Paper short abstract:

This talk surveys a particular tradition in ethnographical research in Hungary, the study of witch-hunting. The latter is based on the functionalist direction of social anthropology, considering witchcraft an „answer” to uncertainty and crisis. The talk analyses the validity of that approach.

Paper long abstract:

This talk will be devoted to a particular tradition in ethnographical research in Hungary, the study of witchcraft and witch-hunting. Being an examination of both recent and historical data, developed in the 1980s and 1990s, this research has been based mostly upon the functionalist direction of British social anthropology.

Represented by anthropologists like Edward E. Evans-Pritchard, Max Gluckman, Alan Macfarlane and others, this direction of research considered witchcraft charges as sort of „answers” to socio-cultural, economic and/or political uncertainty and crisis. It was that direction of research which influenced the study of witchcraft in Hungary the most. The results of those studies – edited collections of witchcraft trial documents, scholarly examinations of recent and historical case studies of witchcraft etc – suggest at least two major points to reflect upon. One is that witchcraft is more than just a form of „superstition”. It is a social way of coping with the problems of everyday life, especially in the time of uncertainty and crisis. And the second is that the technics of coping do not seem to change much from normal to uncertain periods. Witchcraft charges, scape-goating, the social explanation of misfortunes (Evans-Pritchard) remain valid throughout very different periods.

Having been member of a research group of witchcraft and witch-hunting in the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, and having published a book and several studies about the historical forms of witch-hunting in Hungary, I will analyse the validity of the functionalist approach in the complex conditions of the current uncertain times.