Voodoos and Obeahs. Phases of West India Witchcraft

Women as easy scapegoats: witchcraft accusations and women as targets in tea plantations of India.

This article revisits a much-debated question: Why are women popular targets during witch hunts? By using in-depth interviews this article provides an answer. Women are easy targets or scapegoats for two reasons. First, it is widely believed in the community that was studied that witches do, in fact, exist, and the images of witches are always female. Second, tribal women hold lower positions t...

Historical Dictionary of Witchcraft

India and West Africa: A Burgeoning Relationship

• India faces fierce competition from the West and other Asian countries to secure West African resources. India's quest for energy in West Africa is not a core component of the government's energy security policy; rather, it is part of its bid to diversify energy sources. India is prepared to offer package deals offering infrastructural investments in addition to cash bonus payments on signatu...

Witchcraft and Magic in Ireland

Getting Shot of Elves: Healing, Witchcraft and Fairies in the Scottish Witchcraft Trials

This paper re-examines the evidence of the Scottish witchcraft trials for beliefs associated by scholars with “elf-shot.” Some supposed evidence for elf-shot is dismissed, but other material illuminates the interplay between illness, healing and fairy-lore in early modern Scotland, and the relationship of these beliefs to witchcraft itself.