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Desperate Magic: The Moral Economy of Witchcraft in Seventeenth-Century Russia — Witchcraft Wicca

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Desperate Magic: The Moral Economy of Witchcraft in Seventeenth-Century Russia

Name: Desperate Magic: The Moral Economy of Witchcraft in Seventeenth-Century Russia
Price: 122.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Kivelson, Valerie A
ISBN: 9780801451461

✍️ Kivelson, Valerie A

Reader Score

4.7

(1 review) 161 sold

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📚 WHAT THE BOOK IS ABOUT

Valerie Kivelson's groundbreaking work redefines our understanding of early modern witchcraft, focusing on the unique landscape of 17th-century Muscovy. Contrary to popular Western European narratives, Russian courts predominantly targeted men for magical practices. This richly researched study delves into trial records, revealing that accusations stemmed less from fears of Satanism and more from the desperate use of down-to-earth spells and potions to navigate or subvert the harsh realities of patriarchy, serfdom, and social stratification. It illuminates a distinct "moral economy" where magic offered an avenue for redress.

Kivelson, Valerie A

📚 all books by this author (2) →

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Witchcraft & Wicca

Praise for this book

“much to ponder.”

— David Frick

🏛 Cornell University Press 📅 2013 📖 376 pages 📔 Hardcover 📐 Hardcover ISBN: 9780801451461

Fun Fact

Kivelson's 'Desperate Magic' is a meticulously researched and utterly compelling re-evaluation of early modern witchcraft. Its strength lies in its comparative rigor and the groundbreaking revelation of male-centric accusations in Russia, offering a vital corrective to Eurocentric historical narratives. While it may disappoint those seeking tales of infernal pacts, its deep dive into the social functions of magic provides profound insights into human resilience and the moral imagination of a complex era. This is a definitive work that reorients the field of witchcraft studies.

📝 Description: Desperate Magic: The Moral Economy of Witchcraft in Seventeenth-Century Russia

In the courtrooms of seventeenth-century Russia, the great majority of those accused of witchcraft were male, in sharp contrast to the profile of accused witches across Catholic and Protestant Europe in the same period. While European courts targeted and executed overwhelmingly female suspects, often on charges of compacting with the devil, the tsars' courts vigorously pursued men and some women accused of practicing more down-to-earth magic, using poetic spells and home-grown potions. Instead of Satanism or heresy, the primary concern in witchcraft testimony in Russia involved efforts to use magic to subvert, mitigate, or avenge the harsh conditions of patriarchy, serfdom, and social hierarchy. Broadly comparative and richly illustrated with color plates, Desperate Magic places the trials of witches in the context of early modern Russian law, religion, and society. Piecing together evidence from trial records to illuminate some of the central puzzles of Muscovite history, Kivelson explores the interplay among the testimony of accusers, the leading questions of the interrogators, and the confessions of the accused. Assembled, they create a picture of a shared moral vision of the world that crossed social divides. Because of the routine use of torture in extracting and shaping confessions, Kivelson addresses methodological and ideological questions about the Muscovite courts' equation of pain and truth, questions with continuing resonance in the world today. Within a moral economy that paired unquestioned hierarchical inequities with expectations of reciprocity, magic and suspicions of magic emerged where those expectations were most egregiously violated. Witchcraft in Russia surfaces as one of the ways that oppression was contested by ordinary people scrambling to survive in a fiercely inequitable world. Masters and slaves, husbands and wives, and officers and soldiers alike believed there should be limits to exploitation and saw magic deployed at the junctures where hierarchical order veered into violent excess.

💎 Expert review

“

💎

Esoterica Books editorial team

Occult literature desk

Kivelson’s rigorous archival work provides a compelling counter-narrative to Western European witchcraft trials, highlighting the unique targeting of men in Muscovy. However, this academic depth may alienate casual readers seeking supernatural thrills or simple folklore. It is not suitable for those expecting sensationalist tales of Satanism; rather, it demands patience with dense sociological analysis. While intellectually stimulating and crucial for specialists, general audiences might find the focus on legal records and social stratification dry and overly technical compared to more narrative-driven historical fiction.

✓ EDITOR'S REVIEW

📖 Why choose it

📖

Why this book is worth reading

Readers fascinated by the intersection of social history and supernatural belief will find immense value in this text. It offers a refreshing perspective on witchcraft not as Satanic conspiracy, but as a pragmatic tool for navigating rigid social hierarchies. Those interested in gender dynamics, serfdom, or Russian history will appreciate how Kivelson illuminates the desperate, everyday magic used by ordinary people to survive and subvert patriarchal structures. It is essential for scholars seeking to understand the 'moral economy' of power in early modern societies.

⭐ Reader reviews

The starting rating comes from the team Esoterica Books —

⭐ Esoterica editorial review Editorial rating 4.7/5

★★★★★

If you're fascinated by the hidden histories of magic, early modern Russia, or the intersection of gender, power, and belief, this book is essential. Scholars of witchcraft, historians of Eastern Europe, and anyone interested in the social functions of magic will find it profoundly insightful.

Reader rating

4.7

Based on 1 reviews

Esoterica Books editorial team

Kivelson’s rigorous archival work provides a compelling counter-narrative to Western European witchcraft trials, highlighting the unique targeting of men in Muscovy. However, this academic depth may alienate casual readers seeking supernatural thrills or simple folklore. It is not suitable for those expecting sensationalist tales of Satanism; rather, it demands patience with dense sociological analysis. While intellectually stimulating and crucial for specialists, general audiences might find the focus on legal records and social stratification dry and overly technical compared to more narrative-driven historical fiction.

❓ Frequently asked questions

The primary distinction lies in the gender of the accused, with Russian courts disproportionately targeting men, and the focus of the accusations, which centered on practical magic for social grievances rather than demonic compacts.

Kivelson meticulously draws upon extensive primary source material, specifically trial records from 17th-century Muscovite courts, to reconstruct the narratives and legal contexts of these accusations.

📖 Who should read this

🎯 Key themes and symbolism

Gendered Accusations

This book dramatically challenges the common perception of witches as overwhelmingly female. Kivelson meticulously demonstrates how Muscovite trials predominantly accused men, contrasting sharply with Catholic and Protestant Europe. This shift in focus invites a deeper examination of gender roles within historical magical practices and societal anxieties of the period.

Magic as Social Resistance

Beyond supernatural pacts, Russian witchcraft often served as a tool for social commentary or resistance. The accused, both male and female, frequently employed magic to mitigate severe patriarchal conditions, challenge the confines of serfdom, or exact vengeance against social injustices. This reveals magic not merely as superstition, but as a practical, albeit desperate, response to societal pressures.

Muscovite Legal Context

Kivelson masterfully reconstructs the judicial process within early modern Russia. By analyzing trial testimonies, she uncovers the complex interplay between accusers' claims, interrogators' leading questions, and the confessions extracted from the accused. This provides crucial insight into the legal and religious frameworks that shaped perceptions and prosecutions of witchcraft in the tsar's courts.

📜 Historical context

This work stands as a vital contribution to the study of early modern witch trials, offering a crucial non-Western European perspective. It enriches the broader discourse on magical beliefs and legal systems of the period, challenging monolithic views of witchcraft accusations and placing Muscovite practices within a comparative, yet distinct, global framework of social anxieties and spiritual responses.

📚 Glossary

Moral Economy
Muscovy
Serfdom

📔 Questions to reflect on

How might the gender of those accused of witchcraft fundamentally alter our understanding of power dynamics and social anxieties in a historical period?
Consider a time when you felt powerless against a social or personal injustice. How might the idea of 'desperate magic' as a form of redress resonate with that experience?
The book explores how interrogators' questions shaped confessions. How does the framing of questions in any context—legal, journalistic, or personal—influence the 'truth' that emerges?