Abstract:In the Hebrew Bible we find a diatribe against false prophetesses in Ezekiel 13:17–23. The prophet's verbal attack on these women is preserved in a highly complex text, riddled with text-critical issues and hapax legomena. Ezekiel accuses them of entrapping souls and manipulating life and death. Many scholars have interpreted this obscure text as a reference to witchcraft; these women are understood by Ezekiel to be engaged in harmful magic. However, it has also been argued that the prophet is delivering a polemic against necromancy or certain midwifery rituals. Although the precise nature of the women's activities remains shrouded in mystery, their description contains elements that are reminiscent of the learned concept of witchcraft as it circulated throughout Europe in the early modern period. Nevertheless, despite the demonologies being full of scriptural references, Ezekiel 13:17–23 is noticeably absent. This article compares the depiction of these women and their activities with the portrayal of the witch and her maleficiumin the early modern witchcraft debate. It further explains why the demonologists overlooked this passage by examining its reception history from the period of the early church onward.
{"title":"The Undiscovered \"Witches\" of the Bible: On the Absence of Ezekiel 13:17–23 in the Early Modern Witchcraft Debate","authors":"A. Damsma","doi":"10.1353/mrw.2022.0025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2022.0025","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:In the Hebrew Bible we find a diatribe against false prophetesses in Ezekiel 13:17–23. The prophet's verbal attack on these women is preserved in a highly complex text, riddled with text-critical issues and hapax legomena. Ezekiel accuses them of entrapping souls and manipulating life and death. Many scholars have interpreted this obscure text as a reference to witchcraft; these women are understood by Ezekiel to be engaged in harmful magic. However, it has also been argued that the prophet is delivering a polemic against necromancy or certain midwifery rituals. Although the precise nature of the women's activities remains shrouded in mystery, their description contains elements that are reminiscent of the learned concept of witchcraft as it circulated throughout Europe in the early modern period. Nevertheless, despite the demonologies being full of scriptural references, Ezekiel 13:17–23 is noticeably absent. This article compares the depiction of these women and their activities with the portrayal of the witch and her maleficiumin the early modern witchcraft debate. It further explains why the demonologists overlooked this passage by examining its reception history from the period of the early church onward.","PeriodicalId":41353,"journal":{"name":"Magic Ritual and Witchcraft","volume":"17 1","pages":"241 - 269"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45557975","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
At the beginning of his encyclopaedic Compendium Maleficarum, Francesco Maria Guazzo outlined three kinds of magic. Natural magic consists in “a more exact knowledge of the secrets of Nature” and of the ability, by skilfully harnessing this knowledge, to “effect marvels which to the ignorant seem to be miracles and illusions.” Mathematical magic makes use of the principles of “Geometry, Arithmetic, and Astronomy” to a similar purpose; Guazzo gives the example of Archimedes’s fabled defence of Syracuse by means of carefully placed mirrors that, concentrating the sun’s light, set the invading Roman galleys aflame. Finally, prestidigital magic produces illusory wonders through sleight of hand, misdirection, acrobatic skill. Thus Guazzo would disagree with Arthur C. Clarke’s (in)famous declaration that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” but his disagreement trends in the opposite direction from what one might initially suppose. For Guazzo, magic isn’t just “indistinguishable” from advanced technology or
在他的百科全书式的《巫术纲要》的开头，弗朗西斯科·玛丽亚·瓜佐概述了三种魔法。自然魔法包括“对自然秘密的更精确的了解”，以及通过巧妙地利用这些知识，“创造出在无知的人看来是奇迹和幻想的奇迹”的能力。数学魔法利用“几何、算术和天文学”的原理达到类似的目的;瓜佐举了阿基米德保卫锡拉库扎的传说为例，他精心放置了镜子，集中了太阳的光线，点燃了入侵的罗马战舰。最后，数字魔术通过手法、误导和杂技技巧产生虚幻的奇迹。因此，Guazzo不同意Arthur C. Clarke的著名宣言，即“任何足够先进的技术都与魔法无异”，但他的反对倾向与人们最初的设想相反。对瓜佐来说，魔法不仅仅是与先进技术或其他东西“难以区分”
{"title":"Technologies, Arts, Magics, Experience: Troubling the Boundaries","authors":"M. Ostling","doi":"10.1353/mrw.2022.0019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2022.0019","url":null,"abstract":"At the beginning of his encyclopaedic Compendium Maleficarum, Francesco Maria Guazzo outlined three kinds of magic. Natural magic consists in “a more exact knowledge of the secrets of Nature” and of the ability, by skilfully harnessing this knowledge, to “effect marvels which to the ignorant seem to be miracles and illusions.” Mathematical magic makes use of the principles of “Geometry, Arithmetic, and Astronomy” to a similar purpose; Guazzo gives the example of Archimedes’s fabled defence of Syracuse by means of carefully placed mirrors that, concentrating the sun’s light, set the invading Roman galleys aflame. Finally, prestidigital magic produces illusory wonders through sleight of hand, misdirection, acrobatic skill. Thus Guazzo would disagree with Arthur C. Clarke’s (in)famous declaration that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” but his disagreement trends in the opposite direction from what one might initially suppose. For Guazzo, magic isn’t just “indistinguishable” from advanced technology or","PeriodicalId":41353,"journal":{"name":"Magic Ritual and Witchcraft","volume":"17 1","pages":"169 - 172"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41899012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bedlam in the New World: A Mexican Madhouse in the Age of Enlightenment by Christina Ramos (review)","authors":"Carole A. Myscofski","doi":"10.1353/mrw.2022.0033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2022.0033","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41353,"journal":{"name":"Magic Ritual and Witchcraft","volume":"17 1","pages":"351 - 353"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46421293","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Magic of Science and the Science of Magic in Evangelical Publicity","authors":"James S. Bielo","doi":"10.1353/mrw.2022.0020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2022.0020","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41353,"journal":{"name":"Magic Ritual and Witchcraft","volume":"17 1","pages":"173 - 182"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66317656","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Reputation of Edward II, 1305–1697: A Literary Transformation of History by Kit Heyem (review)","authors":"Laurel Zwissler","doi":"10.1353/mrw.2022.0037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2022.0037","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41353,"journal":{"name":"Magic Ritual and Witchcraft","volume":"17 1","pages":"363 - 366"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43465310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Faces of Proteus: History of Modern Paganism as a Religious Identity by Dmitry Galtsin (review)","authors":"Kaarina Aitamurto","doi":"10.1353/mrw.2022.0028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2022.0028","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41353,"journal":{"name":"Magic Ritual and Witchcraft","volume":"17 1","pages":"334 - 337"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42165507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Shaman's Wages: Trading in Ritual on Cheju Island by Kyoim Yun (review)","authors":"Maria Hasfeldt Long","doi":"10.1353/mrw.2022.0031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2022.0031","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41353,"journal":{"name":"Magic Ritual and Witchcraft","volume":"17 1","pages":"343 - 346"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47291654","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Scholars have amply demonstrated that, far from being opposed, magic and technology are often, perhaps always, complementary: technology advances not by overcoming magic, but by incorporating and amplifying it; magic persists not in spite of technological advances, but precisely because such advances inspire and energize it. All of this might rightly lead to questioning whether the conceptual distinctions sometimes drawn between magic and technology (as noted in Ostling’s introduction, 170) are well founded, but we take a different approach. As a visual artist and a cultural anthropologist who coteach a seminar/ studio course on magic and technology at MIT (to students who are overwhelmingly engineers and scientists), we view both magic and technology as ways in which the mind extends into the world and the world extends into the mind. As a method of perceiving the mind’s interaction with the physical world, art offers an ideal means for students to study and research the manifold ways magic and technology can mediate human experience. Combining magic and technology through art, we work with students to
{"title":"Triangulating Technology and Magic through Artistic Research","authors":"Seth Riskin, Graham M. Jones","doi":"10.1353/mrw.2022.0021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2022.0021","url":null,"abstract":"Scholars have amply demonstrated that, far from being opposed, magic and technology are often, perhaps always, complementary: technology advances not by overcoming magic, but by incorporating and amplifying it; magic persists not in spite of technological advances, but precisely because such advances inspire and energize it. All of this might rightly lead to questioning whether the conceptual distinctions sometimes drawn between magic and technology (as noted in Ostling’s introduction, 170) are well founded, but we take a different approach. As a visual artist and a cultural anthropologist who coteach a seminar/ studio course on magic and technology at MIT (to students who are overwhelmingly engineers and scientists), we view both magic and technology as ways in which the mind extends into the world and the world extends into the mind. As a method of perceiving the mind’s interaction with the physical world, art offers an ideal means for students to study and research the manifold ways magic and technology can mediate human experience. Combining magic and technology through art, we work with students to","PeriodicalId":41353,"journal":{"name":"Magic Ritual and Witchcraft","volume":"17 1","pages":"183 - 189"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45726522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:Many early modern sources from Eastern Germany and the Baltic mention a household spirit in the shape of a flying snake. This so called dragon allegedly brought money and produce to its owner. Everything it brought it stole from somebody else. This household dragon appears in early ethnological literature, in scientific treatises and in witch trials. Early modern authors agreed that the household dragon was a demon in the shape of a snake-like monster. Even scientists who suggested alternative explanations for alleged dragon sightings failed to reject the demonological explanation outright. Alleged contact with such a dragon provoked a number of witch trials. Persons accused of being in contact with a household dragon were profit-oriented social climbers who had accumulated wealth quickly. Their neighbors maintained that they had become rich simply because the dragon had provided them with money and produce. Folk tales collected in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries presented essentially the same motifs. In both, early modern sources and modern folk tales, dragon narratives were an extremely aggressive form of social criticism that condemned profit-oriented economic behavior.
{"title":"The Dragon as a Household Spirit: Witchcraft and Economics in Early Modern and Modern Sources","authors":"J. Dillinger","doi":"10.1353/mrw.2022.0024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2022.0024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Many early modern sources from Eastern Germany and the Baltic mention a household spirit in the shape of a flying snake. This so called dragon allegedly brought money and produce to its owner. Everything it brought it stole from somebody else. This household dragon appears in early ethnological literature, in scientific treatises and in witch trials. Early modern authors agreed that the household dragon was a demon in the shape of a snake-like monster. Even scientists who suggested alternative explanations for alleged dragon sightings failed to reject the demonological explanation outright. Alleged contact with such a dragon provoked a number of witch trials. Persons accused of being in contact with a household dragon were profit-oriented social climbers who had accumulated wealth quickly. Their neighbors maintained that they had become rich simply because the dragon had provided them with money and produce. Folk tales collected in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries presented essentially the same motifs. In both, early modern sources and modern folk tales, dragon narratives were an extremely aggressive form of social criticism that condemned profit-oriented economic behavior.","PeriodicalId":41353,"journal":{"name":"Magic Ritual and Witchcraft","volume":"17 1","pages":"212 - 240"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41344876","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Philosophising the Occult: Avicennan Psychology and 'The Hidden Secret' of Fakhr Al-Dīn al-Rāzī by Michael-Sebastian Noble (review)","authors":"Mai Lootah","doi":"10.1353/mrw.2022.0032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2022.0032","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41353,"journal":{"name":"Magic Ritual and Witchcraft","volume":"17 1","pages":"346 - 350"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48267394","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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