Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion: An Anthropological Study of the Supernatural (Paperback)

by Pamela Moro (Author), James Myers (Author), Arthur Lehmann (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This comparative reader takes an anthropological approach to the study of religious beliefs, both strange and familiar. The engaging articles on all key issues related to the anthropology of religion grab the attention of students, while giving them an excellent foundation in contemporary ideas and approaches in the field. The multiple authors included in each chapter represent a range of interests, geographic foci, and ways of looking at each subject. Divided into ten chapters, this book begins with a broad view of anthropological ways of looking at religion, and moves on to some of the core topics within the subject, such as myth, ritual, and the various types of religious specialists.

Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; 7 edition (September 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0073405213
• ISBN-13: 978-0073405216
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #32,014 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Buy it used, May 20, 2008

By	V (Dominican Republic) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion: An Anthropological Study of the Supernatural (Paperback)

I truly believe the book is too expensive for its quality and lenght, and you can find it used at very cheap prices and in extremelly good conditions, the one I bought was really as good as new and I only paid USD12.
I think the description of the book is a little misleading since I was expecting something like MArvin Harris, Diamond or Robert Wright analyzes on the existence of spirituality and it turned out to be a compilation of essays. True, most of them are really interesting and if you are not subscribed to LStore via university it is quite difficult to find these papers by themselves. The selected authors are like the divas of anthropology and I think that the book is nice to have as a consultation tool whenever you feel like wandering into certain topics.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chock Full of Essays on Witchcraft & the Occult in Society, May 8, 2009

By	BYF "Backyard Flix" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion: An Anthropological Study of the Supernatural (Paperback)

CONTENTS:


* Foreword by James W. Fernandez
* Preface

1 - The Anthropological Study of Religion

* Why We Became Religious, and The Evolution of the Spirit World - Marvin Harris
* Religious Perspectives in Anthropology - Dorothy Lee
* The Anthropologist's Encounter with the Supernatural - I.M. Lewis
* Steel Axes for Stone-Age Australians - Lauriston Sharp


2 - Myth, Ritual, Symbolism, and Taboo

* Myth - Mircea Eliade
* Ritual - Max Gluckman
* Female Circumcision in Egypt and Sudan: A Controversial Rite of Passage - Daniel Gordon
* An Anthropologist's Reflections on Symbolic Usage - Raymont Firth
* Taboo - Mary Doublas
* You Are What You eat: Religious Aspects of the Health Food Movement - Jill Dubisch
* Body Ritual among the Nacirema - Horace Miner


3 - Shamans, Priests, and Prophets

* Religious Specialists - Victor W. Turner
* Priests - C. Von Furer-Haimendorf
* The Shaman: A Siberian Spiritualist - William Howells
* Dark Side of the Shaman - Michael Fobes Brown
* Reflections after Waco: Millennialists and the State - Michael Barkun


4 - The Religious Use of Drugs

* Drugs - Francis Huxley
* Ritual Enemas - Peter T. Furst & Michael D. Coe
* The Sound of Rushing Water - Michael Harner
* Psychedelic Drugs and Religious Experience - Robert S. de Ropp


5 - Ethnomedicine: Religion and Healing

* Eyes of the Ngangas: Ethnomedicine and Power in Central African Republic - Arthur C. Lehmann
* The Psychotherapeutic Aspects of Primitive Medicine - Ari Kiev
* A School for Medicine Men - Robert Bergman
* Mothering and the Practice of 'Balm' in Jamaica - William Wedeoja
* Traditional African Psychotherapy: An Interview with Thomas Adeoye Lambo - Thomas Bass
* The Sorcerer and His Magic - Claude Levi-Strauss
* Folk Medical Magic and Symbolism in the West - Wayland D. Hand

6 - Witchcraft, Sorcery, and Other Forces of Evil

* An Anthropological Perspective on the Witchcraze - James L. Brain
* Some Implications of Urban Witchcraft Beliefs - Phillips Stevens, Jr.
* Sorcery and Concepts of Deviance among the Kabana, West New Britain - Naomi M. McPherson
* Voodoo Death and the Mechanism for Dispatch of the Dying in Arnhem, Australia - Harry D. Eastwell
* The Evil Eye: Forms and Dynamics of a Universal Superstition - Helmut Schoeck
* Urban Witches - Edward J. Moody


7 - Demons, Exorcism, Divination and Magic

* Devils, Witches, and Sudden Death - June Nash
* Psychosocial Interpretations of Exorcism - E. Mansell Pattison
* Divination - Lucy Mair
* Rational Mastery by Man of His Surroundings - Bronislaw Malinowski
* Baseball Magic - George Gmelch


8 - Ghosts, Souls, and Ancestors: Power of the Dead

* Taraka's Ghost - Stanley A. Freed and Ruth S. Freed
* Sorcerers, Ghosts, and Polluting Women: An Analysis of Religious Belief and Population Control - Shirley Lindenbaum
* A New Weapon Stirs Up Old Ghosts - William E. Mitchell
* The Real Vampire - Paul Barber
* Voodoo - Karen McCarthy Brown
* The Secrets of Haiti's Living Dead - Gino del Guercio
* Voodoo Science - William Booth
* Death Be Not Strange - Peter A. Metcalf


9 - Old and New Religions: The Search for Salvation

* Revitalization Movements - Anthony F.C. Wallace
* Cargo Cults - Peter M. Worsley
* Serpent-Handling as Sacrament - Mary Lee Daugherty
* Apocalypse at Jonestown - John R. Hall
* Rajneeshpuram: The Boom and Bust of a Buddhafield - James E. Myers


10 - The Occult: Paths to the Unknown

* The Burden of Skepticism - Carl Sagan
* Occult Beliefs - Barry Singer and Victor A. Benassi
* Sympathy for the Devil: It's Not Easy Being Evil in a World That's Gone to Hell - Lawrence Wright
* The Occult Revival as Popular Culture: Some Observation on the Old and the Nouveau Witch - Raymond L.M. Lee

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not exceptional, March 21, 2009

By	Tiffiny Suter (Anderson, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I needed this book for an anthropology class. While it is mostly good, I have a few complaints. The first chapter is written with so much academical jargon, I spent half my time figuring out what the words meant and had difficulty grasping the meaning. Thankfully, the following chapters are written in an easier to follow tone. My other complaint has to do with some of the articles being very dated; religions grow and change, I expected the most recent edition to reflect that. Overall, if you need this book for your class, order it. How much you enjoy it really depends on how your professor uses the material.