Disney/ Harry Potter/Ghost Hunting Shows/Sports Supersitions/Rituals/Modern day Shamanism
The following question must be answered in an essay NO LESS THAN 5 DOUBLE-SPACED PAGES LONG (1 INCH MARGINS; NO BIBLIOGRAPHY/REFERENCES SECTION NEEDED).
In the modern United States, magic and witchcraft have been incorporated into popular culture in ways that would have startled and even shocked Europeans and early
European colonials from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Basing your answer on class discussions, readings, and your own observations from the society around
us, describe at least FIVE ways in which magic and/or witchcraft are incorporated into everyday and popular culture in the US and elsewhere. Your examples may be
diverse, but they must reflect broad cultural trends in 21st American culture. In your text citations/quotations, please include page number references. No lengthy
quotations (e.g. more than 3 lines of text), please.
__________________________________________
Some potential topic ideas (Need at least FIVE, feel free to add any you think fit better)
– Disney
– Harry Potter
– Ghost Hunting Shows
– Sports Supersitions/Rituals
– Modern day Shamanism
Potential Discussion Points From Lecture:
– Bronislaw Malinowski & A.R. Radcliffe-Brown
– Prescriptive ritual vs. Crisis Ritual
– George Gmelch (information on sports rituatls/magic rituals)
– “bad deaths” : premature or disorderly deaths (i.e. suicide, murder, disease)
– Dani Ghosts (Papua New Guinea) the “Mogat”
– Monotheism, Henotheism, Polytheism, Pantheism
– Collective consciousness (Emile Durkham)
– “belief in god comes from an emotional experience that comes from communal ritual”
– ***MEDIEVAL EUROPE (5th-15th centuries)
– thought of magic as science
– church was main source of knowledge
– science = magic: a specialized form of knowledge that people could manipulate
– alchemy: “lead into gold”= take something not valuable and not valuable and experiment with it to make it valuable
– 1450-1700 WITCHCRAFT
– 40,000- 100,000 “witches” executed
– **80% were women
3 Reasons for witchcraft persecution
1. theological imperialism: opposed use of magic, to control ritualistic activity
– devil used witchcraft to destroy society
– believed satan used magic to destroy Christianity
– two types of magic: “maleficium” (harmful but not a big deal in the eyes of the church. “diabolism” (devil worship= punishable by death)
– disenchantment (14th Century)
2. misogynism: women need to be controlled by men
– women who were widowed or independents were vulnerable to be persuaded by devil (dangerous)
– women always accused of witchcraft
– originated from Adam and Eve, Eve set standard for women being vulnerable and easily tricked/sneaky
3. cultural/psychological : most intense witchcraft persecutions were in Early Modern Europe (16th-17th century)
– protestant reformation
– counter reformation
– economic change (ethic of accumulation replaced ethic of reciprocity)
– printing press
