Naming the Witch
Introduction
Naming the Witch by James Siegel explores recent accusations of witchcraft and treason in East Java. James Siegel is a Professor of anthropology and Asian studies at Cornell University. This havoc was spreading as the Suharto regime, but it soon resided (Siegel, 2006, p. 4). James Siegel was focusing on the nature and roots of violence in Indonesia. He finally revealed that a previous study done by Claude Levi- Strauss and Evans Pritchard was inadequate in the understanding of witchcraft and sorcery.
Their study involved anthropological explanations of Magic based on sociological concepts, another connection to ideas of power. Proceeding clarifications to witchcraft describes it as an opposition to modernity (Siegel, 2006, p. 10). James Siegel describes witchcraft as an effect of a culture where culture is incapable of controlling accidents, death, and fear of disintegration of social and political relations. He describes the reason why modernization and witchcraft can be companions as people strive to name what has hitherto been unnamable.
In Naming the Witch, witches can be masculine or feminine, and wizardry is seen to be very different from witchcraft. He also reveals how accusations of witchcraft can lead to imprisonment, death, and even harassment (Siegel, 2006, p. 14). He argues that extreme violence has overlooked the explanations of hunting witches that they entail. He takes the beliefs associated with witchcraft seriously and brings the reader to a sense of fear and uncertainty, driving those who perform genocide on witches.
This book is genuinely immediate as it focuses on the hunting of witches that took place in the last decade. In present-day Cameroon, people accused of witchcraft are judged in state courts. The book focuses on the hunting of witches that followed in Indonesia after President Suharto left his office in 1998 December (Siegel, 2006, p. 18). In the next three months, 120 people were murdered by mob justice after allegations against them that they were witches.
Body
In Naming the Witch, there is a thorough investigation based on the stereotypes of the Magic world of ancient times. It delves into the social context of different historical periods which affects the particular stereotypes that gained prominence in those periods (Pachoumi, 2010, p.138). This study is viable for anyone interested in understanding the social, intellectual, religious, and history of the ancient world because of the link between the representation of Magic in a historical context background.
There’s a broad depth of knowledge in Greek, Roman, early Christian, and Jewish materials, which explains the context much better. Siegel defines the history of Magic as “a definite constellation of ideas and Othering devices; is a discourse in Foucault’s sense of a socially constructed and contested object of knowledge”(Pachoumi, 2010, p. 139). The book examines the period from classical Greece to late antiquity discussing the discourse of stigmatization of Magic developed and adapted to several cultural contexts.
Local factors are emphasized in the definition of Magic overlooking universal explanations. Four different chapters discuss the four different contexts of culture. The initial chapter focuses on Magic, discourse, and ideology (Stratton, 2007, p. 61). The other chronological chapters include; Barbarians, Magic, and Construction of the Other in Athens. “Mascula Libido: Women, Sex, and Magic in Roman Rhetoric and Ideology, “My Miracle, Your Magic: Heresy, Authority, and Early Christianity,” and “Caution in the Kosher Kitchen: Magic, Identity, and Authority in Rabbinic Literature” (Pachoumi, 2010, p. 140). There is an epilogue on “Some Thoughts on Gender, Magic and Stereotyping.”
The Other does not explain the history of ancient Magic that reveals it as a discursive practice mediates power and social identity in ancient contexts. The local factors shape how Magic is deployed in the construction of power (Pachoumi, 2010, p. 141). He uses an illuminating approach making the book to be valuable scholarly in contribution to an understanding of the relation of gender, authority, religion, and cultural contexts concerning the history of Magic. The other implored cursory fashion in the historiography of
Magic.
The discourse of Magic is seen to be initiated in classical Greece, where “Othering” was developed through oriental barbarism, subversion, and effeminate treachery. Magic became marginalizing in the 4th century. There is gender inversion associated with Magic in the Greek tragedy, as illustrated by Sophocles Trachinae and Euripides’ Medea (Pachoumi, 2010, p. 142). Women are seen as lethal and dangerous since they are associated with Magic in circumstances where their sexual conduct could threaten the civic identity of men. The citizenship laws of Pericles portray Magic as a form of discourse of alterity.
This is an implementation of the objective of holding women within the Iranian culture of patriarchal control and xenophobia. A strong sense of identity was maintained while facing external and internal challenges associated with Magic (Nenonen & Toivo, 2014, p. 52). The Pericles’ citizenship laws and the marriage laws of Augustus were applied in this. The marriage laws of Augustus perceive a conservative desire to maintain the family institution perpetuating imperial institutions in the face of perceived threats from feminists (Nenonen & Toivo, 2014, p. 54). This is observed in the Romanian women of the first century. They exhibit fear in economic or social independence, which is linked to two portrayals of sexually predatory for mature women.
Cleopatra is discussed in this sector, although she should have been given a more in-depth examination. The author also notes that Plutarch used Magic to control Marc Anthony (Nenonen & Toivo, 2014, p. 45). The sexually aggressive women were seen as a threat to society and this was used in the critique of imperial power as a stereotype. Livia and Agrippina are used as examples of wicked women who used Magic and poisoning for excessive of imperial rule in the Tacitus’ Annals (Nenonen & Toivo, 2014, p. 47). The author also examines early Christianity.
He explores thematic concerns of early Christian writers such as Origen, thus adding a new dimension to the gender stereotypes of Magic by creating heretical sects. The demonized male leaders used Magic for the seduction of half-witted and idiotic women into joining skeptical communities (Bohak, 2008, p.445). This is a tactical move into targeting men. This move was defaced as Christianity gained status in Roman society in the third century.
The early Christian leaders directed accusations to men solely, thus raising pre-existing issues such as false and true prophets and attitudes towards false claims to Magic. The author demonstrates the link between the applications of Magic and social authority and how it is associated with Christian leaders (Bohak, 2008, p.445). Christian apologists such as Tertullian scrutinized to show the origin of radicalized dimension to the disgust of Magic, which entrenched after the ascendancy of Christianism. The apology associated pagan deities with demons and all Magic with demonic aid.
The medieval period would have been faced with a hefty of consequences if the church leaders had labeled groups of individuals that opposed practitioners of Magic. The author’s examination of rabbinic culture is fantastic since it strengthens the assertion of cultural differences (Bohak, 2008, p.446). This is done in a variety of ways that the discourse of Magic is used to marginalized groups and negotiate power, authority, and status. The ambivalence of Magic is related to the Babylonian Talmud. It has the potential to convert divine power or subversive danger.
Magic is mainly represented as evil associated with a lack of loyalty or heretical movements. Sharp social distinctions are considered as a function of dietary restrictions. The authority of men is ritualized in the context of food preparation and consumption, overlapping with the sphere of women as agents of development (Stratton, 2007, p. 52). There is an area of potential conflict created, and the desire to strengthen control over women is seen to the edge. When the status of men is dependent on their dominance on women, there is a loss in the reduction of the control results in more aggressive techniques of dominance; hence Magic is used at such points.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, Naming the Witch delves into questions such as; why do people mutilate their neighbors after living with them for a lifetime? Why is it that Americans enjoy the world of Harry Potter, yet people are still being murdered after witchcraft accusations? Naming the witch sheds light on the cultural context of Magic in the ancient world and also the evolving definition of Magic (Stratton, 2007, p. 56). Its treatment of gender is connected to issues of status authority and power where Magic is strongly associated alongside its discourse.
References
Bohak, G. (June 01, 2008). Naming the Witch: Magic, Ideology, and Stereotype in the Ancient
World. Journal for the Study of Judaism, 39, 3, 445-446.
Nenonen, M., & Toivo, R. M. (2014). Writing witch-hunt histories: Challenging the paradigm.
Leiden: Brill, 44-67.
Pachoumi, E. (June 05, 2010). Naming the Witch: Magic, Ideology, and Stereotype in the Ancient
World (review). Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft, 5, 1, 138-142.
Siegel, J. T. (2006). Naming the witch. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1-32.
Stratton, Kimberly B. (2007). Naming the witch: Magic, ideology, & stereotype in the ancient
World,2, 1, 52-65.