Love Magic

In this paper I am dealing with the conceptions of true, romantic love and love magic among the Hungarians of Gyimes. In accordance with Eva Illouz (1997) and Anthony Giddens (1992) my point is that “romantic love” is not a universal category at all. Each culture defines the nature of emotional experiences and conceptualises the various shades of love differently. In this mindset, I would like to demonstrate the different labels that the society of Gyimesközéplok and the local church attached to various categories of love, some circumstances when they reckon love as legitimate or desired, or situations where the same love behaviour is regarded with dissent, i.e. being categorised as impurity. I also want to discuss the relations that might exist between the “love models” of the different generations and the effects attributed to love spells. It is also interesting to follow which definition comes to the fore, or rather how the cultural actors adapt these models. When interpreting love or romantic love in Gyimes, I will rely on a common medical anthropological metaphor, the conception of “love as a sickness”.

In this paper I will discuss the romantic love from a cultural anthropological aspect
focusing on the problem of the universal and relative features of love. In what terms are the definitions of love general? How can one decide that he or she is in love? Do all the people around the world feel and define their feelings and experiences regarding to love the same way? What role do the surrounding social network, the society and culture play in defining love? I aim to answer these questions on the basis of my research in the Gyimes Region of Romania. I argue that romantic love is a biosociocultural phenomenon: such a drive determined by biological and evolutionary factors and would be a numerous different sociocultural meanings. Love may be celebrated, admired, or the love passion may be kept down by certain cultural habits, social-economic rules and institutions, as it emerges like an underground river and confuses social relationships. It is certain that in the above mentioned region the romantic, passionate love has only started to be treated as a positive thing during the last few decades and it became the basis for the choice of a partner and a spouse only from the 2000s. Earlier the love was treated as subversive phenomena and tried to keep it under control. It is typical to the near past and present days that behind the
relatively universal “symptoms” of love, depending on the circumstances, they assume
something different: romantic love or illness, curse or love magic.

Eroticism, kinship, and gender all intersect in transactional sexual relationships between young women known as curtidoras and older white men in Maputo, Mozambique. I draw on postcolonial feminism to argue that curtidoras’ erotic powers are a central part of sexual–economic exchanges with men and that senior female kin are deeply involved in processes of seduction and extraction of money. I conceptualize relationships between curtidoras, female kin, and male partners as “gendered triads of reciprocity” to unsettle Western stereotypes of female victims and patriarchal structures in Africa. Transactional sex often makes the partners mutually dependent and emotionally vulnerable, and, although moralities of exchange collide, young women tend to redistribute accumulated money from men among female seniors and kin.

John Beaumont, hablando con las hadas en el siglo XVIII, les preguntó una vez qué clase de seres eran. Le contestaron que eran “de un Orden de Criaturas Superiores al Género Humano y podían influir en nuestros pensamientos, y que su Morada estaba en el Aire”. El pastor escocés Robert Kira, que escribió en 1691 La Comunidad Secreta de los Elfos, Faunos y Hadas en 1691, y de quien se dice que lo raptaron las hadas por divulgar sus secretos y por haber tenido la temeridad de caminar por un montecillo que les pertenecía a ellas, dijo...

Alberto Montaner & Eva Lara, «La hechicería en La Celestina desde el estudio de la magia», en Grandes y pequeños de la literatura medieval y renacentista, ed. Emilio Blanco, Salamanca, Sociedad de Estudios Medievales y Renacentistas; Seminario de Estudios Medievales y Renacentistas, 2016 [ISBN 978-84-944855-5-8], pp. 433-482

In the recent exhibition catalog Death Dogs: The Jackal Gods of Ancient Egypt by Terry
Wilfong, there appeared as number thirty-two a papyrus inscribed with a Demotic text
accompanied by a rather interesting illustration. Wilfong mentions that the “text is, as
yet, unedited, but the illustration — showing a jackal-headed god most likely to be Anubis shooting a bow and arrow toward a grotesque naked male figure — makes it all but certain that this papyrus is a magical text. A jackal-headed god shooting a bow and arrow is sometimes represented in amulet form (for example, see Andrews 1994, 47, fig. 52a), and this image may be related.” The authors are currently working to edit and publish the papyrus in full. This preliminary publication will serve to confirm Wilfong’s suspicions about the text, the jackal-headed figure, and to situate the illustration explicitly within the larger corpus of archer figures from ancient Egypt.

Abstract
This paper deals with the distribution of curse types and curse formulas and the specific features of the surviving Latin curse tablets in the various provinces of the Roman Empire in time and space. The Latin tabellae defixionum represent a special kind of epigraphic documents, the number of which has increased significantly over the last decades. A new modern corpus of Latin curse tablets was published by Amina Kropp, and a new category within the curse types has been recognized – the so-called prayers for justice. The analysis of these texts written on sheets of lead enables us to see the areas with specific connections, correspondences and differences in the content of the curse text, the frequency and types of used formulas, invoked deities and daemons, the application of magical words and special graphic features, which help us find out the relations between the curse type and the aim of the writer in the whole Latin curse tradition. This analysis of a total of 309 quite undamaged and intelligible curse texts tries to compare the possible relations between the curse formulas and the “bad wishes”, or targets of, the curse writers in the cases of curses and prayers for justice.

В уголовном деле, которое хранится в Государственном архиве Кировской области, отмечен случай отравления молодой женой своего мужа. Она дала ему выпить размешанный в пиве порошок высушенной травы – чемерицы (очевидно, Veratrum lobelianum Bernh.). Сама она призналась, что таким образом пыталась вызвать его любовь. Однако чемерица – растение ядовитое, и крестьяне хорошо знали, что она опасна. Чемерица использовалась в народной медицине, но в основном для наружного применения. Если спустя пять недель после свадьбы у жены действительно появилось осознанное намерение убить мужа (или нанести вред его здоровью), то это выразительно характеризует семейные отношения в крестьянской среде. Однако вполне возможно, что ядовитое растение всё же могло применяться и для того, чтобы муж начал вести себя с женою любовно и ласково. Целью любовной магии было наведение «тоски», которая проявлялась в физическом недомогании: человек не мог найти покоя, он испытывал жар, тошноту, стеснение сердца, боль в желудке. A criminal proceedings record found in the Kirov State Archive details the case of a man’s poisoning by his young wife who, in the hope of stimulating his love for her, added dried powder of a poisonous medicinal plant, false hellebore (Veratrum), into his beer. The local population was well aware of false hellebore’s toxicity and, although being a common item in folk medicine practices, it was mostly used for external application. The fact, that only within five weeks of marriage, the woman wanted to kill (or, at least, seriously harm) her spouse, may be a meaningful evidence of marital relations in the peasant milieu. On the other hand, by administering this toxic herb, she could genuinely hope to win his affection. The purpose of love magic was to make the targeted individual feel anguish (toska), unrest, or physical discomfort including fever, nausea, heart- or stomach-ache.

Dolgozatomban a gyimesi magyarok romantikus szerelemmel és szerelmi rontásokkal kapcsolatos koncepcióival foglalkozom. Bemutatom, hogy a gyimesi társadalom és a helyi egyház milyen címkékkel látja el a szerelem különböző kategóriáit, milyen keretek között tartja azt megengedettnek, esetleg elvártnak, és melyek azok a helyzetek, amelyek egy másfajta összefüggésbe, valamilyen negatív értéktartományba – például a „tisztátalanság” kategóriájába – helyezik ugyanazt a szerelmi magatartást. Arról is szólni kívánok, hogy a generációnként és társadalmi nemenként eltérő szerelemmodelleknek milyen érintkezési pontjai lehetnek a szerelmi rontásoknak tulajdonított hatásokkal. Az is izgalmas kérdés, hogy mikor melyik értelmezés kerül előtérbe, pontosabban a kulturális szereplők hogyan adaptálják ezeket a modelleket. A szerelem, a romantikus szerelem gyimesi értelmezésének tisztázása végett az úgynevezett „szerelem mint betegség” orvosi antropológiai megközelítést hívom segítségül. Elsőként röviden felvázolom a szerelemmel kapcsolatos kutatások fontosabb paradigmáit, majd részletesen bemutatom a szerelemmodellek megértéséhez elengedhetetlen társadalmi kontextust, végül a szerelem-betegség metafora gyimesi taglalására vállalkozom.

Arenas, P. & J. A. Braunstein. 1981. Plantas y animales empleados en paquetes y otras formas de la magia amorosa entre los tobas takśik. Parodiana 1(1): 149-169.

Resumen: Se estudian las técnicas de magia amorosa entre los indígenas Toba-Taśik de Misión Tacaaglé (Pcia. de Formosa, Argentina) poniendo especial atención en los atados confeccionados con partes de animales y vegetales. Se mencionan las especies que componen los paquetes y se describen los procedimientos seguidos en su preparación, el tratamiento para tornarlos poderosos, las precauciones para evitar que pierdan su eficacia y otros detalles que hacen a su uso y efecto.

Summary: This paper deals with tecniques of love magic among the Toba-Takśik Indians of Misión Tacaaglé (Provincia de Formosa, Argentina) with special attention to the bundles made up with parts of animals and plants. It mentions the species included in the bundles as well as the procedures pursued in their preparation, the treatment through which they become powerful, the necessary cautions in order to prevent them from losing their efficacy and other details concerning their uses and effects.

Заведенное в г. Яранске Вятского наместничества уголовное дело о копировании в 1781 году тетрадки с заговорными текстами рассматривалось Вятским совестным судом. Обвиняемый мог бы ожидать сурового наказания. Однако суд распорядился его отпустить, предупредив чиновников на местах, чтоб они впредь не начинали дел по таким обвинениям. Согласно указаниям Екатерины II, колдовство нужно было квалифицировать не как серьезное преступление, а всего лишь суеверие и обман. /  Courts of conscience against people's prejudices.

People throughout history have tried to seduce others into falling in love (or lust). Learn about love, lust, and magic in the ancient world, from Egyptian love poems to the origins of our Valentine's Day. Presented by Historian Lauren Hammersen.  Admission Free.
Adult Content: Not appropriate for children!