A War Of Witches: A Journey Into The Underworld Of The Contemporary Aztecs (Paperback)

by Timothy Knab (Author) "I had been sitting inside with the old gentleman most of the morning while he helped me translate a tape of one of his fantastic..." (more)
Key Phrases: bat disease, soul raising, more witches, Don Antonio, Don Pedro, San Martin (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The soul of a child has been seized by the Lords of the netherworld, and anthropologist Knab, as an apprentice curandero (healer), undertakes to restore it. Tutored by two elderly healers whose trust he had won during 10 years of visits to their Mexican village in the high sierra near Puebla, Knab descends alone into a nearby cave where, with tobacco smoke, incense, prayers and incantations, he contacts the Lords. He must also reach them in dreams, whose startling content provides leads not only to the child's condition but to the history of the community's murderous witches. In this and other cures he undertook (some with the aid of modern medicine and nutrition), he probes the vibrant ancient Aztec cosmology and its healing and hexing powers. Speaking Spanish and Nahuat gave him access to this village's culture that outsiders would lack. More gripping than fiction, Knab's account describes only what he saw, heard and learned, his conclusion being that "I still do not... know what it all means." 30,000 first printing; author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
Anthropologist Knab's highly personal and compelling narrative on the magico-religious belief system of contemporary Aztecs has the excitement of a mystery novel yet is interspersed with rich ethnographic detail on Aztec cosmology, magic, and ritual. Through his fieldwork with two Mexican curanderos (healers/witches) Knab uncovers the survival of ancient Aztec religious beliefs and practices thought to have been long wiped out by colonial conquest and Catholicism. Caught between the worlds of academia and Aztec witchcraft, Knab recounts how he found himself subject to his informants' magical devices and began the journey to recover his tonal (soul). Knab's experience challenges traditional assumptions about ethical involvement on the part of the researcher and blurs the boundaries between informant and researcher, science and magic, and healing and murder. This book will appeal not only to anthropologists and students of Aztec religion but to anyone interested in reading a captivating real-life mystery.?Tracy L. Little, Ohio State Univ., Columbus
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Westview Press (October 30, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813333873
• ISBN-13: 978-0813333878
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #615,190 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not like Castaneda -- this is real shamanism & anthropology, October 28, 2003

By	J. Richard Jennings "coreydon" (Campbell, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

For anyone who wants an idea of what Carlos Castaneda's work might have been like if he had written real ethnographical accounts of sorcery and "dreaming" as practiced by followers of ancient Mexican traditions, I strongly recommend this book. It's also a colorful and intriguing story of revenge, murder and the impact of cultural upheavals spanning a period of over sixty years.

Knab was an anthropology professor in the early 70s at the National University of Mexico doing fieldwork in a small village in the Sierra de Puebla when he encountered authentic brujas and brujos who followed ancient traditions of sorcery and dreaming dating back to at least the Aztecs.

Unlike Castaneda, Prof. Knab is fluent in Nahuatl, and records the actual ancient terms used for various practices, and for regions of the dreaming world--Talocan or Tlalocan--that witches need to visit to help cure their patients, or to inflict harm on their opponents and other witches. He also faithfully records and translates his Nahuatl conversations with his two primary informants, an elderly man and woman of the village--Innocente and Rubia--who had both practiced curing and witchcraft for over 50 years. Unlike the supposed metaphysical and philosophical discourses of don Juan (especially in Castaneda's later books), these conversations are what one would expect of someone coming from this kind of cultural milieu.

Probably the most fascinating aspect of the book for Castaneda readers is the detailed descriptions of dream journeys that Prof. Knab is instructed in by his two informants. These sections of the book describe a realm that has a geography and consistent features that have supposedly been experienced by generations of Aztec-descended brujos.

Knab's instruction and interaction with his informants described in the books takes place over a three-year period, from the fall of 1974 to the fall of 1977, but it also eventually leads him to unravel a dark tale of witchcraft and intrigue in the same region in the 1920s that ultimately led to dozens of deaths attributed to witchcraft. These killings, which occurred over a period of about a decade, were ultimately brought to an end only when the townspeople literally crucified one of the alleged witches.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We greet you in the light of the day, September 9, 2001

By	kaioatey (Awatovi, AZ) - See all my reviews

This book contains invaluable information about crucial elements of Aztec ritual life, including those of the tonalli, nahualli, the animal guardians, and the great flower of darkness, the Talocan ; there are many wonderful descriptions of the syncretic blend of the pre-Colombian and the Catholic and quite specific descriptions of the ancient technique of Dreaming, used to navigate in the harsh and often unforgiving underworld. The story is told by a master raconteur who introduces us to two wily and remarkable teachers of the old ways, Inocente and Rubia. In a masterful sweep of the history of a small town in the Sierra de Puebla we get to see their roles in the havoc caused by the tension between the indigenous peasants and the mestizo rulers in which the former's only defense were the ancient techniques of "snuffing the candles of the unjust". K's prose allows the reader to revel in the evocative beauty of Nahuatl and it evokes one's respect and affection for the people he is writing about (in short, this is anthropology at its best). I recommend the book to people interested in exploring the thin line between the real and the imaginary, reality and dreams, and to those who like to witness how the new world and the old world can meet in the spirit of respect, strength and mutual enrichment.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Really boring, April 14, 2008

By	Gaetan Lion - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This book has many parallels with the writings of Carlos Castaneda such as The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, The Original Teachings in a Deluxe 30th Anniversary Edition and Separate Reality. Both authors were anthropologists and studied Mesoamerican old shamanism and witchcraft as it was still practiced in Mexico in the 1960s and 1970s. Both authors study and describe a similar underworld, world of dreams, and the supernatural.

However, Carlos Castaneda is a far superior writer. He is a gripping story teller. His main mentor, Don Juan, jumps out of every page with vivid mythical proportion. Their counterparts, Rubia and Inocente, in this book really pale by comparison. They are dying or delirious elderly beings far from the top of their game. They go on and on about speculative and boring dream interpretations. As a result, the story has a hard time getting off the ground. The second half of the book gets more interesting as it reaches back into the past when Rubia and Inocente were more vibrant and human. Their struggle in defending the agricultural culture of their village against the greedy economic interest of usurping outsiders (coffee growers) is pretty good. But, this may be too late for many readers.

Giving Knab the benefit of the doubt, maybe the difference between Castaneda and Knab is the difference between fantasy and reality. We all know Castaneda's writings are most controversial and not well accepted in anthropological circles. In other words, anthropologists have accused Castaneda of making it all up. Knab's writing so far has not suffered such an ill fate. The Acknowledgment section of the book suggests Knab is on strong scholar footing. But, is Knab's book more credible than Castaneda's because of his lack of relative notoriety? I can't readily answer this question. At this stage, I may accept that Castaneda is a far more entertaining fiction writer. Meanwhile, Knab's duller prose may be better grounded in reality. Sometimes that's just the way it is. Reality is a bit duller than fiction.