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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, but a little dry.,
By
This review is from: Stolen Lightning: The Social Theory of Magic (Paperback)
In this splendid, daunting, almost wicked book, Daniel O'Keefe gives us a work of unmatched scope and highly animatedscholarship about how magic operates in human societies and how it has colored history and culture from the Stone Age to the present. Drawing on an enormous body of knowledge-sociology, anthropology, philosophy, religion, history, psychologyhe explains how magic works; describes the different categories (medical, black, ceremonial, religious, occult, paranormal, and magical cults and sects); and demonstrates the way in which all magic, whether it be Egyptian theurgy, Zande witchcraft, Western astrology, or the current rash of cults, is a means of the individual's defense against social pressures: against the socializing force of religion, against collective morality-a challenge, through history, to all official versions of reality.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Chicken or the Egg?,
By Alamantra (Birmingham, AL USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Stolen Lightning: The Social Theory of Magic (Paperback)
I think that this is a very useful read for those who have a deep interest in magic as a social force; regardless of whether they advocate for or against magic. O'Keefe's great contribution to the discussion is that he makes and supports an overwhelming statement as to the deep rooted effect the belief in magic exercises in shaping our total culture. Where I felt he came up short is in trying to establish the idea that magic is a force that emerges from religion. I would question this notion that one has any such need to establish a 'cause and effect' relationship between the two ideas in the first place. This imposes an unnecessary dichotomy between two terms, which in reality represent the same underlying social forces. That said, he isn't the first person to do that, and any work that considers of the cultural effects of how magic is thought about in a collective sense would be required to acknowledge the effects of this prestablished dichotomy as well. In contemplating magic's deep permeation of our culture, especially as an organizing principle of society and the individual, we should be equally inclusive of our notions of religion and science in the same context. The general perception seems to have preferred to distort these forces as having an antagonistic relationship when a more clear picture might show that magic, science or religion are not static symbols and each of these have nourished the development of the others. We may ultimately be led to the conclusion that these categories all possess reciprocal and shaping effects on each other and that there is ultimately no clear, objective line of demarcation between one and the others. Any such distinctions are purely subjective and arbitrary. Nor can we suggest that any one of these represents the roots of either of the others. All of these forces emerge from prehistory and rise up out of our wonder about "life, the universe and everything."Still, this work is rich in information, even where that information is overladen and obscured by seemingly endless footnotes and rather arcane references in the fields of anthropology, psychology and sociology. I agree with another reviewer that it should be taken with a flat of salt, but I would say this about any work of this nature. My final take on this is that there are plenty of works on the effects of magic written by advocates and practitioners. This work, written from an altogether different and more open, eclectic, perspective brings a certain balance to a subject matter that is all too often misunderstood and misrepresented by both its advocates and critics. Recommended.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, dry,
By RF (Northern Michigan) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Stolen Lightning: The Social Theory of Magic (Paperback)
As the first review had said, this book is dry. It is a bit of a hard read if you are say, used to reading fiction. It is not textbook bland, but it is very academic. On that note, it is very academic as the other review had said. They had said this in a negative way as the authors "bias" comes out in that he doesn't "believe" in magic. If you are buying this book because you think magic is real, you will be disappointed as they were. This is a book about social constructs. Any academic will seem to have bias if you believe magic is real, as they are educated and use logic. Academic works need proof to make claims and theories, regardless of their personal beliefs. You can "learn" anything that anyone tells you. You are educated when those things are factual.If you want to read a good review, the first one is spot on.
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