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Witchcraft in the Region under Research

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Styrian Witches in European Perspective

Part of the book series: Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic ((PHSWM))

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Abstract

This chapter focuses on the specifics of the region in which the field research was being conducted. It first brings into focus the region’s geographic and socioeconomic characteristics and development, and their influence on the changing significance of the role that witchcraft as a social institution have had for the inhabitants. It discusses specific circumstances of the communication of witchcraft narratives within their social context. Various discourses on witchcraft, personal attitudes of people toward witchcraft, and the heterogeneity of witchcraft repertoires are tackled here. Gender denotation of victims and witches in witchcraft narratives is discussed in this chapter too. Finally, witchcraft in our region is presented as a multilayered whole, composed of various levels and various categories of witches.

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  1. Department of Ethnology & Cultural Anthropology, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Mirjam Mencej

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Mencej, M. (2017). Witchcraft in the Region under Research. In: Styrian Witches in European Perspective. Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-37250-5_3

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