Customer Reviews

Witchcraft. Lycanthropy. Drugs and Disease (American University Studies Series XI, Anthropology and Sociology)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
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I used this book extensively for a paper I just wrote comparing the European witch-craze of the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries to the Azande in Africa. I used Sidky's book for most of my information on Europe and found it very helplful. It was informative, well researched, well written, and well organized. It presented material in a clear manner which made it easy to understand and also helped me find which sections I needed to talk about in my essay. I also enjoyed the numerous illustrations of artwork depicting the witch-hunts/torture devices/Sabbat rites/and illustrations of medieval texts related to the witch-craze. I highly recommend this book to anyone writing a paper on the European witch-hunts from an anthropological stance, to all anthro majors and minors and anyone interested in examining a bit of dark (but fasinating) history.

Sidky details all the true and horrific aspects of the European witchcraze. From the beginning to the end you will never become bored or think the book dull. Besides the written facts and charts, Sidky also encloses copies of several artworks of what people thought of witches and the devil. Everything covered is given sufficient detail and everything detailed is supported completly.

If you're into everything from schizophrenia to ergot poisoning, from the black plague to the dread Malleus Maleficarum, from the "thumb screws" method of torture to The Devils of Loudon and demonic possession, then this is the book for you. Add to that a collection of pictures that would shock any uncouth European peasant living in the sixteenth century, and you've got the making of a most bizarre book in the most bizarre field of "witchcraft studies". Here you get to see the shear ugliness of life in medieval Europe during the Inquisition up close and personal. You get to look into the mind of the "witch hammerer" as he singles out those members of society that alleged performed those sinister magical acts that included cannibalism, sexual contact with demons, and spreading plague and disease. Rather than arguing that "witchcraft was real to the people of the time so it was real" like other "mentalist" anthropologists in the field have done, the author condemns those who insisted on the existence of witchcraft and argues that it was used an excuse to persecute and mercilessly torture thousands. As far as lycanthropy goes, the author suggests that the mentally ill, social outcasts, and those infected with rabies may have been those persecuted as "werewolves". The pictures and bizarreness of the topic alone earns the book five stars, and while there are parts of it that I'm not sure that I can agree with (for instance, the author believes that cannibalism has never been a socially acceptable practice to any great extent in any culture whatsoever) the author does an excellent job of revealing the pernicious delusions which plagued the European mind during the time.