Scholars and sceptics
Anthropologists, historians and investigators who study magic and test its claims.
Scholars and sceptics are the people who study magic from outside the practice: anthropologists, historians, folklorists, psychologists, scholars of religion and investigators who test claims. They have names such as E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Marcel Mauss, Bronislaw Malinowski, Mary Douglas, Keith Thomas and Carlo Ginzburg, and also investigators such as James Randi. This page covers what they have found, how they disagree, and what their work has cost and changed. Their work has changed how the whole subject is understood.
Early theories
Nineteenth-century writers such as James Frazer treated magic as a mistaken early science, a view now widely rejected as arrogant and inaccurate. Later anthropologists, including Evans-Pritchard in his 1937 study of the Azande, showed that magical belief can be a consistent way of reasoning about misfortune. Mauss and Malinowski stressed its social role. Fieldwork, archives, laboratory studies and surveys are their main methods, and each field has its own debates and schools.
The history of witch trials
Historians have revised their view of the witch trials. Keith Thomas and Alan Macfarlane studied English village accusations, Carlo Ginzburg found the benandanti in Friuli, and Ronald Hutton has argued about the numbers and causes, and Silvia Federici links the persecution to the rise of capitalism, a thesis historians dispute. The older figure of nine million victims has been dropped, and estimates now run to tens of thousands of executions.
Testing claims
Sceptics test whether claims hold up. James Randi offered a prize for evidence of paranormal power that was never won, and organisations such as the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry investigate fraud. Researchers study why people believe: pattern-seeking, uncertainty and the wish to control events. The best sceptics aim to understand people, not to mock them. Sceptics hold that claims should be tested, and they have a long record of exposing cases such as spirit photography and fake healers.
Ethics of study
Scholars were often colonial officials or missionaries, and their reports shaped how Indigenous religions were named. Contemporary researchers work with communities, ask consent and respect closed knowledge. Practitioners sometimes object to being explained, and sceptics sometimes to being called closed-minded. The conversation continues, and this guide aims to stay neutral on whether magic works. Their critics reply that science cannot measure everything that matters to a community, and that explaining a ritual away is not the same as understanding it.
Scholars and sceptics on EveryJaadu
The entries written up so far, best known first.
🇮🇹 ItalyWitches of Benevento
A medieval Italian legend of witches gathering under a walnut treeBelief · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇵🇱 PolandWitch trials in Poland
A historical record of sorcery prosecutions and executions in Poland from the 15th to the 19th century.Belief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇳🇴 NorwayWitch trials in Norway
A wave of executions and legal persecution for sorcery in early modern Norway.Belief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇩🇪 Germany and 1 moreBamberg witch trials
A mass execution campaign in a German prince-bishopric that killed around one thousand people between 1623 and 1632.Belief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇬🇧 United KingdomSpectral evidence
Court testimony based on visions of spirits during historical witch trialsBelief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇳🇱 NetherlandsWitch trials in the Netherlands
A historical record of prosecutions and executions for sorcery in the Dutch Republic.Belief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇬🇭 GhanaWitchcraft in Ghana
Beliefs in harmful magic and the social violence that follows accusations in GhanaBelief · Cursing and harm Living
🇮🇱 Israel and 1 moreAzazelעזאזל
A desert place and fallen angel linked to the Yom Kippur scapegoat ritualFigure · Cursing and harm · Cleansing and purification Historical
🇪🇸 SpainBasque witch trials
A seventeenth-century Inquisition campaign against alleged witches in the Basque Country.Belief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇮🇹 ItalyWitch trials in Italy
Historic legal proceedings against alleged witches across Italian states from the 14th to 18th centuries.Belief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇸🇪 SwedenTorsåker witch trials
The largest mass execution of witches in Swedish history, carried out in a single day.Belief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇮🇱 Israel and 2 moreLeviathanלִוְיָתָן (Livyaṯān)
A primordial sea monster from ancient Near Eastern myth and biblical textBeing · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Historical
🇩🇪 GermanyTrier witch trials
A series of mass executions in the Holy Roman Empire between 1581 and 1593.Belief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇫🇷 FranceWitch trials in France
A fragmented history of legal persecution for sorcery across French regions and centuries.Belief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇬🇧 United KingdomSamlesbury witches
Three Lancashire women acquitted in a 1612 trial linked to anti-Catholic propagandaBelief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇳🇱 NetherlandsCornelius Loos
A Catholic priest who publicly opposed the European witch trials of the late 1500s.Belief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇪🇪 Estonia and 1 moreWitch trials in Latvia and Estonia
Early modern persecutions of sorcery and paganism by Baltic German authoritiesBelief · Cursing and harm · Cleansing and purification Historical
🇮🇱 IsraelNumber of the beastἈριθμὸς τοῦ θηρίου
A biblical number linked to a prophetic figure and interpreted through ancient letter values.Belief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇳🇴 NorwayVardø witch trials
A major Scandinavian persecution of women accused of sorcery in 17th-century NorwayBelief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇸🇪 SwedenWitch trials in Denmark
A history of legal executions and local panics against sorcery in early modern Denmark.Belief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇮🇳 India and 5 moreSpirit possession
A global belief that spirits or demons can take control of a person's body and mindBelief · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Living
🇮🇱 Israel and 2 moreBelialבְּלִיַּעַל
A Hebrew term for worthlessness that evolved into a demon of darkness in Jewish and Christian texts.Being · Cursing and harm Historical
🇺🇸 United StatesSalem Witch Trials
A colonial legal crisis where over two hundred people faced accusations of sorcery in Massachusetts.Belief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇪🇬 EgyptLucifer
A Latin name for the planet Venus that became an epithet for the Devil in Christian traditionFigure · Cursing and harm Historical
🇩🇪 Germany and 1 moreWitch's mark
A bodily mark believed to prove a pact with the Devil during early modern witch trialsBelief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇬🇧 United KingdomEnglish folklore
The myths, legends, and customs of England passed down through generations.Tradition · Protection · Cursing and harm Living
🇩🇪 GermanyWürzburg witch trials
A mass execution of hundreds in a German Catholic principality during the Thirty Years WarBelief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇺🇸 United States and 5 moreSatanism
A modern set of beliefs using the figure of Satan as a symbol or deity.Tradition · Power and authority · Cursing and harm Living
🇮🇹 Italy and 1 moreMedieval European magic
A broad category of ritual and natural practices in the Middle Ages, blending healing, divination, and religious belief.Tradition · Healing · Seeing and foretelling Historical
🇬🇧 United KingdomPendle witches
A 1612 series of English witch trials that resulted in ten executions near Pendle Hill.Belief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇫🇷 FranceLouviers possessions
A seventeenth-century French convent case of mass demonic possession and witchcraft accusationsBelief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇬🇷 GreeceGelloΓελλώ
A Greek demon of infancy and a class of beings blamed for infant death.Being · Cursing and harm · Protection Historical
🇮🇱 Israel and 1 moreTerritorial spirit
A belief that demons or angels rule over specific lands and nations.Belief · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Living
🇫🇷 France and 1 moreDusios
A Gaulish spirit type later classified as an incubus demon by early Christian writersBeing · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Historical
🇮🇳 India and 1 moreDamnation
A state of divine punishment or separation from the sacred after deathBelief · Cursing and harm Living
🇮🇱 Israel and 1 moreSerpent seed
A fringe belief that Cain was the offspring of Eve and the Serpent, creating two distinct human lineages.Belief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇩🇪 Germany and 1 moreReligious aspects of Nazism
The study of how Nazi ideology borrowed religious forms and esoteric beliefs to build a political movement.Tradition · Power and authority · Cursing and harm Historical
🇺🇸 United StatesChristian views on magic
A spectrum of Christian beliefs about magical practices, ranging from strict condemnation to esoteric integration.Belief · Cursing and harm · Protection Living
🇮🇱 Israel and 1 moreDivine retribution
Supernatural punishment by a deity in response to anger or wrongdoingBelief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇫🇷 FranceLoudun possessionsaffaire des possédées de Loudun
A 17th-century witchcraft trial in France involving alleged demonic possession by Ursuline nuns.Belief · Cursing and harm · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
🇮🇸 Iceland and 3 moreDeal with the Devil
A cultural trope of trading one's soul for worldly favours in exchange for demonic aidBelief · Power and authority · Cursing and harm Historical
🇮🇱 IsraelNumber of the beastἈριθμὸς τοῦ θηρίου
A biblical number linked to a prophetic figure and interpreted through ancient numerologyBelief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇩🇪 Germany and 5 moreWitchcraft accusations against children
Historical and modern persecution of children blamed for witchcraftBelief · Cursing and harm Living
🇪🇬 Egypt and 1 moreCurse of Ham
A biblical story used to justify slavery and racial discriminationBelief · Cursing and harm Historical
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Spirit possession: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
- Number of the beast: William Blake, Public domain, source
- Witchcraft accusations against children: Radbot, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Witch trials in Denmark: Rigsarkivet - Danish National Archives, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Salem Witch Trials: unattributed, Public domain, source
- Lucifer: Gustave Doré, Public domain, source
- Witch's mark: T. H. Matteson, Public domain, source
- English folklore: J. R. Skelton, Public domain, source
- Würzburg witch trials: Sweet Chily, Public domain, source
- Satanism: Alexandre Cabanel, Public domain, source
- Medieval European magic: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Pendle witches: Dr Greg, CC BY 3.0, source
- Christian views on magic: Athanasius Kircher, Public domain, source
- Bamberg witch trials: Berthold Werner, Public domain, source
- Gello: Filippino Lippi, Public domain, source
- Dusios: Eric Hunt, CC BY-SA 2.5, source
- Deal with the Devil: Christoph, Public domain, source
- Witch trials in the Netherlands: Mathje1963, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Witchcraft in Ghana: SALTN, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Azazel: Louis Le Breton, Public domain, source
- Basque witch trials: Alberto-g-rovi, CC BY 3.0, source
- Loudun possessions: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Curse of Ham: Ксенофонтов Иван Степанович. Ksenofóntov Iván Stepánovich (1817-1875), Public domain, source
- Damnation: Didier Descouens, Public domain, source
- Witch trials in the Holy Roman Empire: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Torsåker witch trials: Y-näsmannen, CC0, source
- Leviathan: Gustave Doré, Public domain, source
- Witch trials in France: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
- Divine retribution: John Martin, Public domain, source
- Serpent seed: David Roberts, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Samlesbury witches: Tom Oates, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Religious aspects of Nazism: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, source
- Witches of Benevento: Guglielmo della Porta, CC0, source