Witchcraft : a guide to library resources for Anthropology

Contents:

• Starting points
• Finding books
• Finding journal articles
• Documentary Sources

Starting Points

When you need to define your topic and/or get some background reading try consulting a list of dictionaries/encyclopedias on witchcraft.
The guide to Anthropology dictionaries/encyclopedias will help if you need explanations of anthropological terminology or theory.

To find overviews on the subject try the following:

Beyond rationalism: rethinking magic, witchcraft and sorcery (2003) [print]
[Explores the different perspectives on human sociality and political constitution that practices sorcery, magic and ritual]

Articles on witchcraft, magic & demonology (1992) [print]
[A 12 volume collection of scholarly articles on the subject of witchcraft, magic and demonology]

Witchcraft and magic in Europe (1999-2002) [print]
[A 6 volume scholarly survey of Europe's involvement with the occult. Each volume presents a range of state of the art essays analysing the core aspects of this long history]

Finding Books

Books can be found by searching the library catalogue. Keyword searching is probably the best way of identifying material, and your results will be maximised by using keyword searching techniques such as truncation and Boolean searching, and by incorporating subject headings into your search where appropriate. Here are some examples on how to construct searches:

Witchcraft and Europe

Sorcer? and "Sri Lanka"

(Anthropolog? or Ethnograph?) and (Occult? or Magic)

Finding Journal Articles

Journal articles can be found through databases listed in the Electronic Databases for Anthropology guide - Anthropology Plus, Sociological Abstracts, Academic OneFile and Academic Search Premier are probably the best starting points.

A web-based bibliography entitled the Bibliography for the study of magic, witchcraft and religion by James Dow, Professor of Anthropology at Oakland University may also be helpful.

In addition, there are bibliographies of books & journal articles on Witchcraft and Occult/Magic which are probably most useful for identifying earlier material on witchcraft topics.

Documentary Sources

Cornell University Witchcraft collection [web access]
[Contains over 3,000 full-text titles documenting the history of the Inquisition and the persecution of witchcraft]

Witchcraft sourcebook (2003) [print]
[A collection of documents illustrating the development of ideas about witchcraft from ancient times to the twentieth century]

Last update: 21 February 2005  

This page is maintained by Helen Attar