The Witch Studies Reader

32 scholarly articles, this title uses the lens of witchcraft to examine feminist responses to the confines of patriarchal norms, the repercussions of colonial, Christian, and capitalist cultural constructions, and how the weaponization of gender to dangerously scapegoat women is not exclusively relegated to European history but is an ongoing lived experience for millions of women, particularly in the global South. The book is divided into six sections, in which academics explore the original and ongoing colonial interference in and appropriation of Indigenous magical practices, lineages of healing and magical practice from various nations and regions, the consistent political and economic elements leading to witch hunts past and present, cultural representations and images of witches, witches as political actors and agents of resistance, and various epistemologies of witchcraft. Repeatedly, the articles set fire to the binary concepts that create opposition between religion and magic, the secular and the sacred, and critical thinking and magical belief.