Introduction

Our selection of sources could create the mistaken impression that there was a gap in discussions on “magic” from the mid-1970s to the present. In fact, the production of ideas and interpretations did not slow down and we find several on-going threads of thoughts in different disciplines – discourses that to a great extent appear to operate in isolation from each other (some main developments will be highlighted in the following). Part IV presents original contributions by five contemporary authors who, from different theoretical backgrounds and based on different empirical materials, have published monographs on “magic” in the first decade of the twenty-first century: Kimberly B. Stratton on the ancient Mediterranean, Christopher I. Lehrich on early modern Europe and Randall Styers on the modern academic discourse about “magic”, while Jesper Sørensen has attempted an explanation of “magic” in the light of findings from the cognitive sciences and Susan Greenwood interprets “magical” experience as a form of consciousness, imagination and participation.

“Magic” continues to be a main concern for anthropologists, even if they often use “sorcery” or “witchcraft” as basic terms. Bruce Kapferer's (1997) phenomenology of Sri Lankan “sorcery” practices, for example, where he highlights their existential and human dimensions, their creative contextual relevance for daily life, their cosmogonic symbolism and constructive social agency, and also gives critical remarks on the very concept of “sorcery”, could be made relevant for analyses of “magical” practice.