From moral panic to social institution and back again. Witchcraft beliefs in human history
https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2021-5-31-53
Abstract
In the paper, witchcraft beliefs in the modern world are considered within the framework of the ethological and structural-functional approaches, the concepts of “moral panic” and “the image of a limited good”. The author analyzes the ethological foundations and social functions of witchcraft beliefs and demonstrates that the idea of witchcraft turns out to be a function of social relations, communication needs and creative abilities (one might say, a side effect of those universal human needs and abilities). The article consistently demonstrates how, in the hunter-gatherer and early farming communities, witchcraft beliefs and related practices become an important cognitive tool and mechanism of social regulation, and how, as society grows and becomes more complex, those ideas and practices become a symptom of social distress (when persecution begins and whole groups of demonized fellow-countrymen begin to be persecuted). The author shows that the witchcraft belief, which remaining latent in collective consciousness, are getting stronger in situations of social upheaval and economic crises, and the persecution of alleged witches may resume today. Up-to-day cases from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and Russia demonstrate such state of affairs.
Supporting agencies: The research was completed as part of the state task under the project FSZG-2020-0019 (state registration number AAAA-A20-120070890028-5) “Ethnic semiotics and semiotics of culture: Historiography and modern approaches”.
About the Author
О. B. Khristoforova
Russian State University for the Humanities
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Olga B. Khristoforova, Dr. of Sci. (Philology)
bld. 6, Miusskaya Sq., Moscow, 125993
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Review
For citations:
Khristoforova О.B. From moral panic to social institution and back again. Witchcraft beliefs in human history. RSUH/RGGU Bulletin: “Literary Teory. Linguistics. Cultural Studies”, Series. 2021;(5):31-53. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2021-5-31-53
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