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In films, the Magic Negro is a stock character whose supernatural gifts promote the success of a White protagonist. A character with parallel traits found in a number of mystery series is the Magic Indian, who has supernatural connections and abilities unavailable to others. In his Walt Longmire mysteries, Craig Johnson develops a strong supernatural thread with the agency of Native American characters who can be considered Magic Indians. While Johnson's Magic Indians share similarities with Magic Negroes, they exhibit key differences in the way their spirituality is presented that make them more realistic characters serving an educational function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The given text provides information about the Pesh language, including its classification within the Chibchan family, its endangered status, and its typological characteristics. It discusses various aspects of the language, such as verb agreement, case marking, word order, tense and aspect markers, and pragmatic enclitic markers. The text also includes a collection of narratives from the Pesh language, which offer insights into Pesh culture and folklore. Additionally, it provides a transcription of a conversation in the Miskito language, with Spanish borrowings included. [Extracted from the article]

Ghost hunting events are a popular leisure activity providing visitors with an immersive dark experience, connecting them with the dark heritage and supernatural legends of a place. This research note aims to conceptualize the role of storytelling in the promotion, production, and participatory aspects of ghost hunting events. In doing so, the article argues that ghost hunting events draw upon coproductive and experiential forms of storytelling, and proposes a cyclical model to illustrate an ongoing, iterative process of narrative construction. As this research note suggests, preexisting narratives framed by the dark history and supernatural legends of a place help to frame promotional discourse and the production of events. However, extraordinary personal experiences, mediumistic intuition, and the collective interpretation of unusual activity shape and transform existing narratives. As such, this research note concludes that ghost hunting events are shaped by, and shape, storytelling through interactive and interpretative processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fanfictions are a popular literature genre in which writers reuse a universe, for example to transform heteronormative relationships with queer characters or to bring romance into shows focused on horror and adventure. Fanfictions have been the subject of numerous studies in text mining and network analysis, which used Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to compare fanfictions with the original scripts or to make various predictions. In this paper, we use NLP to predict the popularity of a story and examine which features contribute to popularity. This endeavor is important given the rising use of AI assistants and the ongoing interest in generating text with desirable characteristics. We used the main two websites to collect fan stories (Fanfiction.net and Archives Of Our Own) on Supernatural, which has been the subject of numerous scholarly works. We extracted high-level features such as the main character and sentiments from 79,288 of these stories and used the features in a binary classification supported by tree-based methods, ensemble methods (random forest), neural networks, and Support Vector Machines. Our optimized classifiers correctly identified popular stories in four out of five cases. By relating features to classification outcomes using SHAP values, we found that fans prefer longer stories with a wider vocabulary, which can inform the prompts of AI chatbots to continue generating such successful stories. However, we also observed that fans wanted stories unlike the original material (e.g., favoring romance and disliking when characters are hurt), hence AI-powered stories may be less popular if they strictly follow the original material of a show. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the medieval and early modern periods, folkloric goblins were often presented as multifaceted creatures with unclear origins and as nebulous markers of the preternatural. Beginning in the 1800s, however, authors crafted new interpretations of these creatures that appropriated folkloric traditions to create a distinct kind of fictional goblin. The works of George MacDonald (d. 1905) and J. R. R. Tolkien (d. 1973) were essential to this process. MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin (1872) fuses folklore with Darwinian evolutionary thought to present goblins as antagonistic, troglodytic schemers who devolved from humans. MacDonald's ideas were influential on Tolkien, as he characterizes goblins as a corrupted and evil 'race'—descriptions that utilize racialized language common in early twentieth-century England. Tolkien and MacDonald thus flattened folkloric goblins in their own works such that they became an entirely different (and specific) kind of fictional monster that reflected contemporary trends in English society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reassesses the sources pertaining to Heremod (Hermóðr) in order to explore the nature of his relationship with Óðinn. In Beowulf, Heremod is presented as a Danish tyrant without any overt connection to Óðinn, whereas in Old Norse sources, Hermóðr is consistently presented as a mortal favourite or divine offspring of Óðinn. Closer scrutiny of the Beowulf passages in light of their analogues suggests that the disagreement results from the Beowulf poet's obfuscation of a prior relationship between Heremod and Óðinn. An ancient connection between the god and his favourite appears to antedate Beowulf and persist into late sources concerning not only Hermóðr, but also Lotherus and Olo, recognized analogues to Heremod whose legends are believed to have absorbed aspects of the earlier Heremod tradition. An original legend, in which Óðinn patronized, sabotaged, and elicited transgressive deeds from Heremod, appears to have constituted the core tradition around which numerous variants emerged in subsequent centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the process of individuals trying to figure out how the neoliberal economy works by focusing on women selling sex in Mombasa, Kenya. The article will explore the key tensions prevailing in sex work through encounters with supernatural forces narrated by women selling sex. The analysis presented will argue that there are two key tensions that define the moral economy of sex work in Mombasa: the strong stratification among sex workers that position a minority of already better off women in more advantageous ways, thereby leaving most others in precarity; and worries about changing masculinities that result in men who are non-human. Both of those tensions signify the anxieties surrounding an occupation that historically allowed women to accumulate capital and re-insert themselves into Kenyan society in more advantageous positions (see for instance, White 1990, Bujra 1977). Furthermore, the contemporary lived realities of selling sex also speak to the processes of neoliberalisation that are internalised by women selling sex and are becoming a key feature of contemporary commercial sex work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The processions of the dead were a very favored theme in Mexican literature of the xix and xx centuries. These stories have their origins in the tales of an apparition from beyond the grave, known in the supernatural imaginary of Galicia as the Santa Compaña, which arrived in New Spain in the 16th century as part of the chronicles of the religious orders. With the passing of time this belief became secularized and acquired increasingly literary overtones until it took the form of a traditional tale with additions and deletions that follow the local elements and the idiosyncrasy of the people among whom it circulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visits to the palace of the sea god are a recurring theme in premodern Japanese narratives, and comparing these stories across time periods reveals shifting perceptions of the supernatural world. The earliest sources for narratives of travel to the palace of the sea god in Japan date from the eighth century, most notably in the stories of Luck of the Mountain and Urashima Tarō. In these stories, the descriptions of the sea god's palace, the relationship of the sea god to the natural world, and even the location of the palace were tied to eighth-century understandings of kingship, weather, and geography. Later adaptations of these stories incorporate features of Buddhist geography, Chinese architecture, Buddhist narrative motifs, and even an alternative vision of supernatural time. These alterations occurred because the eighth-century narratives required adaptation to fit a new political, social, and religious reality. This comparison demonstrates that our vision of the supernatural world is inextricably tied to our understanding of the natural. When our fundamental grasp of the nature of reality changes, our imagination of the supernatural transforms in turn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study delves into the use of visual rhetorical strategies in 中国奇谭 Zhongguo Qitan 'Yao-Chinese Folktales' (2023), particularly focusing on 鹅鹅鹅 E E E 'Goose Mountain' (henceforth 'Goose') directed by Hu Rui. We assert that 'Goose' transcodes and reinterprets the ancient Chinese zhiguai novella 阳羡书生 Yangxian Shusheng 'The Scholar from Yangxian' (henceforth 'Scholar') for a contemporary audience through the use of visual rhetoric, leading to a compelling contemporary rendition of this tale. As a silent animation, 'Goose' does so by adeptly incorporating visual depictions, especially animal-related imagery and ink painting aesthetics, drawn from the broader traditional zhiguai myths, or tales of the strange and traditional Chinese culture. The core argument hinges on visual rhetoric's transformative potential. In 'Goose', the connection between tradition and contemporaneity is established through metaphor and metonymy. Initially a literary figure of speech, metaphor and metonymy now encompasses 'visual rhetoric', widely applied in interpreting visual arts. Visual rhetoric often employs various elements such as colour, shape, size, objects, composition and texture to convey information. This study highlights the role played by the inseparable link between traditional zhiguai narratives, the minzu /national style, and the contemporary animation technology in 'Goose', a transformative role that revitalizes ancient traditions to resonate with today's viewership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religion occupied a pivotal place in the life of our ancestors, even being a proof, at that time, of raising the degree of civilization of mankind. We say a pivotal place and not just an important one, since a large part of social life revolved around religion and its symbols. Often there was no boundary between politics and religion and what was Caesar's was not Caesar's. In those bygone times, political power was legitimized through a divine, cosmic, supernatural bond. No doubt that connection between politics and the supernatural was shrouded in mysticism. Today, when the importance of religion is in decline, humanity is more concerned with science, evidenced by sometimes exacerbated empiricism. It is as if there is no more room for the spiritual, for religion, the latter falling into a form of obsolescence . But is it so? Has religion really lost its ancestral role, is it headed for extinction? Contrary to a non-religious view we will notice that even in the present time there are societies in which religion and politics are intertwined, in which the source of state sovereignty is divinity and thus, we still have present theocratic political regimes. The divide between religious and non-religious views of society exists but understanding how theocratic regimes exist can lessen this divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the beginning of his Creole opus The Grandissimes, George Washington Cable refers to Louisiana as "A land hung in mourning, darkened by gigantic cypresses, submerged; a land of reptiles, silence, shadow, decay". This anti-pastoral view of Louisiana as an ecosystem of horrific nature and the very human melancholy it breeds is one that has persisted in popular American culture to the present day. However, the literature of Louisiana itself is marked by its creativity in blending elements of folktales, fairy tales, and local color. This paper proposes to examine the transhuman, or the transcendence of the natural by means of supernatural transformation, in folk horror tales of Louisiana. As the locus where the fairy tale meets the burgeoning Southern Gothic, these tales revolve around a reworking of what Vladimir Propp refers to as transfiguration, the physical and metaphysical alteration of the human into something beyond the human. The focus of this paper will be on three recurring figures in Louisiana folk horror: yellow fever, voodoo, and the Devil. Drawing upon works including Alcée Fortier's collection of Creole folktales Louisiana Folktales (1895), Dr. Alfred Mercier's "1878", and various newspaper tales of voodoo ceremonies from the ante- and post-bellum periods, this article brings together theorizations about the fairy tale from Vladimir Propp and Jack Zipes and historiological approaches to the Southern Gothic genre to demonstrate that Louisiana, in its multilingual literary traditions, serves as a nexus where both genres blend uncannily together to create tales that are both geographically specific and yet exist outside of the historical time of non-fantastic fiction. Each of these figures, yellow fever, voodoo, and the Devil, challenges the expectations of what limits the human. Thus, this paper seeks to examine what will be termed the "Louisiana gothic", a particular blend of fairy-tale timelessness, local color, and the transfiguration of the human. Ultimately, the Louisiana gothic, as expressed in French, English, and Creole, tends toward a view of society in decay, mobilizing these elements of horror and of fairy tales to comment on a society that, after the revolution in Saint-Domingue, the Louisiana Purchase, and the Civil War, was seen as falling into inevitable decline. This commentary on societal decay, expressed through elements of folk horror, sets apart Louisiana gothic as a distinct subgenre that challenges conventions about the structures and functions of the fairy tale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early modern period, the appearance of ghosts carried both religious and pathological connotations in the wake of the twin movements of the Reformation and the Renaissance. According to this belief system, the supernatural was seen as a factor in creating an imbalance in bodily humours, including the black bile, thus resulting in a melancholic disposition. Based on contextual and historical data, this article historicises the religious and pathological identity of the Ghost in Hamlet, which reflects the early modern understanding of the supernatural. This study is separate from existing discussions that focus solely on the role of the Ghost in the play. However, the very nature of the Ghost, a great driving force behind the plot thrust, as understood by Shakespeare and his society, has been fairly neglected. This study, therefore, situates three distinctive aspects of the Ghost in early modern society, warranting attention in Shakespearean criticism. Firstly, the findings of this study underscore the nuanced religious persona of the ghost, encompassing both Protestant and Catholic perspectives, as understood in the early modern period. Secondly, its pathological and melancholic nature is discussed which finds its origins in the theory of humours. This aspect of the Ghost is strongly linked to creating an imbalance in Hamlet's melancholic humour and driving events to their tragic end in the play. Thirdly, it examines Shakespeare's exploration of the mind-body discourse through the Ghost's interactions with the Prince, reflecting the intellectual currents of the seventeenth century. Moreover, as the Ghost belongs to the past, this fact connects the appearance of the Ghost with the idea of the history of the passions--a still-burgeoning field of study in the humanities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relevance of studying the processes of religious consciousness comes from the importance to ensure more coordinated interaction of scientific communities in intercultural communication. The PRC remains one of the key partners of the Russian Federation and partnership requires deeper understanding of the counterpart. This paper analyses social phenomena classified as miracles in Russian and Chinese cultures from the perspective of intercultural communication. To achieve this goal, the authors 1) highlight key theoretical approaches to the study of the semantics of miracle; 2) systematize the available data on key concepts and denotations of the semantics of miracle in Russian culture and supplement existing approaches; 3) establish the key features of the semantics of miracle in Chinese culture; 4) outline approaches to creating a sketch of a universal semantic model of a miracle as an invariant of two cultures; 5) identify the capabilities and boundaries of this model. The research materials included corpuses of national folklore traditions, legal documents, literary and theological works, and scientific (mainly religious) studies. The methodological framework was formed by the approach of N. Luhmann, who defined religion as a variety of forms of the universal anthropological phenomenon of observing of the unknown. Distinguishing descriptions of the first (naive), second (expert) and third (philosophical-synthetic) order, represented by the corresponding languages L1, L2 and L3, allowed to identify the terms traditionally related to the sphere of religion (L1) and to trace their descriptions (L2) and reflection in L1 and L2 within the framework of philosophical and theological writings (L3). As a result, several historically specific interpretations of the concept and the denotations behind it have been identified. They include both universal similarity and local features determined by the historical development of Russian and Chinese societies. For Russia, these features are inextricably linked with the influence of Christianity, where a distinction is made between elitist theological forms and mass believes, often referred to as superstitions. The main lexemes marking the miraculous in Chinese are 奇迹 (qíjì), reflecting the phenomenon of the amazing, surprising; 神迹 (shénjì), applied to the miraculous, God-like, spiritual, but not witches or sorcerers; 妙 (miào) as an aesthetic perception of a miracle, including an incomprehensible mystery; 灵 (líng) marks the supernatural, emanating from the earthly principle yin, therefore associated with folk witchcraft and sorcery. It has been established that in both Russian and Chinese culture, miracle is always combined with a certain worldview (L1), with a complex of ontological statements (L2). Experts (L3) typically turn to the prism of religious disciplines and/or teachings that analyze the correspondence of worldview, ontological constructs and lived religious experience. The sketch of the universal semantic field that makes up the intersecting concepts of Russian and Chinese cultures, obtained as a result of the research, needs further clarification by turning to the sociology of religion and the psychology of religion.

Magical thinking describes beliefs and reasoning processes that defy generally accepted principles of logic and causality. Researchers have identified a link between strength of identification with a favorite sports team and superstition, an expression of magical thinking. Research on fans of fictional narratives has suggested magical thinking more broadly may play a role in being a fan. The authors posed the question, what is the link between sports fanship and two specific types of magical thinking: magical ideation and sympathetic magic? In a survey of 214 adults, relationships between strength of sports fanship and magical ideation, sympathetic magic in a sports context, and sympathetic magic generally were explored. Belief in sympathetic magic with regard to sports figures was found to be prominent among sports fans. In addition, a positive relationship was observed between strength of sports fanship and strength of belief in both sympathetic magic generally and magical ideation. Implications are discussed in terms of recruitment of and marketing to potential and existing fans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mariana Enriquez and Luciano Lamberti take advantage of the widespread ecological sensitivity of our time to provide new disruptive devices to introduce supernatural terror into their stories. They transform the haunted house into natural spaces, which maintain the same characteristics and reactions as the former, but are more in tune with the reader’s concerns. A nature that is hostile because it has been previously mistreated (such as a polluted stream or an abandoned and dirty forest), functions as a haunted house and as a monster. It is a symbolic expression of the taboo upon which an economic development that has ignored so many victims has settled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the countless images that populate the human imagination, the snake is one of the most powerful. By composing different narratives around the world, it incorporates cosmogonic, eschatological plots, referring to the renewal of time and the transformation of life, as well as being a synthesis of death and the demonstration of human fragility. From the perspective of the snake image, as a multifaceted, ambivalent and plurisemantic symbol, we seek in this work to understand the different narratives about snakes, in a complex of quilombola communities, called "Complexo Quilombola de Mata Cavalo" or "Quilombo de Mata Cavalo", located in the municipality of Nossa Senhora do Livramento, Mato Grosso, Brazil. From a qualitative approach, based on the cartography of the Imaginary (Sato, 2011), interdisciplinary research on the imaginary and symbolism (Durand, 2002); Eliade (1969, 2008), Chevalier and Gheerbrant (2015), among other authors, we will highlight in this work how snakes enter the community's imagination and move from the natural field to the supernatural, which affect the narrators' actions and bring them closer to other universal symbolic perspectives. Whether in the practices of "benzedeiros" and "benzedeiras", in the Judeo-Christian beliefs disseminated in the communities of Mata Cavalo, in the manipulation of animal parts, in the making of medicines, ornaments, etc., snakes continue to be a synthesis of mysteries and stories, permeated by her characteristics and behaviors, which launch her into this borderless field between culture, nature and supernatural. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Penistone Crags in Wuthering Heights (1847) has long and, I argue, correctly been identified with Ponden Kirk on Haworth Moor. This article compares the folklore of Ponden Kirk with the fictional folklore associated with Penistone Crags, looking at the real-world and literary traditions in relation to beliefs surrounding the South Pennines. It suggests that some details of fairylore in Wuthering Heights—both the fairies in the 'Fairy Cave' and Catherine's elf-bolts—are based on early to mid-nineteenth-century Haworth folklore. The article finishes with an appendix on the Gytrash (a legendary being familiar from Jane Eyre). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 'scientific worldview' is commonly seen as contradictory to belief in supernatural forces, and there is little research on the supernatural beliefs of individuals who identify with science. In this article, we investigate the supernatural explanations of science-oriented individuals in domains of fundamental concern (suffering, death, and origins), and how supernatural causality is reconciled with belief in science. The open-ended responses of 387 Finns were analysed. The results show that science-oriented Finns endorsed both religion-related and more secular supernatural beliefs (such as belief in evolution as a purposeful process). Following the coexistence model, science-oriented Finns applied synthetic and target-dependent reasoning. In addition, many who invoked supernatural explanations integrated supernatural causality with science. Two forms of integrated reasoning were found: 1) supernatural agency as the ultimate cause and scientific theory as the proximate cause, and 2) a similarity-based heuristic, as seen in afterlife beliefs appealing to the law of conservation of energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I trace aesthetic and cultural-historical interactions between phenomena of the British Gothic literature and German Dark Romanticism in terms of cultural transfer. Focus of the study is the analysis of E. T. A. Hoffman’s novel The Devil’s Elixirs juxtaposed to Matthew G. Lewis’s The Monk. Works by Horace Walpole, Anne Radcliffe, Walter Scott, Friedrich Schiller, Carl Grosse, and others outline their Gothic context. The analysis traces the interplay of the verbal, the fantastic and the visual codes in the two novels and their synaesthetic interlocking, characteristic of the German author. The comparison includes characters and plot, intertextual, generic, ethical, and other aspects in Hoffmann’s and Lewis’s novels. Along with the Gothic, elements of the Bildungsroman and the Trivialroman are highlighted in The Elixirs. Also the motive of the double and instances of metafiction are analyzed in it. Critical works by E. Blackall, L. Doležel, R. Godal, M. Foucault, T. Todorov, and others were applied in my writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the symbolism of the peony flower as an attribute of female demons or kijo in traditional and contemporary media. The peony, which symbolises the supernatural power of kijo, is depicted on the demon fan used in Noh theatre and remains in Japanese cultural memory. Over time, the meaning of this symbol has become ambiguous or lost, making it difficult for modern audiences to interpret. This study explores the linguistic, iconographic, and cultural sources of the peony on the demon fan and discusses how traditional aesthetic methods such as mitate (analogical representation) are used by contemporary media creators to revive the multilayered meanings of symbols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Aotearoa New Zealand television anthology, Beyond the Veil, offers stand-alone horror and supernatural shorts from Māori, Sāmoan, Filipino and Chinese New Zealand storytellers. Focusing on the Sāmoan found-footage horror episode '26:29' and drawing from internal government agency documentation, this article suggests that the state-funded series leverages the strengths of short-form storytelling, and the unique textual features of the anthology format, to offer a playful, often pointed counter to dominant (i.e. Pākehā/New Zealand European, Anglo-American) cultural and horror narratives, while creating much-needed opportunities for culturally responsive stories and production practices. These concerns are contextualized within an account of genre-led storytelling and the emergence in recent years of the anthology form as a powerful political site of Indigenous, immigrant and diaspora-led filmmaking practice in Aotearoa New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyses the discursive construction of human-nature relationships in the first series of the Swedish television fiction series Jordskott, with its narrative about the supernatural. Driven by Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory, the article investigates how the series intervenes in environmental debates through an active defence of the discursive assemblage of ecocentrism, using the discursive strategy of ethicisation to strengthen the claims for this assemblage and its constitutive discourses. By using the method of discourse-theoretical analysis, the article's analysis scrutinizes Jordskott's three main actor groups--nature, humans and humanoids--to show the articulation of ecocentrism, entanglementism, posthumanism, indigenism and (anti-)romanticism, and how an ethical repertoire is used to strengthen the position of this ecocentric discursive assemblage, in its struggle with anthropocentrism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On a chance meeting in 1819, Samuel Taylor Coleridge told John Keats about his theory of "double touch." This hypothesis is key to the famous accounts in which each poet mythologizes the other. In his writings on double touch, Coleridge surmises that we engage with our world simultaneously by sensory perception and an energetic connection derived from Mesmerism. Disruption to either aspect of double touch results in the pathological state of "single touch," symptoms of which can include hallucination. Coleridge developed his theory in dialogue with physician and author John Ferriar. Each theorized that ghost-sightings occur when the mind articulates disease as strong imagery and each used literature, particularly Shakespeare's Hamlet (1603), as a source of evidence for psychological speculations. Coleridge's double- touch theory pervades his notebooks and his lectures on drama, and his verbal account provided Keats with a new means to explore the supernatural in narrative verse. Hence, double touch receives its most significant literary treatment in Keats's compositions over the weeks following his conversation with Coleridge. In particular, "La Belle Dame sans Merci" (1819) proceeds from an initial impulse to parody Coleridge to a serious exploration of double touch. Conversely, Coleridge's claim to have foretold Keats's death is influenced by double-touch theory and "La Belle Dame sans Merci." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the rhetoric of nineteenth-century fantastic fiction in order to situate the genre within the intellectual tradition of apophatic, or self-negating, discourse. Through a reading of Fitz-James O'Brien's "What Was It? A Mystery" (1859) and Ambrose Bierce's "The Damned Thing" (1893), two short stories that feature the same kind of supernatural phenomenon (a material ghost), the essay argues that apophasis can be used as a key to understand not only the rhetorical fabric of the fantastic genre but also its tropes and themes and its larger epistemological preoccupations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines Aníkúlápó, a Yoruba historical movie, to elucidate cultural perspectives on retributive justice. The study is grounded in the Yoruba worldview, which frames retribution as essential for restoring cosmic and social equilibrium when moral norms are violated. The data analysis used textual analysis of Aníkúlápó's narrative depictions of crime and punishment as insights into traditional Yoruba principles of retributive justice. The findings reveal that the movie accurately portrays customary public punishment processes in precolonial Yoruba society aimed at communal justice and harmony. Beliefs in supernatural forces dispensing divine retribution are also authentically represented. While punishments seek to deter crime and rehabilitate offenders, scholarly critiques note occasional unfairness and excess. Overall, the analysis of the movie illuminates the pivotal role of retribution in Yoruba's cultural identity and moral philosophy. The key themes in the study relate to retribution's links to cosmic balance, supernatural dimensions, and functions as deterrence and rehabilitation. By situating the analysis of Aníkúlápó within scholarship on African jurisprudence, the study elucidates Yoruba perspectives on fate, choice, proportionality, and pragmatism when responding to moral complexities and wrongdoing. This study contributes original humanistic insight into indigenous African philosophies of social harmony beyond punitive justice. This study recommends comparing diverse narratives and contemporary attitudes to enrich the understanding retribution's nuanced cultural significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Padlocks are often recovered archaeologically from enslaved African contexts in the Western Hemisphere, and prior research has suggested mundane interpretations for these utilitarian objects. However, padlocks are routinely used in many religiosities and belief systems throughout the African continent as supernatural objects, and a key metaphor in "locking down" evil, bodily functions, or individuals' lives. An exploration of padlocks as potential supernatural objects is conducted within enslaved plantation contexts in the American South and Mid Atlantic, and compared to key African cultures of the eighteenth through the twenty-first centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking into account the similarities expressed on the use given by Hispanics and Mapuche alike to the cross and the cinnamon tree during the peace parliamentary meetings and their armed encounters during the 17th Century, we state that the symbol of the cross was striped out by the mapuche of the free lands of the religious protective aura given by the missionaries, and dressed with a protective aura, meant not to defend them from those supernatural beings which populated the surrounding nature, but as a political symbol that stated the quality as Indian friend or allied to the Spaniard of all those who signed the peace treaties at the parliaments. In this sense, its use is seen as a performance act intended to represent themselves historically within the context of Hispanic-Mapuche relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the extent to which the concept of law in the perspective of juridical good enables greater understanding of the reality of ecclesial law and right as ecclesial, that is, the extent to which the use of this notion sheds light on the supernatural dimension of law and right in the Church. To this end, three conceptions of canon law are presented that illustrate the connection between law and the mystery of the Church: Teodoro Ignacio Jiménez Urresti’s account on law as a norm; Antonio María Rouco Varela’s account on law as structure, affirming the property theological nature of canon law; and two stages of Javier Hervada’s thought: first, his account, on law as order-structure and, second, his theory of the application to canon law of the notion of law centred in the just thing or juridical good. This realistic notion of law in the Church has enabled Hervada to reach a deeper understanding of the relationship between canon law and the mystery of the Church and with the law of grace proper to it, highlighting the sacrament as a right, the law of the People of God as a law for freedom and other fundamental dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores kapori, an Indigenous form of storytelling to investigate and report experiences, motivations, responses, and challenges of sorcery accusation–related violence (SARV) by the Yuri people, a tribal group from the Papua New Guinea highlands. SARV is attributed to the belief that some people use supernatural powers to cause illness, deaths, or misfortunes to a community and, therefore, become targets of violent accusations. We outline the rationale for incorporating kapori into SARV research and discuss the findings from a storytelling workshop with 14 participants representing 13 clans of Yuri. The findings suggest that key strategies for curbing SARV include building community capacity to respond to the challenges of SARV, addressing the physical and emotional scars of SARV, and valuing collective interventions to prevent SARV. The use of kapori in this research helped to diversify, expand, and circulate Yuri narratives about SARV to support prevention strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proponents of religious non-doxasticism standardly aim to show how a commitment to traditional religion can be rational in the absence of religious belief. We demonstrate how the non-doxastic framework can be given a much wider application. In a study on Swedish semi-secularity, sociologist Ann af Burén has discovered a pattern where subjects simultaneously entertain naturalistic and supernatural explanations of extraordinary events. We reject Burén's interpretation of these people as irrational and compartmentalized and offer a contrasting non-doxastic reading in which the subjects involved are fully rational in their belief-less engagement with significant supernatural possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article* examines experiences of invisible others considered uncanny in the context of secularity in contemporary Finland. Drawing from experience-centred theories of religion and spiritual belief by Ann Taves and David Hufford, the article analyses how uncanny experiences are differentiated from other kinds of experience and how they are justified as real in first-person narratives written by Finnish experiencers. The empirical analysis distinguishes four characterisations of experience the authors consider uncanny, which also serve to convince them of the realness of their experience. By conversating these findings with studies of experiences deemed religious or supernatural, the article seeks to reinforce dialogue with research on similar experiences that people rather consider in scientific and everyday terms. The article then suggests a framework for cross-secular enquiry that would allow scholars in different fields to address differences in how secularity manifests in different locations. Such a methodological framework may create possibilities to juxtapose and compare similar kinds of experience that people may or may not consider supernatural in different secular societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines three of Dario Argento's supernatural horror films (Suspiria, Phenomena, and Dark Glasses) and their use of fairy tale imagery and narratives, which distinguishes them from murder-mystery-oriented giallo films. In them, Argento locates his characters, rather than in urban environments, in rural spaces (forests, fields, mountains) where the supernatural elements of their stories blossom. Suspiria represents a primarily aesthetic exploration of parallels between fairy tales and contemporary horror, while Phenomena uses these two modes to examine the conflict between the rational and irrational, the natural and the supernatural. Dark Glasses initially appears to be one of his more traditional gialli, but it abandons these tropes with a simplified plot evoking the story of "Little Red Riding Hood"; this shift is accomplished by moving the action of the film out of Rome and into the dark forests of the countryside. Dark Glasses, I argue, therefore represents a self-conscious move to unite in a single film the two major strands of Argento's filmography and to expose some fundamental elements of his general cinematic approach—namely, the unique capacity of stylized aesthetics and irrational elements to convey the experience of very real, human terror and evil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 2020 US presidential election, Misha Collins, star of the show Supernatural, endorsed Joe Biden for president and worked to support Biden's campaign through interviews with campaign surrogates on Instagram Live and by phone banking on Zoom. In this study, we examine how fans made sense of Misha's political action. While the political science and advertising literature on celebrity endorsements evaluates endorsements by the number of votes earned, we found that fans' experience of Misha's political advocacy was far more complicated than that. Our interviews with fans suggest that fans were ambivalent about Misha's endorsements but enthusiastic about how Misha went about doing politics. Fans described a civic culture they co-constituted with Misha, defined by accepting and caring for other people, being authentic and genuine, and respecting disagreements. Fans described how these values were enacted both inside the fandom (in discussions of LGBTQ representation) and outside the fandom (in the 2020 US presidential election). Ultimately, fandom should be read as an important site of civic culture building—with implications for how fan cultures influence contemporary notions of citizenship, civic values, and political outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the 1800s to the 1950s, “spirit lions” and “spirit leopards” were blamed for countless deaths across Africa that were in fact caused by a combination of genuine carnivore attacks and murders instigated by witch doctors and secret societies. The widespread belief in supernatural spirit animals was viewed by the colonial authorities as rendering populations more vulnerable to further attacks by actual lions and leopards, as villagers were often reluctant to take concrete steps to eliminate the dangerous animals. Nearly a thousand people were attacked by lions in southern Tanzania between 1990 and 2006, involving 32 spatially discrete outbreaks that had been categorized by local communities as having been caused either by spirit lions or by real lions. Our interviews revealed that at least 40% of adults in three of the worst-hit districts believed in spirit lions and that this belief generally delayed their communities’ response. Consequently, outbreaks that were attributed to spirit lions persisted far longer than those attributed to real lions and included nearly twice as many victims. Belief in spirit lions declined with level of primary-school education, and male respondents were less likely to express a belief in spirit lions when interviewed by an American woman than by a Tanzanian man.

This article explains the religious system of Parmalim sect found in the Batak lands of North Sumatra. The problem in the research is how the Parmalim theology is constructed and several aspects related to the religious ceremonies. In Parmalim, theology and religious rituals tend to be more dominant with natural theology. The main teachings of this sect mostly come from narratives and cultural texts and ethical teachings of the Batak community. This community still exists today because of its ability to adapt to the culture of the community and the support of the traditional Batak leaders themselves. Contribution: The study provides vital insights into the religious composition of the Parmalim sect and the socio-cultural factors contributing to its resilience. It contributes to the broader understanding of religious diversity, tolerance and the role of leadership in the survival of such communities, aligning with the journal’s focus on religious studies and cultural dynamics.

The supernatural has, for some times, conquered the pen of African authors. In their impetus to promote the values of black Africa, these authors magnify aspects of their culture and beliefs in the works. This article deals with the manifestation of anything related to the supernatural order in « Hearts of stone, children of despair » by Boubacar Dao. How is the supernatural expressed in the work ? By what literary devices does the author do it ? What are its functions ? This article is aim to to bring out the author’s conception of the supernatural in his book and also the functions assigned to the phenomenon. The analysis is based on the sociocriticism of Edmond Cros (2003) and the work related to the supernatural by Henry Leenhardt (1932) and Xavier Garnier (1999). Thus, we will analyze the various points which will reveal the importance of the supernatural in the society of the book, which is nothing but a reflection of the society it refers to.

In everyday life, one encounters many experiences of affliction that, for whatever reason, nature (ours or others’) cannot resolve. Yet, when nature’s finite resources are exhausted and hope seems in vain, humans often experience extra-ordinary moments of renewal and resolution—breakthroughs, remissions, insights, and conversions. We experience these moments in our natural existence; yet, we feel they cannot originate, cannot be attributed to nature alone. Rather, these experiences, called “graces” in Christianity, are attributed to a divine power acting in us. How do we come to describe these experiences in this way? Is it possible to formulate a general theory of these experiences as “graces”? Is there an “experience” of grace in general, a “state of grace”, which serves as ground and unifying experience for the “graces” we receive? Working from the Catholic theological point of view, this paper examines such experiences of affliction and renewal, as well as the basic Catholic framework schematizing them as found in the Bible and Catholic religious writings. In doing so, this paper highlights the theme of impossibility (absolutely or in context) underlying each experience, and broadly categorizes them as happening within three regions of human life: the external, ethical sphere, the interior self-relationship, and the vertical relationship to the Divine. In dialogue with theologians and phenomenological thinkers, general formulations of the experiences are placed within their respective spheres, and certain problems in the identification or interpretation of these experiences are identified. The paper then explores how the experience of a “New Creation” can serve not only as a label for the totality of these experiences, but also as a totalizing and overarching ground-experience of “grace” and an interpretive hermeneutic for graces in general. As a result, a graced moment of total personal “rebirth” or “recreation”, prevenient with respect to any personal co-operation or experiences of grace as grace, is identified as a potential ground for all other graces considered. Finally, this paper considers some potential implications of this account of grace for both Catholic thought and Phenomenology more generally.

Abstract. For a long time, Hume's thesis that miracles are a violation of natural laws has had a great influence on the discussions of miracles and natural laws among philosophers and theologians. This article proposes the concept of miracles as divine acts that do not contradict the laws of nature, but rather go beyond the laws of nature and can even be compatible with the laws of nature. By drawing on the concept of miracles and natural laws in relation to the notion of Neo-Classical Special Divine Action (NCSDA) of Jeffrey Koperski, I argue that although miracles and natural law are two distinct forms of divine action, yet miracles can be reckoned as divine acts compatible with natural causes and share the same purpose as divine providence to humans. As a result, rather than contradicting miracles and natural laws, these two forms of divine action actually complement each other to witness the act of God’s power controlling His creation. Abstrak. Tesis Hume bahwa mukjizat adalah pelanggaran terhadap hukum alam sudah sekian lama memiliki pengaruh besar terhadap diskusi tentang mukjizat dan hukum alam di antara para filsuf dan teolog. Artikel ini menawarkan sebuah konsep mukjizat sebagai tindakan ilahi yang tidak bertentangan dengan hukum alam, tetapi melampaui hukum alam dan bahkan juga kompatibel dengan hukum alam. Dengan mendulang konsep mukjizat dan hukum alam dalam kaitannya dengan gagasan Neo-Classical Special Divine Action (NCSDA) dari Jeffrey Koperski, penulis berargumen bahwa sekalipun mukjizat dan hukum alam merupakan dua bentuk tindakan ilahi yang dapat dibedakan, tetapi mukjizat dapat diperhitungkan sebagai tindakan ilahi yang kompatibel dengan penyebab natural, serta berbagi tujuan yang sama dengan pemeliharaan ilahi kepada manusia. Sebagai hasilnya, daripada mempertentangkan mukjizat dan hukum alam, kedua bentuk tindakan ilahi ini justru saling melengkapi untuk menyaksikan tindakan kuasa Allah yang mengendalikan ciptaan-Nya sejarah.