Search Results (36)

Violence against people with albinism (PWAs) in Tanzania continues nearly two decades after mass media reported the first incidents in the mid-2000s. The violence is linked to organ trafficking for use in “magical rituals” that allegedly help politicians and businesspeople to succeed in their endeavors. Over time, as societal awareness grows, the attacks become increasingly clandestine and complex. PWAs themselves, the public, and gray literature frequently relate the violence to the increased political and economic activity and participation following Tanzania’s adoption of political and economic liberalization. However, scholarly research is either silent or mentions the occult practices only in passing. This paper, therefore, explores Tanzania’s institutional arrangements both driving the violence and crippling the efforts at promoting the rights and welfare of PWAs in the wake of increasing political and economic participation in the country. It discusses the ways in which violence against PWAs has evolved alongside political and economic dynamics from the time such incidents came to public attention until the present. I argue that the current approach, whereby advocacy about the rights of PWAs relies on appeasing the state, appears to perpetuate the very beliefs and practices driving the violence. The exploration makes use of first-hand experience through my participation in numerous formal and informal interactions with PWAs, internal and external meetings within the Tanzania Albinism Society (TAS), interviews, and gray literature on the subject. Full article

This article examines the influence of local government on the folk rituals of Rebgong in China’s Amdo Tibetan region, by highlighting the example of Wutu, a tiger festival held in one Tu minority village. In particular, it encapsulates the impact of local government intervention through the changed meaning of the “magic” bread in the ritual. Originally, the dough was rubbed on sick parts of the villagers’ bodies, and the bread was subsequently removed from the village by the Wutu performers as a medium for the elimination of sickness. In recent years, however, the bread has become one of the important positive symbols of the festival, and, during one dance performance in the 2018 ceremony, was actively promoted for consumption as “healthy for old people and good for healing diseases!” This intervention on the materiality at the heart of the festival has influenced its meaning away from that of a negative shamanic rite concerned with the expulsion of evil towards a more positivist celebration of China’s minority ethnic cultural heritage. Full article

Can we think of the legendary Wandering Jew as a monster? The figure does not easily fit the common definition of a monster and yet, the Wandering Jew is extraordinary. In the medieval and early modern sources of the legend, the Wandering Jew, who once sinned against Christ and is therefore doomed to be an immortal eyewitness to the Passion, serves as a model for the faithful. In his 1796 gothic novel, The Monk, Matthew Lewis creates a new strand of the Wandering Jew tradition, a gothic Wandering Jew, a being transformed from wonder to horror through association with centuries of antisemitic accusations against Jews as agents of conspiracy, ritual murder, nefarious magic, and disease. This essay argues that a variation on the representation of the gothic Wandering Jew, which began with Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, further adapts the legend to make the Wanderer not a sign of redemption, but the monstrous cause of catastrophe not only for himself, but for those he encounters. This article, the first scholarly examination of John Blackburn’s 1972 Wandering Jew novel, Devil Daddy, situates it within the strand of the legend that represents the Wandering Jew as a monstrous source of destruction. Blackburn’s novel, written during a time of global concern over the development of biological weapons of mass destruction, portrays the Wandering Jew’s curse as a source of manmade global environmental catastrophe. In this way, the sin of the monstrous Wandering Jew becomes one not against Christ, but against humankind. Even as Devil Daddy explicitly references the horrors of the Holocaust, this representation of a monstrous Wandering Jew haunts the text, undermining its sympathetic representation of Jewish suffering. Full article

Alleged practices of magical assault and vampirism are a recurrent feature of popular explanations of misfortune in Tuva, South Siberia. Based on a field study of healing practices in an “Association of Shamans”, this article analyses rituals of redressing curse afflictions in the context of Russian political domination. A central purpose of this discussion is to foreground the centrality of kinds of parasitical worship and occult threat to structures of political power in—and beyond—the territory of Tuva. Focusing on a “cursescape”, which develops from the combative practices of shamans, occult specialists, and office-holders, the article probes a repertoire of shamanic healing symbols. It is argued that healing efficacy is constructed in the process of engaging with hunting symbols and animal spirits, which appear in Indigenous Siberian cosmologies. The analysis shows that ideas of ritual risk underpin the process of symbolic resolution. Whereas shamanic practices provide refuge to spirits evicted from their natural landscapes, Tibetan Buddhism—the unifying religion of Tuva—offers an alternative path of healing the effects of the shamans’ propagation of spirits. The article highlights indigenous perceptions of a “cursed” landscape as a space where the agencies of “darkness” and their political sponsors are confronted with an emancipating religious modality emerging from local Buddhist rituals. The analysis displays the unsolved drama of itinerant spirits and shamanic ancestral souls, whose agency is revealed through successive—yet inauspicious—forms of reincarnation. Full article

This essay examines whether Confucius aligns more with humanism or religious thought, asserting that his philosophy defies simple classification. It highlights his use of religious motifs, especially the concept of li 禮, which he broadened beyond mere rituals to include societal behaviors, infusing them with a sacred essence. Additionally, this essay delves into Confucius’s notion of de 德, perceived as having an almost magical influence without coercion, closely tied to his ideas on li and governance. This reflects a belief in a universal moral order, challenging the view of Confucius as purely a humanist. The text also explores his nuanced understanding of tian 天, a central yet complex aspect of his philosophy, suggesting a spiritual dimension. Ultimately, this essay advocates for recognizing Confucius not only as a moral guide but as a thinker embodying significant religious or spiritual insights. Full article

Slavic folk culture is a fusion of Christian and of pre-Christian, pagan beliefs based on magic. This article is devoted specifically to ancient pre-Christian ideas about death and posthumous existence and the associated magical rituals and prohibitions, which persist to our time. It considers the following interactions between the living and the dead: 1. the measures taken and prohibitions observed by the living to ensure their well-being in the other world; 2. the measures taken by the living to ensure the well-being of their dead relatives in the other world (including funeral rites; memorial rites; cemetery visits; providing the dead with food, clothes, and items necessary for postmortem life; and sending messages to the other world); 3. communication between the living and the dead on certain days (including taking opportunities to meet, see, and hear them; treat them; prepare a bed for them; and wash them); 4. fear of the dead and their return and the desire to placate them to prevent them from causing natural disasters (hail, droughts, floods, etc.), crop failures, cattle deaths, diseases, and death; 5. magical ways for protecting oneself from the “walking dead”; 6. transforming the dead into mythological characters—for example, house-, water-, or forest-spirits and mermaids. The material presented in the article is drawn from published and archival sources collected by folklorists and ethnographers of the XIX and XX centuries in different regions of the Slavic world, as well as from field recordings made by the author and his colleagues in Polesie, the borderland of Belarus and Ukraine, in the 1960–1980s, in the Russian North and in the Carpathian region in the 1990s. It shows that the relationship between the living and the dead in folk beliefs does not fit comfortably within the widespread notion of an “ancestor cult”. It argues that the dead are both venerated and feared and that the living feel a dependence on their ancestors and a desire to strictly observe the boundary between the two worlds. Full article

In the famous medieval magical manual called the Picatrix, the unknown author describes the phenomenon of magic with the term nigromantia. As is well known, the original meaning of the Greek term necromantia has a more concise meaning. It is used for a special kind of divination, i.e., divination through the parts of a cadaver and the conjured spirit of the dead. Seemingly, in the Picatrix, no necromantic ritual can be found; moreover, the author stresses that his main goal is pious, i.e., to find the path leading to the ultimate source of the universe, the one and only God. In my article, I show that on some pages of the Picatrix, there are traces of divinatory practices that may be connected to the original meaning of the term nigromantia. In the third book of the manual, descriptions of some interesting rituals attributed to the pagan Sabeans of Harran and their teacher, the god Hermes can be found. During the practices, the magician involved conjured spirits of the heavenly bodies and powers as well. Because of this, by looking closely at and analyzing the given text, it is possible to piece together a complex web of necromantic and demonic divinatory rituals. Full article

This study explores destinative elements in late medieval and early modern learned magic in East-Central Europe, focusing on names, images, characters, invocations, and addresses facilitating communication with transcendental entities. It contends that a thematic shift occurred in the early modern era, witnessing a decline in destinative talisman texts, replaced by a surge in treasure-hunting manuals. Drawing from legal cases and treasure-hunting manuals, the research aims to categorize the “souls” frequently invoked in these practices. The term “souls” is interpreted as either spirits or the souls of the deceased, reflecting the significant role of the dead in treasure hunting, often conducted in cemeteries. This shift is linked to changes in the sociocultural background of practitioners, marking a transformation in magical practices from destinative talismans to treasure hunting, revealing a nuanced evolution in East-Central European magical traditions. Full article

This article will place the rituals of the Greek Magical Papyri (PGM) for the acquisition of a supernatural assistant (paredros) into conversation with broader late antique debates surrounding the place of daimones within the celestial hierarchy. In considering the writings of Plotinus, Plutarch, Porphyry, and Iamblichus, it will survey points of contention surrounding questions of appropriate and inappropriate displays of ritual power, as facilitated by intermediary spirits who act as intercessors between humanity and the divine. Through analyzing the metaphysical underpinnings of the nature of the paredros, as variously articulated within the rituals for their conjuration within the Greek Magical Papyri, it will contextualize the aims of the ritualist against the backdrop of Iamblichus’ theurgy in pursuit of mastery of—and intimate, transcendent communion with—the fundamental numinous nature of the world. In doing so, this article argues that Iamblichus’ theurgy and the paredros rituals of the PGM ultimately grasp towards similar soteriological goals using different ritual methodologies; both seeking to elevate the incarnated body of the ritualist into a higher level of spiritual attainment through direct confrontation with the powers of nature. Full article

Medio Period (AD 1200 to 1450) Casas Grandes shamans used tobacco and possibly other entheogens to initiate trance states that allowed their spirits to travel across the cosmos. These trance experiences involved a sense of vertigo and soul flight that is cross-culturally common and occurs with tobacco-based nicotine intoxication. The Medio Period shamans also relied on and interacted with other-than-human persons during their travels, including macaw- and serpent-linked deities, as well as animated objects designed to participate in their shamanic journeys. The animated objects included Playas Red and Chihuahuan Polychrome pottery effigies of humans, macaws, and snakes with shamanic themes that represented the spirit world. I propose these pots were animate “pot-people” created for shamanic rituals. They were created with unusual designs including painted images and incised patterns that emphasized the spinning/vertigo that was central to the shamans’ soul flight experience. In some cases, the pots were literally spun, as evidenced by the distinctive wear patterns on their bases. The shamanic designs on the pots that reflected the upper and lower worlds, the depiction of spinning in the pottery decorations, and the literal spinning of some pots reflected the sympathetic and mimetic magic that linked them to the spirit world. They were imbued with the liminal nature of the creatures they depicted, and the symbolic and occasional literal emphasis on spinning would allow them to enter into a shamanic trance in a manner similar to their human counterparts. They, thus, were designed to enter into ASC in a manner that paralleled their human counterparts. Full article

The dynamic relationship that exists between a religious rite and its territory is interpreted and analysed by religious anthropology as a form of protection, offered by the sacred to the place in which it resides. According to this interpretation, passage through the territory of what is reputed to be sacred or even its very presence as a sanctuary, drives evil away and is believed to perform a generally stable protective function. Within such a dynamic, the rite that actually creates this sacred passage, i.e., the procession of relics, lays the foundations for an analysis of the two specific variables that are, in actual fact, intwined: on the one side is the rite, and on the other, the territory. Such a relationship appears all the more problematic due to the progressive rationalisation of the religious dimension, extensively dealt with by Max Weber (Weber 1920) and accepted by contemporary sociology on religion, as it is now a supernatural phenomenon that is only considered to have a representational dimension. The internal secularization at the festival of Saint Rosalia happened in 2023, with the landing of the triumphal cart in New York. The rite moves to another new territory and transforms it. The cart of Saint Rosalia, preserved in the Columbus Citizens Foundation in New York, represents the identity of Sicilian immigrants but also a new form of ritualization on a new territory through an “ancient” ritual. When the sacred is located within the institutional dimension of a salvation religion presided over by an institution, it appears separate from any purely mechanical (and therefore magical) dimension, while the territory becomes a variable in which a multiplicity of factors are contained. These factors not only give importance to the very aspects of the ritual itself, boosting its civil and secular parts, but also to the religious programme, which undergoes unexpected transformations introduced by the presiding institution. The main object of this analysis is, therefore, to establish an interactive path whereby, on the one hand, the territory, through its various cultural components (both secular and religious), shapes the religious rite and how it places restrictions on those protective functions, while on the other, how the rite places its own constraints on the cultural transformations that take place in the fabric of society. Full article

Drumming and chanting are core practices in modern magical-religious Witchcraft in the absence of unifying texts or standardized rituals. Song and musicality contribute towards self-creation and community making. However, Nature Religions and alternate spiritualities are seldom included in surveys of religious musicking or soundscapes. This article considers musicality in earlier publications on modern Witchcraft, as well as the author’s fieldwork with magical-religious Witches in the UK, to show the valuable contribution they make to discussions on religious belonging and the sensorium through song, music, percussion, and soundscapes. Full article

Puppets, a kind of wooden figure whose movements are manipulated by artists, were frequently used in ancient Chinese singing and dancing activities and dramas. The uniqueness of substituting human beings for puppets has drawn tremendous attention from scholars. However, despite previous research on the long development process of puppet dramas, a considerable number of details remain neglected, and behind these details lies an abundance of complicated religious factors. Therefore, this paper uses several fragments as entry points in terms of puppet dramas’ modeling, materials, craft, rites, function, artists, organization, and other aspects to comprehensively analyze the influence of witchcraft, Daoism, and Buddhism on China’s puppet dramas. This research first unveils that a ferocious appearance and mahogany as a material, both used in puppets, are outer manifestations to reveal the magical power of witchcraft. Next, the rites performed in Li Yuan Jiao using ritual puppets were characterized by mystery in their implication and ambiguity in their religious sect, which was related to the attempt to hide their notorious identities as wizards on the part of the artists. Third, general puppet artists enjoyed a fairly high social status, conferred by their semi-religionist identity and the puppet dramas’ historical status. Finally, the improvement in the puppet-making process and the emergence of skeleton-style puppets embody the secularization of the spread of Buddhism. Full article

This study investigated how observing the ritualisation of objects can influence children’s encoding and defence of supernatural beliefs. Specifically, we investigated if ritualising objects leads children to believe those objects might be magical, buffering against favouring contrary evidence. Seventy-nine children, aged between 3 and 6 years, were presented with two identical objects (e.g., two colour-changing stress balls) and tasked with identifying which was magical after being informed that one had special properties (e.g., could make wishes come true). In a Ritual condition, an adult acted on one of the objects using causally irrelevant actions and on the other using functional actions. In an Instrumental condition, both objects were acted on with functional actions. The children were given a normative rule relating to the use of the objects and an opportunity to imitate the actions performed on them. A second adult then challenged their magical belief. Ritualistic actions increased the likelihood of children attributing magical powers to the associated object but did not affect resistance to change or adherence to normative rules. However, children who engaged in ritual actions protested more when the magical belief was challenged. Our findings suggest that rituals can play an important role in shaping children’s perception and defence of supernatural beliefs. Full article

Here, we will approach Conspiracy Theories (CTs) and, specifically, QAnon following the three traditional sociological fields of research. After an introduction in which we contextualise CDTs socially, culturally, economically and politically and in which we establish a conceptual map of what they mean, on the historical level (1), we will clarify their religious genesis, through the main analogies between them, magic and religion and their practices and rituals, as well as the conversion of conspiratorial agents into social agents of a religious nature. On the analytical side (2), we will deal with the QAnon belief system. Finally (3), from a critical perspective, we will describe the causes and harmful consequences of QAnon, both for religious sentiment itself and for democracy. We will conclude by pointing out that QAnon affects the coherence and stability of religious beliefs and democracy; in fact, it can be seen as libertarian authoritarianism and populism, advocating a sick freedom, the ultimate expression of the modern feeling of individual powerlessness and of a Modernity that has failed to deliver on its promises. Full article