Historians as well as anthropologists have contributed to this volume of studies on aspects of witchcraft in a variety of cultures and periods from Tudor England to twentieth-century Africa and New Guinea.

Mary Douglas Introduction: Thirty Years after Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Part 1: The Context of Witchcraft in Europe 1. Norman Cohn The Myth of Satan and his Human Servants 2. Peter Brown Sorcery, Demons, and the Rise of Christianity from Late Antiquity into the Middle Ages 3. Keith Thomas The Relevance of Social Anthropology to the Historical Study of English Witchcraft 4. Alan Macfarlane Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart Essex Part 2: Cleansing and Confession of Witches 5. Alison Redmayne Chikanga: An African Diviner with an International Reputation 6. R.G. WillisInstant Millennium: The Sociology of African Witch-cleansing Cults 7. Edwin Ardener Witchcraft, Economics, and the Continuity of Belief 8. Robert Brain Child-witches Part 3: Idioms of Power 9. Julian Pitt-Rivers Spiritual Power in Central America: The Naguals of Chiapas 10. Esther Goody Legitimate and Illegitimate Aggression in a West African State 11. Peter Riviere Factions and Exclusions in Two South American Village Systems 12. Anthony Forge Prestige, Influence,a nd Sorcerty: A New Guinea Example Part 4: Alternative Interpretations of Misfortune 13. Godrey Lienhardt The Situation of Death: An Aspect of Anuak Philosophy 14. I.M. Lewis A Structural Approach to Witchcraft and Spirit-possession 15. Brian Spooner The Evil Eye in the Middle East 16. G.I. Jones A Boundary to Accusations 17. Malcolm Ruel Were-animals and the Introverted Witch 18. T.O. Beidelman Towards More Open Theoretical Interpretations