The Materiality of Magic: An artifactual investigation into ritual practices and popular beliefsCeri Houlbrook, Natalie Armitage The subject of ‘magic’ has long been considered peripheral and sensationalist, the word itself having become something of an academic taboo. However, beliefs in magic and the rituals that surround them are extensive – as are their material manifestations – and to avoid them is to ignore a prevalent aspect of cultures worldwide, from prehistory to the present day. The Materiality of Magic addresses the value of the material record as a resource in investigations into magic, ritual practices, and popular beliefs. The chronological and geographic focuses of the papers presented here vary from prehistory to the present-day, including numinous interpretations of fossils and ritual deposits in Bronze Age Europe; apotropaic devices in Roman and Medieval Britain; the evolution of superstitions and ritual customs – from the ‘voodoo doll’ of Europe and Africa to a Scottish ‘wishing-tree’; and an exploration of spatiality in West African healing practices. The objectives of this collection of nine papers are twofold. First, to provide a platform from which to showcase innovative research and theoretical approaches in a subject which has largely been neglected within archaeology and related disciplines, and, secondly, to redress this neglect. The papers were presented at the 2012 Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG) conference in Liverpool. |
Contents
A diachronic approach | |
The beginnings of the voodoo doll myth | |
Binding spells and curse tablets through time | |
The evolution of a Scottish folkloric practice | |
The inner and outer layers of healers workspaces in Madina Accra | |
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Common terms and phrases
Abdallah’s Adamu African Age and RomanoBritish amulets animal apotropaic Archaeology Archaeology of Ritual artefacts associated Bakongo Barton Seagrave beliefs binding Britannia British British Iron Age Bronze Age Bronze Age Ireland burial Celtic century Chadwick ciki coins cointree context Cumberpatch curse tablets deliberate deposition domestic dutse Early Modern England example Excavations fetish figurative image magic Folklore fossils Hassall Hausa healers healing holy Houlbrook interpretation Irish Bronze Age Iron Age island Isle Maree Journal Little Mannie locations Loch Maree London MacGaffey Madina Maelrubha maijinya Manchester Museum material evidence materiality of magic medicine medicoreligious medieval Merrifield metal nails nkisi nkisi nkondi objects Oxbow Books Oxford University Press prehistoric religion revenant ritual deposits ritual practice Roman Britain Scotland settlement social Society Source space spatial spirits stone supernatural symbolic threshold Thuxton Tomlin Tony Ward tradition tree Trevelyan James Vodou voodoo doll Wattle Syke West Yorkshire whilst wishingtree witch witchcraft workspaces Yorkshire Archaeology