Debate on MARTOR Journal, volume 28/2023, “Witchcraft, Magic, Divination and the 21st Century”

Event: Research Group

Location: NEC conference hall

8 February 2024, 17.00-19.00 (Bucharest time)

Participants:
Moderators:
Dr. Cătălina TESĂR (National Museum of the Romanian Peasant and University of Bucharest)
Dr. Giuseppe TATEO (University of Bucharest)

Dr. Anamaria IUGA and Dr. Corina Iosif, editors of MARTOR Journal

Coordinators of the 28/2023 MARTOR Issue:
Dr. Tünde KOMÁROMI, Associate Professor at the Institute of Social Studies and Communication (Károli Gáspár University, Budapest)
Dr. Ileana BENGA, senior researcher (Institute of Folklore of the Romanian Academy, Cluj-Napoca)
Dr. Bogdan NEAGOTA, lecturer (Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca)

Authors of the articles included in the 28/2023 MARTOR Issue

The roundtable will be followed by the screening of the film Desfăcutul (“The Disenchantment”), directed by Radu Răutu and Vasile Mănăstireanu, 1975 (29.35 min.), courtesy of the Archive of Muzeul Maramureșan (Museum of Maramureș, Sighetu Marmației).

The current issue of MARTOR presents seventeen articles, studies and book reviews that approach the topic of magic, witchcraft and divination practices and representations, seeing them in the wider context of the changes that occur in the contemporary European world (with examples from Romania, France and Russia), but also Asia (a case study from Nepal). The articles comprised by the volume dwell on the way in which a cultural connection is created through occult practices, not only with the past, but also with the present. The volume is, thus, part of the new trend in Anthropology that has shifted, starting with the 1980s, the researchers’ interest from African magic to France, and with this, towards the European space.

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This event is organized within The Group for Anthropological Research and Debates (GARD) hosted by New Europe College, in collaboration with The National Museum of the Romanian Peasant, Bucharest and Museum of Maramureș (Sighetu Marmației).