Folly and witchcraft in anthropological studies
In the context of the 2022 AIWAC “Women’s Legacies in Natural Studies, Health, and Liberal Arts” focused on the correlation between women and naturalism from ancient times to contemporaneity I will present a paper from an anthropological perspective.
This discussion will concern some topics widely investigated from anthropology’s tradition and research.
Ranging from a quick round of the History of Magic and Witchcraft – including an important monography written by Lucy Mair on witchcraft, where this practice is an essential component of the world of many cultures, strongly intertwined in social stratifications, we will analyze the social and cultural aspects of the phenomenon abroad as well as in Italy, home to a long tradition of studies that Ernesto de Martino deepened, with an overview of the phenomenon of the famous tarantism, in which this “cultural syndrome” mixes disease, hysteria, epilepsy.
We will try to provide a broader view and perspective of how the women were considered and how especially women were victims of hunting and why analyzing monographs that have studied the trials that took place in history to condemn witches.
Since one of the original roles of the sorcerer/witch could cure a wide range of illness it will be interesting to clarify certain aspects and beliefs and find a receipt.
We also will describe shamanism and its forms, paraphernalia and technics and discovering that in a lot of countries women were widely accepted.