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The problem of religion and magic
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In comparison to text-based performances, those of a non-text based nature can illustrate the unity between cultures with less difficulty due to universally understood practices and semiotics in an increasingly globalised world. Non-text based performances provide both beneficial and critical elements when compared to text-based performances and this will be analysed and demonstrated with the example of ‘performing the dark arts’. The will ensue performances of ritualised purposes, conjuring shows, illusionary performances, stage trickery and what is identified as ‘magic’ (more-so than supernatural phenomenon or witchcraft) in order to theorise how non-text based performance has shaped modern cultures, partially through globalisation, whilst creating a comparison to performances based on text.
The type of ‘magic’ researched is noted as what Simon During calls ‘secular’ magic – that of the kind which is not associated with religious or spiritual matters. It is instead an act of performance, mostly for entertainment purposes. It is no less of a performance simply because it does not follow the rigid boundaries that often come with text-based performances. There is a thin line between what is and is not classed as performance as Richard Schechner defined performance as ‘a broad-spectrum or continuum of human actions ranging from ritual, play, popular entertainment, the performing arts (theatre, dance, music) in everyday life performances to gender, race and class roles, and onto healing (from shamanism to surgery)’. He continues to mention that ‘there is no historically or culturally fixable limit to what is or is not a performance. Along the continuum new genres are added and others are dropped. The underlying motion is tha...
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...ing opinions on performances and videos of them with the world, is easier than ever.
Works Cited
During, Simon. Modern Enchantments, The Cultural Power of Secular Magic. United States of America: Harvard University Press, 2002. Print.
Mangan, Michael. Performing Dark Arts, A Cultural History of Conjuring. Bristol: Intellect, 2007. Print.
Schechner, Richard. The Future of Ritual. London: Routledge, 1993. Print.
Schechner, Richard. Performance Studies: An Introduction. 3rd ed. London: Routledge, 2013. Print.
Schechner, Richard and Willa Appel. By Means of Performance, Intercultural Studies of Theatre and Ritual. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Print.
Steinkraus, Warren E. 'The Art of Conjuring'. Journal of Aesthetic Education 13.4 (1979): 17-27. Print.
Zarrilli, Phillip et al. Theatre Histories, An Introduction. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2010. Print.
In history the pagans have been viewed as godless infidels. Many who practice paganism live in fear related to the judgment of others that hold differing views on religion. Much of the persecution of the Pagan has been related to their practice of magic. What is amazing is that much of the magic once practiced by pagans was similar to that of modern medicine (Some Basic Pagan, n.d.). Despite their apprehension and fear of persecution, it has been reported that Paganism has been described as one of the most rapidly growing religious movements in the world today (Eilers, p.
Mizruchi, Susan L. "The Place of Ritual in Our Time." American Literary History 12, no. 3 (2000): 467-492. [secondary source]
Edward, Bever, 'Witchcraft Prosecutions and the Decline of Magic', Journal of Interdisciplinary History vol.11 no.2 (Autumn 2009)
Butler, Judith. "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory." Theatre Journal 40.4 (1988): 519-31. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Web. 11 May 2011.
The Cross-Cultural Articulations of War Magic and Warrior Religion by D. S. Farrer, main purpose of this article is to provide a re-evaluated perspective of religion and magic, through the perspective of the practitioners and victims. Farrer uses examples that range from the following: “Chinese exorcists, Javanese spirit siblings, Sumatran black magic, Tamil Tiger suicide bombers, Chamorro spiritual re-enchantment, tantric Buddhist war magic, and Yanomami dark shamans” (1). Throughout the article, he uses these examples to address a few central themes. The central themes for war magic, range from “violence and healing, accomplished through ritual and performance, to unleash and/or control the power of gods, demons, ghosts and the dead” (Farrer 1).
While the Trobrianders and the Azande that Bronislaw Malinowski and E.E. Evans-Pritchard describe in their respective ethnographies are miles apart in terms of physical distance, both groups place a great emphasis on magic in their society. In describing such a concept that in Western terms is associated with fiction and skepticism, Malinowski and Evans-Pritchard differ in the way they explain the role magic has in each community.
(8) Walton, Kendall. Mimesis as Make-Believe: On the Foundations of the Representational Arts. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990. pp. 196, 250.
Robinson, B. A. "Partly Real; Partly Imaginary." The History of Wicca. N.p., 30 Jan. 2014. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
Scarre, Geoffrey and John Callow. Witchcraft and Magic in Sixthteenth- and Seventeenth- Century Europe. 2nd Edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001.
Over the centuries, the concept of Witchcraft, as it presented within religion and society, evoked a variety of responses and attitudes that permeated throughout the cultures of the world. Christianity incited wars, hysteria, and chaos in the name of extinguishing the practice of Witchcraft. Today, there are prominent religions within many cultures that uphold the practice of witchcraft as a feasible manifestation of spirituality. The term conjures up a variety of images for a diverse range of people. To the Azande, witchcraft, oracles and magic existed in everyday life as permeation of the Zande culture.
Magic originated with paganism, which was a pantheism view; they believed in more than one god. When the Christian church took over paganism they deemed all there practices and rituals to be satanic and that they used demons. The church had a monotheism view; they believed in only one god. The threat to the church was the notion of gnosis; that an initiate could unveil the
Lehmann A. C. & Myers J. E. Magic, Witchcraft and Religion – An anthropological Study of the Supernatural (Fourth Edition) (Mayfield Publishing Company, 1997)
Russell, Jeffrey. A History of Witchcraft: Sorcerers, Heretics, and Pagans. New York: Themes and Hudson Inc. 1983.
While is a common conception that pre-modern societies are primitive compared to their modern counterpart, this is not often the case, theses societies have complex systems within their society especially within their spirituality and religion. It is this complexity that has allowed aspects of pre-modern societies to evolve and adapt into modern societies. Myths, rituals and sorcery have been terms to describe the activities of pre-modern societies, but these activities have also been found to exist within modern society as well. This essay will further discuss the connections between pre-modern and modern societies that has allowed for myths, rituals and sorcery to exist in the modern societies.
We have seen magic as a form of entertainment, from making someone disappear, to sawing a girl in half. But all great illusions have an explanation. “Magic, as we have seen, is about power- a seemingly magical power used and expressed by a skilled actor to create the illusion of miraculous happenings’. But the most mysterious part of magic is how these miraculous happenings are performed. The real power of magic lies within the native effects themselves (Blackstone, 117).