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Paper Short Abstract:

Topic is folk documentation collated in 1965-1970 and in 2008-2023 in Central Italy. Search focuses on the mystical world of significance that talks through the basic tools of kitchen during the evil-eye detection and exorcism.

Paper Abstract:

Detecting the magic evil and undoing it with charms is a traditional care in many cultural settings. The cure involves a folk healer dealing with the imagined evil to heal and care for the victim. My search focuses on traditional culture of Abruzzi (Italy) to analyze and compare folk documentation collated on the “evil eye” by my father in 1965-1970 and by me in 2008-2023. According to popular belief, the evil eye produces illness, discomfort and bad luck, but it can be detected, questioned and exorcised by using specific charms which are still practiced and handed down to new generations of charmers.

The power and capacity to erase the evil eye is applied through the narrative power based on performative language and oracular communication with the evil, acted yesterday as today above all by women who do not charge money for their work in magic and practice it in their kitchen where are the ritual tools, which are nothing more than kitchen tools.

Search focuses on the ritual moment of communicating with evil as “breaking behavior” (a mediumistic behavior) expressed through means of writing such oil-writing, plate-writing, knife-writing, water-writing and other metawriting relating to the metaphysical. This mystical world of significance talks through the basic tools of kitchen: women-charmers enhance their prestige in their social in-group through their skills in communicating with the evil and send it elsewhere: by performing caring acts based on interdependence between magic and non-magic, this ideology is handed down to next generations of women.