revived the theory of a Dianic cult and brought its manifestations into relation with modern ideas on the character of primitive religion, gave an orientation to the numerous studies of witchcraft which followed, and demanded from her imitators and successors something more than descriptive narrative to justify publication. Mr. Sergeant's claim to serious attention lies in his careful and detailed analysis of the evidence in the cases of the Lancashire witches, and the part played by the Mathers and others in the persecution of the Salem witches in America, as well as in his account of the Elizabethan Dr. Dee and his evil genius Kelly. On the theoretical side he is not equally happy. His knowledge of primitive religion is scarcely adequate to th& demandhis reference to totemism seems particularly wide of the marknor does his knowledge of the literature of that subject appear to be extensive.