I am evaluating “Witching Culture”, an ethnography written by Italian-American Sabina Magliocco on a community of neo-paganists in Northern California. Magliocco explores the historical events and ideas that led to the creation of modern-day paganism, the role and effects of ritual in neo-paganism, and how neo-paganism exists in relation to American culture and predominant American beliefs. As a self-described folklorist, she focuses heavily on the concepts of art and folklore as it relates to magic, and emphasizes the role of emotion in understanding motivations for religious actions, rather than merely looking at social and economic causes for action. I will cover how Magliocco positions herself when conducting her research, the major themes in paganism, and its structure.
The first concept I will discuss is her stance on anthropological studies. Magliocco describes her study as “participant observation”, which is the “methodological theism” approach described by James S. Bielo’s “Anthropology of Religion” (Magliocco 9, Bielo 39). This means being a part of the religion itself. She took this approach because it was impossible for her to understand a religion – and the rituals that comprise it – without understanding the motivations for the actions and rituals, as well as the feelings experienced by undergoing the rituals. A person cannot fully understand how an emotion drives a person to an action in the same way that they can fully understand how a sociological or economic event drove them to an action without experiencing the emotion for themselves (Magliocco 13-14). For this reason, she believes the participant observer model to be the best. Being an active participant in the religion means she becomes an initiated member of the religion and undergoes many of their rituals. She described the process of becoming a part of the religion as “falling in love” (Magliocco 18). However, she sees her intimate connection with the people of that religion as supplementary to, rather than at odds with, her role as an ethnographer. In other words, she embodies both the participant, insider’s, or emic perspective as well as the scholarly, outsider’s, or etic perspective by being able to couple scholarly research and analysis with the depth and beauty of the experiences of initiates themselves. (Magliocco 15). Because the writing of an ethnography is an artistic work, art causes transformation, and transformation is magic, she sees herself, by writing the ethnography, as a magician (Magliocco 97). These two perspectives coupled in one book, while it does raise some concerns about objectivity, nevertheless aids in understanding Neopaganism on a deeper level. Thus, the emic and etic perspectives are not mutually exclusive and are used together. The two perspectives are denoted by different typefaces in the text itself, offering clarity to which perspective is being taken. The care taken to distinguish these two views is very helpful for readers and a feature I very much appreciated.
The second theme I will discuss is the social organization and authority of the religion. Like other religions, Paganism is a community. According to the text “The most basic unit of Pagan social organization is the small group, sometimes known as a coven, grove, or circle, consisting of anywhere between three and about fifteen members who meet on a regular basis, usually in each other’s homes, to worship and practice magic” (Magliocco 59). This highlights the importance of community within a group of Pagans, just like community plays a major role in other religions. There are also religious leaders, who lead both by ability, such as guiding meetings for magic or falling into trance, as well as those who have a higher degree of membership within some Pagan communities (Magliocco 167). The former of these examples are very shamanic in nature, meaning they are leaders within their communities due to their ability and expertise. The latter are more like priests because they have their position due to a religious hierarchy. Religious authority within paganism is very informal and varies between traditions. As noted in the text “While there are certainly a number of well-known Pagan authors, there are no charismatic leaders or prophets as such, nor is there a single Pagan authority or unifying organization” (Magliocco 59). There is a large focus on individualization within Paganism, so it is a very grassroots type of organization. In fact, Pagans have developed their own type of underground language that is unrecognizable to those outside the pagan community (Magliocco 63). By doing this, they are able to highlight both individuality and self-expression and experience, a cornerstone I will discuss in the next paragraph and a concept that comes from influences of American culture, with community, a theme that is very prevalent cross-culturally in religion.
The final concept is the nature of the religion itself. As far as an overarching concept of the religion, the book is clear when it reads “Paganism is not about belief. It is about being” (Magliocco 69). In other words, paganism is constructed for specific and unchanging beliefs, but rather for the personal experience associated with participating in Paganism. Not only do beliefs differ between Pagan groups, but not holding different beliefs does not disallow participation in Pagan rituals between differing traditions (Magliocco 69). It is about experience and expression, not hard doctrine (Magliocco 97). Paganism revolves around several key concepts to enhance this personal experience, including the use of magic, myths, worship of deities, close relationships with nature, and other rituals. I will focus on magic because of its often-misconstrued meaning. While magic and witchcraft are the concepts that stigmatize paganism, Magliocco explains its meaning and value to Paganism as a shared activity. As opposed to the stereotypical definition of changing natural laws, Magic is simply a way to “privilege the imagination” by expressing oneself through art, creativity, and problem solving. This is accomplished through the control of energy that is a part of the world (Magliocco 110) It is a person’s internal rationality or creativity rather than irrational or supernatural actions (Magliocco 97). This is also described by or as a pagan group leader described “Magic is simply the art of getting results” (Magliocco 101). There are also aspects of both sympathetic and contagious magic, the former being magic that deals with the contact of items or ideas to a person, such as healing energy, and the latter being the idea that something can symbolize something else. Pagan magic is completely within the bounds of natural scientific law, but aims to give the participants more awareness of the natural. It reminds me a lot of prayer. As a Christian, if I pray about something and then it comes true, I attribute the success to an answered prayer. In the same way, pagans attribute the things they perform magic on to the magic itself. (Magliocco 102). By looking at the ways in which Neo-pagans interact with the world and why they use the things that they use, such as magic, I am surprised by the commonality of practice between religions. While Pagans have this idea of magic, many other religions have prayer. While very different expressions, they both have similar goals and uses as it relates to daily life.
In summary, Magliocco’s in-depth and multi-perspective take on studying Paganism offers much more than just the concepts mentioned above. Her type of anthropological study lends itself well to the study of this religion and I give kudos for being able to show both emic and etic perspectives in one piece. The religion’s structure and its core practices give a broad overview of Paganism, yet Magliocco views these topics and others in much more detail and insight. This is a good read for anybody wishing to learn more about religion or Paganism.