I have never used item creation feats or done any crafting with any of my characters, past, or present. In practical terms, this means that religious leaders and ritual practices from Witchcraft and other Paganisms are often welcome in community spaces in ways that representatives of more officially established religions, especially mainline churches, may not be. If we widen perspective to include conspiracy-theory-driven moral panics, then one can argue that the practice of witch hunting is just as close to home for people in the West as it ever was, for example in attacks on trans* adults and kids, drag artists, non-heteronormative families, and LGBTQ+ communities more broadly. I do, however, capitalize Witch and Pagan when referring to current practitioners, in recognition of the legitimacy of their religious movements, just as I would with terms like Buddhist, Muslim, or Christian. In contexts where Witch identity is valued, continuing to insist that the label is inappropriate for BIPOC folks sours from allyship into whitewashing.

As new religious movements have grown, the relationship between anthropology and magic has further entwined, with scholars, including me, conducting ethnographic work with Witches and other Pagans. When you say that my tradition is not Witchcraft, when you say that I am not a Witch, you delegitimize me where being a Witch is a good thing. Her monograph, Religious, Feminist, Activist: Cosmologies of Interconnection (2018), investigates intersections between religion, gender, and politics among social justice activists. These 4 or 5-star reviews represent the opinions of the individuals who posted them and do not reflect the views of Etsy. In this text, the author talks a lot about "binary gendering" - men who take on female witchlike characteristics and women who take on those of men.

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Such traditions include Ifá, Vodou, Santería, conjure, and brujería, the last term, tellingly, a literal translation of the English word “witchcraft” into Spanish. Both communities—academic and Pagan—need to reassess cultural and academic anxieties over using the term Witchcraft for postcolonial religions and practitioners of those religions when, and only when, practitioners use the word for themselves.It has defined and used a distinction between religion and magic in the service of colonial assumptions, but it has also served as a repository of practical examples for contemporary magic-using communities in the West, from the nineteenth century through the present.

Historical precedent, continuity, and legitimation are ongoing cosmological negotiations within Pagan communities. Witch hunting continues around the world today, local fears exacerbated by particular forms of exclusivist Christianity—products of colonially inflected missionizing.The witch figure serves a similar function in modern American culture because late-industrial capitalism challenges gender conventions in similar ways as the economic crises of the medieval period. Some of the technologies we use are necessary for critical functions like security and site integrity, account authentication, security and privacy preferences, internal site usage and maintenance data, and to make the site work correctly for browsing and transactions.

When people are resisting systemic injustice, they question traditional systems, including religion. A predominantly white, Western movement, contemporary Paganism is a product of, a backlash against, and a popular audience for, anthropological ideas about magic. Turning off the personalised advertising setting won’t stop you from seeing Etsy ads, but it may make the ads you see less relevant or more repetitive. The ratings/reviews displayed here may not be representative of every listing on this page, or of every review for these listings. Concerns about Witch as a racist label have driven efforts to limit its use within scholarship to Wicca and other contemporary Paganisms.

Because the label of witchcraft has been used to demonize colonized people and their practices, Witchcraft was approached as a deeply inappropriate term for religions belonging to BIPOC communities, especially Yoruba-inspired traditions such as Vodou, Candomble, and Santeria, and Indigenous traditions like curandera. Like the magic Witches work, the word Witch itself is a process: changed by, but also changing, the world. As women moved into the previously male-dominated economy, literary backlash came in the form of the witch, and social backlash followed soon after in the form of Renaissance witch-hunting. Turning off the personalized advertising setting won’t stop you from seeing Etsy ads, but it may make the ads you see less relevant or more repetitive. Starting in the 1500’s and lasting about 300 years, 40,000–50,000 people in continental Europe, the British Isles, and later colonial settlements were executed as enemies of their governments and communities, accused of working with the devil to ruin livelihoods, harm children, and ultimately destroy the world.