e-rhizome, 2019 (vol. 1), issue 1
Elaborated concepts of witchcraft? Applying the "elaborated concept of witchcraft" in a comparative study on the witchcraft trials of Rostock (1584) and Hainburg (1617-18)
Andreas Müller
e-rhizome 2019, 1(1):1-22 | DOI: 10.5507/rh.2019.001 
The "elaborated concept of witchcraft" is of central importance for scholarly research on witchcraft and magic. However, as the validity of its conceptualization and origins are doubted, its usefulness remains a point of debate. The following article reports on a study conducted to test the applicability of the "elaborated concept of witchcraft" under a comparative approach on material from the 1584 Rostock and 1617-1618 Hainburg witchcraft trials. Following Johannes Dillinger's theoretical approach on the topic, the five categories of "pact with the devil", "sexual intercourse with the devil", "witches' Sabbat", "magical flight" and "harmful magic"...
Heinrich Kramer/Institoris and the Czech Lands. With a Special Focus on the Activities of Institoris in Olomouc in 1499-1505
Petr Kreuz
e-rhizome 2019, 1(1):23-59 | DOI: 10.5507/rh.2019.002
In the last years of his life the author of the Hammer of Witches (Malleus Maleficarum), the Black (Dominican) friar Heinrich Kramer-Institoris held the office of papal inquisitor for the Bohemian (Czech) Lands. This period of his life is closely connected with his stay in the Olomouc diocese, specifically in the city of Olomouc (germ. Olmütz). Institoris was installed as inquisitor for the Bohemian Lands already in January 1499 by Pope Alexander VI, evidently at the instigation of the bishop of Olomouc Stanislav (Stanislaus) Thurzo. Institoris held the aforementioned office from 1499 until the end of his lifetime. The date of his death is traditionally...
Magic and Albinism in Tanzania
Kamila Axmannová
e-rhizome 2019, 1(1):60-71 | DOI: 10.5507/rh.2019.003
An article is focused on the approach to the people with albinism in sub-Saharan Africa, in particular in Tanzania where I was doing field research. That approach was transformed during time and during socio-economical changes into the shape which shows elements of fetishism. I mean, specifically, assigning of inseparable values and powers to the body parts of people with albinism. I was doing my etnographical research since december 2015 till may 2016.
Curse, Possession and Other Worlds: Magic and Witchcraft among the Bosniaks
Lukáš Větrovec
e-rhizome 2019, 1(1):72-106 | DOI: 10.5507/rh.2019.004
This article aims to provide the readers with both the theoretical concepts necessary for studying popular magic rituals and ideas on jinn, ghosts, magic and witchcraft in Islam and on different levels of tradition in living Islam, as well as a practical excursion into the vivid contemporary everyday reality of Muslim Bosniaks, based on studying Muslim web portals and interviewing the participants. It is focused on the theoretical realm of authoritative scriptural Islam embodied by the local and global Islamic scholarly discourse in comparison with the participants' perception of their own experience. The paper attempts to find certain parallels with...
The Relics of Witchcraft in Italy in the Work of Charles Godfrey Leland (Comments on the Origin of WICCA)
Giuseppe Maiello
e-rhizome 2019, 1(1):107-111 | DOI: 10.5507/rh.2019.005
The study presents the activities of the American folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland (1824-1903) in Italy. Leland's aim was to find relics of the ancient religion of the Etruscans and the ancient Romans among the peasants and shepherds living in the upper regions of Apennine, between Florence and Bologna. Collections of legends and tales of the local inhabitants of Apennine published by Ch. G. Leland in the 1890s, became the primary sources which the current representatives of the Wicca religious movement refer to. Leland's ethnographic activities can be described as quite controversial, and have found very little response not only in the Italy at the...
The elaboration of the volume was made available thanks to the financial support granted by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic in 2018 within the framework of the Institutional Development Plan of the Faculty of Arts of the Palacký University Olomouc.