I found it very interesting to learn that Witchcraft was primarily studied by historians rather than religious scholars. Consequently, it is a pursuit framed in a postivist approach seeking to find explanations for witchcraft and the persecution of witches through the social sciences and empirics. In many respects, this makes sense, as it is useful to apply a variety of lenses to broader cultural phenomena (Gaskill 2008). Certainly, the suggestion that politics lay at the heart of the witch trials is compelling (Rowlands 2003 in Gaskill 2008: 1082). However, this approach is - for the most part - somewhat limited in terms of the actual lived experience of those accused of witchcraft, and how they experienced the 'unseen world'.
It is here that perhaps the work of religious scholars and of neuro-anthropologists may offer an insight into the lived experience of those affected. Luhrmann (2012) explores cultural conditioning and the effect that it has on what Western psychiatry understands as schizophrenic experiences. She found that in Accra, Ghana, those that heard voices were described as being witches, or possessed by spirits, yet were not necessarily in trouble. Instead, positive inner voices were seen as beneficial and could provide guidance and advice (in Downey 2012).
This provides yet another approach to understanding what was going on when accusations of witchcraft were levelled. The experience of religious mystics should also be considered as part of a broader perspective on the experience of witches rather than a purely rational approach.
References
Gaskill, Malcolm. 2008. 'The Pursuit of Reality: Recent Research in the History of Witchcraft'. The Historical Journal, 51(4): 1069-1088.
Downey, Greg. 2012. 'Tanya Luhrmann, Hearing Voices in Accra and Chennai'.Neuroanthropology Understanding the Cultured Brain and Body, accessed 8 September, 2014. Available at http://blogs.plos.org/neuroanthropology/2012/10/28/tanya-luhrmann-hearing-voices-in-accra-and-chenai/
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