PhD (African Studies) / Centre for African Studies / This interdisciplinary study examined witchcraft beliefs and criminal responsibility in South Africa and Zimbabwe. The unshakeable deep rooted and profound cultural beliefs of African people do not find expression in written law and therefore introduce a mismatch between law as the people live it and law as contained in the statute books. The aim of this interpretive doctrinal (legal) and qualitative research study was two-fold. Firstly, it sought to evaluate and assess the influence of African value systems particularly ethical ideas on the development of criminal responsibility. Secondly, it undertook a comparative examination of the criminal responsibility of actors who commit crimes while labouring under belief in witchcraft. The research, therefore, undertook a comparative examination of the criminal responsibility of actors who commit crimes while labouring under the overpowering fear of belief in witchcraft. In that regard, the study was premised on and informed through theories of criminal punishment, a Human Rights Based Approach, psycho-analytic theory and socio-cultural theory. The primary motivation for the study was the need to address the mismatch of laws and African value systems and to add knowledge to the scholarly legal writing on beliefs in witchcraft. Explorative qualitative research methods of collecting data (case studies, semi-structured interviews and focus groups discussions) and the doctrinal methods of data collection (case law observation, newspaper reports and witchcraft legislations) were employed as the research methodologies for the purposes of this study. For social empirical findings to be useful in integrating with the legal issues, the study adopted an Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) perspective. Although customary practices play a very important role in the lives of the African people, some of the rules can no longer withstand constitutional scrutiny. The research findings confirmed the mismatch that exists between the African value systems and the law. The study unveiled that the African value systems of the two countries have been affected by modernity. Also, the two countries have similar laws governing the aspect of belief in witchcraft that are weak and archaic thus introducing a lacuna in the

Despite the rationalism implicit in contemporary thinking, in many parts of the world like South Africa, belief in witchcraft exists and is a core belief, influencing the world-view of many people. In these contexts, witchcraft is believed to be responsible for every social experience including, illnesses, sickness and death. The witch-figure, imbued with jealousy, is believed to derive power to harm others with witchcraft through supernatural capacity and an association with the Devil. Witchcraft, it seems represents a theory of misfortune guiding the interactions between people and provides explanations, steeped in the supernatural, for almost every misfortune. Extending on the commonly held notion of violence against women, this doctoral study reflects witchcraft accusations and its violent consequences as an under-represented facet thereof. This follows the fact that historic and contemporary accounts of witchcraft position women as primary suspects and victims. Accused of witchcraft, many women face torture and ultimately death, even today. In this study it is argued that witchcraft accusations result from within a social context, supporting gendered relations that are powered. To this end, I apply a feminist psychological approach as a theoretical lens, allowing us to see witchcraft accusations as one strategy among those supporting male domination. In the first chapter, I outline the feminist psychological approach as an appropriate lens to view witchcraft-related violence. The understanding of witchcraft accusations gained through the application of feminist psychological theory is then applied in the second chapter, focusing on news reports. A focus on the newspaper representations of witchcraft violence is vital, given the media’s influential role in the lives of many. Attention is then focused on understanding of witchcraft held by community members, usually responsible for the violent attacks on those accused. The final chapter locates the witchcraft experience with women so accused. The purposeful repetition of theoretical points made in each chapter was essential. The repetition enabled me to apply the theoretical lens appropriately for each paper and to elaborate on the fundamental premise the PhD argues towards. The reader’s attention is drawn towards awareness of this purposeful repetition of the theoretical lens. It is imperative as together and separately, the chapters in this PhD, function to accentuate on an expression of gendered violence, steeped in a tradition supporting male domination. / Psychology / D.Litt. et Phil.

Kvarnen står i ett hus som brinner.Den lila gudinnan är också där, hon blir till aska. Allt var i det där huset och när jag skriver allt så menar jag det. Egentligen är essän det enda som klarade sig. Den låg i ett mail. Vad gör en häxa utan sin dolk, sitt ljus? Hon ger sig inte, hon blir starkare, hon får blodad tand.Jag måste använda häxkrafterna nu, mina naglar är längre än någonsin.Jag hinner inte samla längre, jag minns vad jag la i kvarnen så jag kan inte göra annat än mala nu. Simon säger att jag är Fucking Phoenix! / Jag fick börja om på min masterutställning efter branden i grafikhuset på Skeppsholmen där jag hade min ateljé. Jag tänkte mycket på förvandling, att vara en fågel Fenix, att göra sig starkare med hjälp av saker en älskar. Det blev temat för utställningen och essän.

This thesis discusses early modern European perceptions of body and soul in association with the increasing stringency of civilized behaviour and state formation in an effort to provide motivation for the increased severity of the witch hunts of that time. Both secondary and primary sources have been used, in particular the contemporary demonologies by such authors as Bodin, and Kramer and Sprenger. The thesis is divided into five chapters, including an Introduction and Conclusion. The body of the thesis focuses on religious, scientific, and secular beliefs (Ch. 2), appearance and characteristics of witches (Ch. 3), and the activities and behaviours/actions of witches, (Ch. 4). This study concentrates on the similarities found across Europe, and, as the majority of witches persecuted were female, my thesis emphasizes women as victims of the witch hunts.

In 1952 a pro-Japanese group in Hawai'i became the religious movement Tenshō-Kōtai-Jingū-kyō, after the arrival of Sayo Kitamura, a charismatic woman from Japan called Ōgamisama. Her teaching was filled with traditional elements, and Japanese imperialism acquired a new form, and became a spiritual world – a world filled with spirits in need of redemption. To dance in an ego-free state and redeem the evil spirits was a goal for her followers, who learnt how to perform the ecstasy dance and to achieve an altered state of consciousness. Some families, though, were suspected of being carriers of evil spirits called inu-gami (dog spirits). This was a relic of witchcraft, and since hatred, jealousy, envy, and other emotional antipathies produced possession spirits among those who refused to accept Japan's position at the end of the war, Ōgamisama – the mouthpiece of The Sun Goddess Amaterasu – was welcomed as a faith healer and face saver.

Engagement with religion has recently become an important issue to development theoreticians, donors and practitioners. It is recognised that religion plays a key role in shaping moral frameworks and social identities, but little attention is paid to how this is played out in everyday life: the focus remains on ‘faith communities’ and ‘faith-based organisations’ as unified bodies. This thesis uses ethnographic methods to examine how members of two churches in rural Ghana are influenced by and engage with religion. Rather than viewing religion simply as (potentially) instrumental to development, it seeks to approach it in its own right. It challenges the rigidity of categories such as ‘physical/spiritual’ and ‘religious/non-religious’, and the notion of ‘faith communities’ as discrete, unified entities with coherent religious cosmologies. Insights from witchcraft studies and medical anthropology indicate that spiritual discourses are drawn on to negotiate hybrid and continuously changing modernities, and people tend to act pragmatically, combining and moving between discourses rather than fully espousing a particular ideology. Residents of the village studied appear to inhabit a world of different but interconnecting powers, which they are both, to some extent, subject to and able to marshal. These include God, secondary deities, juju, witchcraft, family authorities, traditional leaders, biomedicine and churches. Relationships with both spirits and humans are ambivalent and each of these powers can bring both blessings and harm. Religious experience is fluid, eclectic and pragmatic as people continually enter and exit groups and marshal different powers simultaneously to protect themselves from harm and procure blessings. Approaches by the development world seeking to engage with religion and to take seriously local people’s interests and viewpoints should thus be wary of oversimplification according to traditional Western social science categories, and be underpinned by an understanding of how religious discourses are interpreted and enacted in people’s everyday lives.

Nosso eixo temático se desenvolve a partir do questionamento do epíteto de Deusa da Feitiçaria atribuído tardiamente à deidade grega Hekate. A partir do período Clássico em Atenas iniciaram-se críticas às práticas mágico-religiosas cujo objetivo era fazer mal ao inimigo; realizadas por indivíduos (mágoi - magos) os quais também sabiam utilizá-las para a cura, como o uso das phármaka (ervas). O desenvolvimento da Escola de Medicina Hipocrática, no período Clássico, e seus tratados médicos, se configuram como uma das críticas direcionadas aos mágoi e das divindades que evocavam em suas práticas mágicas. Um tratado em especial, Da Doença Sagrada, combate a divinização da epilepsia e as práticas curativas desta enfermidade através da persuasão dos deuses. Platão também teceu críticas aos que ofereciam seus serviços mágicos de porta em porta por uma pequena quantia. Acreditamos que a partir dessas críticas se desenvolveu no imaginário social ateniense a relação entre a deusa grega Hekate e a magia de fazer mal ao inimigo cuja permanência é observada nos dias atuais. Nosso arcabouço teórico constitui-se dos conceitos desenvolvidos pelo filósofo polonês Bronislaw Baczko no verbete imaginação social na Enciclopedia Einaudi. / Our main theme is developed from the questioning of the epithet "Goddess of Witchcraft" later attributed to the Greek deity Hecate. From the Classical period in Athens began criticism of magic-religious practices whose aim was to hurt the enemy, held by individuals (magoi - wizards) who also knew how to use them for healing, such as the use of phármaka (herbs). The development of the Hippocratic School of Medicine in the Classical period, and his medical treatises, are configured as one of the criticisms directed at magoi and deities that evoked in their magical practices. A treated particular, The Sacred Disease, the combating of deification of epilepsy and healing practices of this disease by the persuasion of the gods. Plato also made criticism of the magicians who offered their services door to door for a small fee. We believe that from these criticisms developed in the social relationship between the Athenian Greek goddess Hecate and magic to hurt the enemy, whose residence is observed today. Our theoretical framework is made up of the concepts developed by Polish philosopher Bronislaw Baczko social imagination in the entry in the Encyclopedia Einaudi.

Les transformations politiques, familiales, religieuses, économiques et spatiales amènent à rompre avec les évidences entretenues sur les sociétés africaines comme celles de care au profit des personnes âgées au nom du respect social des âges. Ce travail déconstruit les représentations sociales de la vieillesse en montrant d’une part que les catégories de la vieillesse sont les produits des politiques publiques et d’autre part que les vieillesses sont hétérogènes, contextuelles et dynamiques. A partir d’études de cas élargis, cette thèse explore les expériences du vieillir à partir des formes de prise en charge des personnes vieillissantes dans la capitale Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso).Une ethnographie au sein des familles, dans une unité de soins spécialisé dans un centre hospitalier universitaire et dans un centre d’accueil de femmes accusées de sorcellerie permet de décrypter les relations complexes de prise en charge entre le niveau micro et macro sociale. Cette thèse est une contribution à une anthropologie du care de la vieillesse. / The political, family, religious, economic and spatial lead to break with evidence maintained on African societies like those in care for the elderly in the name of social respect of ages. This work deconstructs social representations of old age by showing both on the on hand, that the categories of old age are the product of public policies and on the other the old ages are heterogeneous, dynamic and contextual. From a broader the case studies, this thesis explores the experiences from old forms of care for elderly in the capital, Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). An ethnography within families, in a special care unit in a university hospital and a reception center for women accused of witchcraft allows to decrypt the complex relationships of care between the micro and macro social level. This thesis is a contribution to the anthropology of care in old age.

Witches and pagans have long faced historical persecution from the Catholic church and other patriarchal systems of power. In the eyes of mainstream society, they have been reduced to fragments of ancient history and entertaining media stereotypes. Real practitioners of witchcraft and paganism have remained fairly marginalized and trapped in the shadows, but this is starting to change. Witches and pagans have begun to involve themselves in large-scale political movements, combining spiritual power with direct action. While this phenomenon has a longer track record in the United States, in France it is extremely new. France is a country that has an even deeper history of pagan origins and Inquisition witch trials, wih a currently conflicted religious dynamic of being both secular and Catholic. Therefore, the reclamation and practice of witchcraft within an activist setting has even more revolutionary significance. Because the basic tenets of most witch and pagan spiritualities emphasizes fighting oppression, witchcraft has attracted marginalized groups, especially the LGBT community. The occult offers valuable new ways of examining activism and social justice using spirituality and magic.

Arbeit und Magie werden in der ländlichen Gesellschaft der Frühen Neuzeit neu bewertet. Während die Reformation die Arbeit aufwertet, verteufelt sie den Müßiggang. Als zentrale Lebensäußerung bei der man häufig mit dem Lebensbereich des Anderen in Berührung kommt, birgt Arbeit ein hohes Konfliktpotential in sich. Als Glaubensform basiert Magie auf kollektiven Übereinkünften und strebt einen praktikablen Umgang mit feindseligen Mächten an, so dass sie mit Formen alltäglicher Konfliktaustragung (Gegenzauber, Bezichtigung als Zauberer/Zauberin) bekämpft werden können. Auf Magie als Deutung oder Handlung haben ihre beginnende Kriminalisierung (Carolina) und das Vordringen der Schriftlichkeit nachhaltigen Einfluss. Aus diesen Veränderungen heraus empfängt das Themenpaar Arbeit und Magie seine Bedeutung, das hier in seinem Zusammenwirken erstmals untersucht wird und zwar am Beispiel der Mittelmark. Wie die Auswertung von Gesuchen mittelmärkischer Gerichte um Rechtsbelehrung an den Schöppenstuhl in Brandenburg zum neuen Delikt der Zauberei im Zeitraum von 1551 bis 1620 beweist, handelt es sich bei der Mittelmark um ein verfolgungsarmes Territorium, das sich daher bestens für die Untersuchung des selbstverständlichen Umgangs mit Magie eignet. In 98 von 136 Prozessen sind insgesamt 107 Frauen und 9 Männer angeklagt – darunter eine „weise Frau“ und zwei Männer als volksmagische Spezialisten. Der Höhepunkt der Spruchtätigkeit liegt zwischen 1571 und 1580. In dieser Phase tauchen erstmals dämonischer Vorstellungen auf und werden weibliche Magiedelikte auch auf Männer übertragen (Schadenszauber, Teufelspakt). Der Vorwurf des Teufelspaktes ist überwiegend im Nordwesten der Mittelmark anzutreffen und wird hier auch zuerst erhoben. Dennoch kann sich der dämonische Hexenglauben als städtisches Phänomen in der ländlich geprägten Mittelmark kaum durchsetzen, denn in keinem der untersuchten Fälle taucht der Terminus „Hexe“ auf. Die Rezeption der Hexenlehre in all ihren wesentlichen Elementen (Buhlschaft, Zusammenkunft auf dem Blocksberg und die Fahrt dorthin) ist erst 1613 abgeschlossen. Damit kommt sie für die Mittelmark zu spät, um ihre zerstörerische Wirkung zu entfalten: Die Auswirkungen des Dreißigjährigen Krieges überlagern alsbald die Vorstellungen von „bösen Zauberinnen“. Mit Hilfe der Studien von RAINER WALZ zur magischen Kommunikation und EVA LABOUVIE (Offizialisierungsstrategien) wurden drei Fälle näher untersucht, in denen die Arbeit entweder Konfliktanlass ist, mit magischen Mitteln beeinflusst wird oder es um die professionelle Ausübung von Magie im Bezug auf ländliche Arbeit geht. In Nassenheide wird 1573 dem Bauern Peter Calys das Abzaubern von Feldfrüchten unterstellt. Seine Nachbarschaft beobachtet ein ihr unbekanntes Ritual (vermutlich eine Schädlingsbekämpfung), was sie in kein geduldetes magisches Handeln einordnen kann. In Liebenwalde geht es 1614 um „fliegende Worte“, die im Streit um erschlagene Gänse ausgesprochen und später, nach einer Reihe von Unglücksfällen, vom Gescholtenen als Flüche umgedeutet werden. In Rathenow steht 1608 der Volksmagier Hermann Mencke vor Gericht. Sein Repertoire an magischen Hilfsleistungen umfasst Bann-, Heil- und Hilfszauber. Diese drei Fallstudien ergaben für das Thema Arbeit und Magie, dass Magie in der sich schwerfällig entwickelnden Landwirtschaft ein innovatives Potential zukommt. Das Experimentieren mit Magieformen bleibt jedoch Spezialisten der Volksmagie vorbehalten. Insbesondere in den Dörfern, wo die Grenzen zwischen männlicher und weiblicher Magie durchlässig sind, erweist sich die Geschlechtsspezifik der volkstümlichen Magie als Produkt der Lebens- und Arbeitsbeziehungen in der ländlichen Gesellschaft. Männer wie Frauen verfügen über die zu ihren Arbeitsbereichen passenden Hilfszauber. Dass Zauber zu Frauenarbeiten wie Milchverarbeitung und Bierbrauen überwiegen, liegt neben der Häufigkeit, mit der diese Verrichtungen anfallen, ihrer Anfälligkeit für Fehler und ihrer Bedeutung für die Ernährung daran, dass sie sich im Verborgenen abspielen und daher verdächtig sind. Außerdem handelt es sich um mühselige und monotone Tätigkeiten, die daher der Motivation durch Magie bedürfen. Die Schlichtheit der weiblichen Magie korrespondiert mit der geringeren Spezialisierung weiblicher Arbeit in der Landwirtschaft, die sich in der Verwendung einfacher Werkzeuge bekundet. Wörter können wegen der spezifischen Organisation der Hirnareale zur Sprachverarbeitung in einer auf Mündlichkeit beruhenden Kultur heilen oder eine lebensbedrohliche Waffe sein. Indem Magie das Profane dramatisiert, kommt ihr die Funktion einer Erinnerungskunst zu, die später durch die Schrift ausgefüllt wird. Die Schrift macht Magie als Mnemotechnik überflüssig und immunisiert gegen die Macht des Wortes. Damit reift auch die Skepsis an der Wirksamkeit von Magie. Schließlich werden Schadenszaubervorwürfe nur noch als Injurienklagen verhandelt. Sie bestimmen die Prozesse um Zauberei nach dem Großen Krieg. / Work and magic have been redefined by the rural society of the early modern period. The reformation revalorized labor and condemned idleness. As basic means of existence, which was highly interwoven with the living spheres of other people, labor contained a high potential of conflict. Magic was a set of beliefs based on collective agreements and aspired to deal with evil powers by fighting them with every day strategies of solving conflicts like counter spells or accusations of sorcery. As an interpretation or action, magic was greatly influenced by its definition as an act of crime and an increase in literacy. These changes inspired the subject of this paper, which will analyze for the first time the interplay of work and magic in the electorate of Brandenburg, more precisely the Mittelmark. The examination of legal proceedings between 1551 an 1620 proves that the Mittelmark has been less infected by witch craze, which makes it an appropriate area to investigate the everyday use of magic. In 98 of 136 proceedings 107 women and 9 men have been accused of sorcery, among them one midwife and two specialists of popular magic. The climax of the proceedings happened in the 1570s. Now, demonic imaginations occurred and former female acts of magic were attributed to men as well. The assumption of a pact between witches and devil was typical for the northwestern part of the Mittelmark and has also been brought up as a charge there for the first time. Witch craze, however, was a phenomenon of the cities and hardly infiltrated the rural Mittelmark. In none of the investigated proceedings the word “witch” has been used. The reception of witchcraft in all its details like the pact with the devil or the gathering and the flight to the Witches’ Sabbath was only completed in 1613, too late to develop its destructiveness: The effects of the Thirty Years’ War overshadowed the conceptions of evil witches. By using the studies of Rainer Walz and Eva Labouvie, I closely examined three legal proceedings, in which the cause of conflict was either work, influences of magic on work, or in which someone worked as a popular sorcerer within rural work life. In 1573, the peasant Peter Calys, living in Nassenheide, has been accused to spirit away the crops. His neighborhood observed an unknown ritual which did not appear to be any form of harmless magic. 1614 “flying words” have been spoken in Liebenwalde during a quarrel about slain geese and were reinterpreted later as curses. In Rathenow the popular sorcerer Hermann Mencke had to defend himself in a trial in 1608. His magic enabled him to banish, to cure diseases, or to repair misfortune. As one healing attempt failed, his whole practice was viewed in a different light by his clients. The investigation of these three cases showed that magic possessed an innovative potential in the otherwise only slowly developing agriculture. But only specialists of popular magic were allowed to experiment with magic. The gender specificity of magic proved rather to be a result of relations and working conditions in rural society than of abstract ideas. Both men and women were well grounded in suitable spells for their working sphere. The greater quantity of spells belonging to typical female tasks like dairy or brewery work can be explained not only by importance and frequency of such duties in peasant housekeeping. These error-prone procedures could also fail easily and were additionally executed in the seclusion of a chamber and therefore suspicious. Above all, the tasks were monotonous and exhausting and therefore needed a magical motivation. The more artless female magic, relying mostly on power of words, corresponded with the less specialized female labor in agriculture. Due to the different organization of the cerebral areas for speech processing in an oral society, words could be lethal or healing. By dramatizing the profane, magic fulfilled functions of a mnemotechnique which were substituted later by writing. Writing protected against the power of words and accelerated skepticism of magic. In the end, accusations of sorcery were taken as defamations, which dominated legal proceedings after the Thirty Years’ War.