Woohoo! I get to do an essay on Witchraft for a college class

[Hærfest Leah]

My Anthropology teacher just posted the topics for our 2nd and last essay in the class and witchcraft was one of them so I nabbed it before anyone else could. (atleast 1000 words)

I responded that:
I can easily cover a lot of areas on witchcraft to include: past and present practices, past and present views of witchcraft, the many different types of the craft, why and how it is used and some of the many religions it is used in. I can also cover the truths and myths about witchcraft and the people to use it.

My 1st essay was on Viking Anthropology which I only made a B on, it was harder than I expected because I'm not used to looking at them from an anthropological pov. This one should be much easier.

I have all my books on the subject that I'll use but if anyone would like to throw out any ideas to me for it or links (well documented & academic sources) for it's practice within specific cultures I'd greatly appreciate it.

[Juniper138]

http://www.geocities.com/echo879/

http://www.sacred-texts.com/ame/row/index.htm

http://www.shadowdrake.com/index.php

http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/aradia/index.htm

http://www.angelfire.com/co2/evenstar/faq.html

http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/iwd/index.htm

http://www.walkingthehedge.org/Hedgewitch.htm

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/nes/index.htm

[SilverClaw]

if anyone would like to throw out any ideas to me for it or links for it's practice within specific religions other than Asatru I'd greatly appreciate it

This link has a list of different Tradtions you can look at. i have a few that are not listend if you want those to let me know.

http://mysticwicks.com/showpost.php?p=3229256&postcount=5

Good luck and happy researching :D

[Hærfest Leah]

My professor responded to my topic posting and replied:


Maybe, think about the functions of ideas about witchcraft in various cultures, keep it anthropological, analysis rather than description.

So this is more of what I'll be doing. This is due 28 Oct.

And I am looking for well documented and academic sources online.

[SilverClaw]

hmmm well that does change things huh, not sure the sites I was thinking of would be classified as well documented lol .

[SilverClaw]

Oh a thought jsut occured to me have you looked at scared-texts.com it may have something in there for you that you may find usfeul.

[Chaos Hawk]

that's cool. I did a paper on The Fae for a college class once, but that was more to piss the teacher off than anything else. He couldn't beleive that there was any information on the subject.

Best of luck!

[Hærfest Leah]

that's cool. I did a paper on The Fae for a college class once, but that was more to piss the teacher off than anything else. He couldn't beleive that there was any information on the subject.

Best of luck!

Funny, thanks.

[Eldawyn]

I'm an anthro student and I actually had an entire class on Witchcraft at UMass. I'll post the summary of the class because it might give you some ideas:

363 Witches: Myth and Reality (http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~germ363/)(I,G)

This course focuses on various aspects of witches/witchcraft in order to examine the historical construction of the witch in the context of the social realities of women (and men) labeled as witches. The main areas covered are: European pagan religions and the spread of Christianity; the "Burning Times" in early modern Europe, with an emphasis on the German situation; 17th-century New England and the Salem witch trials; the images of witches in folk lore and fairy tales in the context of the historical persecutions; and contemporary Wiccan/witch practices in their historical context. The goal of the course is to deconstruct the stereotypes that many of us have about witches/witchcraft, especially concerning sexuality, gender, age, physical appearance, occult powers, and Satanism. Readings are drawn from documentary records of the witch persecutions and witch trials, literary representations, scholarly analyses of witch-related phenomena, and essays examining witches, witchcraft, and the witch persecutions from a contemporary feminist or neo-pagan perspective. The lectures will be supplemented by related material taken from current events in addition to visual material (videos, slides) drawn from art history, early modern witch literature, popular culture, and documentary sources. Conducted in English.




It was several years ago now, but we concentrated a lot on how witches were viewed from a cultural perspecitive. Regardless if someone actually practiced witchcraft, if they were an outsider or otherwise strange in some way, others may label them as "witch."

We also talked about witches today, in the media, etc.

Hmm... witch trials (Malleus Maleficarum), witches in folk tales (the teacher taught German so there was a lot on those fairy tales), the physical aspects or how one might "spot" a witch (not today, although some of those myths are still perpetuated), and of course the current terminology of "witchcraft."

I have no idea if this is helpful at all. But maybe you can get some ideas from it?

[Wolf O Volos]

I would KILL to be able to be a professor in a university and teach pagan belief systems and the theory of non christian / christo-pagan belief systems.

But in all honesty, how many universities would actually allow for it to be a main course of study instead of an interesting anthropology course?

[LadyCelt]

With it being used for other religions: are they looking for magic or specifically for witchcraft? If its magic, you may find a lot with Shamanism and Druidry. I'm not sure of how many religions use witchcraft itiself though.

[Juniper138]

With it being used for other religions: are they looking for magic or specifically for witchcraft? If its magic, you may find a lot with Shamanism and Druidry. I'm not sure of how many religions use witchcraft itiself though.

Wicca and Voodoo come to mind as well.

[Seren_]

Owen Davies is a very good author on the subject of English Witchcraft. His book on Cunning Folk is very good, as is Witchcraft, Magic and Culture 1736-1951. Not sure if it's anthropological enough (or looks at the right period you want to focus on), but good for history.

I also have a book on the Lancashire Witches (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lancashire-Witches-Histories-Stories/dp/0719062047/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/026-7921328-7623636?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192441016&sr=8-3) which is a collection of essays about the subject. There are several anthropological essays in there, I think, which you might find useful. But maybe it's too specific for you...

[Hærfest Leah]

I'm an anthro student and I actually had an entire class on Witchcraft at UMass. I'll post the summary of the class because it might give you some ideas:

363 Witches: Myth and Reality (http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~germ363/)(I,G)




Thanks I'll definitely check it out. I am 350 words into the paper now and found several good articles on JSTOR (http://www.jstor.org/) for it.

[Eldawyn]

I would KILL to be able to be a professor in a university and teach pagan belief systems and the theory of non christian / christo-pagan belief systems.

But in all honesty, how many universities would actually allow for it to be a main course of study instead of an interesting anthropology course?


To clarify, the course I took on Witches was actually part of the German department. There was also one on German folklore that I did not take.

And unfortunately, I don't foresee anything like what you describe as a "main course" just for the simple fact that there's not really a degree for that in universities. But there's nothing wrong with it being "an interesting anthropology class." I'd love to take more specific religion classes.

[~*Sacred*~]

This is awesome that you are doing a paper on this. Let us know what you get on it!

[Hærfest Leah]

This is awesome that you are doing a paper on this. Let us know what you get on it!


Sure I will do that, it is due this Sunday the 28th so I'll know my grade with a week after that. I'm already at my required word count and almost done. Just need to add a little bit more info and sources. It won't be a great work but it should be pretty good. We all know there's just too much on witchcraft to contain in 1000 words, so much will be left out but I hope to get the basic point across for the assignment which is mainly focusing on the functions of witchcraft in different cultures and it's social effects.

If you like I can post the final work here in this thread, not like there can be a copyright violation since it's my work.

[~*Sacred*~]

Sure, I'll love reading it!

[PandoraHealer]

oooh! oooh! oooh!!
the closest thing i get to do to this is write an essay on Henna tattooing. IF my teacher "approves" my choice- which is where i'll have the problem- i should know tomarrow though.

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to read your paper!!

good luck!

BB-PH

[Hærfest Leah]

oooh! oooh! oooh!!
the closest thing i get to do to this is write an essay on Henna tattooing. IF my teacher "approves" my choice- which is where i'll have the problem- i should know tomarrow though.

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to read your paper!!

good luck!

BB-PH

I hope you get it. I've got to read an article today titled Women and Witchcraft, I'm hoping to find some good culture comparisons in it.

[Hærfest Leah]

Update: I have good news and bad news...

The good news is that I made an A (a low A) on my essay. The bad news is that I'm not going to post it here in this thread now because Elise plans to use it as a future MWM article. So you all will have to wait till I think the issue following the one that is next to be released.

[~*Sacred*~]

Good job!!! I can't wait to read it when it comes out :)