Witchcraft, sorcery, rumors, and gossip

Resource Information

The work Witchcraft, sorcery, rumors, and gossip represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in University of Missouri-St. Louis Libraries. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Witchcraft, sorcery, rumors, and gossip

Statement of responsibility

Pamela J. Stewart, Andrew Strathern

Creator

• Stewart, Pamela J

Contributor

• Strathern, Andrew

Subject

• Gossip -- Cross-cultural studies
• Social conflict -- Cross-cultural studies
• Violence -- Cross-cultural studies
• Witchcraft -- Cross-cultural studies
• Cross-cultural studies

Genre

• Cross-cultural studies

Language

eng

Summary

"This book combines two classic topics in social anthropology in a new synthesis: the study of witchcraft and sorcery and the study of rumors and gossip. It does so in two ways. First, it shows how rumor and gossip are invariably important as catalysts for accusations of witchcraft and sorcery. Second, it demonstrates the role of rumor and gossip in the genesis of social and political violence, as in the case of both peasant rebellions and witch-hunts. Examples supporting the argument are drawn from Africa, Europe, India, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Sri Lanka. They include discussions of witchcraft trials in England and Scotland in the seventeenth century, witch-hunts and vampire narratives in colonial and contemporary Africa, millenarian movements in New Guinea, the Indian Mutiny in nineteenth-century Uttar Pradesh, and rumors of construction sacrifice in Indonesia."--Jacket

Member of

• New departures in anthropology

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

133.4/3

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

LC call number

GN475.5

LC item number

.S84 2004

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Series statement

New departures in anthropology