Witchcraft Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Concept== [[File:Baldung Hexen 1508 kol.JPG|thumb|upright=0.9|''[[The Witches (Hans Baldung)|The Witches]]'' by [[Hans Baldung]] (woodcut), 1508]] The concept of witchcraft and the belief in its existence have persisted throughout recorded history. According to the [[United Nations Special Rapporteur]] on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions there is "difficulty of defining 'witches' and 'witchcraft' across cultures{{--}}terms that, quite apart from their connotations in popular culture, may include an array of [[traditional medicine|traditional]] or [[faith healing]] practices and are not easily defined".<ref>https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/ie-albinism/witchcraft-and-human-rights</ref> The most common meaning of "witchcraft" worldwide is the use of harmful magic.{{r|HuttonFear|p=3β4}} Belief in malevolent magic has been found in cultures worldwide, regardless of development.<ref name="Singh" /><ref name=AnkarlooClark>{{Cite book |last1=Ankarloo |first1=Bengt |title=Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: Biblical and Pagan Societies |last2=Clark |first2=Stuart |date=2001 |publisher=[[University of Philadelphia Press]] |isbn=978-0826486066 |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania}}</ref>{{rp|page=xiii}} Most societies have feared an ability by some individuals to cause supernatural harm and misfortune to others. This may come from mankind's tendency "to want to assign occurrences of remarkable good or bad luck to agency, either human or superhuman".{{r|HuttonFear|p=10}} Historians and anthropologists see the concept of "witchcraft" as one of the ways humans have tried to explain strange misfortune.{{r|HuttonFear|p=10}}<ref name="Moro" /> Some cultures have feared witchcraft much less than others, because they tend to have other explanations for strange misfortune.{{r|HuttonFear|p=10}} For example, the [[Gaels]] of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands historically held a strong belief in [[Aos SΓ|fairy folk]], who could cause supernatural harm, and witch-hunting was very rare in these regions compared to other regions of the British Isles.{{r|HuttonFear|p=245}} Historian [[Ronald Hutton]] outlined five key characteristics ascribed to witches and witchcraft by most cultures that believe in this concept: the use of magic to cause harm or misfortune to others; it was used by the witch against their own community; powers of witchcraft were believed to have been acquired through inheritance or initiation; it was seen as immoral and often thought to involve communion with evil beings; and witchcraft could be thwarted by defensive magic, persuasion, intimidation or physical punishment of the alleged witch.{{r|HuttonFear|p=3β4}}{{efn|An extract from Hutton's ''The Witch'' covering this topic can be read online at https://yalebooksblog.co.uk/2017/07/31/five-characteristics-of-a-witch-an-extract-by-ronald-hutton/ {{r|HuttonFear|p=3-4}}}} It is commonly believed that witches use objects, words, and gestures to cause supernatural harm or that they simply have an innate power to do so. Hutton notes that both kinds of practitioners are often believed to exist in the same culture and that the two often overlap, in that someone with an inborn power could wield that power through material objects.{{r|HuttonFear|p=19β22}} One of the most influential works on witchcraft and concepts of magic was [[E. E. Evans-Pritchard]]'s ''Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic Among the Azande'', a study of [[Azande witchcraft]] beliefs published in 1937. This provided definitions for witchcraft which became a convention in anthropology.<ref name="Moro">{{cite book | chapter-url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea1915 | doi=10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea1915 | chapter=Witchcraft, Sorcery, and Magic | title=The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology | date=2017 | last1=Moro | first1=Pamela A. | pages=1β9 | isbn=9780470657225 }}</ref> However, some researchers argue that the general adoption of Evans-Pritchard's definitions constrained discussion of witchcraft beliefs, and even broader discussion of [[magic and religion]], in ways that his work does not support.<ref name=Mills /> Evans-Pritchard reserved the term "witchcraft" for the actions of those who inflict harm by their inborn power and used "sorcery" for those who needed tools to do so.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Evans-Pritchard |first=Edward Evan |url=https://archive.org/details/witchcraftoracle00evan/page/8 |title=Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande |date=1937 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0198740292 |location=Oxford |pages=[https://archive.org/details/witchcraftoracle00evan/page/8 8β9] |author-link=E. E. Evans-Pritchard}}</ref> Historians found these definitions difficult to apply to European witchcraft, where witches were believed to use physical techniques, as well as some who were believed to cause harm by thought alone.{{r|Thomas|pages=464β465}}<ref>Ankarloo, Bengt and Henningsen, Gustav (1990) ''Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 1, 14.</ref> The distinction "has now largely been abandoned, although some anthropologists still sometimes find it relevant to the particular societies with which they are concerned".{{r|HuttonFear|p=19β22}} While most cultures believe witchcraft to be something willful, some Indigenous peoples in Africa and Melanesia believe witches have a substance or an evil spirit in their bodies that drives them to do harm.{{r|HuttonFear|p=19β22}} However, such substances are described in other accounts as being able to act on their own while the witch is sleeping or unaware.<ref name=Mills>https://www.jstor.org/stable/42002806 The opposite of witchcraft: Evans-Pritchard and the problem of the person Martin A. Mills The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 19, No. 1 (March 2013)</ref> The Dobu people believe women work harmful magic in their sleep while men work it while awake.{{r|HuttonFear|p=18-19}} Further, in cultures where substances within the body are believed to grant supernatural powers, the substance may be good, bad, or morally neutral.<ref>https://www.nigerianjournalsonline.com/index.php/najp/article/download/1925/1881</ref><ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.4314/afrrev.v9i3.9 | title=Socio-Missiological Significance of Witchcraft Belief and Practice in Africa | date=2015 | last1=Gbule | first1=NJ | last2=Odili | first2=JU | journal=African Research Review | volume=9 | issue=3 | page=99 | doi-access=free }}</ref> Hutton draws a distinction between those who unwittingly cast the [[evil eye]] and those who deliberately do so, describing only the latter as witches.{{r|HuttonFear|p=10}} The universal or cross-cultural validity of these terms are debated.<ref name="Moro" /> Hutton states: {{blockquote|[Malevolent magic] is, however, only one current usage of the word. In fact, Anglo-American senses of it now take at least four different forms, although the one discussed above seems still to be the most widespread and frequent. The others define the witch figure as any person who uses magic{{nbsp}}... or as the practitioner of nature-based Pagan religion; or as a symbol of independent female authority and resistance to male domination. All have validity in the present.{{r|HuttonFear|p=10}}}} Dr. Fiona Bowie notes that the terms "witchcraft" and "witch" are used differently by scholars and the general public in at least four different ways that must be treated separately.<ref name="Moro" /> Neopagan writer [[Isaac Bonewits]] proposed dividing witches into even more distinct types including, but not limited to: Neopagan, Feminist, Neogothic, Neoclassical, Classical, Family Traditions, Immigrant Traditions, and Ethnic.<ref name=AdlerDrawing>{{Cite book |last=Adler |first=Margot |title=Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today |date=2006 |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |location=New York City |oclc=515560 |author-link=Margot Adler}}</ref>{{rp|65-68}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. 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