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.
🇮🇳 India and 5 moreAstrology
A divinatory practice that reads human fate through the positions of celestial bodies.Belief · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Living
🇿🇦 South Africa and 5 moreMurder for body parts
The killing of people to harvest body parts for traditional medicine or the illegal organ trade.Belief · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Living
🇮🇳 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
🇵🇭 PhilippinesPhilippine mythology
The indigenous myths and spirits of the Philippines, shaped by centuries of trade and colonial contact.Tradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Living
🇱🇻 Latvia and 1 moreLatvian mythology
A collection of myths about gods, spirits, and the afterlife from the Baltic region.Tradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Living
🇬🇷 Greece and 5 moreNecromancy
A form of divination that seeks to speak with the dead for hidden knowledge.Tradition · Seeing and foretelling · Power and authority Historical
🇪🇬 Egypt and 1 moreMagic and religion
A study of how ritual power and sacred belief overlap or separate across culturesBelief · Power and authority Historical
🇨🇦 Canada and 1 moreTotemdoodem
A spirit or symbol linking a group to nature, from Ojibwe clan systems to Australian kinshipBelief · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Living
🇸🇳 Senegal and 5 morePentagramπεντάγραμμον
A five-pointed star figure used across history for protection, ritual, and cosmologyCharm · Protection · Binding and oaths Living
🇮🇳 India and 3 moreSpirit
An invisible force or soul found in many cultures, linked to gods, humans, and nature.Being · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Living
🇮🇳 India and 3 moreAstrology
A divinatory practice that links celestial positions to human affairs and earthly eventsTradition · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇫🇮 Finland and 1 moreHiisi
A Finnic spirit of sacred places that evolved into a demonic giant in folkloreBeing · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Historical
🇷🇸 Serbia and 5 moreWolves in folklore, religion and mythology
A global survey of how cultures view the wolf as symbol, spirit or threatBelief · Power and authority · Cursing and harm Historical
🇮🇷 Iran and 5 moreAxis mundi
A concept describing a central point connecting the earthly and heavenly realms.Belief · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Historical
🇬🇷 GreeceDaimonδαίμων
A Greek spirit or divine force that mediates between gods and humansBeing · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
🇪🇬 Egypt and 1 moreOuroborosοὐροβόρος
An ancient image of a serpent eating its own tail, symbolizing cycles and wholenessFigure · Power and authority · Wonder and entertainment Historical
🇸🇪 Sweden and 4 moreSwastika (Germanic Iron Age)
A four-armed symbol found on Germanic artefacts from the Migration to Viking periods.Belief · Power and authority Historical
🇻🇺 Vanuatu and 3 moreMana
A spiritual force of power and authority in Oceanic culturesBelief · Power and authority Living
🇲🇽 Mexico and 1 moreToltecayotl
A Nahuatl concept of the art of living and wisdom derived from Toltec traditionBelief · Power and authority Revived
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
- Tagalog religion: The original uploader was Rodsan18 at English Wikipedia . ( Original t, CC BY 2.5, source
- Astrology: Wilfredor, CC0, source
- Latvian mythology: Dezidor, CC BY 3.0, source
- Pentagram: Tomruen, Attribution, source
- Necromancy: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
- Totem: Jami430, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Wolves in folklore, religion and mythology: Unknown author, CC0, source
- Daimon: François-André Vincent, Public domain, source
- Spirit: Jastrow, Public domain, source
- Axis mundi: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Mana: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Ouroboros: Djehouty, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Swastika (Germanic Iron Age): No machine-readable author provided. Bloodofox~commonswiki assumed (ba, Public domain, source