Martor最新文献

{"title":"Witches, Sorcerers, and Demons in a Remote Corner of Northern Russia at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century","authors":"CHRISTINE D. WOROBEC","doi":"10.57225/martor.2023.28.02","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.57225/martor.2023.28.02","url":null,"abstract":"Ethnographic materials from Kargopol'skii region at the turn of the twenty-first century demonstrate that while paradigms of witchcraft and beliefs in the supernatural still existed, the paradigms had been somewhat narrowed when viewed within the historical context of the longue durée. Due to a reduction in the scope of bewitchments, entire communities no longer experienced epidemics of demonic possession brought about by the evil intent of an individual. Instances of bewitchment in the Soviet and post-Soviet eras became restricted to individuals who believed that they became ill because of the evil eye or a hex. The range of illnesses subsumed under bewitchment also decreased. Yet, depersonalization of witchcraft accusations did not occur. Kargopol'skii residents continued to identify individuals whom they or a family member believed were witches and sorcerers. The gendered feminine discourse of the nineteenth century had also been weakened somewhat. Finally, community violence against witches was not discernable in the Kargopol'sk discourse. In essence, these rural communities remained tied to a rhetoric of magic to explain imbalances within the social fabric caused by individual transgressions of boundaries, suspicions against individuals for causing illnesses, and other violation of norms that could only be corrected by way of counter-magic and the restoration of \"the notions of social equality and social\" harmony.","PeriodicalId":52657,"journal":{"name":"Martor","volume":"10 6","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136228293","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Magical Objects, Magical Writing: Amulets Across the Ages","authors":"HAJNALKA TAMÁS","doi":"10.57225/martor.2023.28.18","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.57225/martor.2023.28.18","url":null,"abstract":"This note focuses on recent discussions on gemstone amulets from Late Antiquity through insights offered in two contributions to the volume Textual Amulets from Antiquity to Early Modern Times: The Shape of Words (Theis and Vitellozzi 2022). After a general presentation of the volume, I turn to the first two chapters, penned each by one of the volume’s editors. Paolo Vitellozzi’s paper examines the evolution of the textuality of magical gems in light of speech act theories and taxonomies elaborated in earlier secondary literature. Vitellozzi also analyses the complex interaction of medium (the gemstone), text and image in the course of this evolutionary process, showing how writing progressively assumed magical efficacy. In the following paper, Christoffer Theis analyses a specific category of magical gems, namely those which represent divinities with multiple heads. Theis’ observations implicitly complement Vitellozzi’s conclusions on the textuality of gemstone amulets. In the final paragraphs of this note, I briefly comment on Christian amulets and isopsephisms.","PeriodicalId":52657,"journal":{"name":"Martor","volume":"9 6","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136227932","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Introduction. Witchcraft, Magic, Divination and the Twenty-First Century","authors":"Tünde Komáromi, Ileana Benga, Bogdan Neagota","doi":"10.57225/martor.2023.28.01","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.57225/martor.2023.28.01","url":null,"abstract":"Magic, witchcraft, and divination have been intensely exploited fields throughout the history of anthropological thought. One of the relevance for focusing on this topic in the twenty-first century is that no other field could connect better postmodernity to the past and present of “traditional” societies; another possible focal point is that the magic and witchcraft practices give voice to represent fine recorders for social change within contemporary societies. The “Introduction” of this special issue of Martor overviews the research on this topic in Romania, done in the late twentieth century, but also in these past 23 years, and presents the articles that are included in the volume.","PeriodicalId":52657,"journal":{"name":"Martor","volume":"10 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136228296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Oneiric Authentication of a Miraculous Shrine. Case Study from a Dobruja Monastery, Romania","authors":"LAURA JIGA ILIESCU","doi":"10.57225/martor.2023.28.08","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.57225/martor.2023.28.08","url":null,"abstract":"An interesting phenomenon of incubation ritual was attested in open air in southwest Dobruja at the very beginning of the 20th century, at a healing stone cross that, two decades later, was enclosed by an Orthodox Christian monastery. The article focuses on the narrative strategy that asserts Christian authority over the site. The strategy includes a corpus of legends that associate the origin of the cross with the local martyrdom past, its miraculous finding, and a modern hagiography whose main character is a thaumaturgic monk. The dream as a realm for divine communication, represents a theme that coagulates the entire narrative corpus and contributes greatly to the construction of a sanctuary. Over the last decades, energy and spiritual healing practitioners have enriched the group of visitors to the monastery.","PeriodicalId":52657,"journal":{"name":"Martor","volume":"10 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136228297","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"New Insights on Magic and Early Christianity","authors":"HAJNALKA TAMÁS","doi":"10.57225/martor.2023.28.17","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.57225/martor.2023.28.17","url":null,"abstract":"In this note I present two contributions in recently published edited volumes. Through the lenses of scholarship on ancient magic, these may bring intriguing perspectives to the study of early Christianity. The first (Sanzo 2020) is an illustrated discussion on the heuristic utility of the category “(ancient) magic.” In the course of his analysis, the author reflects also on how applying a balanced and nuanced approach could help the scholar explore certain aspects of early Christianity over against the social and cultural environment in which it developed. The second (Conti 2022) observes, starting from the sermons of Maximus of Turin, the challenges inherent to the process of Christianisation in Late Antiquity. Among other merits, it draws attention to the specifics of Christianisation in rural regions, where practices labelled later as “magical” were part and parcel of the rhythm of life, as opposed to the (far better documented) urban context. The contribution shows the importance of addressing these specifics in order to properly understand e.g., the mechanisms of transition to the Middle Ages.","PeriodicalId":52657,"journal":{"name":"Martor","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136228277","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Marriage and Magic in a Transylvanian Village","authors":"Tünde Komáromi","doi":"10.57225/martor.2023.28.07","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.57225/martor.2023.28.07","url":null,"abstract":"\"In this study I present the possibilities of magical influence on marriages, based on my fieldwork in a Transylvanian village. I investigate how, according to the villagers, the creation and dissolution of marriages can be magically influenced, and how they use magic to interpret the delay of the marriage, conflicts between spouses, broken relationships, and the death of a spouse. The location of the research is a village with an ethnically and religiously mixed population, where Reformed Hungarians, Orthodox Romanians and mainly Orthodox Roma live. The study is divided into three parts. In the first part, I will focus on the recollections of the older generation, in the second part, on cases that happened in the lives of the middle-aged population, and in the third part, I will compare cases preserved in memory with contemporary cases. This comparison reveals that methods of magical intervention have changed, as have the kinds of problems that arise. From contemporary stories, it seems that the marriage prospects of an unmarried youth are no longer influenced by magic. If there is a suspicion that a marriage is being prevented by magical means (binding), people try to break this binding with the help of Romanian Orthodox priests or seers/clairvoyants. Priests and clairvoyants also pray over the clothes of those wishing to marry, and at the same time mothers fast for their unmarried children. Magic has been replaced by methods drawn from Romanian Orthodox religious practice, which are accepted and practised in secret by most of the Hungarians in the village. Reflecting on the images of marriage being hindered by magical binding and of the predestined partner (RO: ursita/ursitul), I examine the relationship between Romanian and Hungarian beliefs and interpretative possibilities, referring to previous Hungarian and Romanian ethnographic research. In addition, I summarize everything that is important in relation to the specialists involved (seers or clairvoyants, Romanian Orthodox priests). According to local perception, the social institution of marriage can be influenced through magic. Marriage, divorce, and the death of one of the parties can also be interpreted magically within the local framework of interpretation.\"","PeriodicalId":52657,"journal":{"name":"Martor","volume":"13 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136228281","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"“We Live in the Country of the Victorious Kafka”: Witchcraft and Magic in Present-Day Russia","authors":"OLGA KHRISTOFOROVA","doi":"10.57225/martor.2023.28.03","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.57225/martor.2023.28.03","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the problems associated with witchcraft and magical beliefs in contemporary Russia. It analyzes media discourse in online publication, video streams, social networks, and comments in public media resources in which ordinary people and social and political elites describe and discuss witchcraft and paranormal beliefs and rituals. The paper talks about magic in a broad sense, including esotericism, occultism, astrology, divination, parapsychology, and so on, as people engaging with these issues understand it. The paper discusses the following facts and trends: (1) the Russian media contain many references to magical rituals, which suggests people’s interest in the topics of magic and witchcraft, esotericism, and occultism; (2) Russian public media and social networks discuss magic and witchcraft among celebrities and elites; (3) in a context of political instability, narratives of magic and conspiracy theories are incorporated into the official propaganda to create a negative image of the enemy and form moral panics, on the one hand, and to create a positive image of Russia, its power, and its future, on the other hand; (4) the state media broadcast this narrative of magic to the wider society, where it is contaminated with the grassroots witchcraft narrative and keeps it in a “working” state; (5) The result is grassroots denunciations, accusations, and new rumors of magic and witchcraft among political and economic elites.","PeriodicalId":52657,"journal":{"name":"Martor","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136228283","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Emma Wilby. 2019. Invoking the Akelarre. Voices of the Accused in the Basque Witch-Craze, 1609-1614. Brighton, Chicago, Toronto: Sussex Academic Press, 480 p.","authors":"ILEANA BENGA","doi":"10.57225/martor.2023.28.15","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.57225/martor.2023.28.15","url":null,"abstract":"Emma Wilby’s research is shedding light on one of the most outstanding records of Europe’s witchcraft prosecutions, which are the Basque (1609-14), bringing to life both the local witch-craze, in a long trail of academic writing dominated by the momentous work of Gustav Henningsen, and the eventual perspective on co-authoring the testimonials during the confession-making process, a genuinely post-1990 orientation.","PeriodicalId":52657,"journal":{"name":"Martor","volume":"10 4","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136228295","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}