Witches didn't exist, and yet thousands of people were executed for the crime of witchcraft. Why? The belief in magic and witchcraft has existed in every recorded human culture; this podcast looks at how people explained the inexplicable, turned random acts of nature into conscious acts of mortal or supernatural beings, and how desperate communities took revenge against the suspected perpetrators.
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Witches didn't exist, and yet thousands of people were executed for the crime of witchcraft. Why? The belief in magic and witchcraft has existed in every recorded human culture; this podcast looks at how people explained the inexplicable, turned random acts of nature into conscious acts of mortal or supernatural beings, and how desperate communities took revenge against the suspected perpetrators.
042 - Witchcraft in Russia with Prof. Valerie Kivelson
The History of Witchcraft
50 minutes
6 years ago
042 - Witchcraft in Russia with Prof. Valerie Kivelson
I'm delighted to speak with Valerie Kivelson, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of History at the University of Michigan. Professor Kivelson graduated from Harvard University magna cum laude in 1980, and received her PhD from Stanford University in 1988. Since then Professor Kivelson has been a prolific author of books and papers covering topics as varied as Russian Cosmography, Siberian colonisation, cartography, and of course witchcraft.
Recommended texts by Prof. Kivelson:
- Desparate Magic: The Moral Economy of Witchcraft in Seventeenth-Century Russia (Available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Desperate-Magic-Economy-Witchcraft-Seventeenth-Century-ebook/dp/B00G6SD4JO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1544309091&sr=8-1&keywords=desperate+magic)
- 'Male Witches and Gendered Categories in Seventeenth-Century Russia', Comparative Studies in Society and History (Available from Cambridge University Press: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/comparative-studies-in-society-and-history/article/male-witches-and-gendered-categories-in-seventeenthcentury-russia/F9FA9F79E0576D4F0AC5EA29E3EFF59A/share/834641cd30309cda70c4c5ed8ee30e6054f43d51)
Website: https://thehistoryofwitchcraft.co.uk/
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The History of Witchcraft
Witches didn't exist, and yet thousands of people were executed for the crime of witchcraft. Why? The belief in magic and witchcraft has existed in every recorded human culture; this podcast looks at how people explained the inexplicable, turned random acts of nature into conscious acts of mortal or supernatural beings, and how desperate communities took revenge against the suspected perpetrators.
