BAILEY
2006 (7SDB2018)
Michael D. Bailey
Magic,
Ritual, and Witchcraft. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Summer 2006. pp. 1-23. (pdf.)
Fragment
„The establishment of a new
journal titled Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft begs the question: what do these
words mean? In what sense do they comprise a useful academic category or field
of inquiry? The history of magic and the cultural functions it has played and
continues to play in many societies have been a focus of scholarship for well
over one hundred years. Grand anthropological and sociological theories
developed mostly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries offer
clear structures, and the classic definitions of Edward Burnett Taylor, James
Frazer, Emile Durkheim, and others still reverberate through much scholarly
work on this topic. While aspects of these theories remain useful, more recent
studies have tended to take a much narrower approach, examining the specific
forms that magic, magical rites, or witchcraft assume and the issues they
create in particular periods and within particular societies. This has led to
laudable focus and precision, yet it has also stifled communication between
scholars working in different periods, regions, or disciplines. This journal is
intended to promote such communication, and to provide a forum in which issues
common to the study of magic in all contexts can be raised” (p. 1).
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