In the Arthurian romances of the Middle Ages, the character of Morgan le Fay was transformed dramatically from her Welsh original, the goddess Modron. The effect was to vilify the enchantress so that medieval Christians would not be sympathetic to her character. This study consults the oldest available Welsh mythological and historical texts as well as the medieval romances surrounding King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Also consulted are some of the top contemporary Arthurian scholars. By unraveling Morgan’s transformation and the reasons for such change, it is revealed that medieval demonizing of old pagan deities was not limited to male deities. Instead, the most ancient deity of all, the Great Mother Goddess slowly became one of the most infamous characters in literature, Morgan le Fay.

This paper discusses the conflicts between some cultural practices of the Midzichenda (i. e. divination, healing and witchcraft) and the Kenyan Law. For decades, diviners and healers have been misconceived and condemned wholesale as `witchdoctors´, `wizards´ or `witches´. This misconception has seen many innocent diviners and healers mercilessly arrested, hurriedly arraigned in court, heavily fined and (or) eventually imprisoned, and their paraphernalia confiscated and finally destroyed by the state. The paper calls for proper understanding of the intricate belief in and practise of divination and healing vis-a-vis witchcraft and proposes ways which could help solve the conflicts.

, Habil--Julius-Maximilian-Universität Würzburg, 2004.

Thesis (PhD) -- Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media & Philosophy, Department of Anthropology, 2006. / "December 2005". Bibliography: leaves 327-357.

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. (Psychology)

Orientador: Antonio Celso Ferreira / Banca: Ana Raquel Marques da Cunha Martins / Banca: Ivan Esperança Rocha / Banca: Daniela Buono Calainho / Banca: Paulo Roberto Cimó Queiroz / Resumo: O presente trabalho tem por finalidade desenvolver uma pesquisa relacionada à vida cotidiana das sociedades que habitaram o Mato Grosso (1719-1830), e o papel das práticas mágicas e feitiçarias realizadas por esses grupos. Para tal serão analisadas as sociedades que penetraram essa região, como as européias, africanas e seus descendentes brasileiros, como as autóctones que viviam nessa região, como Paiaguá, Guaicuru, Caiapó e Bororo. Mais que uma análise etnográfica desses grupos, buscar-se-á desenvolver um entendimento das possibilidades do uso das práticas mágicas e feitiçarias nesse cotidiano, como resultado do diálogo entre as diversas matrizes culturais, aqui apresentadas. Diálogo esse, visando apresentar soluções para as questões da vida material e imaterial, ou metafísica, surgidas como respostas às questões gerais do período estudado, ou como resultado das especificidades da sociedade matogrossense do setecentos. Assim, serão privilegiados: o cotidiano como espaço formulador de questões, de problemas e as práticas mágicas e a feitiçaria como elementos solucionadores, formuladores de respostas a essas questões. / Abstract: The present work aims to develop a research related to the daily life of societies that lived in Mato Grosso (1719-1830) and the role of magical practices and witchcraft used by them. For doing so, we will analyze the societies that came to this region, such as the Europeans, the Africans and their Brazilian descendants, and the Indians that were living in this territory, such as the Paiaguá, the Guaicuru, the Caiapó and the Bororo. More than just an ethnographical analysis of these groups, we aim to develop an understanding of the possible uses of the magical practices and witchcraft in this daily life as a result of the dialogue between distinct cultural forms. This cultural dialogue aim to deal with metaphysical questions and to those related to material and immaterial aspects of human existence, which have arisen from the general characteristics of the studied period or even as a result of the specificity of the1700s Matogrossense society. For instance, firstly we will highlight daily life as a space that creates questions and after magical practices and witchcraft as the elements that can give solutions to these questions. / Doutor

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.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2017-07-04T20:00:31Z No. of bitstreams: 1 dartagnanabdiassilva.pdf: 4505385 bytes, checksum: 6fcd6fd053771b01e7f44fbe614bf30e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2017-08-08T14:45:40Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 dartagnanabdiassilva.pdf: 4505385 bytes, checksum: 6fcd6fd053771b01e7f44fbe614bf30e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-08T14:45:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dartagnanabdiassilva.pdf: 4505385 bytes, checksum: 6fcd6fd053771b01e7f44fbe614bf30e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-24 / CNPq - Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Criada no século XX, a Wicca pode ser enquadrada compondo o espectro da chamada Nova Era. Caracteriza-se por ser uma religião autonômica, ecológica e de privatização religiosa. Herda dessa constituição um processo de reencantamento do mundo e, ambiguamente, de manutenção do mundo secularizado em que vivemos. Da mesma forma, em sua formação atual, ela pode ser considerada, simultaneamente, um processo de communitas, enquanto também se articula a partir de comunidades emocionais. Esses dois conceitos, aparentemente distintos – um vindo de Victor Turner, o outro de Danièle Hervieu-Léger –, parecem se entrelaçar, quando analisamos a dinâmica desse campo: em sua estrutura ritualística e religiosa/social. Compondo a ambientalização moderna dessa religião essa dinâmica constante provoca tensões e porosidades no campo. O primeiro descreve com exatidão o processo da traçagem do Círculo Mágico e o segundo se dirige aos seus covens. Desse modo, o presente trabalho propõe algumas reflexões a respeito da realidade wiccana encontrada na cidade do Rio de Janeiro (RJ). Buscase compreender, portanto, a pergunta “quem são os bruxos modernos?”. A resposta a essa pergunta nos leva à compreensão crescente e profunda desse tema tão recente e tão vasto de pesquisa. / Created in the 20th century, Wicca can be framed composing the New Age spectrum. It is characterised for being an autonomic and ecologic religion and also for religious privatization. For its constitution, it inherits a process of re-enchantment of the world and, ambiguously, of maintenance of the secularised world that we live in. In the same way, in its current formation, it can be considered, simultaneously, a process of communitas, as it comes from emotional communities. These two concepts, aparently distinct one from another – the first coming from Victor Turner, and the other from Danièle Hervieu-Léger –, seem to interweave when we analyse the dynamics of this field: in its ritualistic and religious/social structure. Composing the modern environmentalization of this religion, the constant dynamics causes tensions and porosity in the area. The first describes with exactitude the drawing process of the Magic Circle; the second heads to its covens. Therefore, the present work proposes some reflexions concearning the Wicca reality found in the city of Rio de Janeiro (RJ). Thus, it is an attempt to comprehend the following question: “Who are the modern witches [Wiccans]?” The answer to this question lead us to the crescent and deep comprehension of this very recent and wide topic.

Orientador: Mariza Correa / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-19T01:15:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Passador_LuizHenrique_D.pdf: 15504513 bytes, checksum: ba82e021b1774ffbe8562473e06d4635 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: Esta tese é resultado de pesquisas etnográficas realizadas no distrito de Homoíne, Província de Inhambane, no Sul de Moçambique. Visando compreender como se dá a experiência da população local com o HIV/Aids num contexto rural, a partir de suas concepções "tradicionais" sobre as doenças e curas, o trabalho investiga os elementos que constituem o campo reconhecido emicamente como "tradição" e suas conseqüências pragmáticas no trato com a epidemia. Analisando o parentesco, as relações de gênero, a feitiçaria e a medicina tradicional, procura-se demonstrar como as concepções de doenças tradicionais estão associadas a um contexto de predação que tem suas raízes nas guerras que construíram as formas de socialidade na região Sul de Moçambique. Nesse contexto de conflitos que atravessam a história desde o período pré-colonial, as doenças tendem a ser experimentadas pelo viés persistente dessas concepções tradicionais, que associam as enfermidades a formas de predação fundadas no estatuto de alteridade dos agentes sociais que as produzem ou como rupturas de ordens internas ao campo social. A experiência com o HIV/Aids se dá dentro desse cenário, o que interfere nas formas de concepção local da doença e afeta as formas de controle da epidemia / Abstract: This thesis is the result of ethnographic researches conducted in the district of Homoíne, Inhambane Province, southern Mozambique. In order to comprehend the local experience with HIV / AIDS in a rural context through the "traditional" concepts about diseases and healing, the paper investigates the elements that constitute the emic field known as "tradition" and their pragmatic consequences in dealing with the epidemic. Analyzing kinship, gender relations, witchcraft and traditional healing, it seeks to demonstrate how traditional conceptions of disease are associated with a context of predation that has its roots in the wars that built the forms of sociality in the southern Mozambique. In this context of conflicts that pervade the story since the pre-colonial period, diseases tend to be experienced by the persistent bias of these traditional views, that the diseases associated with forms of predation based on the status of alterity of the social agents that produce them or as internal breaks the social order. The experience with HIV / AIDS takes place within that scenario, which interferes with the local ways to conceive the disease and affects the ways to control the epidemic / Doutorado / Doutor em Antropologia Social

The purpose of this essay is to explore actions of the representatives of the church during the first of the trials of what later developed to the great swedish witch-hunts between the years 1668–1676. The method of this study is microhistorical, where you look at local events that then can be applied on a bigger scale. The theoretical ideas applied are Michel Foucault theories of a society at war, and the dynamics between central power and peripheral power in that kind of situation. By applying these theories, the relations between central juridical directives and the enforcement of these in a local place can be studied. The main subject of interest for this essay is clerical representative Lars P. Elvius, who, during the trials, were the one responsible and the one the rest of the court relied on for interpreting the crimes of witchcraft, maleficum and other crimes of supernatural art. By looking at the directives and laws concerning witchcraft, how he interpreted the testimonies of the accused and what kind of verdict was given at the end of the trial, the relationship between central directives and peripheral enforcement is made clear. This study is part chronological and part thematic; the directives and laws presented first, followed by the interpretation during the trial categorized thematically, with correlating testimony and crime, and finally the verdict at the end of the trial.