Summary: The thesis is advanced that there are clinical states which are interpreted by Maoris as Makutu or Bewitchment. These are not rare, although not commonly recognised by Medical Practitioners. The thesis is advanced, from a historical survey and clinical experience, that although the clinical manifestions of the syndrome of Makutu have altered over the last one hundred years, the essential nature has not changed, and that it is at all times the explanation of natural phenomena in supernatural terms. This thesis attempts to contrast and discuss the nature of Makutu, past and present and to describe the clinical manifestations as they exist in the present day in the North Island of New Zealand and to show there are public and social aspects of Makutu not usually appreciated. Some of the factors which have led to the perpetuation of Makutu are discussed. Except where otherwise specified, Makutu is used as a general term for Witchcraft and sorcery. Makutu also has a specific meaning for a certain type of Witchcraft.

Extensive witchcraft trials took place in Sweden between the years 1668 and 1676. Approximately three hundred individuals were executed during a period of very few years. However, far more common were trials of a more modest nature, concerning minor magic and malevolent witchcraft without aspects of diabolism. The present dissertation deals with these minor cases, which have previously attracted very little academic interest. The source material for this study comprises 353 cases (involving 880 individuals), submitted to the Göta Royal Superior Court by informants during the period 1635-1754. The area of jurisdiction covered by the Göta Royal Superior Court embraced the southernmost areas of Sweden. This study discusses witchcraft and magic trials from three perspectives: 1. The elite perspective (the acculturation model); 2. The functionalistic conflict perspective; and 3. The systems-oriented perspective of popular magic. Ideologically and religiously coloured perceptions of magic became more pervasive at the same time as the number of trials increased. This was caused by central administrative measures, which broadened the opportunities for pursuing cases on the local level. However, the increased influence of the dite cannot be characterized as a conquest of folk culture by the elite. It is more adequate to speak of a movement of repression, originating in a state become all the more civilized. Death sentences were few and far between and most of the cases concerned minor magic. There existed no independent popular level such as emerges in the reports from the proceedings of the trials. People clearly differentiated between different types of malevolent witchcraft when standing before the courts. They were more likely to go directly to trial when the signs preceding their misfortunes hinted at magical activity (viewed as sorcery), than they were when suspicions against witches were based on threats made in conflict situations. Witchcraft which had its basis in conflict situations appears to have been more dependent upon first receiving encouragement in the form of obliging courts, before people would take their cases to trial. This has created a pattern which ostensibly makes it seem that the level of social tensions was low, so that people therefore appeared indifferent toward malevolent witchcraft. Just as illusory is the competing image of an uninfluenced popular perception of witchcraft which actually emerges in the Göta Royal Superior Court. However, this does not mean that the actions of individuals was characterized by an assimilation of the values of the dominant culture. Receptivity to the signals of the elite was certainly clear, but at the same time the responses indicate a great deal of independence. Popular participation in witchcraft trials took place without any prerequisite profound cultural transformations. / digitalisering@umu

Thesis (MA(Practical Theology)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 83-94).

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 1992. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

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Past Interference connects the subjects of religion, spirituality and sports, through an examination of my own personal and political connections to football culture, as well as through my attempt to intervene artistically, using a strategy of conflating various historical references into the media of the National Football League. The question at the heart of this paper is what it means to be on the inside of a spectacle, specifically trying to puzzle out how one comes to know that about oneself.

The Flagellum haereticorum fascinariorum (The Scourge of Heretical Bewitchers) was written by the Dominican inquisitor Nicolas Jacquier in 1458. Jacquier wrote the text to combat a sect of diabolical witches, the fascinarii, who worshipped demons at nocturnal “synagogues” and performed terrible crimes with demonic aid. The Flagellum was also aimed at those who did not believe in the physical reality of the sect or of interactions between humans and demons. This thesis, the first English-language work to examine the Flagellum in detail, traces Jacquier’s argument and endeavours to understand how his text was shaped within, and also helped shape, the cultural structures of late-medieval Burgundy. / Jacquier’s argument can be loosely divided into four parts. The first section defines the ways in which demons relate to humans, concluding that demons can act to delude humans both within the body, and through real, bodily interaction in the external world. The second section attacks the argument, based on the famous Canon Episcopi, that the fascinarii are simply deluded spiritually by the interior manipulation of demons. The reality of a demonworshiping sect raised questions about God’s omnipotence and benevolence. The Flagellum’s third part therefore elaborates a theology of divine permission based on the metaphor of the scourge to argue that God justly permits demonic action in the world. The final chapters of the tract turn to the legal dilemmas raised by the fascinarii. Jacquier argues that the fascinarii freely choose to sin and addresses difficulties associated with the possibility of demonic interference in witness statements. / Alongside my description of Jacquier’s argument, I have endeavoured to situate the Flagellum within the cultural structures of late-medieval Burgundy. I examine how the Flagellum can be read alongside a tale from the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles to reveal tropes of demonic deception within fifteenth-century Burgundian courtly texts. I explore the possibilities of interpreting the Flagellum’s treatment of gender within the Dominican reform movement, with its focus on external and communal piety. I interpret the symbolic language of the scourge and trampling within Christian cultural structures of redemption through abasement. Setting the tract in dialogue with fifteenth century Burgundian art, I begin the task of understanding the ways in which time is organised within the Flagellum through an examination of scholastic epistemology. Finally, I situate arguments about the fascinarii and free will within debates over free will and determinism. The result of these discussions is an appreciation of the Flagellum’s immersion in interrelated cultural structures of bodily reality, sight, time and knowledge. / Through this analysis, I locate the study of witchcraft within a wider cultural history, uniting the interpretation of Burgundian art, literature and theology with an intensive study of the Flagellum.

Techn. Univ., Habil.-Schr.--Chemnitz. / Quellenverz. S. 659 - 678. - Literaturverz. S. 678 - 704.