Magic and the Supernatural in the Ancient World

Exam Questions

Feb. 3: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives on Witchcraft

• Derek Pepiak: dpepiak@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu
  • Objective: Which of the following is not a characteristic of a sorcerer/sorcery:

            a) intentionally seeks to bring about harm
            b) uses objects and formulas to inflict evil
            c) always anti-social/illegitimate
            d) conscious and acquired skill
    
            Answer: c (Lehmann and Myers Page 189)
    

  • Subjective: Describe the differences, accepted by most anthropologists, between witchcraft and sorcery (Lehmann and Myers, Page 189, 2nd column).

• Nicholas Backer: nbacker@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu
  • Which chores did the European houswives carry out, and for what reason were these chores ultimately tied to witchcraft?
  • What factors caused the change in perception of withcraft being a routine "technology" to its being totally condemned during the 15th century?

    Before the fifteenth century, witches were either good or bad, but a distinction was made and good witches provided a variety of needed services. During the fifteenth century, the Catholic Church focused its energies on these heretics, books negatively portraying witchcraft were published, and the societal order which had been the norm for so many years changed, creating uneasiness and tension throughout organized society.

• Zachary Harrelson zharrel@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu
  • 1. (obj.) According to philosophical explanations of female tendancies toward evil, women are to NATURE as men are to:_____________.

    (answer: CULTURE)

  • 2. (SA) How might a lack of mobility be related to the emergence of witchcraft in a sedentary society? Be sure to discuss issues of property, social status and hierarchy, and the status quo of the power structure.

• Jason S. Lapkin: dweinbe@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu
  • Q. (Objective) List at least five differences between witchcraft and sorcery.

    A. innate vs. learned / illegitimate vs. legitimate / mostly women vs. both genders / psychological vs. physical paraphernalia / continues in modern era vs. archaic - see class notes for 2/3

  • Q. (Essay) The connotation of the term "witch" changes over time in both the Babylonian and Early Modern European cultures, what is the most common catalyst for these changes?

    A. - see class notes for 2/3, historical and anthropoligical explanations

• Nicholas Katsaounis : nkatsao@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu
  • Objective: 1. What were the main reasons for the negative connotations attached to witchcraft suddenly during medieval Europe?
  • Subjective: 2. What features of female sexuality are attached to witches? What socio-cultural effect did these characteristics provoke? And how do these connotations relate to the modern definition of a witch?

• Michelle D Arens: marens@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu

  Match each Gender statement with its explanation for Witchcraft
  1. Societal explanation
  2. Biological explanation
  3. Philosophical explanation
  4. Psychological explanation
  
  a) women are weak and not fully rational; they are associated with nature
  and therefore pull toward evil.
  b) birth, menstration, sexual fluids, and lactation are polluting fluids
  which draw women to evil.
  c) mothers are powerful, authoritative figures which project a fear of
  mothers and a sense of evil onto all women.
  d) the fear of losing patriarchal authority drives men to blame evil on
  women.
  
  Answers: 1d, 2b, 3a, 4c
  

• Essay question: Compare and contrast sorcery and witchcraft.