Special Collections
Book of the Month, July 2007
Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006-
Vol. 1, no. 1, Summer 2006-
Surprisingly, given the enormous growth in the academic study of witchcraft and occult beliefs in general, there has been no dedicated academic journal in English covering the field, until the appearance of the University of Pennsylvania Press’s Magic Ritual and Witchcraft in 2006.
The publication takes the form of a standard peer-reviewed academic journal, without illustrations, and is currently published twice a year, in Summer and Winter. The publisher’s website describes Magic Ritual and Witchcraft as drawing from a “broad spectrum of perspectives, methods, and disciplines, offering the widest possible geographical scope and chronological range, from prehistory to the modern era and from the Old World to the New”.
Research articles range from Richard Kieckhefer’s ‘Mythologies of Witchcraft in the Fifteenth Century’ in Vol. 1 no1 to Johannes Harnischfeger’s ‘State Decline and the Return of Occult Powers: The Case of Prophet Eddy in Nigeria’, in the same issue. In Vol. 1 no. 2 (Winter 2006) there is a ‘Shamanism Forum’ with six contributors, which of editor Michael Bailey states: “The purpose of this forum section is to raise broad questions and frame major issues…” Each issue contains a good range of book reviews, and so far there have been a couple of extended Review Essays.
Magic Ritual and Witchcraft is an addition to the Harry Price Library of Magical Literature.
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