Paper short abstract:

This brief provocation addresses the question of the cultural 'before' and 'after' through a brief overview of the history of magic in Cyprus.

Paper long abstract:

The suggestion of time as a cultural register and ideology invites us to further consider the political 'work' through which such understandings of time are locally shaped. For example, a pertinent question is how the cultural past - that is to say, a bygone era of a certain culture or society - is distinguished from the present. This brief provocation addresses the question of the cultural 'before' and 'after' through a brief overview of the history of magic in Cyprus. More specifically, I focus on a localised form of magic which is known in Cyprus as yities (the closest equivalent to English being 'charming' or 'binding'). Of interest here is a political assemblage of institutions and narratives which demarcated such forms as magic as a thing of the past, and hence aided in structuring a modern understanding of time moving forward.