Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America (Contemporary Ethnography) [Paperback]

Sabina Magliocco (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0812218795 | ISBN-13: 978-0812218794 | Publication Date: May 10, 2004

Taking the reader into the heart of one of the fastest-growing religious movements in North America, Sabina Magliocco reveals how the disciplines of anthropology and folklore were fundamental to the early development of Neo-Paganism and the revival of witchcraft. Magliocco examines the roots that this religious movement has in a Western spiritual tradition of mysticism disavowed by the Enlightenment. She explores, too, how modern Pagans and Witches are imaginatively reclaiming discarded practices and beliefs to create religions more in keeping with their personal experience of the world as sacred and filled with meaning. Neo-Pagan religions focus on experience, rather than belief, and many contemporary practitioners have had mystical experiences. They seek a context that normalizes them and creates in them new spiritual dimensions that involve change in ordinary consciousness.

Magliocco analyzes magical practices and rituals of Neo-Paganism as art forms that reanimate the cosmos and stimulate the imagination of its practitioners. She discusses rituals that are put together using materials from a variety of cultural and historical sources, and examines the cultural politics surrounding the movement—how the Neo-Pagan movement creates identity by contrasting itself against the dominant culture and how it can be understood in the context of early twenty-first-century identity politics.

Witching Culture is the first ethnography of this religious movement to focus specifically on the role of anthropology and folklore in its formation, on experiences that are central to its practice, and on what it reveals about identity and belief in twenty-first-century North America.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Magliocco impressively corrals the diverse writings and experiences of U.S. neo-pagans into this highly readable and deeply researched ethnographic study. . . . Highly recommended."—Choice

From the Publisher

Sabina Magliocco teaches anthropology at California State University, Northridge.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press (May 10, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812218795
• ISBN-13: 978-0812218794
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #398,289 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am a professor of Anthropology and Folklore at California State University, Northridge. I grew up in Italy and the United States. My research began in Sardinia, where I studied how globalization affects traditional religious festivals. I went on to study rituals, festivals and cultural politics among contemporary Pagans and Witches in the United States. I've published four books, three in English: 'Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America' (2004); 'Neo-Pagan Sacred art and Altars: Making Things Whole' (2001); and 'The Two Madonnas: the Politics of Festival in a Sardinian Community' (2nd edition 2005 ). My current research is on traditional healers in Italy; that will, I hope, result in another book, tentatively entitled 'The Enchanted Worldview in Italy.'

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Improves on Hutton and Pike. Well written and recommended., March 23, 2005

By 

Christopher W. Chase "Christopher W. Chase" (East Lansing, MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America (Contemporary Ethnography) (Paperback)

Sabina Magliocco's "Witching Culture" is quite possibly the most significant volume on Contemporary Pagan Culture to have been written in several years. Magliocco, author of an earlier volume on Neo-Pagan Art and Altars, has filled in several gaps left by Ronald Hutton and Sarah Pike, authors of important recent works in their own right.

The real strength of Magliocco's approach lies in her combined historical and folkloric approaches to cultural formation. Nods to other theoretical approaches are made, especially in her discussion of Paganism as a culturally oppositional discourse (James Scott, Todorov, Gramsci) but for the most part her own theoretical approaches are interwoven with her content so as to produce a seamless integration.

As I noted, her attention to the categories of the Other, both as conceived from Christian heritage and the Enlightenment's 'God of Reason,' are set up as the early framework of the book, along with valuable summations of early Hermeticism, medieval ritual magic, Renaissance Humanism, and 19th C. Romanticism to show the contributions of each era to contemporary Paganism. In this she avoids Hutton's obsession with the British 19th century and yet misses much of Hutton's focus on cunning-folk and those more vernacular traditions. Magliocco's work is more concerned with those who wrote on those traditions, and how those writings (Leland, Murray, Gardner) were used as a crucible to create contemporary Paganism.

Excellent portions of the book also focus on energy, magic, naming and ritual, as well as the historical and folkloric contributions to the formations of these much-used categories by contemporary Pagans. In addition, this is the first volume I am aware of to treat music and song in such depth. Two main aspects of song are treated--ritual uses (echoing her earlier scholarly articles on the subject with Holly Tannen) and educational uses--that is, teaching modes of thought and interpretation common to Pagans. While these are not the only important functions of Pagan song, these are the most important aspects for her work, for she concentrates on community identity and maintenance. Partly because of her concern with boundary formation and maintenance, her work engages little with New Age religiosity, and instead concentrates on flash points such as cultural appropriation issues with indigenous peoples, especially Amerindians. Again, given the existing literature, this is a plus, rather than a minus.

If there are drawbacks to her work, they are similar to other important works in the field. Most of the book concentrates on Wicca, witchcraft, Feri, Reclaiming and New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn (NROOGD), all closely connected with dominant structures in the Eastern part of the U.S. Other facets of contemporary Paganism, such as Druidry, Pagan Vodoun, Church of All Worlds, and Asatru/Vanatru, draw significantly less attention. But as these are numerically proportionately less of the wider community, their comparative marginalization is understandable in a study like this.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent examination, July 6, 2005

By 

Freysson "freysson" (McDonough, Ga USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America (Contemporary Ethnography) (Paperback)

This is an excellent examination and introduction to the study of the Wicccan culture. Combining personal tales with more traditional folklore techniques and commentary she crafts a compelling exploration of many of the questions that those who are not primarily interested in belief systems per se are interested in. If you want to have insight into what Wiccans are interested in and how they relate this is the book.

If I have any criticism it is that she tends to narrow her focus to a few specific traditions. I was left wondering the changes that might be seen as the population of Wiccans changes from a tradition or coven centered to that of the more eclectic solitary population, and how are the "traditionalists" reacting to the changes.

This however is an easily overlooked concern as she covers the her topic well and with obvious relish as well as with the eye of the trained observer.

Very Well Done.

10 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars *Must Have, Double Bag!*, November 20, 2004

By 

Pitch (Cascadia, North America) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America (Contemporary Ethnography) (Paperback)

*Must Have, Double Bag!* is old school comic fandom's term for things that a fan _cannot_ live without--and have any fanboy or fangirl cred in the eyes of her or his fan peers.

And a perfect, to-the-point description of this book.

Written by a Gardnerian and Reclaiming practitioner who also happens to be a skillful folklorist and anthropologist, Magliocco is presently an assistant professor at California State University, Northridge.

Witching Culture is thoughtful, insightful, fruitful, grounded, and, maybe, provocative.

Witching Culture is well-crafted and a joy to read.

Witching Culture is one of the best ethnographies that I've read in a long time.

Magliocco manages to accentuate the participation in her participant-observations, but sustain a vibrant and keen postmodern theoretical analysis at the same time. She takes the reader *there* to a living experience of an alternative culture.

She addresses a broad range of topics shaping and challenging Neo-Paganism,especially Craft in the San Francisco Bay Area, from how magic is envisioned as a working relationship with world and deities to ritual art and artistry to Neo-Pagan shopping habits to identity construction and cultural borrowing, and more.

Like the Neo-Pagan bricoleurs she discusses, she takes advantage of theories and insights borrowed from a number of disciplines and discourses, putting the mix to good, understanding use.

Magliocco considers Neo-Pagan culture to be oppositional to dominant culture, postmodern in its world view at a time when the dominant modern culture offers little beyond materiality, consumerism, alienation, oppression, and spiritual--
if not economic--impoverishment. She traces some roots of this oppositionality to sources in the Romantic and European nationalist movements. And provides a good account of Neo-Paganism's cultural creativity in shaping magical ritual, even
political action, from these sources, among others.

Her approach to the creative and enculturating role that song plays in today's Neo-Paganism alone makes the book worthwhile.

Witching Culture is a *Must Have, Double Bag!* book that all of us should be proud to add to our libraries.

Note: I am Sabina's friend, and the *Pitch* in the book. All I can assure you is--as an old-school comic guy--if the book sucked, I'd say so. Far from it--Witching Culture shines bright!