Witchcraft, Religion and Magic

The paper aims to discuss the function of slots and holes on some tablets with a handle. These features will be scrutinized first by examining the material aspects of the objects and second by using textual evidence to elucidate the questions raised.
The large majority of tablets with a handle, usually referred to as “amulet-shaped tablets”, consists of apotropaic artefacts. Tablets presented in this paper are written in Assyrian script and date to the Neo-Assyrian period. Such tablets comprise a body and a handle. Thus, their format has six edges and therefore differs from the widespread four-edged clay tablets. The body bears the main text, and often a short invocation to Marduk/Asalluhi, interwoven with double criss-cross lines. The main text of these artifacts typically consists of different Namburbis and a prayer to Marduk, Erra, Ishum and the Sebettu. The handle of these tablets bears the same double criss-cross lines and occasionally includes a short invocation to Ishum. Furthermore, the handle has a borehole. This shows that those tablets were hung, probably on a rope. Thus, they were meant for display in domestic context.
On the left or the right side of the body, slots and holes or holes alone can be found. Nowadays the holes and slots are empty. In antiquity, however, they most probably contained organic material, which gradually decomposed over the past ca. 2700 years. Nevertheless, traces of it are still visible in the slots and holes. This leads to the question what was this material and what was its function? Because of the apotropaic function of the artefacts I would suggest that the holes contained organic materia magica. This suggestion is supported by the textual evidence of one such tablet. Its inscription invokes the power of the well-known apotropaic plant maštakal. Furthermore, there is another tablet with a handle, whose Kultmittelbeschwörung mentions the same plant alongside other apotropaic plants. This evidence strongly suggests that plants were used as materia magica in the slots and holes of such tablets in order to reinforce the power of the protective tool. The combined evidence shows that the tablet with a handle, as an apotropaic concept, was a more complex tool with more features than previously assumed. All the elements of those tablets were used together to provide a magical protective device for safeguarding private houses in Mesopotamia.

Rödlach, A. (2006). Witches, Westerners, and HIV: AIDS and Cultures of Blame in Africa. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.

Reviewed by:

Kearsley A. Stewart in AIDS Research and Therapy, 2007, 4:5, doi:10.1186/1742-6405-4-5.

Anne Marie Martindale in Medical Sociology, 2007, July, 33-34.

Anthony Billaud in Sciences Sociales et Santé, 2007, 25:1, 103-107.

Hanne O. Morgensen in Anthropos, 2007, 102, 643-644.

Sharon Billon in Ethics and Medicine, 2007, 23:2, 190.

Brooke Grundfest Schoepf in Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 2008, 197-199.

Katherine Luongo in Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft, 2008, Summer, 101- 104.

Mary Moran in Journal of Anthropological Research, 2008, 64, 306-307.

Gary Linn in Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 2008, 1008-1010.

Colita Nichols Fairfax in Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 2008,
18:4, 500-502.

Diana Espirito-Santo in Anthropology & Medicine, 2008, 15:3, 271-272.

Joseph Hellweg in American Anthropologist, 2008, 110:4, 528-529.

Allison Goebel in Canadian Journal of African Studies
, 2009, 43:1, 208-211.

Melissa Graboyes in H-Net Reviews, 2009, April,
http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=24594

Preston-Whyte, E. in Global Public Health,2010, 5:1, 102-104

The identification of deviant burials as those of ‘vampires’ is a feature of excavated skeletons from sites across Eastern, Central and Southern Europe as well as the Balkans. Based on a close reading of historic and folkloric sources researchers have sought to match features of excavated sites with narrative descriptions drawn from vampire legend and myth. This study critically reviews the recent claims based on sites in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Poland and Slovakia. Whilst it is found that there was a widespread belief in vampires across Europe, it is argued that it is difficult to make absolute claims for ‘vampire’ burials on archaeological grounds as in most cases there are alternate and equally compelling interpretations of the data.

KEYWORDS
ARCHAEOLOGY, HISTORY, SIXTEENTH CENTURY, SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, VAMPIRE, DEVIANT BURIAL, PLAGUE, BLACK DEATH, FOLKLORE, PAGAN, BURIAL, WITCH, BALKANS, EASTERN EUROPE, CENTRAL EUROPE, SOUTHERN EUROPE, BULGARIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, POLAND, GREECE, ITALY, SLOVAKIA, LESBOS, VENICE, APOTROPAIC, VAMPIRIDZHIJA, PERPERIKON, SOZOPOL, PROSTEJOV, CELAKOVICE, DRAWSKO, GLIWICI, SOUTHWELL, KILTEASHEEN, LAZZARETTO NUOVO, NACHTZEHRER, KAMIEN POMORSKI

Fumigation in Babylonian Medicine played a role in the therapy of different illnesses such as “epilepsy”, “heartbreak” or “fever”. On the one hand it had a rash physical effect, because of the swift way of administering drugs, but on the other hand it had psychological effects as well, which could compare with aromatherapy.
The preserved textual information shows that a separate textual series on fumigation emerged first in the last quarter of the 4th century BC. It was compiled by the important Neo-Babylonian scholar Iqīšâ. Analogous information can be found not only in texts from the time of Iqīšâ, but also from 7th century BC Assyria, where different texts on fumigation were probably still not collected into a distinct series. The paper surveys the origins of the Iqīšâ’s series on fumigation and examines how this series was formed, using older material. The paper will scrutinize, which were the internal criteria for building up such a series. Moreover, it will be explored how building up an extensive commentary on that very same series, most probably by Iqīšâ himself, standardized and legitimized the series in his environment.

This paper tours the theological and philosophical writings of Augustine, Aquinas, St. Anthony, and Institoris to glean specific theories about demons, witches, and evil generally. A surprisingly rich and complex logic emerges, albeit contoured by the medieval paradigm. The writing style is light, but the scholarship is serious. 

Cambridgeshire has a rich history and folklore of witchcraft, partly because the predominance of Puritan religious beliefs in the area and partly because folklorists such as Enid Porter thoroughly documented surviving beliefs in witchcraft in the 20th century. This talk outlines some of what we know about traditional belief in witchcraft in the county.

At the moment, globally speaking, we seem to be in an endless cycle. The West has grasped the means of being materially productive that has resulted in its amassing wealth. Africa in the meantime engages monism, that perpetuates poverty but demands equality. The interaction of the West that seeks to alleviate the poverty of Africa in ignoring its root causes perpetuates it. The fact that the same interaction empowers Western languages gives African people distorted economic signals. It is in the economic interest of many African people to rote-learn foreign wisdom that makes little sense while neglecting locally rooted intelligence and disregarding efforts at countering African monism.

A comparison between a forest and a vegetable plot illustrates problems arising from the ignoring of cultural differences in contemporary mission. Westerners’ wishing away of difference can force African people into dishonesty. Ignoring rather than addressing witchcraft (often referred to as Satan) that perpetuates poverty has resulted in many booming but apparently shallow African churches. Building on European languages in Africa, while satisfying the powerful, can impede indigenously-rooted development. Overcoming of witchcraft is difficult using little known and poorly fitting Western theology. Churches in Africa need to use local languages so as to engage their theology with their lives.