| Popis: |
Witchcraft had deep roots in Pre-Contact social logic, benefiting power holders and the wealthy through the agency of revenge accusations and magical spells. Sorcery shaped and undergirded factional competition and displayed the spiritual power of the witch as well as the witch hunter. Witchcraft is materialized through various forms, but especially owl effigy ceramic vessels. Witchcraft perpetrators created medicinal concoctions and crafted visual forms of culturally accepted and identifiable shapeshifting and transformation. I argue that the agency of the witch was greatly feared, providing an important source of spiritual power manipulated by Mississippian political aggrandizers. |
