In this major new book, Wolfgang Behringer surveys the phenomenonof witchcraft past and present. Drawing on the latest historicaland anthropological findings, Behringer sheds new light on thehistory of European witchcraft, while demonstrating thatwitch-hunts are not simply part of the European past. Althoughwitch-hunts have long since been outlawed in Europe, othersocieties have struggled with the idea that witchcraft does notexist. As Behringer shows, witch-hunts continue to pose a majorproblem in Africa and among tribal people in America, Asia andAustralia. The belief that certain people are able to cause harm bysupernatural powers endures throughout the world today. Wolfgang Behringer explores the idea of witchcraft as ananthropological phenomenon with a historical dimension, aiming tooutline and to understand the meaning of large-scale
