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May be of interest. Sabina Magliocco Professor Department of Anthropology California State University - Northridge [log in to unmask] ________________________________________ From: [log in to unmask] [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask] [[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2011 8:57 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [JFRR] Witchcraft: A Very Short Introduction (Gaskill, Malcolm) Witchcraft: A Very Short Introduction. By Malcolm Gaskill. 2010. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 144 pages. ISBN: 9780199236954 (soft cover). Reviewed by Melissa Harrington ([log in to unmask]). [Word count: 1032 words] Malcolm Gaskill has attempted the impossible in writing a short introduction to the history of witchcraft, which encompasses social, cultural, and political explanations for witchcraft beliefs and crazes throughout the ages. He has succeeded magnificently. This pocket-book eloquently and clearly introduces and summarizes the theories and theorists of the historical study of witchcraft. His account is concise enough to stand alone, but also a great introduction to the work of other scholars in the field, with excellent recommended reading. The eight chapters are titled "Fear," "Heresy," "Malice," "Truth," "Justice," "Rage," "Fantasy," and "Culture." Gaskill considers witchcraft as culturally durable, with a volatile ontological status that reflects the timeless anxieties of ever-changing society. "Fear" introduces the liminal ambiguity of the witch -- the monstrous supernatural agent who is also human, and who has been with us throughout history. In "Heresy" authority and orthodoxy are discussed, particularly looking at increased witchcraft persecutions as barometers of social and political turmoil, from the Greek and Roman times until today. "Malice" looks at the image of the witch as a cultural hybrid of popular and scholarly tradition, and discusses case studies from various witch trials. It examines the association of women with witchcraft, in relation to female vulnerability, misogyny, Christian demonization of pagan deities, and times of "gender crisis." It also looks at beliefs of malefic magic, explaining the rationale of such beliefs in terms of the eras and cultures in which they manifested, weaving this with an account of how explanations have varied within academic disciplines and research paradigms. The fourth chapter, "Truth," describes the history of belief in witchcraft, discussing how such belief can be visceral rather than cerebral, and has been shaped by material conditions, social relations, institutions, and ideologies. More case studies are used to guide the reader through the witch trials of early modern Europe, with reference to leading academic studies. Gaskill is clearly immersed in, and enchanted by, his chosen field of research. "Justice" begins with the description of how he sees the dust-covered records of witch hunts turn into colorful accounts of magic and life and death. His enthusiasm for the subject helps to make what could be dull material as fascinating for the reader as it is for him. However, he maintains his scholarly elucidation throughout, considering how such records are decontextualized twice, by early modern courts looking for evidence of demonic malice, and by historians with research agendas. He discusses how legal and historical truths about witchcraft are shaped by governors, those governed, and those that report and study it. He looks at changing laws on witchcraft through the ages, and socioeconomic links to patterns in witch hunting, the methods of finding evidence, and punishing those convicted. He challenges some of the popular myths about the witch craze, and shows why the statistics of those convicted are currently understood to be much lower than was once thought. Chapter 6, "Rage," depicts the worst excesses of the early modern witch craze while contextualizing them politically, psychologically, and sociologically in the light of recent scholarship. It is a wide-ranging chapter that discusses theories of the Salem witch craze, Arthur Miller's The Crucible, and contemporary African witch beliefs. It ranges a little too widely when Gaskill mentions infant mortality rates in early modern Europe driving parents' fears of witchcraft blighting their children, then suggests this could relate to the "Satanic panic" of the 1980s. What actually emerged, and is well documented, as the driving force was not parental fear, but deliberate and targeted fear mongering by fundamentalist Christians.[1] Here Gaskill missed an opportunity to discuss a recent Western twentieth-century witch hunt; but perhaps understandably as his remarkable expertise is early modern European history, not the socio-pathology of contemporary society. Chapter 7, "Fantasy," looks at the reality problem: how historians can take seriously what they reject ontologically, pointing out the need for the subjective experience of witchcraft to be taken as seriously as the objective views of a researcher. He discusses the fragmentation of the grand narrative into postmodern discourse, and how that led to a more sensitive analysis of witchcraft, including psychoanalytical models. He states that even in the post-Enlightenment world we in the West are enchanted by occultism and magic, which fill a gap that secularization and industrialization created, whilst much of the rest of the world was never disenchanted. Finally, chapter 8, "Culture," brings us to the present day. Here Gaskill discusses witches as an archetype with perpetual historic, folkloric, and literary appeal, although usually relegated to be the cultural property of children. He reminds us that witchcraft forever remains an area of unstable terminology, myths, stereotypes and clashing interpretations and ideologies, and ambiguity that defies the human need to define good from bad. He leaves us with a reminder that witches are being hunted in Africa today, and that it would not be impossible for witch hunts to be resurrected in the West. Gaskill has clearly referred to the growing field of Pagan studies when discussing the rise of modern Pagan witchcraft and writes an excellent summary of modern Wicca and some of its challenges; but perhaps there could have been something more about the difference between historical witch beliefs drawn from trial records, and the thealogy of self-identifying Wiccans. He also accurately represents a current paradigm of viewing Gerald Gardner as the self-proclaimed father of modern Paganism when Gardner never claimed this, but emphasized his initiation into the "Old Religion." Nor did Gardner even use the word Pagan, always calling himself a witch.[2] Nevertheless, in a book of such depth and breadth that sheds light on the perennial relationship of society and witchcraft these are very minor points. I thoroughly recommend it to scholars, practitioners, and the curious; and again applaud Malcolm Gaskill for this work, which is bound to become a classic text. NOTES [1] See Jean S. La Fontaine, "Satanism and Satanic Mythology," in The Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic In Europe, Volume 6: The Twentieth Century (London: The Athlone Press, 1999). [2] See Philip Heselton, Gerald Gardner and the Cauldron of Inspiration: An Investigation into the Sources of Gardnerian Witchcraft (Milverton: Cappell Bann, 2003). --------- Read this review on-line at: http://www.indiana.edu/~jofr/review.php?id=1150 (All JFR Reviews are permanently stored on-line at http://www.indiana.edu/~jofr/reviews.php) ********* You are receiving this mail because you are subscribed to the Journal of Folklore Research Reviews mailing list or because it has been forwarded to you. To subscribe or unsubscribe to this list send an e-mail to [log in to unmask] For further information on JFR Reviews please visit the JFR webpage (http://www.indiana.edu/~jofr/).