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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Witchcraft'

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Published: 4 June 2021

Last updated: 31 July 2024

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1

Pecorari, Damiano <1991&gt. "Witchcraft beliefs and Early Modern society in three witchcraft plays." Master's Degree Thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/17124.

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Una analisi dei rapporti fra le credenze sulla stregoneria e la società inglese dell'età moderna, basata su tre testi teatrali: An analysis of the correlation between witchcraft beliefs and early modern society based on: - "The Witches of Lancashire" di Brome ed Heywood; - "The Witch of Edmonton" di Dekker, Rowley e Ford; - "The Witch" di Middleton. Particolare attenzione ai temi di genere, realtà domestica, povertà, dinamiche sociali, devianza e adorazione del demonio.

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2

Pelgrim, Riekje. "Witchcraft and policing South Africa Police Service attitudes towards witchcraft and witchcraft-related crime in the Northern province /." Leiden : African Studies Centre, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/1887/12920.

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3

Yilmaz, Turkan <1989&gt. "THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WITCHCRAFT AND FEMININITY: WITCHCRAFT AS A SEX-SPECIFIC CRIME WITCHCRAFT IN EARLY MODERN ENGLISH DRAMA." Master's Degree Thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/5957.

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ABSTRACT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WITCHCRAFT AND FEMININITY:WITCHCRAFT AS A SEX SPECIFIC CRIME WITCHCRAFT IN EARLY MODERN ENGLISH DRAMA Yilmaz, Turkan M.A., Department of Literature Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Laura TOSI February, 2015 The present thesis is an attempt to understand the close relationship between femininity and witchcraft in early modern English society, and to analyze the religious, sociohistorical, and cultural reasons for that association. Then, I aim to present how witchcraft material is approached by the contemporary English dramatists. With this aim, the first chapter consists of four subchapters each of which includes the explanation of four different reasons for the strong association of witchcraft with femininity. The second chapter includes comparative analysis of three plays; namely The Witch by Thomas Middleton, The Witch of Edmonton by William Rowley, Thomas Dekker and John Ford, and Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Accordingly, how witchcraft theme is interpreted and incorporated in the corpora of those plays and the function of witch scenes constitute the main concern of the second chapter. Through analyzing the possible reasons for the clear link between femininity and witchcraft, and discussing the interpretation of witchcraft theme in the plays from early modern English drama, this research highlights how witchcraft and witch-beliefs serve as a material for playwrights to criticize idealization of femininity.

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4

Turri, Tabitha Nichole. ""Witchcraft" and Other Stories." Fogler Library, University of Maine, 2004. http://www.library.umaine.edu/theses/pdf/TurriTN2004.pdf.

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5

Martin, Lisa A. "Children, Adolescents, and English Witchcraft." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2005. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4952/.

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One area of history that historians have ignored is that of children and their relationship to witchcraft and the witch trials. This thesis begins with a survey of historical done on the general theme of childhood, and moves on to review secondary literature about children and the continental witch trials. The thesis also reviews demonological theory relating to children and the roles children played in the minds of continental and English demonologists. Children played various roles: murder victims, victims of dedication to Satan, child-witches, witnesses for the prosecution, victims of bewitchment or possession, and victims of seduction into witchcraft. The final section of the thesis deals with children and English witchcraft. In England children tended to play the same roles as described by the demonologists.

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Salmons, Kristi B. "Witchcraft, communism and social control." Huntington, WV : [Marshall University Libraries], 2003. http://www.marshall.edu/etd/descript.asp?ref=353.

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7

Hukema, Lammert. "A biblical solution to Kongo witchcraft." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1989. http://www.tren.com.

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8

Chaemsaithong, Krisda. "Linguistic and stylistic constructions of witchcraft and witches : a case of witchcraft pamphlets in Early Modern England /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/9413.

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9

Boi-Nai, Vincent. "The Christian response to the phenomenon of witchcraft in Ghana." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1986. http://www.tren.com.

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10

Bostridge, Ian. "Debates about witchcraft in England, 1650-1736." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1991. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:7daa2c04-a6a6-41bb-81e5-54e8c49f388b.

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This thesis shows the evolution of educated belief in witchcraft in England from 1650, at the end of the last decade of largescale prosecution, to 1735/6, when the Jacobean witchcraft legislation was repealed. It looks at this belief as a body of ideas more or less susceptible to serious use, rather than as the property of a social group, something measurable in statistical terms. There are three overlapping areas: 1. The early chapters show how witchcraft theory had an ideological import in the years 1650-1670. For Sir Robert Filmer, witchcraft prosecution was tainted by its association with puritan politics and theology. Hobbes viewed the metaphysical underpinnings of the theory with disdain, but felt it necessary to preserve witchcraft as crime within his system. For Meric Casaubon, witchcraft theory was an ideal embodiment of the restoration of traditional belief, and a boundary condition of a religiously defined community. The third chapter shows how witchcraft belief could colour mutual perceptions of Anglo- Scottish relations. 2. Having been a useful symbol of a broadly-based, religious, but non-factional society for the Harleyite Daniel Defoe in the crisis of 1710-11, witchcraft was coopted into the party struggle during the notorious Wenham case. Subsequently, witchcraft theory was a dangerous subject for a regime which, as Walpole's did, sought to disentangle the religious and secular threads which the witchcraft issue bound together. 3. Witchcraft, factionalized, became for Defoe a satirical symbol of party rule. Elsewhere it emerged, verbally and visually, whenever ferment about Church-State relations bubbled once more to the surface. These issues are examined in chapters on the last great witchcraft debate, images of witchcraft, and on repeal of English, Scottish, and Irish witchcraft legislation. The central conclusions are chronological and causal. Witchcraft theory continued to count well into the eighteenth century; and its demise had very specific political and ideological occasions.

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11

Woods, Katherine. "Witchcraft plays 1587-1635 : a psychoanalytical approach." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2013. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/12317.

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This thesis comprises detailed readings of nine early-modern plays featuring female witches in an attempt to recover an understanding of how they were represented on the early-modern stage and what they meant to their first audiences. Drawing on twentieth-century theories of subjectivity, it offers an avenue for the explanation of moments of misogyny in the plays and identifies an unconscious communal anxiety which was revealed and perpetuated by the stage representation of the witch. Although we cannot fully recapture the experience of an audience of 400 years ago, this study attempts to do so in order to place the plays in the context of anxieties detectable in the period. By reading the plays in reference to theatrical conditions, this thesis identifies moments when the drama enlisted the subjectivity of the audience and the witch was constructed as uncanny. Such an approach contributes to the debate on the ages of actors performing certain female characters and suggests potential staging approaches for future performances.

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12

Deinert, Allen R. "An examination of theologies of modern witchcraft." Online full text .pdf document, available to Fuller patrons only, 1986. http://www.tren.com.

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13

Hyman, Ryan. "The Hartford area witch-hunts : 1647-1683 /." View abstract, 2000. http://library.ctstateu.edu/ccsu%5Ftheses/1590.html.

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Thesis (M.A.)--Central Connecticut State University, 2000.
Thesis advisor: Katherine Hermes. " ... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-89).

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14

Metcalf, John Maurice Carleton University Dissertation English. "The presentation of Jacobean witchcraft beliefs in Shakespeare's Macbeth." Ottawa, 1992.

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15

Kidd, Paul McCarry. "King James VI and the demonic conspiracy witch-hunting and anti-Catholicism in 16c. and early 17c. Scotland /." Connect to electronic thesis, 2004. https://dspace.gla.ac.uk/retrieve/542/04kidd%5Fmphil.pdf.

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16

Yamamoto, Kyuta. "Witchcraft in societies in transition : the case of Bafokeng." Pretoria : [s.n.], 2007. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-08222008-130311/.

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17

Tyrrell, Marc W. D. (Marc Wyly Douglas) Carleton University Dissertation Canadian Studies. "Strands of moonlight; an examination of the institutionalization process amongst Neo-Pagan Witches in Ottawa." Ottawa, 1992.

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18

Waldron, David. "The sign of the witch : neo-paganism and the romantic episteme." Thesis, The Author [Mt. Helen, Vic.] :, 2002. http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/62410.

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"The central premise of this dissertation is that the process by which representations of witchcraft are formed within the neo-Pagan movement are indicative of the broader interrelationship of Romantic and Enlightenment themes in Western culture."
Doctor of Philosophy

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19

Valletta, Frederick Victor Alfred. "Witchcraft, magic and superstition in England, 1640-1670." Thesis, King's College London (University of London), 1998. https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/witchcraft-magic-and-superstition-in-england-164070(48c85851-6de7-4051-9114-8e1ac3c39dc9).html.

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This thesis examines the relationship between élite and popular beliefs in witchcraft, magic and superstition in England. In particular, these issues are considered against the background of political, religious and social upheaval characteristic of the Civil War, Interregnum and Restoration periods. Throughout the work it is stressed that deeply held superstitions were fundamental to belief in witches, the devil, ghosts, apparitions and supernatural healing. In addition the way such superstitions were used by both political and religious authorities is examined. Despite the fact that popular - superstitions were often condemned, it was recognised that their propaganda value was too useful to ignore. A host of pamphlets and treatises was published during this period unashamedly incorporating such beliefs. The employment of demonic imagery and language in such polemics may not have been officially sanctioned, but it had the advantage of at least being easily understood and recognised by most people. The work is divided into an introduction, seven chapters, a conclusion and three appendices. Chapter 1 looks at the religious and political background to witchcraft belief and justifies the period chosen. Chapter 2 analyses the demonological literature of the period and assesses the influence of the devil on people's consciousness, including how the devil was portrayed and what was known of his powers. Chapter 3 examines the way in which reports of the supernatural, such as ghosts, apparitions and monstrous births, were interpreted as prodigies and utilised for religious or political purposes. Chapter 4 assesses the role, influence and methods of unofficial healers, particularly cunning folk and white witches, and examines how they came into conflict with their patients, official practitioners of medicine and the prevailing religious authorities. Chapter 5 is concerned with the legal problems inherent in witchcraft trials, especially the influence the populace may have had on the judicial process. Chapter 6 consists of a local study of a number of episodes of witchcraft, concentrating on Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Somerset. Chapter 7 assesses why people made allegations of witchcraft, and, more importantly, why people may have confessed to witchcraft. The three appendices provide respectively: quantitative data on individual witches gleaned from all the sources examined, an explanation of sympathetic magic, the principles and beliefs concerning humoural medicine.

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20

Alhumami, Amich. "Political power, corruption, and witchcraft in modern Indonesia." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2012. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/39273/.

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This thesis examines the relationships between political power, corruption, and witchcraft in modern Indonesia through an analysis of the discursive construction of these concepts in Indonesian society. The subject is approached through an observation of how public discourses of corruption and sorcery are used by people in an instrumental way to talk about and understand political processes in the country. The central argument of the thesis is that Indonesian society experiences contemporary politics in a context that combines values and practices of political modernity and secular rationality with those of witchcraft, sorcery, and the occult. The thesis demonstrates how Indonesian politics has been transformed into a modern-secular democracy by juxtaposing traditionalism and modernism. Both are interconnected features of contemporary Indonesian modernity. The thesis focuses on corruption and sorcery discourses within the context of the political democracy that has been established in Indonesia following the collapse of the New Order state. There is currently a great deal of expectation that the system of democracy will promote public participation - in the sense that people become involved in political processes, that civil society becomes more effective and that the holders of state powers become more accountable - which should in turn curb corruption. Unfortunately, corruption appears to be pervasive within the new democratic polity, and both corruption and sorcery persist alongside the dynamics of political contestations and power struggles. In the light of continuing corruption practices, many groups of Indonesian society initiate anti-corruption movements by mobilizing social and political resources through collective action. Anti-corruption initiatives are taken by both state institutions and civil society associations, and seek to improve public governance and promote political reform. Nevertheless, non-state actors—NGOs and civil society agencies—appear to have become the major voices of public criticism against corruption and they have taken the lead in promoting anti-corruption reforms. These actors involve educated people from the urban middle classes: social and political activists, intellectuals, artists, poets, journalists, as well as religious leaders associated with Islamic organizations: the Nahdhatul Ulama (NU), the Muhammadiyah, and the Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI). It is argued that the ideas and practices of anti-corruption have found new spaces of expression under the new democratic system, and that Indonesian civil society and NGO activists are determined to continue their struggles to fight corruption for the betterment of the nation despite a great deal of opposition which is mostly political. They believe that the new system of political democracy will be much more beneficial for all Indonesian people if corruption can be eliminated from state agencies and political institutions.

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21

Ahmed, Shokhan Rasool. "The staging of witchcraft in the Jacobean theatre." Thesis, University of Leicester, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/28977.

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This thesis investigates witchcraft during the reign of King James VI and I when belief in witchcraft was widespread in Scotland and England, and there was a growing tendency for dramatists to use witchcraft materials in their plays. The writings of Reginald Scot and King James I, alongside modern scholarly work by Keith Thomas, Allen Macfarlane, Diane Purkiss and others, will be considered to analyse beliefs about supernatural power and, in particular, witchcraft and witches’ activities. This study is principally concerned with the staging of drama at the Blackfriars theatre, especially from the time that the King’s Men leased it in 1609. The thesis examines Jacobean plays which were staged at the Blackfriars, in comparison to Elizabethan (e.g., Dr Faustus, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, and Mother Bombie), and post-Jacobean plays (e.g., The Late Lancashire Witches) which were also performed there. The nature and status of stage directions in these plays will also be investigated, paying particular attention to the status of stage directions in printed texts, and whether these were originally written by the playwrights themselves or were revised or supplied by editors, scriveners or members of the theatre companies. Finally, five case studies consider thematically-related plays performed by the King’s Men at the Blackfriars. Several questions will be investigated. Why is it particularly important to look at the visual depiction of witches in theatre? What is the difference when a supernatural character ‘enters’ the stage via flying or platform traps and does it make any difference to the audience when supernatural characters use one form of entrance rather than another? The thesis will also evaluate how the technology of the Blackfriars playhouse facilitated the appearance of spirits, witches, magicians, deities and dragons on stage. The last chapter deals with native witches and ‘cunning women’ on stage and also considers why elderly women in early modern England were more prone to accusations of witchcraft than the young, and why a number of harmless women were tortured, including midwives and healers.

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22

Schreiber-Kounine, Laura. "The gendering of witchcraft in early modern Württemberg." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.648516.

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23

Willin, Melvyn J. "Music in pagan and witchcraft ritual and culture." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/1983/7736e257-7f50-43ae-85bb-77579cefa72c.

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The history of witchcraft has been studied and written about at length over the centuries and particularly in the last few years. It has a place within the pagan movement that is generally accepted as being of prime importance, notably within modem paganism. However, the subject has not been explored in depth from a musical perspective despite music being used in rituals throughout the pagan movement and especially in witchcraft. This study makes use of historical sources and contemporary journals and books to investigate the extent to which music was used in witchcraft ceremonies in the past and the types of music allegedly used. Further to this practising covens and hedgewitches have been contacted by post asking them for details of music used in their rituals and the changes they believe that take place because of the music used. When replies were forthcoming a questionnaire was sent asking for further details and in some cases the people concerned were visited. A cassette tape of music representing pagan themes was sent to them for their opinions as to the suitability of the music recorded. The results of this study are analysed to ascertain whether specific music is commonly used in Wiccan culture and rituals or whether there are differences purely according to the musical tastes of the individuals and reasons for the choice of music are sought. A study was also made of music from the classical repertoire that claims to represent witchcraft in fictional or mythological situations. This music is analysed to seek similar characteristics with the music used in actual Wiccan culture and a tape of music has been included in an appendix that provides representative examples of the music encountered with analysis. The results bring together information on two subjects that have not previously been seriously linked.

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Kwakwari, Armstrong Nkosann. "Witchcraft allegations upon elderly women : a pastoral challenge." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/67756.

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This research was prompted by the gruesome killing of elderly women within the very communities they live in. Elderly women are falsely accused due to lack of knowledge and education in these communities. Focus will be on why are elderly people victims of brutal killings in their societies. Furthermore, the study will be looking at empowering societies in understanding the stages of ageing and health challenges related to this topic and to educate and create awareness that will change the attitudes of the communities as far as elderly women are concerned. Communities need to be educated, to understand that there are neurological illnesses that are challenging our elderly people when they grow old such as Dementia and Alzheimer’s. People suffering from these illnesses often have memory loss and disorientation. Sometimes this can be so severe that they would even forget names of their own children. In some instances, they would get out of their homes as if they were taking a walk, but fail to know the direction coming back home, and consequently that is how they get lost. For those that are living with them and taking care of them, it becomes a challenge, as they are unable to follow a conversation. Most African people do not understand these life changes of the elderly, when they happen, they are quick to judge and label them as witches. A stigma that is grossly rejected and punishable in the African society. This study will endeavour to develop a pastoral model that will move elderly women from the shameful position they find themselves in. Wimberly states, “The sense of mission and purpose in life is a central distinguishable factor in moving forward in life despite rejection.” (Wimberly 1999: 42). In the African context, so much value is put on the elderly people where they are seen as a source of experience and wisdom, their rejection is the same as rejection of ancestors. According to the researcher, this is closely related to a biblical teaching that says “Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.” (Exodus 20:12). This is proof enough that elderly people should be respected in their communities. In conclusion, the researcher is of the view that pastors, priests and ministers cannot stand and fold their arms whilst the elderly are being killed in the very communities they live in.
Dissertation (MA (Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2018.
Practical Theology
MA (Theology)
Unrestricted

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25

Bostridge, Ian. "Witchcraft and its transformations c. 1650-c. 1750 /." Oxford : Clarendon press, 1997. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb37023953j.

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26

Kunga, Benoit Awazi Mbambi. "Witchcraft in Black Communities: Sociological, Philosophical and Theological Deconstruction." Bulletin of Ecumenical Theology, 2011. http://digital.library.duq.edu/u?/bet,151.

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27

McDonald, Tracesandra Jade. "Witchcraft and occult crime within a contemporary Canadian context." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape10/PQDD_0002/MQ45239.pdf.

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28

Sparks, Amy M. "The white witch : Emily Dickinson and colonial American witchcraft /." View online, 1990. http://repository.eiu.edu/theses/docs/32211998880715.pdf.

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Cornish, Helen Margaret. "Recreating historical knowledge and contemporary witchcraft in Southern England." Thesis, Goldsmiths College (University of London), 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.418959.

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30

Willumsen, Liv Helene. "Seventeenth-Century Witchcraft Trials in Scotland and Northern Norway." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.536643.

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31

Lea, Deborah. "Witchcraft, possession and confessional tension in early modern Lancashire." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.539498.

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While undoubtedly the historiography of witchcraft has undergone a renaissance in the past two decades, these developments have not always been speedy to filter down the regional incidents, especially in the instance of the Lancashire trials. Moreover, studies of this region have had a tendency to focus upon the two renowned trials of 1612 and 1633. The purpose of this study is to provide a more extensive and inclusive study of allegedly supernatural incidents in this region, which acknowledges historiographical progression. In the process a multitude of incidents and individuals which have been neglected will be assessed, such as the 'blesser' Mary Shawe, the dispossession of Richard Dugdale et al. In doing so not only will much be revealed about the evolution of beliefs regarding the supernatural in the local community, but also how they were interpreted and manipulated nationally, and in the process both reflected and made significant contributions to politico-religious debates

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Davies, Simon Francis. "Witchcraft and the book trade in early modern England." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2013. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/44415/.

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This thesis presents a study of the production and reception of English writing on witchcraft from the period 1560-1660 using the methodologies of the history of the book and the history of reading. The body of works under consideration includes scholarly treatises, news pamphlets, drama and ballads. The origins, literary contexts, production, dissemination and reception of these works are considered across the period. Analysis of reception involves consideration of contemporary library holdings, citations in print, binding and contemporary annotations; this section is based on study of the holdings of a number of research libraries in England and North America. The study supports the conclusions of recent research into scholarly writing on witchcraft, which has suggested that such writing was more thoroughly embedded in its intellectual context than has previously been appreciated; this study provides more evidence for this view and expands it to include the other genres of witchcraft writing under consideration. The study concludes that the concept ‘witchcraft writing' is not a useful one for our understanding of this material. Conclusions are also offered about the relative impact of individual works, and about the impact of this body of writing as a whole. While general works stand out (the treatises of Reginald Scot, William Perkins and James I, as well as many Continental treatises), the overall impression is that writing on witchcraft was not successful commercially. This supports the conclusion that witchcraft writing was not as representative of early modern belief more generally as has been previously thought.

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Kindness, Leonie. "Witchcraft and the reproduction of wealth in southern Zambia." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 1997. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/2229/.

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Well, there are some stories of what you must do to become wealthy. You will go to the witch, who will point out a tree to you. 'Behind that tree is a special cow, you must milk that cow, and then you can become wealthy.' When you go behind that tree, what do you find there but a lioness. If you are brave enough to take the milk from the lioness, and then cook it and eat it with porridge then you will be very rich. This quote, an extract from my field notes, describes one of the many techniques to become wealthy through witchcraft which are explored in this thesis. This thesis examines witchcraft in a small town in Southern Zambia, in the last decade of the Twentieth Century. In particular it focuses on witchcraft for the creation of wealth. Although witchcraft for wealth seems to be an old tradition, it remains largely unexamined in academic work. In chapter one the town of Monze is introduced and some methodological issues are discussed. In chapter two there is a discussion of witches in the modern era, what witches do and who they are. The use of witchcraft for the creation of wealth is introduced at this point, in the three areas of crops, cows and businesses. The point is made that much wealth creation involves the linking of production and reproduction. In other words, for excess production to occur, the witches must tamper with the processes of reproduction. Thus much witchcraft for wealth involves stealing foetuses, making women barren and other similar attacks on fertility. Chapters three, four and five, therefore, deal with an exploration of the processes of reproduction. Chapter three examines the reproduction of spirits and names, while chapters four and five discuss reproduction of the body. We examine body substances, and the reproduction and exchange of substance through sex, conception, pregnancy and birth. In chapters six, seven, and eight these insights into the reproductive processes are used to explain witchcraft for wealth; in maize production, cattle production, and modern business enterprises. Chapter nine is the conclusion. In these chapters the contribution of my material to various theoretical debates on witchcraft, gender, the body and analysis of substance is discussed.

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34

Bellamy, I. Larry A. II. "Witchcraft, Sorcery, Academic and Local Change in East Africa." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2004. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1083875240.

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McCart, Tara M. "A Statistical Analysis of Witchcraft Accusations in Colonial America." Youngstown State University / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu1402940209.

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Devlin, Judith Edina. "The place of the supernatural in the traditional culture of rural France in the nineteenth century." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1985. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.359702.

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Richter, Sabine. "Werwölfe und Zaubertänze vorchristliche Glaubensvorstellungen in Hexenprozessen der frühen Neuzeit /." Frankfurt am Main : P. Lang, 2004. http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/55887876.html.

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38

Collick, J. "Witchcraft by a picture, areas of resistance in Shakespearean film." Thesis, University of Sussex, 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.384745.

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Traditionally a Shakespeare film is seen as an act of translation from one idealised source of meaning (the text) to another (the language of cinema). This approach dismisses or misinterprets the majority of films made because they are either silent or foreign. Silent films, it is claimed cannot recreate the text. Many foreign films distort the plays' 'meaning' to cater for their audiences. This thesis challenges these assumptions by analysing two representative examples from these 'areas of resistance', Rather than compare these to an ideal concept of the plays it seeks to contextualise the films in their social and historical positions. The subjects chosen are the silent films made prior to 1912, and Kurosawa's Kumonosu jo (Macbeth. 1957). By studying the history of nineteenth Shakespeare presentation in art, literature and the theatre this thesis demonstrates that the pre-1912 films were part of a long-established tradition of silent and spectacular performances. Between 1907 and 1912 British companies used this tradition to try and create a high-class style of film to challenge the influx of mass-produced narrative-base melodramas from North America. The second section describes how Shakespeare was used by a nascent class of urban intellectuals in 19th and 20th century Japan to define the problems of the individual's relationship to the state. Kumonosu jo , a film by a self-confessed liberal humanist, perpetuates this tradition by formulating a nihilist study of militarism using the structures of the Noh theatre. Finally the thesis points out that each of these areas of film is emblematic of the position of Shakespeare in a specific culture at a specific time. Only an analysis which seeks to understand a film as a historically conditioned act of meaning can avoid the mis-readings and sweeping appropriations that non-orthodox Shakespeare films have been subject to in the past.

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Davies, Owen. "The decline in the popular belief in witchcraft & magic." Thesis, Lancaster University, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.282362.

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Atumah, Oscar Nwagbo. "Witchcraft: a Targeted Societal Discrimination Against Women in Northern Ghana." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2013. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc407752/.

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A combination of aging and poverty is becoming dominant in African society today, at a time when African countries are expected to be recovering from poverty, and are projected to house the economic growth of the next century. The emergence of aging in African context and the aging of the world population will expose the weakness of the current mechanisms used for older people around the world. As economies grow around the world, the distribution gap between the affluent and the poor widens, and the constant struggles for wealth, power, and social status, amidst scarce resources, continue to be sustained. To remain in charge of economic resources, the powerful few devise means to disenfranchise the weak, and witchcraft accusation is one of such tools used in Northern Ghana today. A new wave of witchcraft accusation has caught the attention of many in Northern Ghana. These victims with certain socioeconomic characteristics appear helpless and without defense against such accusations. As a result, they suffer untold hardships and are often compelled to leave their homes and to reside in camps reserved for witches. This study was undertaken to identify those sociodemographic characteristics, which are commonly shared by witchcraft accusation victims. These sociodemographic characteristics can be used to predict those who are most likely to be discriminated against using accusations of witchcraft in Northern Ghana. As age places more strain on existing systems and as more people survive into old age with inadequate healthcare, more accusations may be predicted to occur against the elderly, unless enough government intervention is used to address the present redistribution of income in third world countries.

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Desai, Amit A. "Witchcraft, religious transformation, and Hindu nationalism in rural central India." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2007. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/2711/.

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This thesis is an anthropological exploration of the connections between witchcraft, religious transformation, and Hindu nationalism in a village in an Adivasi (or 'tribal') area of eastern Maharashtra, India. It argues that the appeal of Hindu nationalism in India today cannot be understood without reference to processes of religious and social transformation that are also taking place at the local level. The thesis demonstrates how changing village composition in terms of caste, together with an increased State presence and particular view of modernity, have led to difficulties in satisfactorily curing attacks of witchcraft and magic. Consequently, many people in the village and wider area have begun to look for lasting solutions to these problems in new ways. A significant number have joined a Hindu religious sect, the Mahanubhav Panth, seen as particularly efficacious in matters of healing. Membership of this sect however alters the values and practices of adherents which not only causes conflict with non-sect neighbours and kin but also resonates powerfully with the messages promoted by Hindu nationalist agents in the area. The thesis engages key areas of anthropological concern: the relationship between individual action and social structure; kinship and sociality; State activity; and religious conversion.

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De, Faveri Silvia. "Witchcraft, violence and everyday life : an ethnographic study of Kinshasa." Thesis, Brunel University, 2015. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/11125.

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The inhabitants of Kinshasa, who call themselves Kinois, deal with insecurity and violence on a daily basis. Cheating and thefts are commonplace, and pillaging by street gangs and robberies by armed thieves are everyday occurrences. The state infrastructure is so poorly regulated that deaths by accident or medical negligence are also common. This, and much more, contributes to a challenging social milieu within which the Kinois’ best hope is simply to ‘make do’. This thesis, based on extensive fieldwork in Kinshasa, analyses different forms of violence which affect the Kinois on a daily basis. I argue that the Kinois’ concept of violence, mobulu, differs from Western definitions, which define violence as an intrinsically negative and destructive force. Mobulu is for the Kinois a potentially constructive phenomenon, which allows them to build relationships, coping strategies and new social phenomena. Violence is perceived as a transformative force, through which people build meaningful lives in the face of the hardship of everyday life. Broadly speaking, this thesis contributes to the Anthropology of violence which has too often focused on how violence is imposed upon a population, often from a structural level of a state and its institutions. Such an approach fails to account for the nuances of alternate perspectives of what ‘violence’ is, as evidenced in this thesis through the prism of the Kinois term mobulu. The concept of mobulu highlights the creativity of those forced to ‘make do’ on the streets of Kinshasa, to negotiate not only every day physical needs, for food and shelter, but also to navigate the mystical violence of witchcraft. By exploring the coping mechanisms across all sections of society, I analyse how the Kinois not only have built their lives in the wake of the violence of the state, but they have also found means of empowerment within it, using mobulu as a springboard for the development of some social phenomena. Whereas the anthropology of violence has focused mainly on physical and material violence, this thesis also argues that mobulu in Kinshasa is a total social fact that combines state violence with everyday violence, and physical violence with the invisible violence of witchcraft. This thesis seeks to enrich discussions on witchcraft in Kinshasa and in the African context in general, by analysing in depth how the cosmology of Kinshasa has differentiated itself as a result of the politico-economic events of recent decades. As witchcraft and material insecurity go hand in hand, a detailed analysis of the mechanisms of witchcraft is necessary, if we are to grasp the complexity of the concept of mobulu and how material and invisible violence inform each other.

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Smith, Zena Diane. "Modern witchcraft in suburban Australia: how and what witches learn." Thesis, Curtin University, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/383.

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Existing anthropological research and discussion related to contemporary Wiccan and Witchcraft practice is growing and indeed has been explored by anthropologists and other writers from the northern and southern hemispheres. However, there has been limited discourse on how and what Western Australian Wiccans and Witches learn. This ethnographic research fills that gap by exploring, in two separate sections, how Wiccans and Witches have developed relevant skills in a social learning structure and what ritual practice they have learnt as a result. The thesis proposes that the current theories of learning and ritual fail to adequately describe the social processes and outcomes observed.In the first section, focusing on how the participants learn, I argue that cognitive, behavioural and humanist learning theories as well as the most relevant social learning theory, Communities of Practice, fail to explain adequately the holistic learning processes with which the Wiccans and Witches are engaged. Instead I propose a new and complementary theory of learning that I identify as 'Whole Person’ theory that more effectively describes the holistic and intuitive nature of learning the research participants undertook.In the second section I go further to show that the existing theories of ritual fail to explore and consider ritual as a product or outcome of learning and instead focus heavily on ritual either as a process contributing to and reflecting the social order in which it takes place or they describe the structure of ritual. This research shows that ritual can be both a process of a social group as well as a product and an end result of learning and social interaction. The ethnographic materials presented extend our understanding of both learning and ritual.

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Sörlin, Per. "Trolldoms- och vidskepelseprocesserna i Göta hovrätt 1635-1754." Doctoral thesis, Umeå universitet, Historiska studier, 1993. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-65857.

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Extensive witchcraft trials took place in Sweden between the years 1668 and 1676. Approximately three hundred individuals were executed during a period of very few years. However, far more common were trials of a more modest nature, concerning minor magic and malevolent witchcraft without aspects of diabolism. The present dissertation deals with these minor cases, which have previously attracted very little academic interest. The source material for this study comprises 353 cases (involving 880 individuals), submitted to the Göta Royal Superior Court by informants during the period 1635-1754. The area of jurisdiction covered by the Göta Royal Superior Court embraced the southernmost areas of Sweden. This study discusses witchcraft and magic trials from three perspectives: 1. The elite perspective (the acculturation model); 2. The functionalistic conflict perspective; and 3. The systems-oriented perspective of popular magic. Ideologically and religiously coloured perceptions of magic became more pervasive at the same time as the number of trials increased. This was caused by central administrative measures, which broadened the opportunities for pursuing cases on the local level. However, the increased influence of the dite cannot be characterized as a conquest of folk culture by the elite. It is more adequate to speak of a movement of repression, originating in a state become all the more civilized. Death sentences were few and far between and most of the cases concerned minor magic. There existed no independent popular level such as emerges in the reports from the proceedings of the trials. People clearly differentiated between different types of malevolent witchcraft when standing before the courts. They were more likely to go directly to trial when the signs preceding their misfortunes hinted at magical activity (viewed as sorcery), than they were when suspicions against witches were based on threats made in conflict situations. Witchcraft which had its basis in conflict situations appears to have been more dependent upon first receiving encouragement in the form of obliging courts, before people would take their cases to trial. This has created a pattern which ostensibly makes it seem that the level of social tensions was low, so that people therefore appeared indifferent toward malevolent witchcraft. Just as illusory is the competing image of an uninfluenced popular perception of witchcraft which actually emerges in the Göta Royal Superior Court. However, this does not mean that the actions of individuals was characterized by an assimilation of the values of the dominant culture. Receptivity to the signals of the elite was certainly clear, but at the same time the responses indicate a great deal of independence. Popular participation in witchcraft trials took place without any prerequisite profound cultural transformations.
digitalisering@umu

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Mather, Cotton Wise Paul Melvin. "Cotton Mather's Wonders of the invisible world an authoritative edition /." restricted, 2005. http://etd.gsu.edu/theses/available/etd-12122005-012330/.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2005.
Title from title screen. Reiner Smolinski, committee chair; John A. Burrison, Thomas L. McHaney, committee members. Electronic text ( 818 p. : ill., facsims.). Description based on contents viewed Apr. 20, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 796-818).

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Broedel, Hans Peter. "The Malleus Maleficarum and the construction of witchcraft : encounters with the supernatural between theology and popular belief /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/10395.

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Patterson, Patrick Golden Richard M. "The debate over the corporeality of demons in England, c. 1670-1700 /." [Denton, Tex.] : University of North Texas, 2009. http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc12180.

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Newman, Lindsey M. ""Under an Ill Tongue": Witchcraft and Religion in Seventeenth-Century Virginia." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/31667.

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This project analyzes the role of religion, both institutional and private, in Virginiaâ s dealings with witchcraft during the seventeenth century. The witch trials of New England and Europe during the 1600s have tended to overshadow those that simultaneously took place in Virginia, leaving historians to prematurely regard Virginia as an anomaly of rationality in an otherwise superstitious period of witches and demons. Virginiaâ s failure to prosecute those accused of witchcraft was not due to a lack of allegations, my thesis will argue, but can instead be partly attributed to the nature of the colonyâ s religious experience and the theology and practices of Virginiaâ s Anglican Church. While Virginiaâ s seventeenth-century inhabitants migrated to the New World with firmly entrenched English religious values, their relationship with God and their response to the supernatural world were profoundly influenced by New World experiences and peoples. To protect the social fragility of their colony, Virginiaâ s political and religious leaders consciously chose to prosecute offenses that they felt threatened the social cohesion of the colony, such as fornication, gossip, and slander, and dismissed those, such as witchcraft, that threatened to tear it apart.
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Baholo, Keresemose Richard. "A pictorial response to certain witchcraft beliefs within Northern Sotho communities." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21197.

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Bibliography: pages 58-62.
This study focuses on stories of witchcraft within the Batlokwa - a sub-group of the Northern Sotho community living in the northern Transvaal. Having grown up in this society where witchcraft beliefs are predominant, my fears, as a child, of witches were very real. In later life I have attempted to ignore these fears. However, I do not think they will ever disappear entirely, as I will never be able to extricate myself from my origins. This experience of the dangerous witch is one of the reasons that compelled me to respond pictorially to some of these perceptions for the purpose of highlighting the concerns of ordinary people and the extent to which they have been affected by belief in witchcraft. My paintings are a translation of real and unreal incidents fused together producing a visual narrative.

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Paisley, Brian. "Queering witchcraft : norms of gender and sexuality in Wicca, 1950-2000." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2016. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.701388.

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