This thesis is an examination of the belief and practice of popular magic, specifically related to charmers, in the presbyteries of Haddington and Stirling between the years 1603 and 1688. It is the first study of either locality which concentrates on identifying the difference between charmers and witches, and considers the practice of the former in the broader context of seventeenth-century attitudes towards health and disease of both orthodox medical practitioners and the wider population. The thesis examines charmers and their healing practice in reference to theories of power, popular and elite culture, the church and gender, and reveals new information about seventeenth-century society. The principles and practice of charmers are then compared to orthodox medicine and popular magic, and the recorded healing treatments and rituals have been examined and analysed in close detail. A comparative analysis has been made of the two localities which assesses and contrasts patterns of witchcraft and charming accusation on a parish level. By using evidence contained in kirk records, supplemented by secular court material, it has been shown that all levels of society identified differences between the practice and intent of charmers and witches. Accusation and prosecution of witches was influenced more by local elites, and by elite demonological theories, than accusations of charming. Importantly, the devil was not a feature of charming accusations. Due to the overt nature of charming, differences in its perception and acceptability were highlighted by the less severe penalties which were ordered by the kirk. The dilemma for the church and society was that the church had, to an extent, surrendered its practical healing role with the abandonment of pre-Reformation ritual. The emphasis on personal piety and prayer for the relief of mental and physical suffering did not appear to offer sufficient comfort for the rest of society.

Early modern representations of witchcraft have been the subject of considerable recent scholarship; however, three significant aspects of the corpus have not received sufficient attention and are treated independently here for the first time. This dissertation will examine how witchcraft imagery invited discourse concerning the reality of magic and witchcraft and suggested connections to contemporary issues through the themes of the witch’s violent autonomy, bestial passions, and unnatural interactions with the demonic and the dead. These three themes address specific features of the multifaceted identity of the witch and participate in a larger discussion that questioned the nature of humanity. Analysis of each issue reveals a complex, ambiguous, and often radically open treatment of the subject that necessitates a revision of how witchcraft imagery from this period is understood. Each understudied aspect of witchcraft imagery is explored through a series of case studies that have not appeared together until now. Previously unexamined artworks with inventive content are introduced and canonical pictures are examined from new perspectives. These images were created in the principal artistic centers, the Italian city-states, the German provinces, and the Low Countries, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when the controversy over witchcraft was at its peak. Although they are few in number, these highly innovative images are the most effective and illuminating means by which to access these themes. These works of art provide valuable insights into important issues that troubled early modern society. Chapter 1 reveals how witchcraft imagery produced in the Low Countries is concerned with the witch’s violent rejection of the social bonds and practices upon which the community depends for survival. Chapter 2 examines how the figure of the witch was used to explore concerns about the delineation and transgression of the human-animal boundary. Chapter 3 exposes an interest in the physical possibility of witchcraft; artists questioned the ability of witches and demons to manipulate the material world. Issues include the witches’ capacity to reanimate dead bodies and create monstrous creatures. Together these images demonstrate active and meaningful engagement with the theories, beliefs, and practices associated with witchcraft.

Early modern representations of witchcraft have been the subject of considerable recent scholarship; however, three significant aspects of the corpus have not received sufficient attention and are treated independently here for the first time. This dissertation will examine how witchcraft imagery invited discourse concerning the reality of magic and witchcraft and suggested connections to contemporary issues through the themes of the witch’s violent autonomy, bestial passions, and unnatural interactions with the demonic and the dead. These three themes address specific features of the multifaceted identity of the witch and participate in a larger discussion that questioned the nature of humanity. Analysis of each issue reveals a complex, ambiguous, and often radically open treatment of the subject that necessitates a revision of how witchcraft imagery from this period is understood. Each understudied aspect of witchcraft imagery is explored through a series of case studies that have not appeared together until now. Previously unexamined artworks with inventive content are introduced and canonical pictures are examined from new perspectives. These images were created in the principal artistic centers, the Italian city-states, the German provinces, and the Low Countries, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when the controversy over witchcraft was at its peak. Although they are few in number, these highly innovative images are the most effective and illuminating means by which to access these themes. These works of art provide valuable insights into important issues that troubled early modern society. Chapter 1 reveals how witchcraft imagery produced in the Low Countries is concerned with the witch’s violent rejection of the social bonds and practices upon which the community depends for survival. Chapter 2 examines how the figure of the witch was used to explore concerns about the delineation and transgression of the human-animal boundary. Chapter 3 exposes an interest in the physical possibility of witchcraft; artists questioned the ability of witches and demons to manipulate the material world. Issues include the witches’ capacity to reanimate dead bodies and create monstrous creatures. Together these images demonstrate active and meaningful engagement with the theories, beliefs, and practices associated with witchcraft.

Lack of knowledge about the lived experience of leisure is a result of the distanced, objective way in which it has primarily been studied (Hemingway, 1999), and there is an increased interest in conceptualizing leisure as a dynamic force for social and political change (Shaw, 1994; 2001; Mair, 2002/03; Sharpe, 2008). Constructs such as resistance (Shaw, 2001), critically reflexive leisure (Mair, Sumner & Rotteau, 2008) and pleasure-politics (Sharpe, 2008) illuminate the role and potential of individual and collective leisure in social change. Within a critical constructionist, qualitative research design, this study of witchcamps and magical activism was informed by feminist, queer, and leisure theories. Data were collected through participant-observation at 2 witchcamps, 21 semi-structured intensive interviews, 11 focused interviews, and 19 elicited electronic text submissions. This research reflects the emerging trend within leisure studies of using qualitative approaches and reflexivity to look at our own leisure (Axelsen, 2009; Collinson, 2007; Havitz, 2007; Lashua & Fox 2006; MacKellar, 2009; McCarville, 2007; Parry & Johnson, 2007; Rowe, 2006; Samdahl, 2008). As a member of the witchcamp community under study, the research was carried out in the researcher’s own community ‘backyard’ (Glesne & Peshkin, 1992), and as insider research, it provides a detailed description of alternative culture from the viewpoint of a professional researcher and personal insider. Data analysis followed a constant-comparative method, and employed memo writing, thematic, and focused coding. The study provides insight into the intersection of leisure, ecospirituality, community, and social change. Setting, activities, beliefs, and community intersect to function as a container for personal and social transformation, and provide an ‘antidote’ to alienation and isolation experienced by individuals in the dominant culture. The study provides empirical evidence of the centrality of leisure to community responsibility for broader social, political and environmental concerns, as theorized by Arai and Pedlar (2003). This research furthers the perspective that community is multidimensional, and has the potential to unify marginalized groups (Arai & Pedlar, 2003). The findings of this study also reflect Mair’s (2006) conceptualization of community as one that provides a space for celebration of diversity.

Between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the 17th century, western Europe is the stage for one of history's demonological crisis. Many critics associated this witch hunt with an episode of collective delirium and perhaps also irrationality on the rise. Nevertheless, witchcraft is first and foremost an object of knowledge---demonology---, which many writers, jurists and theologians attempted to construct, define and constantly re-evaluate. Demonology was progressively elaborated in the midst of a culture where multiples beliefs and ideologies were interpreted to be the language, or the Christian testimony of a universe troubled by the signs of devil. / As we progress towards the 17th century, the demonological discourse tends to distance itself from the traditional knowledge, searching for its truth in facts and experience. Shifting towards empiricism, the witch's body becomes the privileged stage for a confrontation between the devil and the judge. However, in order for this body to reveal its monstrosity, the demonologist must become both exegete and producer of words, which in turn, he finds in the witch as tangible signs of her otherness. Moreover, in his desire to interrogate the witch, the scholar wishes mostly to question the feminine nature, cloaking her with an otherness of problematic and dangerous attributes. Through scholarly language, Renaissance demonology wishes to significantly organize the divided world of witchcraft and in the process, a certain feminine identity, diabolically other. / Through the works of two demonologists having had a direct experience with trials, the Discours execrable des sorciers by Henri Boguet (1602) and the Tableau de l'inconstance des mauvais anges et demons (1612) by Pierre de Lancre, we explore the link between malefic femininity and witchcraft: the images they convey, the fascination they trigger and their mirroring through and in writing.

Thesis (PhD) -- Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media & Philosophy, Department of Anthropology, 2006. / "December 2005". / Bibliography: leaves 327-357. / Characteristics of ritual abuse discourse -- A plethora of theorists (and of differences between them) -- Defining ritual abuse: differences, disputes and bad faith -- Allegations, investigations and trials -- Abuse accomodation and recovered memories -- Moral panic and witch hunt -- Witch craze -- Outsiders, accusations and obligations -- Accusations of ritual abuse in Australia -- Witches and pedophiles -- Conclusion. / Allegations of "ritual abuse" were first made in North America in the 1970s and early 1980s. It was claimed that an extremely severe form of sexual and physical child abuse was being perpetrated by Satanists or the devotees of comparably unorthodox religions. Perpetrators were often supposed to be invloved in other serious criminal activities. Allegations were subsequently made in Britain, Holland, Australia and New Zealand. The thesis examines the bitter debates that these claims provoked, including the dispute about whether ritual abuse "really happens". -- The thesis also contributes to the debate by providing some anthropological insights into why these strange and incredible claims were made and why they were accepted by certain therapists, officials, journalists and members of the public. It is argued that the panic over ritual abuse was a panic about what anthropologists know as "witchcraft" and the thesis makes this argument through an analysis of the events (mainly discursive events) of the panic. The thesis in particular takes up Jean La Fontaine's argument about the similarities between accusations of ritual abuse and those made against "witches" in early modern Europe and in non-Western societies. The similarities between the kinds of people typically accused of perpetrating ritual abuse and those accused of practising witchcraft are considered, with a special emphasis on those cases where accusations were made by adult "survivors" and where alleged perpetrators were affluent and of relatively high social status. The thesis examines how supposed perpetrators of ritual abuse were denied the social support properly due to them and how accusations--and the persecution that followed--achieved certain political, professional and personal ends for survivors and their supporters. -- The thesis also considers similarities between "crazed" witch hunting and the recent spread of the panic about ritual abuse throughout much of the English-speaking West. The peculiar panic about witch-like figures that occurred in Australia -- especially in NSW--is examined. The thesis shows how, at a time when Australians had become very sceptical about claims of ritual abuse, activists were able to incite and affect the latest of a succession of homophobic panics in Australia. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / 357 leaves ill

Thesis (Master).

No description available.

Similar to other countries in southern Africa, the relationship between African Spiritual Churches and New Pentecostal Churches in Botswana has been characterized by considerable tension and mutual distrust. Although both movements highlight the third person of the Trinity, the Spirit of God, their followers view the world around them very differently. This study has investigated the relationship between these two types of churches by focusing on their efforts to produce unique ideologies of spiritual power in relation to the two major ideologies in the Botswana context, namely the reified Setswana worldview and the globalizing forces of Western modernity. In order to provide a careful analysis of the relationship between these movements, two churches from each group were chosen as representatives. The Hermon Church and Revelation Blessed Peace Church served as examples for the African Spiritual Churches, while Goodnews Ministries and Bible Life Ministries were the New Pentecostal subjects. Primary research methods included interviews with church leadership, questionnaires for members of each church and participant observation. Church origins, biblical hermeneutics, healing and deliverance rituals, and approaches to cultures and covenants formed the key areas of study. Creating unique “worlds of the Spirit” by means of innovative tactics, both types of churches seek to enable their followers to live well as they produce their contextualized ideologies of power. However, even though both movements lay claim to the Spirit of God as their source of power, the distinctive ideologies emerging from their sermons, technologies, rituals and symbols have brought them into conflict with one another. For African Spiritual Churches, the Spirit of God meets people in the midst of life’s struggles, providing healing and wholeness in all relationships. Their willingness to adopt certain elements of the reified Setswana worldview is a major issue in the conflict with New Pentecostal Churches. For New Pentecostals, the Spirit breaks all covenants made in the past, and empowers “born again” believers to succeed in a modern environment filled with opportunities and challenges. The key missiological concern of this study is to explore the unique efforts of these movements to contextualize the gospel message for Botswana. / Church Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D.Th. (Missiology)

The study aimed at giving a thick description of African families' experiences, views, cultural beliefs and interpretations of traumatic brain injury (TBI), and making recommendations for rehabilitation. It was conducted from the qualitative research paradigm, adopting a phenomenological research method. Twenty-two pairs of participants (patients and their caregivers )were interviewed about their perception of TBI. The semi-structured interviews were conducted at the participants' homes in Sesotho, and where necessary in their home languages. The consequences of TBI were found to follow universal trends (Oddy, 1984). However, participants' perceptions, as shaped by their experiences, views and cultural beliefs, were found to be unique. On analysing the gathered data, using inductive data analysis, it was found that African families' interpretations of TBI were based on beliefs about witchcraft, thwasa, Satanism, ancestral anger and God's wish. Based on these findings, rehabilitation services in the form of education, advocacy, networking and family therapy are recommended. / Psychology / M.A.(Clinical Psychology)