Magic as the local application of authoritative tradition

This chapter examines the relationship of magic and religion itself. Magic describes the invocation and deployment of an authoritative tradition in a local performative context through the creative agency of a ritual expert and involving various ritual media. After a review of Redfield’s notion of a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Guide to the study of ancient magic
Subtitles:Dimensions of a category magic
Main Author: Frankfurter, David 1961- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Brill 2019
In: Guide to the study of ancient magic
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Parallel Edition:Non-electronic
Description
Summary:This chapter examines the relationship of magic and religion itself. Magic describes the invocation and deployment of an authoritative tradition in a local performative context through the creative agency of a ritual expert and involving various ritual media. After a review of Redfield’s notion of a “little tradition” that draws on a “great tradition” and a comparative discussion of various ways a great tradition emerges locally as a kind of magic, the chapter turns to more problematic cases: iconography with magical functions, interpretations of scripture as concretely efficacious, the nature of ritual expertise in the mediation of a great tradition, magic deriving from invented great traditions, and magic deriving from historically/institutionally defunct great traditions.
ISBN:9004390758
Contains:Enthalten in: Guide to the study of ancient magic
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/9789004390751_028