Books by Sabina Magliocco
Witching Culture: Folklore and Neopaganism in America
Witching Culture: Folklore and Neopaganism in America, 2004
Taking the reader into the heart of one of the fastest-growing religious movements in North Ameri... more Taking the reader into the heart of one of the fastest-growing religious movements in North America, Sabina Magliocco reveals how the disciplines of anthropology and folklore were fundamental to the early development of Neo-Paganism and the revival of witchcraft. Magliocco examines the roots that this religious movement has in a Western spiritual tradition of mysticism disavowed by the Enlightenment. She explores, too, how modern Pagans and Witches are imaginatively reclaiming discarded practices and beliefs to create religions more in keeping with their personal experience of the world as sacred and filled with meaning. Neo-Pagan religions focus on experience, rather than belief, and many contemporary practitioners have had mystical experiences. They seek a context that normalizes them and creates in them new spiritual dimensions that involve change in ordinary consciousness.
Magliocco analyzes magical practices and rituals of Neo-Paganism as art forms that reanimate the cosmos and stimulate the imagination of its practitioners. She discusses rituals that are put together using materials from a variety of cultural and historical sources, and examines the cultural politics surrounding the movement—how the Neo-Pagan movement creates identity by contrasting itself against the dominant culture and how it can be understood in the context of early twenty-first-century identity politics.
Witching Culture is the first ethnography of this religious movement to focus specifically on the role of anthropology and folklore in its formation, on experiences that are central to its practice, and on what it reveals about identity and belief in twenty-first-century North America.
Neopagan Sacred Art & Altars: Making Things Whole
Fire-cat masks, earth mother icons, henna tattoos, ankhs, and water altars--these objects may sou... more Fire-cat masks, earth mother icons, henna tattoos, ankhs, and water altars--these objects may sound like the inventory in an ancient druid's sanctuary. But they are part of the sacred reliquary created by contemporary artists and practitioners of Neo-Pagan ritual.
Calling themselves "witches" and "pagans" and drawing inspiration from pre-Christian polytheistic worship, the practitioners of Neo-Paganism have often been misunderstood by outsiders. In the uninitiated, their art and iconography have inspired fear.
In featuring the works of ten artists, Sabina Magliocco's Neo-Pagan Sacred Art and Altars unlocks the meanings of this religion's creativity and symbolism and makes its sacred nature understandable to non-specialists.
A stunning array of color plates and halftones will touch the imagination of insiders and outsiders alike, revealing the imaginative skills of some of the movement's most celebrated artists, as well as amateurs working at home with family and friends.
These masks and altars, earrings and necklaces create one of the Neo-Pagan movement's most striking features--its ritual art. Yet this is one of the first books to focus on these spiritual objects rather than on the sociology and psychology of the followers. The odd array of costumes and jewelry, as well as the juxtaposition of neo-primitive and medieval-looking styles, troubles outsiders and contributes to the movement's undeserved reputation for attracting eccentrics. Yet its sacred art is part of one of the most flourishing contemporary traditions in the United States.
Portrayed by early travel writers as ancient pagan survivals, festivals in Sardinia have long fas... more Portrayed by early travel writers as ancient pagan survivals, festivals in Sardinia have long fascinated both native islanders and outsiders. But at the dawn of the twenty-first century, this Mediterranean island has become part of a global economy, and its festivals attract tourists from around the world. This detailed ethnography explores the effects of globalization on two Sardinian festivals over the course of the twentieth century, reflecting the double pull of tradition and modernity on the popular imagination and their sometimes devastating effects on local cultures. It vividly and insightfully describes the continuing struggles of community members to shape and control these important expressions of local identity, as they strive to create a space for themselves in the margins of Europe.
Papers by Sabina Magliocco
The Man with the Waistcoat and Cravat: Ronald Hutton's Contributions to Anthropology, Folklore, and Pagan Studies
Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft, Jun 1, 2022
Ethnologies, 2001
Sheep rustling persists because, as Benedetto Caltagirone convincingly demonstrates, it is a stra... more Sheep rustling persists because, as Benedetto Caltagirone convincingly demonstrates, it is a strategy for forming social alliances cf. Herzfeld 1985).
Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea
Reading matters, 2023
Ethnologies
Ten years ago, I had a dream, a literal dream, in which I was sitting at a table and [a woman cam... more Ten years ago, I had a dream, a literal dream, in which I was sitting at a table and [a woman came] who was beautiful beyond human; and she picked up a plastic butterfly and stroked it, and it turned into a real one and flew away. And this music was playing, and it was the most beautiful music I'd ever heard.... And then when I began getting involved in festivals and Pagan events, I heard it everywhere. And I realized THAT was the music I heard in that dream.-Steve Rasmussen
How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others. By T. M. Luhrmann. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2020. Pp. 256. $29.95 (cloth); $18.95 (paper)
History of Religions
Leonard Norman Primiano (1957–2021)
Journal of American Folklore
Introduction: The Ethnography of Magic and the Magic of Ethnography
6. The Romance of Subdominance: Creating Oppositional Culture
Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America
3. Making Magic: Training the Imagination
Witching Culture
TOPICS AND COMMENTS ITALIAN IMMIGRANT NARRATIVES Collected by Samuel Sandoli Annotated by Sabina ... more TOPICS AND COMMENTS ITALIAN IMMIGRANT NARRATIVES Collected by Samuel Sandoli Annotated by Sabina Magliocco The following narratives were collected by Samuel Sandoli, an 8th grade Social Studies teacher in Oneonta, New York, from his parents and ...
The two Madonnas : festivals and change in a Sardinian community
The study examines two festivals in the town of Bessude, a community of 500 inhabitants in the no... more The study examines two festivals in the town of Bessude, a community of 500 inhabitants in the northwest part of the island of Sardinia, Italy. It focuses specifically on how changes in these two festivals reflect recent socioeconomic changes in the community. The first festival, the ...
Syllabus: Magliocco, Sabina_Supernatural in the Modern World
Playing With Food: The Negotiation Of Identity In The Ethnic Display Event By Italian Americans In Clinton, Indiana
5. "The Juice of Ritual": Pathways to Ecstasy
Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America
4. Ritual: Between the Worlds
Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America
Syllabus: Magliocco, Sabina_Introduction to Folklore
Imagining the Strega
Italian Folk, Dec 31, 2022
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Books by Sabina Magliocco
Magliocco analyzes magical practices and rituals of Neo-Paganism as art forms that reanimate the cosmos and stimulate the imagination of its practitioners. She discusses rituals that are put together using materials from a variety of cultural and historical sources, and examines the cultural politics surrounding the movement—how the Neo-Pagan movement creates identity by contrasting itself against the dominant culture and how it can be understood in the context of early twenty-first-century identity politics.
Witching Culture is the first ethnography of this religious movement to focus specifically on the role of anthropology and folklore in its formation, on experiences that are central to its practice, and on what it reveals about identity and belief in twenty-first-century North America.
Calling themselves "witches" and "pagans" and drawing inspiration from pre-Christian polytheistic worship, the practitioners of Neo-Paganism have often been misunderstood by outsiders. In the uninitiated, their art and iconography have inspired fear.
In featuring the works of ten artists, Sabina Magliocco's Neo-Pagan Sacred Art and Altars unlocks the meanings of this religion's creativity and symbolism and makes its sacred nature understandable to non-specialists.
A stunning array of color plates and halftones will touch the imagination of insiders and outsiders alike, revealing the imaginative skills of some of the movement's most celebrated artists, as well as amateurs working at home with family and friends.
These masks and altars, earrings and necklaces create one of the Neo-Pagan movement's most striking features--its ritual art. Yet this is one of the first books to focus on these spiritual objects rather than on the sociology and psychology of the followers. The odd array of costumes and jewelry, as well as the juxtaposition of neo-primitive and medieval-looking styles, troubles outsiders and contributes to the movement's undeserved reputation for attracting eccentrics. Yet its sacred art is part of one of the most flourishing contemporary traditions in the United States.
Papers by Sabina Magliocco