Academic Witchcraft Research
I’m sorry to say that I can’t post my paper on tumblr because even though I’ve already submitted it (I got a HD!) I’m hoping to get it published in an academic journal once I add to it and I can’t do that if it’s already freely available to the public.
I’m happy to post some of my resources however! Below are some of the really interesting recourses I found while researching for my paper. These are all the ones with actually useful witchcraft history/knowledge however I’m leaving out all of Pritchard’s racist bullshit. Please keep in mind that a lot of these sources view witchcraft in an anthropological or historical light and are very obviously written by people with little to no experience with actual witchcraft so some are quite funny/ downright hilarious to read. However some of these sources are written by witches (you can tell by the way they write – they have a personal understanding of how shit works instead of looking at it from an outside perspective)
- A Neglected Aspect of Witchcraft Studies - Francis Hsu (1960) The Journal of American Folklore
- Abracadabra - Sorcery and Witchcraft in European History - WR Jones (1971) The History Teacher
- Anthropological and Historical Approaches to Witchcraft Potential for a New Collaboration - Ronald Hutton (2004) The Historical Journal
- Essex County Witchcraft - Mary Beth Norton (2008) The William and Mary Quarterly
- How Do You Know She’s a Witch Witches, Cunning Folk, and Competition in Denmark - Tim Tangherlini (2000) Western Folklore
- Invented Culture Invented Religion The Fictional Origins of Contemporary Paganism - Michael York (1999) Nova Religio The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions
- Marriage or a Career Witchcraft as an Alternative in Seventeenth-Century Venice - Sally Scully (1995) Journal of Social History
- Masculinity and Male Witches in Old and New England, 1593-1680 - EJ Kent (2005) History Workshop Journal
- Mass Media and Religious Identity A Case Study of Young Witches - Helen Berger and Douglas Ezzy (2009) Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
- Modern Pagan Festivals A Study in the Nature of Tradition - Ronald Hutton (2008) Folklore
- Out of the Broom Closet The Social Ecology of American Wicca - Gary Jensen and Ashley Thompson (2008) Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
- Some Modern Books on Witchcraft - Sona Rosa Burstein (1961) Folklore
- The Disenchantment of Magic Spells, Charms, and Superstition in Early European Witchcraft - Michael Bailey (2006) The American Historical Review
- ‘The Divels Speciall Instruments’ Women and Witchcraft before the ‘Great Witch-Hunt’ - Karen Jones and Michael Zell (2005) Social History
- The European Witchcraft Debate and the Dutch Variant - Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra (1990) Social History
- The Pursuit of Reality Recent Research into the History of Witchcraft - Malcolm Gaskill (2008) The Historical Journal
- Urbanization and the Decline of Witchcraft An Examination of London - Owen Davies (1997) Journal of Social History
- Who is a Witch Contesting Notions of Authenticity among Contemporary Dutch Witches - Martin Ramstedt (2004) Etnofoor
- Witch Doctors, Soothsayers and Priests. On Cunning Folk in European Historiography and Tradition - Willem de Blecourt (1994) Social History
- Witchcraft - British Medical Journal (1922)
- Witchcraft for Sale Commodity vs. Community in the Neopagan Movement - David Waldron (2005) Nova Religio The journal of alternative and emergent religions
If you would actually like to read the racist bullshit thanks to Pritchard I’ll post it separately (or maybe send them in a message) but I’m gonna say it straight up that it is not pleasant reading AT ALL. A lot of it demonises African cultures that practice witchcraft while being highly condescending and a complete dickhead.
I didn’t enjoy reading his crap (and the academic papers that were influenced by his crap) but it did provide me with heaps of evidence to show “Here – look at this mountain of evidence which shows what a massively racist prick Pritchard was! And look at the devastating impact this has had on the perspective of witchcraft in the academic community! Look at how he has poisoned the academic profession with his bullshit!!!”