Physical Evidence for Ritual Acts, Sorcery and Witchcraft in Christian Britain: A Feeling for Magic

摘要

The study of apotropaic marks and ritual deposits within buildings has attracted growing attention in recent years. In this book, Ronald Hutton brings together a number of leading experts, to provide a comprehensive overview of the field. VA readers will find much of interest here in terms both of subject matter and methodology. While the essays are of variable quality, everyone will learn much from this important work. Hutton skilfully pulls this disparate material together. He is full of interesting ideas, receptive to alternative explanations and genuinely believes in the task. He flags up the Reformation and the advent of Protestantism as probable explanations for increased ritual activity. For those with a keen eye for continuity of practice, Hutton reminds us that what really matters were the beliefs that drive ritual behaviour, and that these changed over time - sometimes dramatically. Inevitably, there are gaps in the book, mostly contextual, with surprisingly few references to parallel Christian practices - the use of plants in magic and medicine, and so on. The physical evidence that is the subject of the book, and which survives merely because it has substance, was possibly a sideshow by comparison.