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Belief in evil and hidden supernatural forces, generally referred to as witchcraft, is widespread in many parts of the African continent. In addition to affecting individual health, perceived security, and social relations, witchcraft allegations may be used as covert political instruments, resulting in governance challenges such as lack of trust, transparency, administrative delegation, and political accountability. Since witchcraft is commonly associated with physiological and psychological violence, some citizens may be less willing to participate in political activities, including seeking elected office or criticizing political elites for fear of falling victim to witchcraft. The focus of our study is Malawi where large groups in the population believe in the power of witchcraft. We aim to unpack how local witchcraft beliefs have a bearing on governance – whether, and the extent to which, witchcraft influences how citizens understand and practice transparency and accountability in everyday life. Particularly, the belief in witchcraft among Malawian elites' warrants closer scrutiny, especially since existing literature and local discourse on the impact of witchcraft tend to largely focus on rural and less educated groups in the population. As the highly secret and complex dimensions of witchcraft resist clear-cut definitions, representations, and analysis, it is not our intention to describe witchcraft in everyday life. Rather, we explore the potential political implications of not addressing elite discourses of and belief in witchcraft. We find that belief in witchcraft can influence citizens' perceptions of power and authority and can potentially undermine the legitimacy of democratic institutions and processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incense is essential in religious ceremonies, even in relatively new religious and spiritual movements such as New Age and Neopaganism. These garner little attention from ethnobotanists, although they trigger an international trade in wild-harvested plants. In this paper, we studied the botanical ingredients of smudge sticks (dried plant bundles burned for purification) in the Netherlands, and people's motivations to use them posing the following questions: what plant species are included in smudge sticks? what are they used for? and are exotic plants preferred over native Dutch plant species? We visited online and physical shops in Dutch cities, acquiring a total of 29 different smudge sticks containing at least 15 species. We held semi-structured interviews with 11 users, vendors, and herbal experts, and collected data from 33 questionnaires. Salvia apiana L. was most frequently found, along with North American species of the genus Artemisia. The rise of the New Age movement resulted in North American ritual plant species being easily available in (online) shops in the Netherlands and smudge sticks being used for personal protection and cleansing. Despite the smudge sticks' commercial demand, there is no data regarding the pressure on wild populations of species used in these bundles. For the preservation of these species it is crucial that scientific monitoring of their harvest is undertaken in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Related Articles This article suggests that since people who believe in magic and those who believe in conspiracy theories produce meaning and make sense of the world by engaging in the same process of signification, they should be more likely to have one such belief if they hold the other. To test this proposition, we perform both macro‐ and micro‐level analyses using, respectively, cross‐national datasets and an original set of Tanzanian data. Our findings from both sets of analyses reveal a strong association between witchcraft beliefs and the belief in conspiracy theories.Gainous, Jason, and Bill Radunovich. 2008. “Religion and Core Values: A Reformulation of the Funnel of Causality.” Politics & Policy 33(1): 154–80. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2005.tb00213.x.Richey, Sean. 2017. “A Birther and a Truther: The Influence of the Authoritarian Personality on Conspiracy Beliefs.” Politics & Policy 45(3): 465–85. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12206.Tubadji, Annie. 2023. “You'll Never Walk Alone: Loneliness, Religion, and Politico‐economic Transformation.” Politics & Policy 51(4): 661–95. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12538. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a safehouse project for survivors of witchcraft accusations that has been initiated by people of the Hewa‐speaking community located in the Papua New Guinea highlands. Belief in witchcraft and the killing of accused witches has a long cultural history among Hewa people, where it was formerly part of intergroup conflict and patterns of dominance and retribution. Contemporary Hewa witch killing often involves the use of torture and the targeting of children and infants, although these have no historical precedent. The safehouse has been established inside the community itself. Locating the safehouse where accusations and killing are taking place is a deliberate strategy to change the belief system that supports the identification and killing of accused witches. This model also ensures that people do not become internally displaced when they flee their accusers. The safehouse is designed to be self‐sufficient so that is does not become reliant on aid from external organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution reconstructs the reflection on witches of Johannes Trithemius (1462–1516), a German Benedictine who took up the pen on several occasions to declare against the spread of witchcraft and the need to solve this problem. The method adopted is to understand Trithemius' thought from the analysis of his own works, specifically the Antipalus maleficiorum (1505–1508), the Liber octo quaestionum (1515) and what can be known of the De daemonibus (1507–1514). What will emerge will be an articulate reflection, which re-proposes the doctrine of the Malleus maleficarum (1486) enriched with original elements often drawn from popular superstitions. Thus, Trithemius proposes artifices to be immune from witches (e.g., apotropaic amulets) and provides specific indications on how to cure evil spells (exorcism), extending the dissertation to broader issues, such as the gender question, the relationship between witches and children (e.g., sacrifices, proselytes, victims) and developments in exorcism practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on long-term ethnographic research in Tanzania, this article contributes to existing scholarship on adaptations and modifications of the so-called gospel in African contexts. I show how the Prosperity Gospel has taken shape in an environment of intense religious/spiritual/medical competition and, not least, of widespread cultural concerns with the moral legitimacy of wealth generated through alliances with spiritual forces. However, I also argue that a deeper understanding of the ways in which the Prosperity Gospel has become contextualized can be reached by moving beyond a focus on cultural concerns with wealth and paying close attention to the exuberance of meanings attributed to money in its most concrete and tangible form, coins and banknotes, as well as to the religious/ritual practices involving money that such meanings inspire. I pursue my analysis by zooming in on two areas where cultural understandings of money as exceeding its materiality and its use value are prevalent: the use of powers of witchcraft to extract money from others and the practice of bride wealth. Whereas the first has to do with understandings of material money as imbued with spiritual powers, the second can be seen as an example of a gift economy, since money given by a groom to his parents-in-law by virtue of containing parts of his soul or his essence becomes the foundation of a relationship of mutual respect between them. In the last part of the article, I show how both understandings are entangled with Prosperity teachings and inform ritual practices involving material money. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to analyse two trials involving magic, superstition, exorcism, and witchcraft, which were held in 1713 in the Diocese of Vieste (present-day Apulia), Kingdom of Naples. It aims to illuminate the dynamics between the Church, magical practices, and the territorial context, providing insights into this less-explored period in inquisition history when the Catholic Church's fight against superstition was beginning to wane. The first trial against Rita di Ruggiero is very rich in detail, giving us a clear vision of which magical practices were used during the Modern Age. Additionally, it touches, albeit only marginally, on a theme that will be crucial for the duration of these practices in the Kingdom of Naples: the complex interactions between state and ecclesiastical authorities. The second 1713 trial involving Elisabetta Del Vecchio explores accusations of bewitchment, contributing to our understanding of witchcraft paradigms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automated EEG pre‐processing pipelines provide several key advantages over traditional manual data cleaning approaches; primarily, they are less time‐intensive and remove potential experimenter error/bias. Automated pipelines also require fewer technical expertise as they remove the need for manual artefact identification. We recently developed the fully automated Reduction of Electroencephalographic Artefacts (RELAX) pipeline and demonstrated its performance in cleaning EEG data recorded from adult populations. Here, we introduce the RELAX‐Jr pipeline, which was adapted from RELAX and designed specifically for pre‐processing of data collected from children. RELAX‐Jr implements multi‐channel Wiener filtering (MWF) and/or wavelet‐enhanced independent component analysis (wICA) combined with the adjusted‐ADJUST automated independent component classification algorithm to identify and reduce all artefacts using algorithms adapted to optimally identify artefacts in EEG recordings taken from children. Using a dataset of resting‐state EEG recordings (N = 136) from children spanning early‐to‐middle childhood (4–12 years), we assessed the cleaning performance of RELAX‐Jr using a range of metrics including signal‐to‐error ratio, artefact‐to‐residue ratio, ability to reduce blink and muscle contamination, and differences in estimates of alpha power between eyes‐open and eyes‐closed recordings. We also compared the performance of RELAX‐Jr against four publicly available automated cleaning pipelines. We demonstrate that RELAX‐Jr provides strong cleaning performance across a range of metrics, supporting its use as an effective and fully automated cleaning pipeline for neurodevelopmental EEG data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For years, older women accused of witchcraft have been persecuted and forced into sanctuaries known as witch camps. This highlights a lack of public policies and social support for older women facing disabilities, aging, and dementia. Labelling them as witches and isolating them from their families and familiar surroundings profoundly impacts their emotional well-being. However, little is known about the mental health of older women in witch camps in northern Ghana. This study interviewed 15 women from the Gambaga witches camp, identifying five main themes and 21 related sub-themes: 'Physical and Mental Health Issues,' 'Psychological Impacts of Displacement and Trauma,' 'Social Isolation and Emotional Distress,' 'Living Conditions,' and 'Community Support and Strategies for Improving Well-being.' The sub-themes included 'Physical problems (chronic body pain) impacting upon general health and well-being', 'Anxiety and nervousness', 'Sleep and restlessness- "can't sit still", 'Suicidal thoughts and anger', 'Forgetfulness', 'Concentration and confusion', 'Loneliness, sadness from family disconnection' and 'stigma – self and others', 'Loss of respect and dignity ('Dariza')', 'Frailty and loss of independence', 'Feelings of helplessness, unhappiness, and despair', 'Lack of family support and dignity', 'Lack of basic needs, and inadequate social facilities'. Findings revealed the negative effects of cultural beliefs and discrimination on the mental health of these women. Addressing public stigma and challenging these beliefs can improve healthcare and outcomes, allowing older women to stay connected with their families, reduce depression, and lead meaningful lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the factors that provoked the trial and death sentence of four witches in Bologna in 1559. That is, it aims to elucidate how a witch hunt (albeit a small one) was triggered in a context where demonology was present, but the persecution of witchcraft had been kept at a relatively moderate level (and continued to be so after that). Scholarly contributions on witchcraft and witch hunts are now innumerable, but in general, scholars have focused on the social relations between the alleged witches and the community in which they lived, on the theological culture of the judges, or even on the deep roots of the sabbath. An analysis of a series of trials for magical and superstitious practices held in Bologna shortly before the 1559 convictions reveals how it was possible to move from simple sorcery to actual witchcraft. This transition was accomplished both because of the malefic nature of some of the spells practiced by the defendants and because of the intervention of diocesan judges who, for various reasons, were more determined than their predecessors to prosecute witchcraft harshly. Although the link between simple superstition and witchcraft has already been explored to some extent, it emerges with particular clarity in these events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between the 16th and 17th centuries, the conservative characteristic of rural environments and mountain communities represented one of the main worries of the Larian Church, which, despite the work of reform of religious customs undertaken by the order of preachers in the late Middle Ages (not unrelated to the genesis of the accusation of diabolic witchcraft), it found itself confronted with the shortcomings (from the interference of the laity in religious life to suspicious devotions via the mixture of the sacred and magical animistic legacies) originating from decades of neglect in the management of valley parishes and the laxity of the secular clergy. This concern had to be reconciled, from the first decades of the sixteenth century onward, with the need to counter the Protestant presence. The "singular" way in which diocesan ordinaries sought in the aftermath of the Tridentine Council to re-establish orthopraxy in the only diocese in the peninsula subject to secular authorities of the Reformed faith, and in which an Italophone Protestant community was permanently present for several decades, represents an important case study for understanding the anomaly of the local bishop's courts (and the inquisition) transformed during this time from bitter enemies of the secta strigiarum into "witch lawyers", and for illuminating the deeper reasons for the limits of the fight against superstitions in the entire peninsula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their efforts to dissuade Africans from engaging fruitfully on matters of design, including design anthropology, colonialists dismissed the indigenes as only capable of designing witchcraft and sorcery for which they were sadly famed in colonial anthropology. Arguing that twenty-first century African universities need to include design anthropology in the curriculum, this paper contends that the future of anthropology, and of Africa, lies in design as is evident in discourses and practices on designer babies, designer humanoid sex robots, industrial robots, designer robotic spouses, synthetic biology, Artificial Intelligence, human enhancements, nanofabrication, biohacking, gene and genome editing, reverse engineering and rewiring humans, gene and genome deletion, social designs and so on. Drawing on autoethnography and extensive literature review, the paper argues that design anthropology is increasingly becoming relevant in a world that is rethinking modernist designs which are at the core of the Anthropocene. Put differently, design anthropology enables [African] graduates to engage with contemporary, empirical issues of design in a twenty-first-century world where the discipline can only survive by shifting focus from an obsession with sterile discourses about, inter alia, the past and present of African witchcraft, culture, society and sorcery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Violence and abuse by grandchildren towards their grandparent kinship carers is an important but under-researched issue. Research evidence on the perceived legitimacy of aged-related myths, beliefs, and witchcraft accusations against older people, especially grandparents, in Ghana and Africa suggest that violence and abuse against grandparent kinship carers could be common. This study explored the types of violence or abuse experienced by grandparent kinship carers, and the meanings grandparents associate with the abuse. Thirty-one grandparents were recruited from four communities in Ghana following a horizontal network sampling approach and interviewed using a qualitative in-depth narrative storytelling strategy. Analysis of the narratives revealed three common types of abuse experienced by the grandparent kinship carers which were perpetrated by children living under their care: (1) insults and verbal abuse, (2) stealing and financial exploitation, and (3) physical threats. However, the grandparents rationalised and justified the abusive behaviours by attributing them to factors within the children's eco-system, such as friends and household members. The findings highlighted three crucial interrelated factors that underlie these incidents of violence including cultural beliefs around witchcraft, family structural dynamics, and grandparents' attitudes towards violence. Practical recommendations, including the development of a community normative change program, have been proposed to address violence by grandchildren towards grandparent kinship carers in Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This essay reads an American literary history of motherhood witchcraft and resistant bodies through the lens of Rachel Yoder's Nightbitch (2021). Like Kelly Barnhill's When Women Were Dragons (2022) Nightbitch asks why mothers and other care workers might fantasize about escaping the social expectations placed upon mothers and maternal bodies. These novels and the canonical works they point to from "Bartleby the Scrivener" and "The Yellow Wallpaper" to Alice in Wonderland and The Marvelous Land of Oz suggest that both Christian and capitalist systems identify mothers and care workers as witches because their labor in creating and maintaining bodies challenges a myth of dispassionate rationality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai, Philologia is the property of Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Based on the analysis of the preserved materials of the judicial and investigative cases of Munster in the first half of the XVII century, the article identifies the features of the women’s crime in the city. It is shown that the main types of women’s crimes were witchcraft, infanticide, thefts. The state of the women’s crime was influenced by socio-demographic factors, as well as the lack of financial assistance and the social support from Munster’s authorities. The conclusion is made about the insignificant number of crimes committed by women in the first half of the XVII century compared to men.

This article, based on memoirs, correspondence and works of political exiles, examines the specifics of medical practice and traditional medicine in the Tobolsk North at the end of the 19th century. The point of view of patients, the dynamics of relations between them and their attending physicians in the context of the harsh natural and climatic conditions of the North and a different sanitary and hygienic culture are analyzed. The problems of alcoholism of doctors, lack of medical personnel, the negative influence of local officials and the neglectful attitude of the tsarist government are studied. Based on historical sources, the features of traditional medicine, witchcraft and shamanism, their significance in the worldview of the local population are considered. In conclusion, the general state of health care and its importance in the daily life of political exiles, the role of provincial authorities in the system of political exile in the North of Western Siberia are assessed.

Benge , the famous chicken poison oracle that Evans-Pritchard vividly described in his classic ethnography, subsequently disappeared from Zande lore. While contemporary Azande still talk about the vanished benge sorrowfully, the society turned to a neighboring ethnic group's oracle, the dabaya. The dabaya, or slaughtering, also uses chickens to arrive at an answer to questions. The dabaya operator cuts the throat of the chicken and, unlike the effect of the poison during benge, the location of the death and the positioning of the carcass gives the verdict. Using deep ethnographic description, oral history interviews, archival and historical sources, this article argues that the need for powerful oracles to determine the validity of public witchcraft accusations grows in times of turbulence and social upheaval, while in relatively calm times witchcraft and magic withdraws to the private sphere. In the last section, the article offers an analysis of the politicization of the new oracle and how chiefs are using bureaucratic measures to control dabaya and extend their judicial control over their subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introduction to a special section, "Revisiting the Azande," summarizes the historical context and theoretical insights of the classic ethnography Witchcraft, oracles, and magic among the Azande , by E. E. Evans-Pritchard. It describes developments in Zandeland over the century since the book was written and provides synopses of the articles in the collection. The Azande have lived through a turbulent century; witchcraft and oracular practices, and "Zande tradition," have been steadfast but nevertheless hard to pin down and constantly changing tools for Zande people as they have managed the upheavals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Standard Euro-American ideas of sincerity revolve around an idea of the transparent alignment of one's outer acts with the inner self, such that the audience can clearly deduce the latter from the former. The development and spread of such ideas has been widely linked to the emergence of modern subjectivity. This article expands upon these analyses, contrasting them with Islamic notions of sincerity (ikhlāṣ) which is predicated not on transparency, but on purity of intention. This apparently minor difference has significant implications: it allows for sincerity to be opaque or deceptive; it gestures towards radically different technologies of self-formation; and it questions the facile and widespread elision of modernity with a particular version of sincerity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rereading Evans-Prichard's classic fifty-five years later turned out to be a confusing experience. On the one hand, it confirmed the admiration I always had for the author's clarity and the quality of his ethnography. On the other, there seemed to be a surprising contrast between his image of witchcraft and oracles working as an "explanatory system" that brought order in Zande society versus the emphasis on uncertainty and disorder in recent witchcraft studies. Evans-Pritchard's views of the working of occult aggression fitted in with a major concern of anthropology of his time: showing, against Western prejudice, that other cultures had their own coherence and value. More recent studies rather concentrate on the resilience of these local ideas, and the ease with which they graft themselves onto modern changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Western Equatoria, South Sudan, witchcraft accusations enable a narrativization of the material processes of predation that undergird the state, in a sphere adjacent to that of formal politics. These accusations critique the political economy of the South Sudanese state, but only at the cost of domesticating and individualizing critique, such that it plays out in the intimate sphere, without reference to state forces. Witchcraft accusations offer the possibility of explaining uncertainty, but on the condition that contingency can only be resolved in relation to intimate social relations, and not to the structural conditions that produce it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mangu , what Evans-Pritchard translated into English as "witchcraft" and around which he built his landmark ethnography, has disappeared among the South Sudanese Azande. But other kinds of witchcraft and magic (ngua) arise continuously. Drawing on anthropological research in South Sudan's local courts and on interviews with disputants, chiefs, and judges, this article dives into the opaque, elusive, and mercurial world of witchcraft and magic. Whereas mangu was used solely to do harm, today's ngua can be categorized along a spectrum from benign self-protection to malevolent pillaging and attacking ngua. When witchcraft cases are brought to local customary courts, there is room for nuance, precision, and for attention to the less arcane friction which often preceded witchcraft. But when customary courts punish alleged perpetrators, clashes abound with statutory judges and United Nations officials who see witchcraft as a dangerous falsehood and the imprisoned alleged perpetrators as victims of human rights abuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I teach a sixteen-week course on witchcraft for new-to-college students as part of both the First-Year Only curriculum and the general education program at the University of Northern Iowa, where [...]

The early modern book economy thrived on a system of bartering, swapping printed sheets for printed sheets or other valuable bookish material. Widely discussed as Tauschhandel in the context of the Frankfurt Book Fair, this practice continued to flourish in the Low Countries during the seventeenth century as the fair's popularity declined. This article examines the bartering practices between the Officina Plantiniana in the city of Antwerp, the best-documented print business of the handpress era, and merchants and booksellers in its northern neighbour Amsterdam. While the output of the Plantin presses is well studied, its input, including maps, lottery tickets, reams of high-quality French and Dutch paper, and even luxury objects such as sugar and globes, has gone unrecognised. Ultimately, I argue that Dutch sellers were motivated to barter with the Officina by their superior access to books, paper, and other luxury goods, and their robust professional and personal networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Jahrbuch für Germanistische Sprachgeschicht is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In Nigeria, witchcraft is operated under the banner of indigenous religions, Islam, and Christianity. It is a biblical theological concern for witchcraft to be practiced under the banner of Christianity. This article aims to exegetically explore, interpret, and apply the context of Acts 8.9–25 to the syncretic practices of some acclaimed plenipotentiaries of God, and some lay Christians in Nigeria who synchronize their Christian faith with witchery as Simon attempted to do in the first century era. Redaction-critical method is used to unveil the theological motif and implications of the manipulative practices of Simon as a superficial follower of Jesus in Acts 8.9–25, and the subtle ways witchcraft manipulation are being blended with Christianity in Nigeria. This study argues that Christians identifying with witchery is a rebellious sin that requires them to repent or perish as Peter instructed Simon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Curanderxs are healers who utilize a variety of means such as prayers, herbs, Christian icons, Spiritist rituals, images from religions, and such commonplace objects as eggs and dirt. Christian leaders often reject curanderismo as overly syncretistic or even as witchcraft. Nevertheless, many curanderxs are devout Catholics and even understand their gifting and practices through the lens of Christianity. This essay draws on the work of Kwame Bediako to demonstrate how these peripheral Christian curanderxs have translated diverse knowledge into Christian idiom and vice versa. Through examining examples of curanderxs , this essay shows how "Christian" much of the history, discourse, and living tradition of curanderismo is. It is an area of ambiguity that challenges Christianity's borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the lay meaning(s) and understanding of depression among middle-aged and elderly patients in Uganda and its impact on treatment seeking. Through an interpretive phenomenological approach, data was collected using in-depth interviews with purposively selected participants and analyzed using thematic content analysis. The findings revealed that depression with disruptive behaviors is regarded as "clan illness," "witchcraft" or "madness" while depression with non – disruptive symptoms is perceived to be a "disease of thoughts" normative to life circumstances and aging. Conclusively, the cultural understanding of depression may imply that the western medical approach would be less recommended compared to traditional healing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study presented here is an attempt at a comparative analysis of three early modern phenomena in the history of ideas and culture: three ethnogenetic theories about the origins of the Swedish (Gothic) and Polish (Sarmatian) nations and states, as well as that of the Danes, originating from the ancient Cimbri. First, they will be compared as historiographic concepts characteristic of early modern knowledge. The next part of the paper concerns modifications to these theories made in national historiographies and the broader visions of the history of the respective countries based on them. The last part of the study presents how these ideas function at the political level, both in relation to broader visions of political reality and political practice. The analysis suggests that while in the case of the 16th-century historical concepts of origo gentis, there are more similarities than differences, the subsequent stages of development show increasing differentiation: the ideas of Sarmatian ethnogenesis underwent greater changes than others. However, there are similarities in the way Gothic and Sarmatian ideas functioned in political life and politics during that period in Sweden and Poland, respectively. The weakest point is the influence of Cimbrian ethnogenesis on the politics of Denmark at that time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The academic study of religion and esotericism has faced challenges in defining their respective categories. Engler and Gardiner propose a polythetic definition for esotericism, which identifies multiple features that a phenomenon can share to be labeled as such. While this approach is a useful starting point, it lacks engagement with non-Western esotericism, such as Hindu and Buddhist traditions. The boundaries between esoteric and exoteric practices are less clear in many traditions, suggesting that the attempt to separate them may be a Western preoccupation. Despite these criticisms, the proposed model can facilitate further exploration of esotericism in relation to gender, race, and political power. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the concept of "esotericism" and its association with Western intellectual and imperial history. The author argues for the inclusion of Islamic occultism in the study of esotericism as a means of decolonizing Western narratives and challenging Eurocentric perspectives. They propose the use of the term "Islamic Weird" as a more inclusive and culturally sensitive alternative to "esotericism." The author also criticizes the exclusion of early modern Muslim thinkers and the negative portrayal of Islam in Western scholarship. Overall, the article calls for a more fluid and politically aware approach to the study of esotericism. [Extracted from the article]

Problem: Many communities refer to sorcery or witchcraft to explain misfortunes such as sickness, death and disability. The effects of these beliefs on public health service delivery have long been overlooked. Beliefs in sorcery and witchcraft are significant challenges for health-care workers to understand to deliver better health outcomes and avoid inadvertently triggering accusations of witchcraft that may lead to violence. Context: This paper examines the impacts of accusations of sorcery and related violence on the provision of health care in Papua New Guinea. Action: The discussion focuses on a workshop held in Papua New Guinea in September 2022 with health extension officers on the topic of health-care delivery and sorcery accusations. Lessons learned: The workshop confirmed the challenges that beliefs in sorcery and witchcraft present for health extension officers and suggested several strategies that could be used to navigate them. It identified several possible future measures that those on the front line of community health-care delivery considered most important in responding to the issue. These included educating health-care workers on how to effectively address sorcery beliefs when delivering health care and developing communication techniques on the causes of death and sickness that avoid triggering sorcery accusations. Discussion: This paper reviews the findings of the workshop in the broader context of the effects of beliefs in witchcraft on public health delivery globally. Because of the close connections between sorcery beliefs and health, equipping health-care workers and field epidemiologists with strategies to address these beliefs effectively is critical to delivering better health care, facilitating timely response to public health events, and helping to prevent violence related to sorcery accusations. This need exists in all countries where sorcery beliefs related to health, illness, disability and death are prevalent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate the stories of witchcraft victims in depth. With the case study method in the form of a life history study, research data is reported using thematic analysis to answer research questions. The source of the research data is an informant who is domiciled in the city of Kupang and fits the criteria that have been established. Christian theology provides the primary basis for discussing the research results, while psychology contributes as a complementary viewpoint. The findings indicated that the informants are subjected to a physical ailment accompanied by psychological symptoms and that negative emotions prevail among the informants, leading to a diminished level of well-being. Despite the informant's unfavorable psychological condition, the interplay of appreciation with familial, social, and spiritual support can offer informants experiencing sickness a sense of positive significance. The informants sought deliverance through spiritual support, seeking exorcisms from servants of God, traditional messengers, and shamans. The study's findings demonstrated that the informants had a gradually positive psychological condition. Still, spiritual camouflage was automatically built to avoid repeating comparable paranormal issues. However, rare and speculative cases of witchcraft are experienced by church members. Therefore, specific assistance by pastors, Christian counselors, psychologists, and/or psychiatrists is highly required as a follow-up action so that victims achieve targeted release and minimize adverse consequences that may occur post-witchcraft. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The public perception of witches is problematic on many levels: people tend to blend witchcraft with Satanism and the entertainment industry illustrates a false picture of people of this faith, not to mention the historical persecution of witches. This paper presents and examines a specific online subculture, a religious/spiritual community existing on the TikTok video-sharing platform. In this article, I shortly introduce the pagan religion of witchcraft – its roots and modern practice –, summarize researchers’ 124 observations on the topic, and discuss my findings based on the literature and my brief research on the relevant content of the mentioned platform, drawing attention to the individualistic nature of witchcraft and the qualities and cohesive power of this community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Available statistics show that the population of older adults in Ghana increased from 200,000 in 1960 to two million in 2021, with females comprising 57% of this population. This increase in the size of the older Ghanaian population has research, policy, and practice implications. Qualitative research has rarely explored the psychological health of older Ghanaians by paying attention to the emotions and feelings they experience and the reasons they give for those emotions and feelings. The current study aimed to fill the gap by exploring emotions and feelings that underlay the psychological well-being of older persons in Ghana and the subjective reasons behind their feelings. Twenty-three adults aged 60 years plus (14 male vs 9 female) provided interview data that were analyzed thematically, and psychological well-being perspectives provided a framework to make sense of the data. The findings show that participants' psychological well-being belongs to three subthemes of psychological functioning: high positive functioning; low negative functioning; and high negative functioning. These subthemes translated into three main themes: pride of conquest; being older can be depressing; and, living with regret, respectively. Overall, the findings suggest that participants' psychological well-being is a confluence of flourishing mental health and depression. It is concluded that older Ghanaians experience a mixture of positive and negative emotions and feelings, and, therefore, a blend of good mental health and depression. One reason for positive psychological well-being is that older adults are happy about living longer, and satisfied with what they have accomplished. They are also proud of their continued social contribution, and look forward to health and happiness in retirement. However, fear of death and worries over what the future holds for children, despair over the debilitating effects of sickness, abusive experience, poverty, and the shame of being accused of witchcraft and ostracized, among others are reasons for depression in this population. The research and practice implications of these findings are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines accusations of magic made against enslaved Muslims in Malta over the period 1598–1608. In this period numerous enslaved Muslims were accused of magic before the Roman Inquisition, and the surviving records describe these accusations and magical practices in detail. This article explores the types of magic Muslims were accused of, and why they seem to have been attractive to Christians as magical practitioners. It employs a statistical analysis to outline patterns of accusation, and uses the detail from individual cases to discuss these patterns. The authors argue that accusations against enslaved Muslims had several distinctive features. Muslims were believed to be particularly good at curing illnesses caused by sorcery, which was linked to wider early modern stereotypes about Islam. They were also more likely to use books and writing in the Arabic language. Finally, their practice of love magic for Christian women crossed gender boundaries in a way that male Christian practitioners did not, although this particular aspect should be seen in the context of a wide variety of types of magic practised for both men and women. However, despite these differences, their services were not seen as completely distinct from those of Christian practitioners. Magic was thus an area where people of different faiths interacted, especially in certain circumstances. This picture corresponds to some degree to patterns identified in recent studies of enslaved and non-Christian healers who came before the Inquisition in Latin America and Africa, and the article thus offers suggestions for comparison with these studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reconstructs the lives of Agnes the Bathkeeper and Anna of Mindelheim, who exemplified how women become witches and how witches do magic in the demonological treatise, The Hammer of Witches (1486). It does so based both on this demonological treatise and archival documents, reading them "against the bias grain" in an effort to bring Agnes and Anna some epistemic justice. In addition to urging us to view Agnes and Anna in their full humanity rather than exclusively as heretical criminals or victims as this treatise's authors and modern scholars have done, this article provides a case study of the relationship between gender, magic, and witchcraft in a time period when magic had recently been associated with women. It also offers an example of how historians can use fragmentary evidence to reconstruct aspects of the past, keeping women such as Agnes and Anna from historical erasure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses the persistent narrative of witchcraft-related violence in the contemporary era by delving into its historical root -- the medieval practice of witch-hunts. It investigates gendered motifs linked to women accused of witchcraft and sorcery, using Morgan le Fay in Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur as a reference. By examining gender stereotypes, we aim to demonstrate how medieval European concepts of witchcraft and sorcery have become entrenched in modern perceptions of women. This investigation employs Philippine literary texts -- The Witch by Edilberto Tiempo and May Day Eve by Nick Joaquin, characterising women exhibiting postcolonial dispositions. Our central hypothesis holds that these contemporary stories adapt the medieval classic. The findings point to the medieval traces in the characters of Minggay and Agueda, leading to their societal categorisation as metaphorical witches. Textual analysis exemplifies strategies such as "un/belonging" the self to demonstrate "herstory," acknowledging one's beliefs to express innate tendencies, and challenging social structures to promote reclamation of oppressive structures. This study contributes to understanding the challenged "mythical" nature of women's identity in the modern era. Hence, the adaptive platform of medieval European influence lends support to stabilising women's positionality rather than their essentiality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the origins of fairy tales in Neapolitan literature during the 15th and 17th centuries, focusing on the works of Masuccio Salernitano, Girolamo Morlini, and Giovan Battista Basile. It argues that while fairy tales were not common in Italian novellas, there was a gradual incorporation of magical elements into these stories, possibly influenced by the Renaissance's interest in magic and the supernatural. The article discusses the compatibility between magical folktales and the novella genre, using examples from authors such as Tommaso Guardati (Masuccio Salernitano) and Girolamo Morlini. It provides a list of references and sources for further research on Italian novellas and fairy tales, covering topics such as the history of novellas, the influence of folklore, and the blending of literary genres. [Extracted from the article]