Biblical and Pagan Societies

by University of Pennsylvania Press

• ISBN13: 9780812217858
• ISBN10: 0812217853
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-12-13
• Publisher: Univ of Pennsylvania Pr

Summary

In the ancient Near East, the art of influencing the natural course of events by means of spells and other ritual forms was universal. The social and political role of magic is apparent, too, in the competition to achieve precedence over rival systems of ritual practice and belief. Within a region filled with petty kingdoms competing for power, the Jews of ancient Palestine maintained control over adherents by developing distinct ritual practices and condemning as heretical those of nearby cults. Texts from Mesopotamia reveal a striking number of incantations, rituals, and medical recipes against witchcraft, attesting to a profound fear of being bewitched. Magical rituals were also used to maintain harmony between the human and divine realms. The roots of European witchcraft and magic lie in Hebrew and other ancient Near Eastern cultures and in the Celtic, Nordic, and Germanic traditions of the continent. For two millennia, European folklore and ritual have been imbued with the belief in the supernatural, yielding a rich trove of histories and images. Witchcraft and Magic in Europe combines the traditional approaches of political, legal, and social historians with a critical synthesis of cultural anthropology, historical psychology, and gender studies. The series, complete in six volumes, provides a modern, scholarly survey of the supernatural beliefs of Europeans from ancient times to the present day. Each volume of this ambitious six-volume series contains the work of distinguished scholars chosen for their expertise in a particular era or region.

Author Biography

Bengt Ankarloo is Professor of History at Lund University, Sweden. Stuart Clark is Professor of History at the University of Wales, Swansea.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	ix
General Introduction	xi
Bengt Ankarloo
Stuart Clark
PART 1: WITCHCRAFT AND MAGIC IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA	1	(96)
Marie-Louise Thomsen
Introduction	3	(7)
Mesopotamia: The Land, its People and History	3	(1)
Earliest History and First Settlements	4	(1)
The Sumerian City-States	5	(1)
The Akkadians: Babylonians and Assyrians	5	(2)
The First Millennium: The Neo-Assyrian Empire	7	(2)
Mesopotamia under Foreign Rulers: Persians and Greeks	9	(1)
Religion	10	(5)
The Sumero-Babylonian Pantheon	10	(1)
Ethics	11	(2)
Purification	13	(1)
Magic	13	(2)
The Literarry Tradition	15	(3)
Sumerian Literature	15	(1)
Akkadian Literature	15	(1)
Canonization	16	(1)
Babylonian Tradition in Assyria	17	(1)
First Millennium	18	(1)
The Magical Texts	18	(5)
Mesopotamian Magic, State of Research	22	(1)
Witchraft	23	(5)
A Literary Example of Witchcraft	23	(2)
Laws against Withcraft	25	(3)
The Witch	28	(2)
How Witchcraft Manifests Itself	30	(5)
Diagnosis	32	(1)
Characteristic Symptoms	33	(2)
Methods	35	(8)
Contagious Magic	36	(1)
Magic Knots	37	(1)
Evil Magic with Images	38	(3)
Messages of Witchraft: zikurudu	41	(1)
The Evil Eye	42	(1)
Anti-Witchcraft Rituals	43	(13)
Medical Treatment of Witchcraft	43	(3)
The Exorcist's Rituals against Witchcraft	46	(4)
Maqlu	50	(3)
Zikurudu	53	(3)
Magic	56	(35)
Luck and Misfortune	56	(3)
The Power of Precious Stones	59	(2)
Amulets	61	(3)
Amulets for the Protection of Babies	64	(1)
Love Charms	65	(3)
Potency Incantations	68	(1)
Therapy	69	(1)
Diseases and Demons	70	(1)
Expelling Demons by Offering a Substitute	71	(5)
The Ritual for the Substitute King	76	(3)
Ghosts	79	(3)
Evil Portents and Aportropaic Rituals	82	(3)
Divination	85	(1)
Necromancy	86	(2)
Astrology	88	(3)
Mesopotamian Magic after the Fall of Babylon	91	(1)
Abbreviations for Publications of Cuneiform Texts	91	(6)
PART 2: MAGIC IN ANCIENT SYRIA-PALESTINE - AND IN THE OLD TESTAMENT	97	(50)
Frederick H. Cryer
The Social-Historical Problem	99	(3)
Constructing Syrian-Palestinian History	102	(5)
Material History	107	(2)
Settlement Pattern and Social Structure	109	(1)
The Patronage Principle	110	(3)
The Common Proprium of Magic and Religion	113	(1)
The Problem of Definition	114	(2)
The Production of New Magic	116	(2)
The Role of Stories	118	(1)
Magic and Empiricism	119	(1)
The Biblical Understandings of Magic	120	(2)
The Evolutionary Picture	122	(5)
Pseudo-evolution: The Tradition of `Priestly' Divination	127	(1)
Other Forms of Divination than Prophecy	127	(7)
The Role of Women in Israelite and Judaean Magic	134	(3)
Active Magic	137	(2)
Witchcraft, Sorcery and Cursing	139	(1)
The Evil Eye	140	(1)
Witchcraft and Gender	140	(1)
Self-cursing: The Oath	141	(1)
Another Self-curse: The Ordeal	142	(1)
The Status of Magic in Ancient Syria-Palestine	143	(3)
The Practitioners	146	(1)
Abbreviations	147	(4)
Notes	151	(2)
Bibliography	153	(12)
Index	165