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Taking the reader into the heart of one of the fastest-growing religious movements in North America, Sabina Magliocco reveals how the disciplines of anthropology and folklore were fundamental to the early development of Neo-Paganism and the revival of witchcraft. Magliocco examines the roots that this religious movement has in a Western spiritual tradition of mysticism disavowed by the Enlightenment. She explores, too, how modern Pagans and Witches are imaginatively reclaiming discarded show more practices and beliefs to create religions more in keeping with their personal experience of the world as sacred and filled with meaning. Neo-Pagan religions focus on experience, rather than belief, and many contemporary practitioners have had mystical experiences. They seek a context that normalizes them and creates in them new spiritual dimensions that involve change in ordinary consciousness.Magliocco analyzes magical practices and rituals of Neo-Paganism as art forms that reanimate the cosmos and stimulate the imagination of its practitioners. She discusses rituals that are put together using materials from a variety of cultural and historical sources, and examines the cultural politics surrounding the movement-how the Neo-Pagan movement creates identity by contrasting itself against the dominant culture and how it can be understood in the context of early twenty-first-century identity politics.Witching Culture is the first ethnography of this religious movement to focus specifically on the role of anthropology and folklore in its formation, on experiences that are central to its practice, and on what it reveals about identity and belief in twenty-first-century North America. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Excellent introduction to Neo-Pagan Witchcraft as practiced in North America. Although written by a professional anthropologist it is fully accessible to non-specialists. Personal accounts of ritual and magical training in more than one tradition illuminate the discussion. An index and bibliography increase the work's usefulness.
Choice Mar 2005 Vol. 42, Iss. 7
Natural History; Nov2004, Vol. 113 Issue 9
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Author Information
6+ Works 164 Members
Sabina Magliocco is Associate Professor of Anthropology at California State University, Northridge
Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America
Classifications
- Genres
- Anthropology, Religion & Spirituality, Nonfiction, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 299.94 — Religion Other religions Shintoism/Taoism/Other Mythologies Religions of other origin Modern revivals of witchcraft and modern Paganism
- LCC
- BF1573 .M34 — Philosophy, Psychology and Religion Psychology Occult sciences Witchcraft
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 116
- Popularity
- 279,751
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (4.38)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 1
