Topic
Cunning folk
About: Cunning folk is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 37 publications have been published within this topic receiving 473 citations.
Papers
Book•
1 Jan 2003
TL;DR: In a world of uncertainty, before insurance and modern science, cunning-folk played an important role that has previously been ignored as mentioned in this paper, and both church and state often turned a blind eye to their existence and practices, distinguishing what they did from the rare and sensational cases of malevolent witchcraft.
Abstract: Local practitioners of magic, providing small-scale but valued services to the community, cunning-folk were far more representative of magical practice than the arcane delvings of astrologers and necromancers. Mostly unsensational in their approach, cunning-folk helped people with everyday problems: how to find lost objects; how to escape from bad luck or a suspected spell; and how to attract a lover or keep the love of a husband or wife. While cunning-folk sometimes fell foul of the authorities, both church and state often turned a blind eye to their existence and practices, distinguishing what they did from the rare and sensational cases of malevolent witchcraft. In a world of uncertainty, before insurance and modern science, cunning-folk played an important role that has previously been ignored.
71 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the witch doctors, soothsayers, and priests of European history and tradition are discussed, and a detailed survey of their roles in European history is presented. But they focus on cunning folk in European historiography.
Abstract: (1994). Witch doctors, soothsayers and priests. On cunning folk in European historiography and tradition. Social History: Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 285-303.
70 citations
Book•
1 Jan 2005
Abstract: life of the psyche is concretized and expressed as myth, so that in many cases only a pale glimmer of the original experience shines through this veil of mental constructs.16 The art historian, Ananda Coomaraswamy, has argued that the rise of rationalism and literacy has caused modern western man to gradually lose the ability to think in images, and that this 'imaginal illiteracy' prevents him from fully deciphering primitive visual mythology. 'To have lost the art of thinking in images', he claims 'is precisely to have lost the proper linguistic of metaphysics and to have descended to the verbal logic of "philosophy. "'17 From this perspective, to have lost the art of thinking in images is synonymous with a reduction in the capacity to recognize descriptions of mystical states. The mythologist, Joseph Campbell, shares Coomaraswamy's view and doubts whether the average anthropologist, being 'professionally bound to the concepts of positivistic science would be able to recognize and follow a truly mystical and transtheological state ment, even if he heard one'. 18 The anthropologist, and indeed anyone raised in the modern western world, approaches primitive visual mythology much as they would a foreign language. Even in the early modern period itself, the gulf between the learned and the unlearned mind inhibited the attempts of some educated men to understand the experien tial dimension of popular magic. Hilda Ellis Davidson laments the superficial and ultimately sceptical assessment of the faculty of second sight given by Samuel Johnson in eighteenth-century Scotland, claiming that: 'sensible, downright and honest as it is, [it] shows the difficulties confronting a learned man from a predominantly literary background who sets out to explore evidence which his education and scale of values
53 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: In this article, Wilby et al. published a book with the same title, called "Emma Wilby and her Life: 2005-2010". Pages: 317 ISBN: 1-84519-079-3 (soft cover) and $27.95 USD(soft cover).
Abstract: Reviewed Medium: book
Authors: Emma Wilby
Year: 2005
Pages: 317
Publisher: Sussex Academic Press
ISBN: 1-84519-079-3 (soft cover). Prices: $27.95 USD(soft cover).
51 citations
TL;DR: Les praticiens peu orthodoxes ont pratique la medecine dans la societe du XIX e siecle dans les autres groupes medicaux en termes oficiales, y compris la perception du public.
Abstract: Des praticiens peu orthodoxes ont pratique la medecine dans la societe du XIX e siecle. L'A. analyse leurs relations evec les autres groupes medicaux en termes de pratique et de perception du public
37 citations
Related Topics (5)
Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 1 |
| 2020 | 1 |
| 2019 | 2 |
| 2018 | 2 |
| 2017 | 2 |
| 2016 | 3 |