Demonologie en de betovering van het moderne leven

Samenvatting

An investigation of the continuing preoccupation with witchcraft & black magic in the modern world, based on an analysis of a 25-year field study reported by H. U. E. Thoden van Velzen & W. van Wetering in The Great Father and the Danger: Religious Cults, Material Forces, and Collective Fantasies of the Surinamese Marroons (Caribbean Series 9: Dordrecht: Royal Instit of Linguistics, Ethnography, & Culture, 1988) & other famous cases, eg, witchcraft in Salem, Mass, & in Mora, Sweden, in the 1600s, & in contemporary Haiti. Interest in witchcraft & sorcery is characteristic of open & progressive societies, rather than of backward-looking & isolated communities. Exotic & bizarre fantasies about demons & witches reveal underlying economic & social tensions. Imagery is a key for understanding transformation processes, an approach argued to be valid in various parts of the world. 63 References. Modified HA