Justice by magic

Witchcraft as social control among franconian peasants

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2152185
AutoresHans Sebald (Arizona State University, autor correspondente)
Ano1986
Volume7
Fascículo3
Páginas269-287
Data de publicação1986-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoDeviant Behavior (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0163-9625 • E-ISSN: 1521-0456
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01639625.1986.9967712
OpenAlexW2057431967
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas10

The peasant traditions of Franconia included a belief in a system of black witchcraft that functioned as a personal and egalitarian judicial system and represented an alternative to the official legal system. It offered justice to all members of the community, independent of social or material power. Since witchery was never aimed at random but was a focused tool used to punish those who wronged, it encouraged people to be honest, polite, and helpful. Hence it contributed to social justice and order and functioned as the salvation of the underdog. The belief that the poor, the destitute, and the aged could, if treated unkindly, retaliate with witchery, was an effective protection for these otherwise powerless members of the community. For a number of reasons, this system of folk justice has almost disappeared from the villages of Franconia (only the elders invest belief and respect in it), and its description is of theoretical and historical value

Belief system · Business · Criminology · Economic Justice · Ethnology · MAGIC (telescope · Order (exchange · Peasant · Politeness · Political science · Power (physics · Social justice · Social order · Social science · Social system · Sociology · Value (mathematics · Law