num_pages: 152
description: In the ancient Near East the art of influencing the natural course of events by means of spells and other ritual forms was universal. The social and political role of magic is apparent too in the competition to achieve precedence over rival systems of ritual practice and belief. Within a region filled with petty kingdoms competing for power the Jews of ancient Palestine maintained control over adherents by developing distinct ritual practices and condemning as heretical those of nearby cults. Texts from Mesopotamia reveal a striking number of incantations rituals and medical recipes against witchcraft attesting to a profound fear of being bewitched. Magical rituals were also used to maintain harmony between the human and divine realms.The roots of European witchcraft and magic lie in Hebrew and other ancient Near Eastern cultures and in the Celtic Nordic and Germanic traditions of the continent. For two millennia European folklore and ritual have been imbued with the belief in the supernatural yielding a rich trove of histories and images.Witchcraft and Magic in Europe combines the traditional approaches of political legal and social historians with a critical synthesis of cultural anthropology historical psychology and gender studies. The series complete in six volumes provides a modern scholarly survey of the supernatural beliefs of Europeans from ancient times to the present day. Each volume of this ambitious six-volume series contains the work of distinguished scholars chosen for their expertise in a particular era or region.
language: English
title: Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, Volume 1: Biblical and Pagan Societies
publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press