Tag: Sympathetic magic

South and Magic: the South between archaisms and historical precariousness

Published on: Last updated on: Written by: Categorized into: Anthropology, folklore, Characters, Guests Book, History of Religions

Italy and in particular the South still experience a strong presence of archaic practices of a magical-religious matrix: this is the field of investigation in which the studies of Ernesto de Martino, a Neapolitan anthropologist known for having documented in the first person and for having interpreted the customs and beliefs (such as the evil eye and the fascination, the workmanship and the jetting) of which southern society is still pregnant today.

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The archaic substratum of the end of year celebrations: the traditional significance of the 12 days between Christmas and the Epiphany

Published on: Last updated on: Written by: Categorized into: Anthropology, Esotericism, folklore, Middle Ages, Mito, Shamanism, History of Religions

di Marco Maculotti
article originally published on Atrium on 21/12/2016,
here revised and expanded

Here we aim to deepen the folkloric beliefs that have led to the configuration of two figures intimately connected to the liturgical-profane calendar of Europe in recent centuries. The two figures that interest us are those of Santa Claus (Italianized in Santa Claus) and of the Befana, figures that - as we will see - owe their origin and their symbolism to an archaic substratum, anthropologically recognizable in all those practices and beliefs (myths and rites) of the volk European (or rather eurasian), which elsewhere we have defined as "cosmic-agrarian cults" [cf. Cosmic-agrarian cults of ancient Eurasia].

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