Envy and Witchcraft in Rural Slovenia

By Mirjam Mencej
English

The paper is based on field research of traditional village witchcraft in a rural area of Eastern Slovenia in 2000/1. It presents typical malicious deeds (especially burying objects in a neighbour’s property) which people ascribed to so-called neighbourhood witches, whose main driving force behind the harm they do was considered to be envy. The paper discusses attitudes toward them and the cognitive system underlying the accusations.

Keywords

  • witchcraft
  • magic
  • envy
  • limited good
  • Slovenia
Go to the article on Cairn-int.info