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Loading... Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath (1989)by Carlo Ginzburg
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. What we have tried to analyze here is not one narrative among many, but the matrix of all possible narratives. So concludes this Triumph of the Weird. What a Borgesian proclamation! My head spins with the density and erudition displayed in this ethnohistory of an idea, the Sabbath. This was a perfect book to roll around with for two days, discouraged from leaving the house by winter break and true winter weather. So Dr. Ginzburg ponders why Witch Trials all sounded similar across three centuries and throughout Europe. He pokes and ponders, parses and sifts until he finds that mushrooms are the answer. Sorry for the spoiler. Such was disseminated thousands of years ago by the Scythians and their travels both east and west. Throughout which such totems found themselves everywhere in folklore: all ceremony and symbolism trace back to that Eurasian jaunt. I suspect [b:The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth|820465|The White Goddess A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth|Robert Graves|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1311971301s/820465.jpg|219413] is a similar wormhole. One could grow fat and die on the footnotes alone. The elegance of the etymology is worth the price of admission. no reviews | add a review
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Weaving early accounts of witchcraft-trial records, ecclesiastical tracts, folklore, and popular iconography-into new and startling patterns, Carlo Ginzburg presents in Ecstasies compelling evidence of a hidden shamanistic culture that flourished across Europe and in England for thousands of years. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)133.43094Philosophy and Psychology Parapsychology And Occultism Specific Topics Witchcraft - Sorcery Witchcraft and Magickal Practice Biography; History By Place EuropeLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Despite this, the various customs which he documents are of interest and I was particularly interested in the opening chapter about the attitude to lepers in the late middle ages, and how they were treated as conspirators against Christendom. I was aware of the persecution of Jews and people viewed as having heretical beliefs, but had not known that lepers also were persecuted, tortured and executed in the same way as those groups and later, those accused of witchcraft.
The author does in places have a tendency to resort to academic language which went over my head rather, but the parts written straightforwardly were fine, and on the whole I rate this at 3 stars. ( )