Journal articles on the topic 'Witches and witchcraft'
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1
Taiwo, Olusegun Stephen. "The Social Burden of Witchcraft accusation and Its Victims: An Exercise in Philosophy." Yoruba Studies Review 5, no. 1.2 (December 21, 2021): 1–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.32473/ysr.v5i1.2.130117.
Abstract:
The killing and burning of witches in contemporary era seem to be unabated. The contemporary minds have not succeeded in ‘scienticising’ belief in witchcraft. In Africa, Canada and India, the incidence, accusations and extrajudicial sanctions against witches are routine. The phenomenon of witchcraft is justified to be real. Before a misfortune could be plausibly attributed to witchcraft, it had to be seen as the outcome of a certain type of social situation. For in a witch-case the suspect was usually a person who had been involved in a relationship of real or presumed hostility towards the victim, then an accusation of witchcraft originated with someone living in close proximity to the suspect, and was meant to explain some local and personal misfortune. We then explain the socialization of witchcraft accusation in terms of the immediate social environment of the witch and her accuser. What we have in mind is that there are a lot of socialization between the witch and her victims in such a way that witches do not attack stranger and the victim can easily guess who is socially responsible for his/her misfortunes. We shall argue therefore, that once we are able to explain witchcraft causal reasonable explanation, the kind of metaphysical change of mind on witchcraft and the subsequent incidence, accusations and extrajudicial sanctions against witches would be reduced.
2
Mara-McKay, Nico. "Witchcraft Pamphlets at the Dawn of the Scottish Enlightenment." Canadian Journal of History 56, no. 3 (December 1, 2021): 381–401. http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/cjh.56-3-2020-0038.
Abstract:
In 1563, witchcraft was established as a secular crime in Scotland and it remained so until 1736. There were peaks and valleys in the cases that emerged, were prosecuted, were convicted, and where people were executed for the crime of witchcraft, although there was a decline in cases after 1662. The Scottish Enlightenment is characterized as a period of transition and epistemological challenge and it roughly coincides with this decline in Scottish witchcraft cases. This article looks at pamphlets published in the vernacular between 1697 and 1705, either within Scotland or elsewhere, that focused on Scottish witches, witchcraft, or witch hunting. Often written anonymously, these popular pamphlets about witches, witchcraft, and witch trials reveal the tensions at play between various factions and serve as a forum for ongoing debates about what was at stake in local communities: chiefly, the state of one’s soul and the torture and murder of innocents.
3
Rutkowski, Paweł. "Animal Transformation in Early Modern English Witchcraft Pamphlets." Anglica. An International Journal of English Studies, no. 28/1 (September 20, 2019): 21–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.7311/0860-5734.28.1.02.
Abstract:
Animal metamorphosis was a traditional component of witchcraft beliefs during the European early modern witch-hunts, during which it was taken for granted that witches could and did turn into animals regularly in order to easier do evil. It must be noted, however, that the witch-turned-animal motif was much less common in England, where witches did possess the shape-shifting abilities but relatively rarely used them. A likely reason for the difference, explored in the present paper, was the specifically English belief that most witches were accompanied and served by familiar spirits, petty demons that customarily assumed the shape of animals. It seems that the ubiquity of such demonic shape-shifters effectively satisfied the demand for magical transformations in the English witchcraft lore.
4
Drucker-Brown, Susan. "Mamprusi witchcraft, subversion and changing gender relations." Africa 63, no. 4 (October 1993): 531–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1161005.
Abstract:
AbstractIn the pre-colonial Mamprusi kingdom female witches were either executed after sentencing in the king's court, or segregated in a special section of a major market town where they received medicine to neutralise their witchcraft. This treatment of witches is a manifestation of the centralising process at work in the kingdom, and also exemplifies the division of ritual labour characteristic of the polity. Recent changes in the constitution of the witches' village have been accompanied by new Mamprusi conceptions of witchcraft, drawing on a long-standing belief in the power of women to subvert the social order. Radical changes in national political and economic conditions, and local changes in the division of labour, are threatening the idealised norms of Mamprusi gender relations. Mamprusi witch-hunting emerges as an attempt to control women, who are perceived as a source of these wider disorders.
5
Igwe, Leo. "Media and Witchcraft Accusation in Northern Ghana." Secular Studies 1, no. 2 (October 10, 2019): 186–203. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/25892525-00102001.
Abstract:
Abstract There has been a growing visibility of witchcraft beliefs in the African media. The dominant paradigm in the academic literature on witchcraft is that the media reinforce witchcraft beliefs by disseminating information and ideas that are related to witchcraft accusations and witch hunting. However, a careful examination shows that this is not always the case because the media serve other counter purposes. Using ethnographic data from the Dagomba area in Northern Ghana and the concept of forum shopping, this paper explores how accused persons in the Dagomba communities utilize the limited media coverage to enhance their responses to witchcraft accusations. Apart from disseminating information regarding the activities of assumed witches, the media publicize perspectives that reject witchcraft notions.
6
Miller, Chris. "Sephora’s Starter Witch Kit." Nova Religio 25, no. 3 (February 1, 2022): 87–112. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/nr.2022.25.3.87.
Abstract:
In late summer 2018, beauty chain Sephora announced the release of a “Starter Witch Kit” in collaboration with fragrance company Pinrose. By September, Sephora announced it was cancelling the product after receiving extensive criticism on social media, particularly from Modern Witches. This article examines the uproar surrounding Sephora’s Starter Witch Kit as it played out on Twitter. The debate on Twitter included Witches protesting the appropriation and commodification of their sacred traditions, as well as outsiders who questioned the right of Witches to complain about spiritual theft. This Twitter debate was an opportunity for Modern Witches to substantiate and legitimize their identities as Witches. Witches distinguished their identities as “authentic” by mocking certain products and consumers, and demarcated practices/traditions as distinctive of Witchcraft by calling them sacred. By accusing Sephora of spiritual theft, Witches also largely elided their own engagement with appropriation from religious traditions.
7
Solomon, Rukundo. "WITCH-KILLINGS AND THE LAW IN UGANDA." Journal of Law and Religion 35, no. 2 (July 15, 2020): 270–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jlr.2020.25.
Abstract:
AbstractPeople believed to be witches have been killed in many parts of Africa since precolonial times. Belief in witchcraft persists today among many people, occasionally resulting in the killing of the suspected witch. The killer views witchcraft as an attack similar in nature to the use of physical force and therefore kills the witch in an attempt to end the perceived attack. As it stands today, the law in Uganda fails to strike a balance between the rights of the deceased victim violated through murder and those of the accused who honestly believes that he or she or a loved one was a victim of witchcraft. This article argues that the defenses that are currently available—mistake of fact, self-defense, insanity, and provocation by witchcraft—are insufficient, as they fail to strike that delicate balance. A more pragmatic approach to the issue of witch-killing, one that deals with the elimination of belief in witchcraft, is necessary.
8
Staab, Professof Dr Franz. "Witches and Belief in Witchcraft." Philosophy and History 22, no. 2 (1989): 184–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/philhist1989222105.
9
ALBRIGHT, DANIEL. "The witches and the witch: Verdi's Macbeth." Cambridge Opera Journal 17, no. 3 (November 2005): 225–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0954586706002059.
Abstract:
The witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth equivocate between the demons of random malevolence and ordinary (if exceptionally nasty) old women; and both King James I, whose book on witchcraft may have influenced Shakespeare, and A. W. Schlegel, whose essay on Macbeth certainly influenced Verdi, also stress this ambiguity. In his treatment of Lady Macbeth, Verdi uses certain musical patterns associated with the witches; and like the witches, who sound sometimes tame and frivolous, sometimes like incarnations of supernatural evil, Lady Macbeth hovers insecurely between roles: she is a hybrid of ambitious wife and agent of hell.
10
Crampton, Alexandra. "No Peace in the House: Witchcraft Accusations as an “Old Woman’s Problem” in Ghana." Anthropology & Aging 34, no. 2 (September 1, 2013): 199–212. http://dx.doi.org/10.5195/aa.2013.20.
Abstract:
In Ghana, older women may be marginalized, abused, and even killed as witches. Media accounts imply this is common practice, mainly through stories of “witches camps” to which the accused may flee. Anthropological literature on aging and on witchcraft, however, suggests that this focus exaggerates and misinterprets the problem. This article presents a literature review and exploratory data on elder advocacy and rights intervention on behalf of accused witches in Ghana to help answer the question of how witchcraft accusations become an older woman’s problem in the context of aging and elder advocacy work. The ineffectiveness of rights based and formal intervention through sponsored education programs and development projects is contrasted with the benefit of informal conflict resolution by family and staff of advocacy organizations. Data are based on ethnographic research in Ghana on a rights based program addressing witchcraft accusations by a national elder advocacy organization and on rights based intervention in three witches camps.
11
Miller, Chris. "How Modern Witches Enchant TikTok: Intersections of Digital, Consumer, and Material Culture(s) on #WitchTok." Religions 13, no. 2 (January 25, 2022): 118. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel13020118.
Abstract:
WitchTok describes a sub-section of the social media platform TikTok, which caters to Contemporary Pagans and other practitioners of modern Witchcraft. Through short micro-videos, users share snapshots of their lives, providing a window into their religious identities and practices. Through a qualitative analysis of videos and comments, this exploratory study examines how modern Witches engage with religion through this digital space. Although this platform is wholly virtual, WitchTok is also eminently material. Through sharing and commenting on videos of spells, potions, altars, and other practices, users engage with a range of material objects. By announcing the magical properties of materials, instructing how to use certain objects, and advising where items can be found, WitchTok reveals how Witches conceptualize materiality and magic. The promotion of products, businesses, and personal brands in this space also reveals how Witchcraft is shaped by consumerism. In contrast to scholars who distinguish between “traditional” Witchcraft and “consumerist” Witches, I argue that WitchTok highlights the complex entanglements of Witchcraft with consumer capitalism.
12
Fejer, Assist Prof Dr Azhar Noori. "Witchcraft and Women’s Spaces; A cultural Materialism Study of John Updike’s The Witches of Eastwick." ALUSTATH JOURNAL FOR HUMAN AND SOCIAL SCIENCES 215, no. 1 (November 11, 2018): 133–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.36473/ujhss.v0i215.611.
Abstract:
Witch stories are part of American popular culture, and this culture is extremely influenced by a continuing reliance on its past. The modern obsession of Americans with witches, whether real or metaphorical, is related to politics especially when it came to issues of gender politics. This article exposes a modern image of the female character seen from a male author point of view. John Updike, influenced by the changes that happened to women within second wave of feminism, attempted to write The Witches of Eastwick (1984). Actually, he presented women who did have a sort of careers. His witches are professional active and dynamic. What do witches stand for in American Culture? Why did Updike choose to write about women? Why were these females witches and not ordinary women? This is the core discussion of the present study.
13
Niehaus, Isak. "PERVERSION OF POWER: WITCHCRAFT AND THE SEXUALITY OF EVIL IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN LOWVELD." Journal of Religion in Africa 32, no. 3 (2002): 269–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006602760599926.
Abstract:
AbstractDuring recent years, fears of witchcraft and the violent punishment of witches have become commonplace in the Bushbuckridge region of the South African lowveld. My fieldwork in a village of Bushbuckridge highlights the crucial importance of sexuality in witchcraft discourses. Narratives about the sexual practices of witches formed part of the same moral system as those about the unacceptable sexual conduct of ordinary villagers. But there were also important differences between these. Whilst the unacceptable sexual conduct of ordinary villagers transgressed general moral ideals, the sexual practices of witches transgressed local hierarchies of domination and were conceptualised as perversions of power. I suggest that the most appropriate perspective on witchcraft is one that seeks to integrate a concern with broader political economic processes with a rigorous analysis of the micro-politics of sexuality, kinship and morality.
14
Adinkrah, Mensah. "Crash-landings of flying witches in Ghana: Grand mystical feats or diagnosable psychiatric illnesses?" Transcultural Psychiatry 56, no. 2 (January 21, 2019): 379–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1363461518823950.
Abstract:
Crash-landings are a recurrent theme in Ghanaian witchcraft discourse. In the society’s witchcraft lore, these are inadvertently aborted flights of maleficent witches en route to secret nocturnal witches’ assemblies or to carry out diabolical deeds. While those accused of being witches who have crash-landed invariably face severe mistreatment, no study has systematically explored this purported phenomenon. In this article, I describe the results of an analysis of 10 cases of alleged crash-landings of witches that were reported in the Ghanaian media over a 12-year period. In addition to identifying the common characteristics associated with the alleged crash-landings, I provide a summary description of each case. The results show that the alleged witches were overwhelmingly female, elderly, and poor, and suffered from grave psychopathological conditions. Policy implications of the findings are discussed.
15
Laime, Sandis. "Latvian Laumas: Reflections on the Witchisation of Tradition." Tautosakos darbai 62 (December 30, 2021): 51–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.51554/td.21.62.03.
Abstract:
In Baltic languages, the word laume/lauma initially referred to a certain supernatural being (Lithuanian laumė, Latvian lauma/laume, Prussian *laume). The analysis of written sources and folklore related to this supernatural being allows for the conclusion that Lithuania is both the core and the relic area of the laumė tradition, where the original beliefs have been retained; while Latvia, located at the periphery of the tradition territory, is the innovation area, where the perception of this supernatural being was substantially transformed. It was humanised and incorporated in the witchcraft belief system prior to or during the period of witch persecution (the 16th to 18th centuries). The article attempts to analyse the corpus of lauma tradition in order to clarify its position in the historical typology of Latvian witchcraft beliefs. The first chapter briefly describes three chronological stages of the development of Latvian witchcraft beliefs (night, dairy, and diabolic witches), characterises the lauma folklore sources and previous research. The second chapter analyses the lauma text corpus and attempts to find out which stages of the historical typology of witchcraft beliefs are reflected in the lauma folklore of the 19th–20th centuries. In the third chapter the hypothesis about the transformation of laumas from supernatural beings to dairy witches is argued.
16
Rowlands, Alison. "The Witch-cleric Stereotype in a Seventeenth-Century Lutheran Context*." German History 38, no. 1 (June 13, 2019): 1–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gerhis/ghz034.
Abstract:
Abstract This article enhances our understanding of the development and dynamism of early modern witch stereotypes by focusing on the stereotype of the witch-cleric, the Christian minister imagined by early modern people as working for the devil instead of God, baptizing people into witchcraft, working harmful magic and even officiating at witches’ gatherings. I show how this stereotype first developed in relation to Catholic clerics in demonology, print culture and witch-trials, then examine its emergence in relation to Protestant clerics in Germany and beyond, using case studies of pastors from the Lutheran territory of Rothenburg ob der Tauber from 1639 and 1692 to explore these ideas in detail. I also offer a broader comparison of beliefs about Protestant witch-clerics and their susceptibility to formal prosecution with their Catholic counterparts in early modern Germany, showing that cases involving Protestant witch-clerics were part of a cross-confessional phenomenon that is best understood in a comparative, Europe-wide perspective. In addition to showing how the witch-cleric stereotype changed over time and spread geographically, I conclude by arguing that three distinct variants of this stereotype had emerged by the seventeenth century: the Catholic ‘witch-priest’ and Protestant ‘witch-pastor’ (who were supposedly witches themselves) and the overzealous clerical ‘witch-master’, who was thought to do the devil’s work by helping persecute innocent people for witchcraft. Despite these stereotypes, however, relatively few clerics of either confession were tried and executed as witches; overall, patriarchy worked to protect men of the cloth from the worst excesses of witch persecution.
17
Culpeper, Jonathan, and Elena Semino. "Constructing witches and spells." Journal of Historical Pragmatics 1, no. 1 (May 4, 2000): 97–116. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/jhp.1.1.08cul.
Abstract:
In this paper, we highlight the centrality of verbs relating to verbal activities in witchcraft narratives in the Early Modern English period, and focus on speech act verbs used to refer to witches’ curses. In the first part, we refer to various classifications of speech act verbs and to Searle’s felicity conditions for speech acts, in order to describe the different meanings of verbs such as to curse, and to show how their central meaning has shifted over time. In the second part, we show how the speech act verbs form a structured set, which — in appropriate circumstances — could be used as an interpretative frame to create witchcraft events out of relatively trivial arguments within village communities. Here, we refer to Levinson’s notion of activity types as a possible explanatory framework.
18
Geschiere, Peter, and Cyprian Fisiy. "Domesticating personal violence: witchcraft, courts and confessions in Cameroon." Africa 64, no. 3 (July 1994): 323–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1160784.
Abstract:
In many parts of Africa, discourses on witchcraft and sorcery seem to follow a mod-ernisation process of their own. There are striking regional variations in the ways in which these discourses are articulated with State formation and the emergence of new modes of accumulation. A common denominator remains, however, the close connection between witchcraft and aggression from within the ‘house’. In many respects, witchcraft is still the dark side of kinship, even in modern settings.It is against this background that this article explores the implications of a new type of witchcraft trial in the Eastern Province of Cameroon. Since 1980 State courts have started to convict ‘witches’ mainly on the basis of the expertise of the witch-doctors. This seems to be accompanied by the emergence of a ‘modern’ type of witch-doctor, more intent on punishing than on healing, who try to recruit their clients in very aggressive ways. In other parts of Cameroon the articulation of local witchcraft beliefs and State authority seems to follow different trajectories.
19
Chaemsaithong, Krisda. "Discursive control and persuasion in early modern news discourse." English Text Construction 4, no. 2 (November 17, 2011): 228–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/etc.4.2.04cha.
Abstract:
As an early form of news discourse, witchcraft pamphlets were one of the primary sites in which and through which ideologies about witchcraft and witches were articulated and disseminated in Early Modern England. Recognizing the pivotal position of language in constructing and perpetuating ideologies, this paper adopts a discourse analytic perspective (Van Dijk 2001, 2008; Halmari and Virtanen 2005) and uses insights from the study of stance and evaluation (Hunston and Thompson 2000; Hyland 2005, 2008) to examine the ways in which the prefatory materials of those pamphlets construct and (re)produce ideologies about witchcraft through linguistic and rhetorical choices, and the ways in which such a process may affect the audience’s perceptions, notions, and beliefs about witchcraft and witches. The findings reveal that the pamphleteers seek to manipulate linguistic choices and, in doing so, naturalize the ideologies about witchcraft which promote an image of Otherness that is inimical to the community. Persuasive strategies used include the negative depiction of the accused individuals as threats to society to prioritize the urgency of persecuting witches in the community; the pamphleteers’ construction of a positive self-image to establish itself as a source that can be trusted; and reader involvement to invite the reader to engage in the argumentation. Such strategies work in concert to reinforce the beliefs about witchcraft of those believers, and/or to persuade those who might still be in doubt.
20
BRINKMAN, INGE. "WAR, WITCHES AND TRAITORS: CASES FROM THE MPLA'S EASTERN FRONT IN ANGOLA (1966–1975)." Journal of African History 44, no. 2 (July 2003): 303–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0021853702008368.
Abstract:
Accusations, trials and executions of witches and sell-outs frequently occurred at the MPLA's Eastern Front in Angola (1966–75). These events do not fit the general self-portrayal of the MPLA as a socialist, secular movement that was supported by the Angolan population without recourse to force. The people interviewed, mostly rural civilians from south-east Angola who lived under MPLA control, suggested many links between treason and witchcraft, yet at the same time differentiated between these accusations. Witchcraft cases were often initiated by civilian families and the accused were mostly people who had a long-standing reputation of being a witch. While the MPLA leadership was often suspicious of the accusations of witchcraft, many civilians regarded the trials of witches as more legitimate than those of treason. Civilians held that the accusation of treason was often used by the guerrillas to get rid of political or personal rivals and/or to control the population. The accusations showed few patterns and cannot be interpreted as deliberate attempts to overcome structural forms of domination, of chiefs over followers, men over women or old over young.
21
Macdonald, Stuart. "Counting Witches: Illuminating and Distorting the Shape of Witchcraft Accusations in Scotland." Journal of Scottish Historical Studies 37, no. 1 (May 2017): 1–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/jshs.2017.0200.
Abstract:
Scottish historians have invested considerable effort in gathering data on and counting the number of accused witches in Scotland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The benefits of the four projects dedicated to this data-gathering that are analysed in this article are clear, but the act of counting has also changed our perception of the Scottish witch-hunt. In order to count witches, we have to have a clear definition of who is (and is not) a witch. This article explores the change in definition across these projects, notably the distinction between a witch and a charmer. Graphing witchcraft accusations gives the impression that all accusations are related. Counting may make us overconfident in the quality of the data when what is striking is how little information we have in most instances. The methodological concern of using the information we do have and interpreting the entire witch-hunt on that basis is noted.
22
Mills, Janet. "Witchcraft, Witches, and Violence in Ghana." Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines 52, no. 2 (February 26, 2018): 251–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00083968.2018.1439280.
23
Mofuoa, Khali, and Mathabo Khau. "Rethinking Constructions of Difference: Lessons from Lesotho's Chief Mohlomi's Activism against the Gendering of Witchcraft." Educational Research for Social Change 11, no. 1 (May 13, 2022): 1–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2221-4070/2021/v11i1a6.
Abstract:
Discrimination according to gender has been in practice in communities globally since time immemorial. This discrimination has infiltrated all spheres of life including the naming, shaming, blaming, and persecution of deviant people as witches. The phenomenon of witchcraft has historically been negatively skewed towards women, with women's gender and sexual diversity being used against them in accusations of witchcraft. In some modern-day African communities, gender and sexual diversity are still regarded as witchcraft or a result of bewitching. While activism against witchcraft has gathered momentum across Africa, it is worth noting that in Lesotho, such activism began in the precolonial era through the leadership of Chief Mohlomi. In this paper, we explore the understandings and experiences of constructions of difference as witchcraft among the Basotho of Lesotho. Using a qualitative research approach, we employed life-history narratives and focus group discussions to generate data with 10 Basotho men and women aged 70-93 years. We used sankofa theory to frame our analysis of the data, which was done thematically. Drawing on the ethnographic data, we discuss lessons regarding constructions of difference as witchcraft, and Chief Mohlomi's (1720-1815) activism against the discrimination of those labelled as witches. The findings reveal that divergent gender and sexual characteristics and identities were used in labelling certain individuals as witches and unexplainable phenomena as witchcraft. However, the findings also show that Chief Mohlomi set in motion a spirited activism against the persecution of divergent people through his teachings, which led to transformed views on gender and sexual diversity among the Basotho. These findings have implications for an education that embraces diversity in all spheres of life to promote inclusive and sustainable communities.
24
Kojoyan, Ani. "Inter-Textual Relations between Reginald Scot’s “The Discoverie of Witchcraft” and Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”." Armenian Folia Anglistika 9, no. 1-2 (11) (October 15, 2013): 166–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.46991/afa/2013.9.1-2.166.
Abstract:
The article investigates the intertextual relationship between The Discoveries of Witchcraft by Reginald Scot and Macbeth by Shakespeare. Both texts are in a complex intertextual relationship. Scot expresses his explicit doubts about the phenomenon of witchcraft and witches, in general. Shakespeare, most probably, referred to Scot’s work while creating and portraying the characters of the three psychic- witch sisters in his tragedy. And though Shakespeare’s reference to Scot’s work is perhaps evident, there is still something vague, hence, it is not possible to arrive at the conclusion that the two writers shared the same opinion about witchcraft and spelling. Still, it can be concluded that Scot and his work play an important role in the investigation and interpretation of Shakespeare’s work.
25
Biri, Kudzai, and Molly Manyonganise. "“Back to Sender”: Re-Visiting the Belief in Witchcraft in Post-Colonial Zimbabwean Pentecostalism." Religions 13, no. 1 (January 5, 2022): 49. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel13010049.
Abstract:
This paper is a critical analysis of the witchcraft beliefs in Pentecostalism in post-colonial Zimbabwe. While Pentecostals claim “a complete break from the past”, there have emerged new dimensions that show that the belief in witches and witchcraft is deeply entrenched among Pentecostals. It also brings to the fore the underlying aspects of the creativity and innovation that are informed by African spiritual or metaphysical realities. Research since 1980 (when Zimbabwe got her independence from the British) indeed confirmed the existence of witchcraft beliefs and practices, although it was heavily suppressed in the churches. This paper re-visits the belief in witchcraft activities in Pentecostalism through examining new avenues of expression in both older and newer Pentecostal churches. The newer Pentecostal churches, in particular, those founded after 2010, have demonstrated unique innovation in theology. Thus, the belief in witchcraft and witches warrants a fresh examination in light of these new developments. We, therefore argue that the emergence of diverse newer Pentecostal churches in the midst of strong older Pentecostal churches has opened new ways of negotiating the Bible and Shona culture.
26
Frick, David. "The Witches of Wilno: Constant Litigation and Conflict Resolution." Slavic Review 73, no. 4 (2014): 881–902. http://dx.doi.org/10.5612/slavicreview.73.4.881.
Abstract:
Seventeenth-century Wilno, capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and thus the second capital of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, was home to five Christian confessions (Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, Greek Orthodox, and Uniate) and three religions (Christians, Jews, and Muslims [Tatars]). Against the general question of how they “made it work” arises the issue of witchcraft practice in local perceptions and in prosecution in the courts. Witchcraft trials are treated here as an integral part of “constant litigation“ and the “use of justice” in restoring communal peace. My conclusions and propositions include the following: that religion and confession played no role in witchcraft litigation; that although there is no doubt that beliefs in the existence of witchcraft persisted, there was nothing like a “witchcraft scare,“ and allegations of sorcery were treated on a level with that of petty theft and general misbehavior between neighbors; and that the goal of recourse to the courts was here, and in other types of cases, the restoration of a status quo ante. My final proposition, which invites testing, is that the Grand Duchy of Lithuania represented in this question, as well as perhaps in others, a transitional zone between the European west and east.
27
Card, Jeb J. "Witches and Aliens." Nova Religio 22, no. 4 (May 1, 2019): 44–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/nr.2019.22.4.44.
Abstract:
Margaret Murray (1863–1963) was a major figure in the creation of professional archaeology, president of the Folklore Society, and advocate for women’s rights. Her popular legacy today is the concept of the “witch-cult,” a hidden ancient religion persecuted as witchcraft. Murray’s witch-cult not only inspired Neopaganism but is foundational for author H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. These modern myths cast a long shadow on not only fantastical literature but on paranormal beliefs, preserving outdated elements of Victorian archaeology in popular culture concerned with alternative archaeology and the occult.
28
SNEDDON, ANDREW, and JOHN FULTON. "WITCHCRAFT, THE PRESS, AND CRIME IN IRELAND, 1822–1922." Historical Journal 62, no. 3 (November 5, 2018): 741–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0018246x18000365.
Abstract:
AbstractDrawing on witchcraft cases reported in newspapers and coming before Ireland's courts, this article argues that witch belief remained part of Protestant and Catholic popular culture throughout the long nineteenth century. It is shown that witchcraft belief followed patterns established in the late eighteenth century and occasioned accusations that arose from interpersonal tensions rather than sectarian conflict. From this article, a complex picture emerges of the Irish witches and their ‘victims’, who are respectively seen to have fought accusation and bewitchment using legal, magical, physical, and verbal means. In doing so, the contexts are revealed in which witchcraft was linked to other crimes such as assault, slander, theft, and fraud in an era of expansion of courts and policing. This illustrates how Irish people adapted to legal changes while maintaining traditional beliefs, and suggests that witchcraft is an overlooked context in which interpersonal violence was exerted and petty crime committed. Finally, popular and elite cultural divides are explored through the attitudes of the press and legal authorities to witchcraft allegations, and an important point of comparison for studies of witchcraft and magic in modern Europe is established.
29
Voltmer, Rita. "Debating the Devil’s Clergy. Demonology and the Media in Dialogue with Trials (14th to 17th Century)." Religions 10, no. 12 (November 26, 2019): 648. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel10120648.
Abstract:
In comparison with the estimated number of about 60,000 executed so-called witches (women and men), the number of executed and punished witch-priests seems to be rather irrelevant. This statement, however, overlooks the fact that it was only during medieval and early modern times that the crime of heresy and witchcraft cost the life of friars, monks, and ordained priests at the stake. Clerics were the largest group of men accused of practicing magic, necromancy, and witchcraft. Demonology and the media (in constant dialogue with trials) reveal the omnipresence of the devil’s cleric with his figure possessing the quality of a ‘super-witch’, labelled as patronus sagarum. In Western Europe, the persecution of Catholic priests played at least two significant roles. First, in confessional debates, it proved to Catholics that Satan was assaulting post-Tridentine Catholicism, the only remaining bulwark of Christianity; for Protestants on the other hand, the news about the devil’s clergy proved that Satan ruled popedom. Second, in the Old Reich and from the start of the 17th century, the prosecution of clerics as the devil’s minions fueled the general debates about the legitimacy of witchcraft trials. In sketching these over-lapping discourses, we meet the devil’s clergy in Catholic political demonology, in the media and in confessional debates, including polemics about Jesuits being witches and sorcerers. Friedrich Spee used the narratives about executed Catholic priests as vital argument to end trials and torture. Inter alia, battling the devil’s clergy played a vital role in campaigns of internal Catholic church reform and clerical infighting. Studying the debates about the devil’s clergy thus provides a better understanding of how the dynamics of the Reformation, counter-Reformation, Catholic Reform, and confessionalization had an impact on European witchcraft trials.
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Abramova, Ekaterina Yu. "“SABRINA” AND “CHARMED”: THE IMAGE OF WITCHES IN ORIGINAL TV SERIES AND THEIR REBOOTS." Articult, no. 3 (2021): 106–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.28995/2227-6165-2021-3-106-114.
Abstract:
The article is devoted to the study of the image of witches in popular culture through the analysis of four American TV series: “Charmed” (1998), “Charmed” (2018), “Sabrina the Little Witch” (1996) and “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” (2018). These series were chosen due to their popularity and a new look at the image of witches. Also due to the regional and ideological characteristics of the society that created them. The methodological basis of the work was an informational approach that considers cinema as part of the cultural space and culture as a whole, also used the “classical” method of comparative analysis. The category “witch” itself is considered as a universal of culture, the emphasis is on changing the role and image of witches in the “consumer society”. The historical basis of the article is the analysis of such sources as “The Sum of Theology” by Thomas Aquinas, “The Anthill” by J. Nieder, “The Hammer of Witches” by G. Kramer and J. Sprenger, a collection of medieval treatises “Demonology of the Renaissance”, as well as a number of normative legal documents affecting the issue of witchcraft in Western Europe and New England.
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Waldron, David. "Witchcraft for Sale! Commodity vs. Community in the Neopagan Movement." Nova Religio 9, no. 1 (August 1, 2005): 32–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/nr.2005.9.1.032.
Abstract:
The growth of the Pagan and Witchcraft revivalist movements (Neopaganism) is well documented in the Anglophone world. However, Witchcraft movements are also closely linked to a vibrant set of subcultures and a multitude of representations in popular culture. In this context investigating the relationship between Witchcraft as a religious community and its representation in consumer culture and mass media is extremely significant. This article examines the ambiguous relationship between witch and Wiccan communities and the vast array of merchandising, popular culture and media representations that surround them. In creating the WIKID WITCH KIT I hope to take you on a magickal and exciting journey! Through ritual, music, song and spoken word I will help you unleash your inner magick and discover the wonderful and positively empowering world of Witchcraft. As part of this journey you will discover your WIKID magickal name, giving you access to our exclusive website and online coven. There you can meet up with other WIKID Witches to swap spells, stories, and ideas. And every full moon I will personally join you for an online gathering——which will be truly WIKID. WIKID Witch Kit features WIKID Magick Fizz/WIKID Magick Potions/WIKID Magick Fire/WIKID Magick Star/WIKID Magick Cord/WIKID Magick Audio CD.1
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Stephens, Walter. "Learned Credulity in Gianfrancesco Pico’s Strix." Renaissance and Reformation 42, no. 4 (April 9, 2020): 17–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.7202/1068573ar.
Abstract:
In 1522–23, Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola was involved in trials that executed ten accused witches. Soon after the trials, he published Strix, sive de ludificatione daemonum, a meticulous defence of witch-hunting. A humanistic dialogue as heavily dependent on classical literature and philosophy as on Scholastic demonology, Strix is unusually candid about the logic of witch-hunting. A convicted witch among its four interlocutors makes Strix unique among witch-hunting defenses. Moreover, it devotes less attention to maleficia or magical harm than to seemingly peripheral questions about sacraments and the corporeality of demons. It attempts to demonstrate that witches’ interactions with demons happen in reality, not in their imagination, thereby vindicating the truth of Christian demonology and explaining the current surfeit of evils. Strix explicitly reverses Gianfrancesco’s earlier stance on witchcraft in De imaginatione (1501) and supplements the defence of biblical truth he undertook in Examen vanitatis doctrinae gentium (1520).
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Davidson, Jane P., and Marion Gibson. "Reading Witchcraft: Stories of Early English Witches." Sixteenth Century Journal 31, no. 2 (2000): 594. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2671705.
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Bardell, Kirsteen. "Reading witchcraft: stories of early english witches." Women's History Review 10, no. 3 (September 1, 2001): 539–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09612020100200584.
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Capp, Bernard, and Marion Gibson. "Reading Witchcraft: Stories of Early English Witches." American Historical Review 106, no. 1 (February 2001): 130. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2652230.
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Henderson, Lizanne. "The Survival of Witchcraft Prosecutions and Witch Belief in South-West Scotland." Scottish Historical Review 85, no. 1 (April 2006): 52–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/shr.2006.0015.
Abstract:
During the era of the Scottish witch-hunts, Dumfries and Galloway was one of the last regions to initiate witch prosecutions, but it was also one of the most reluctant to completely surrender all belief in witches until a comparatively late date. In the late seventeeth and early eighteenth centuries south-west Scotland, better known for the persecution of covenanters, took the practice of witchcraft and charming very seriously indeed, and for perhaps longer than other parts of Scotland, though the area has received surprisingly little scholarly investigation. The trial evidence is not incompatible with that found elsewhere though there is less demonic content. Accusations of witchcraft in this region were mostly concerned with the troubles of everyday life, agricultural problems, family tensions and disagreements between neighbours. From 1670 to about 1740, the very decades that were giving birth to the Scottish Enlightenment, learned interest in the supernatural was actually on the increase and the topic received an unprecedented level of questioning, investigation, and scrutiny. Ironically, the ‘superstitions’ that both church and state had been attempting to eradicate for some two hundred years were now being used to defend religion against the growing threat of atheism. The zeal of the ministers does seem to have contributed to the endurance of witch beliefs in the South West, as elsewhere. Against this backdrop, the survival of witch belief and the continued prosecution of witches in southwest Scotland is examined, thus contributing to our understanding of the individualistic nature of witch persecution and the various dynamics at play within the Scottish witch-hunting experience.
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Gaskill, Malcolm. "The Devil in the Shape of a Man: Witchcraft, Conflict and Belief in Jacobean England*." Historical Research 71, no. 175 (June 1, 1998): 142–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2281.00058.
Abstract:
Abstract Historians agree that most early modern witches were women. A question rarely asked, though, is how any men came to be accused at all, given the strong association of women and witchcraft in popular folklore and learned demonology. This article examines the prosecution for witchcraft of a Kentish farmer in 1617, and argues that an integrated qualitative context of conflict and belief is essential for understanding this and other accusations. The aim is not, however, to offer yet another overarching explanation for the rise of witchcraft prosecutions, but rather to demonstrate how witchcraft can open windows on early modern mentalities.
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Kochan, Anna. "Wywoływanie chorób przez czarownice – poglądy uczestnika procesów czarownic (przypadek Czarownicy powołanej)." Tematy i Konteksty 16, no. 11 (2021): 204–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.15584/tik.2021.12.
Abstract:
Published in 1639, the anonymous “Czarownica powołana” is a work addressed to judges dealing with proceedings in witchcraft cases. Its author, probably a clergyman, participated in such trials. Unlike many works of this kind, it did not encourage the tracking and killing of witches. “Czarownica powołana” belongs to a different trend and in many places is similar to the treatise of the German Jesuit Friedrich Spee, who was afraid of the rash condemnation of superstitious people who had nothing to do with practicing black magic. In “Czarownica powołana” the existence of witches and sorcery is not questioned, because it is considered to be a devilish science, which leads to making a pact with the devil with the ability to act in the world. Illness or death in connection with the accusation of witchcraft had serious consequences, including establishing who and how the witch had harmed. In the era of the plague epidemic, fear of strangers led to numerous massacres, especially in German cities, where the spread of the plague was explained more often than elsewhere by poisoning the wells by Jews, who were also burdened with engaging in magic and negotiating with the devil. The author was aware that some associate every disease with witchcraft. The devil can also cheat, making a person think that what he dreamed really happened, and people deluded by fantasies are willing to share these stories also in court during a trial. The author of “Czarownica powołana” was aware of this mechanism because he was concerned with the accusation itself (“powołanie”). In this context, “Czarownica powołana” – despite the author’s conviction about the existence of witches and their ability to cause disease and elementary disasters - is a progressive work, but this is evidenced by the lawyer’s dilemmas, not the priest’s fears.
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Delgado, Guillermo Enrique, and Susana Frisancho. "Burning Witches: The Moral Dilemmas of Ashaninka Leaders." Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies 8, no. 2 (February 9, 2021): 1. http://dx.doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/532.
Abstract:
This paper focuses on the moral reasoning of Ashaninka leaders about the burning of witches, a cultural practice that has received scant attention from intercultural scholars. We first contextualize burning witches as a cultural practice of the Ashaninka people. Then, based on qualitative interviews, we present the experience of six Ashaninka leaders with witchcraft and witchcraft accusations, as well as their moral reasoning about the social mechanisms that the Ashaninka people have traditionally used to control evil sorcery. The participants are three men and three women from the Ucayali and Junín regions in Peru’s Amazon basin. Finally, we discuss intercultural moral education and the need to analyze the reasons behind cultural practices in order to understand the rationality and reasonableness of others.
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Devereux, Katherine R. "The Witching Body: Ontology and Physicality of the Witch." Open Philosophy 5, no. 1 (January 1, 2022): 464–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/opphil-2022-0212.
Abstract:
Abstract These considerations illuminate an ontology of the witch by first disclosing how “witch,” as a linguistic gesture, carries a world of meaning, ethics, and a culture of being originating in the body. Witches and witchcraft speak to a communal situatedness of being by acknowledging the power we have over ourselves, others, and that singular lack of control we often experience in everyday life. In dialogue with Ada Agada, Emmanuel Lévinas, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, I offer an interpretation of the body schema through what I call the “witching-body,” drawing on historical and anthropological examples of witchcraft as related to personhood, thus demonstrating how embodiment philosophy and ontology are already alive in everyday ritual and magical acts. I explain the other’s contradiction of everydayness and transcendence through the reflexivity of self-sensing-self and how aspects of our own body, such as organs and emotions, may be occult or other to us. The everydayness of witchcraft and the ungraspable ambiguity of the witch speak to this necessary transcendence we experience with everyday others; there is both a banality and an infinite plurality. We yearn to know the witch because through the embodied existential expressions of “witch” we find what constitutes being a person.
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Ashforth, Adam. "Witchcraft, Justice, and Human Rights in Africa: Cases from Malawi." African Studies Review 58, no. 1 (March 16, 2015): 5–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/asr.2015.2.
Abstract:
Abstract:The human rights approach to witchcraft accusations denies their validity and forecloses the possibility of a trial, fair or otherwise. While there is much to be said for a bracing rationalism in all aspects of life, evidence from Africa over the past couple of centuries shows no sign that witchcraft narratives lose their plausibility as a result of people being told that witches do not exist.
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Zujienė, Gitana. "Witchcraft Court Cases in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries." Lithuanian Historical Studies 20, no. 1 (February 20, 2016): 79–125. http://dx.doi.org/10.30965/25386565-02001005.
Abstract:
The article presents an analysis of court procedures against witches in Lithuania. The author explains which courts handled such cases and which legal acts regulated the course of these procedures. The witchcraft court procedure in Lithuania is compared to a procedure discussed in a book by Jakob Sprenger and Heinrich Institor (Kramer) from 1487 called ‘Malleus Maleficarum’ (Hammer of the Witches). The similarities and differences between these court procedures are revealed.
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Davies, Luke Lewin. "Appropriating the abject: Witchcraft in Dario Argento and Daria Nicolodi’s Suspiria (1977) and David Kajganich and Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 remake." New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film 18, no. 1 (July 1, 2020): 43–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/ncin_00020_1.
Abstract:
This article explores representations of witchcraft in relation to Julia Kristeva’s 1980 essay Powers of Horror. It begins by investigating the genesis of Dario Argento and Daria Nicolodi’s depiction of witchcraft in their 1977 horror film Suspiria, drawing on historical studies of witchcraft by Ronald Hutton and Marion Gibson. In particular, it examines the characterization of the witches’ coven as an all-female, all-powerful death cult ‐ before proposing that Kristeva’s essay on the abject can be seen to explain this specific conceptualization, in line with Barbara Creed’s analysis of how horror film has inherited the role of ‘purifying’ the abject from religious ritual. The second half of this article then focuses on David Kajganich and Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 remake of Suspiria, reflecting on how the later film can be seen to attempt to redeem the association between witchcraft and abjectness. In doing so, this article reflects on how the attempt to rescue the witch while maintaining an association with the abject is contiguous with other contemporary depictions of witchcraft. It is proposed that such efforts amount to a Foucauldian attempt at a ‘reverse discourse’ celebrating the subversive potential of an initially derogatory identity formation ‐ but that Kristeva’s writing points to the limitations of appropriating the abject in this way.
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Musgrave, John Brent, and James Houran. "Flight and Abduction in Witchcraft and UFO Lore." Psychological Reports 86, no. 2 (April 2000): 669–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.2466/pr0.2000.86.2.669.
Abstract:
The lore surrounding the mythical Witches' Sabbat and contemporary reports of UFO abductions share three main characteristics: the use of masks, the appearance of “Men in Black,” and references to flight and abduction. We review these three commonalities with particular focus on the aspect of flight and abduction. We argue that narratives of the Witches' Sabbat and UFO abductions share the same basic structure, common symbolism, and serve the same psychological needs of providing a coherent explanation for anomalous (ambiguous) experiences while simultaneously giving the experient a sense of freedom, release, and escape from the self. This pattern of similarities suggests the possibility that UFO abductions are a modern version of tales of flight to the Sabbat.
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Adam, Lamnatu, Abdul Kasiru Shani, Peter Badimak Yaro, Lyla Adwan-Kamara, and Philip Teg-Nefaah Tabong. "Depression and Quality of Life of People Accused of Witchcraft and Living in Alleged Witches’ Camps in Northern Ghana." Health & Social Care in the Community 2023 (February 14, 2023): 1–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2023/6830762.
Abstract:
In Northern and Northeast Ghana, women accused of witchcraft are banished from society to live in special locations designated “witches camps.” The processes leading to their banishment, admission, and living in the camps may affect their psychological wellbeing and quality of life. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of depression and assess the quality of life of 277 alleged witches in four camps located in these two regions in Ghana. A structured questionnaire was developed and administered using the open data collection kit (ODK). The Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8) and the World Health Organisation Quality of Life (WHOQOL) questionnaires were adopted to measure depression and health-related quality of life, respectively. The data were analysed using STATA version 16. The prevalence of depression among the alleged witches was 52.7%. Out of this, 37.2% had moderate depression, 7.2% had moderate or severe depression whilst 2.9% had severe depression. The sociodemographic factors that have a statistically significant association with depression included gender, marital status, being widowed or separated, and not having biological children. Over 97% of alleged witches have a low or extremely low quality of life. In conclusion, the majority of the people accused of witchcraft have a low or extremely low quality of life with high-probable depression.
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KNUTSEN, GUNNAR W. "Norwegian witchcraft trials: a reassessment." Continuity and Change 18, no. 2 (August 2003): 185–200. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0268416003004582.
Abstract:
Twenty years have passed since Hans Eyvind Næss published what remains the only complete study of Norwegian witchcraft trials. This article considers the work done since that time, and surveys the state of research on witchcraft trials in Norway. Drawing on a recent registration of all known extant witchcraft trial records in Norway as well as recent research, I show how there was a much higher degree of regional differences within Norway than Næss allowed for, as well as a much greater degree of diabolism (the charge that witches took Satan as their lord) in Norwegian trials.
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Bachmann, Judith. "African Witchcraft and Religion among the Yoruba: Translation as Demarcation Practice within a Global Religious History." Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 33, no. 3-4 (September 23, 2021): 381–409. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700682-12341522.
Abstract:
Abstract For years, self-identified witches have demanded the public acknowledgement of witchcraft as “religion” in Nigeria. These political debates are reflected in a long-ongoing scholarly discussion about whether “witchcraft” in Africa should be regarded as religion or not. At its core, this discussion concerns the quest for African meanings. I argue that we should focus on the translingual practice as the reason for today’s perception of “African” and “European” differences as incommensurable. Tracing back today’s understanding of witchcraft among the Yoruba (àjé), the Alatinga anti-witchcraft movement of the early 1950s becomes the nodal point of Yoruba witchcraft history. Discussing the Alatinga as translingual practice, I understand Yoruba witchcraft concepts as products of a global religious history. Only in the aftermath of the Alatinga, a hybrid movement, did the need arise to demarcate “African” and “European” meanings. Thus, Yoruba translingual practice has also affected European understandings of religion and witchcraft today.
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Parish, Jane. "Adinkrah, Mensah: Witchcraft, Witches, and Violence in Ghana." Anthropos 111, no. 2 (2016): 659–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2016-2-659.
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Dehm, Sara, and Jenni Millbank. "Witchcraft Accusations as Gendered Persecution in Refugee Law." Social & Legal Studies 28, no. 2 (February 1, 2018): 202–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0964663917753725.
Abstract:
Witchcraft-related violence (WRV), in particular directed towards women and children, has become a source of increasing concern for human rights organizations in the current century. Yet for those fleeing WRV, this heightened attention has not translated across into refugee status. This research examines how claims of WRV were addressed in all available asylum decisions in English, drawn from five jurisdictions. We argue that WRV is a manifestation of gender-related harm; one which exposes major failings in the application of refugee jurisprudence. Inattention to the religious and organizational elements of witchcraft practices, combined with gender insensitivity in analysis, meant that claims were frequently reconfigured by decision makers as personal grudges, or family or community disputes, such that they were not cognizable harms within the terms of the Refugee Convention; or they were simply disbelieved as far-fetched. The success rate of claims was low, compared to available averages, and, when successful, claims were universally accepted on some basis other than the witchcraft element of the case. This article focuses in particular upon cases where the applicant feared harm as an accused witch, while a second related article addresses those fearing persecution from witches or through the medium of witchcraft.
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Geschiere, Peter. "Witchcraft, Shamanism, and Nostalgia.A Review Essay." Comparative Studies in Society and History 58, no. 1 (January 2016): 242–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0010417515000638.
Abstract:
The study of witchcraft seems to be globalizing in many respects. Not only are witches themselves supposedly globalizing, but the people who try to study them are also adopting a more global outlook. Moreover, witchcraft as a topic is no longer tied to specific areas of the world, but seems to crop up everywhere. For this essay I purposely chose three recent studies, out of a wide array of possible books, which come from very different parts of the world. Reading them comparatively can highlight key trends in this field, and also important differences.