Kimberly B. Stratton investigates the cultural and ideological
motivations behind early imaginings of the magician, the sorceress,
and the witch in the ancient world. Accusations of magic could
carry the death penalty or, at the very least, marginalize the
person or group they targeted. But Stratton moves beyond the
popular view of these accusations as mere slander. In her view,
representations and accusations of sorcery mirror the complex
struggle of ancient societies to define authority, legitimacy, and
Otherness.
Stratton argues that the concept "magic" first emerged as a
discourse in ancient Athens where it operated part and parcel of
the struggle to define Greek identity in opposition to the
uncivilized "barbarian" following the Persian Wars. The idea of
magic then spread throughout the Hellenized world and Rome,
reflecting and adapting to political forces, values, and social
concerns in each society. Stratton considers the portrayal of
witches and magicians in the literature of four related periods and
cultures: classical Athens, early imperial Rome, pre-Constantine
Christianity, and rabbinic Judaism. She compares patterns in their
representations of magic and analyzes the relationship between
these stereotypes and the social factors that shaped them.
Stratton's comparative approach illuminates the degree to which
magic was (and still is) a cultural construct that depended upon
and reflected particular social contexts. Unlike most previous
studies of magic, which treated the classical world separately from
antique Judaism, "Naming the Witch" highlights the degree to which
these ancient cultures shared ideas about power and legitimate
authority, even while constructing and deploying those ideas in
different ways. The book also interrogates the common association
of women with magic, denaturalizing the gendered stereotype in the
process. Drawing on Michel Foucault's notion of discourse as well
as the work of other contemporary theorists, such as Homi K. Bhabha
and Bruce Lincoln, Stratton's bewitching study presents a more
nuanced, ideologically sensitive approach to understanding the
witch in Western history.
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