Witchcraft Sorcery Rumors and Gossip by Pamela J Stewart & Andrew Strathern (2003).pdf

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WITCHCRAFT, SORCERY, RUMORS, AND GOSSIP

This book combines two classic topics in social anthropology in a new syn-

thesis: the study of witchcraft and sorcery and the study of rumors and

gossip. It does so in two ways. First, it shows how rumor and gossip are

invariably important as catalysts for accusations of witchcraft and sorcery.

Second, it demonstrates the role of rumor and gossip in the genesis of social

and political violence, as in the case of both peasant rebellions and witch-

hunts. Examples supporting the argument are drawn from Africa, Europe,

India, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Sri Lanka. They include discus-

sions of witchcraft trials in England and Scotland in the seventeenth century,

witch-hunts and vampire narratives in colonial and contemporary Africa,

millenarian movements in New Guinea, the Indian Mutiny in nineteenth-

century Uttar Pradesh, and rumors of construction sacriﬁce in Indonesia.

Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew Strathern are a husband and wife team and

are both in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh.

They have published many articles and books on their ﬁeldwork in Papua

New Guinea and Scotland. Their most recent coauthored books include

Minorities and Memories: Survivals and Extinctions in Scotland and Western

Europe (2001), Remaking the World: Myth, Mining, and Ritual Change among

the Duna of Papua New Guinea (2002), and Violence: Theory and Ethnography

(2002).

NEW DEPARTURES IN ANTHROPOLOGY

New Departures in Anthropology is a book series that focuses on emerging

themes in social and cultural anthropology. With original perspectives and

syntheses, authors introduce new areas of inquiry in anthropology, explore

developments that cross disciplinary boundaries, and weigh in on current

debates. Every book illustrates theoretical issues with ethnographic material

drawn from current research or classic studies, as well as from literature,

memoirs, and other genres of reportage. The aim of the series is to produce

books that are accessible enough to be used by college students and instruc-

tors, but that also will stimulate, provoke, and inform anthropologists at all

stages of their careers. Written clearly and concisely, books in the series are

designed equally for advanced students and a broader audience of readers,

inside and outside academic anthropology, who want to be brought up to

date on the most exciting developments in the discipline.