Evil incarnate : rumors of demonic conspiracy and ritual abuse in history
David Frankfurter (Author)
In the 1980s, America was gripped by widespread panics about satanic cults. Conspiracy theories abounded about groups who were allegedly abusing children in day-care centers, impregnating girls for infant sacrafice, brainwashing adults, and even controlling the highest levels of government. As historian of religion David Grankfurter listened to these sinister theories, it occurred to him how strikingly similar they were to those that swept parts of the early Christian world, early modern Europe, and postcolonial Africa. he began to investigate the social and psychological patterns that give rise to these myths. The first work to provide an in-depth analysis of the topic, Evil Incarnate uses anthropology, the history of religion, sociology, and psychoanalytic theory to answer the questions "What causes people collectively to envision evil and seek to exterminate it?" and "Why does the representation of evil recur in such typical patterns?"
Print Book, English, 2008
1st paperback printing View all formats and editions
Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 2008
History
xvii, 286 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780691136295, 9780691113500, 0691136297, 0691113505
1037649061
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Introduction
Sorting Out Resemblances
Circumstances for Imagining Evil
Evil in the Perspective of This Book
Chapter 2. An Architecture for Chaos: The Nature and Function of Demonology
Thinking with Demons
Demonology, Lists, and Temples
Beyond the Temple: Demonology among Scribes and Ritual Experts
Conclusions
Chapter 3. Experts in the Identification of Evil
Prophets, Exorcists, and the Popular Reception of Demonology
Witch-Finders: Charisma in the Discernment of Evil
The Possessed as Discerners of Evil
Temporary Forms of Expertise in the Discernment of Evil: Secular and Religious
Conclusions: Expertise and the Depiction of Satanic Conspiracy
Chapter 4. Rites of Evil: Constructions of Maleficent Religion and Ritual
Ritual as a Point of Otherness
Ritual and the Monstrous Realm
Ritual as a Point of Danger
The Implications of Evil Rites
Chapter 5. Imputations of Perversion
The Imaginative Resources of the Monstrous
Constructing the Monstrous
Conclusions
Chapter 6. The Performance of Evil
Performance and Demonic Realms
Direct Mimetic Performance
Indirect Mimetic Performance
Direct Mimetic Parody
Conclusions
Chapter 7. Mobilizing against Evil
Contemplating Evil, Chasing Evil
Matters of Fact and Fantasy
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
Originally published: 2006