<p>This 1980 book examines witchcraft beliefs and experiences in the Bocage, a rural area of western France. It also introduced a powerful theoretical attitude towards the progress of the ethnographer's enquiries, suggesting that a full knowledge of witchcraft involves being 'caught up' in it oneself. In the Bocage, being bewitched is to be 'caught' in a sequence of misfortunes. According to those who are bewitched, the culprit is someone in the neighbourhood: the witch, who can cast a spell with a word, a touch or a look, and whose 'power' comes from a book of spells inherited from an ancestor. Only a professional magician, an 'unwitcher', has any chance of breaking the succession of misfortunes which befall those who have been bewitched. He undertakes a battle of magic with the suspected witch, a battle which is eventually fatal.</p>

Deadly Words: Witchcraft in the Bocage

Politics & Social Sciences

Jeanne Favret-Saada

Anthropology

Cambridge University Press

Smiercionosne slowa, zabojcze uroki

Oficyna Naukowa Ewa Pajestka-Kojder

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Books by Jeanne Favret-Saada

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Jeanne Favret-Saada. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Deadly Words: Witchcraft in the Bocage

Smiercionosne slowa, zabojcze uroki