Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals is the first volume in an edition of the extensive corpus of anti-witchcraft texts in the Akkadian language. Even in its incomplete form, it is already an extremely important addition to the literature on witchcraft, supernatural beliefs, folk medicine (both supernatural and herbal), incantations, and ritual.
The texts that Tzvi Abusch and Daniel Schwemer edit and translate in their edition are, like so many other ancient Mesopotamian texts, rarely complete, though when multiple copies exist scholars are often able to reconstruct, through careful comparison of the manuscripts, what the ritual texts and instructions were like in full. A typical text includes both a supernatural and herbal component—there is often some type of drink, for example, that must be taken while the ritual is in progress or as it ends. The rituals are often complex, but even the simplest usually include at least one incantation or prayer as well as an herbal remedy. A few of the texts lack a ritual component and are, for example, just incantations or recipes for potions.
Akkadian anti-witchcraft texts are curious in that, while they imagine the person initiating the attacks as either a man or a woman, the victim in the texts is always a man. Why this should be is not at all clear. The kinds of problems described in many of the texts as the result of witchcraft could easily bother a man or a woman, for example. And we know of other incantation texts that are for aiding women in childbirth and other problems, so supernatural aid was available to Akkadian women.
The types of magic found in the Akkadian texts--such as taking soil from the footprints of a person to be attacked, or tying knots to supernaturally attack a person--have parallels in many later magical traditions, right up to the modern world.
Each text is carefully edited and translated, and the texts are presented in an identical format: Abusch and Schwemer first describe the content of the text; then they list the known manuscripts; then follows a synopsis of the text; this is followed by a list of previous editions, if any; next comes a transliteration of the cuneiform manuscript; this is followed by a list of texts from the manuscript that they do not include in this edition; next comes a normalized Akkadian text and English translation in parallel; and, finally, there are notes to each text. The sections on the texts not included in this edition of the rituals point to some interesting connections that these anti-witchcraft texts have to Akkadian medicine more generally. The anti-witchcraft rituals often occur in the manuscripts alongside texts describing non-supernatural medicinal cures, which suggests that witchcraft was just one of a spectrum of possible causes for a given illness and that knowledge of the anti-witchcraft rituals was part of the usual knowledge base of a medical practitioner. Indeed, given some of the contents of the non-supernatural remedies, it is not hard to imagine that, at least in some cases, the patients could be made ill from the potions themselves. As the patient’s condition worsened from the continuing use of the potions, the doctor would assume that the worsening condition was caused by witchcraft and would then resort to the witchcraft rituals in an effort to cure the patient.
Readers should know that this is primarily a text edition. Athough Abusch and Schwemer provide a good introduction to Mesopotamian witchcraft beliefs in their introduction to the book, which describes in broad outline the nature of Akkadian witchcraft beliefs, the kinds of diagnostic, therapeutic, and pharmacological texts concerned with witchcraft, and the typical elements encountered in an anti-witchcraft ritual, they provide very little interpretation or explanation with the individual texts. Their notes to the individual texts treat mostly philological issues, though they do at times touch on comparisons with other Mesopotamian texts or give somewhat fuller explanations of specific points and meanings in the texts. But, both Abusch and Schwemer are important scholars of Mesopotamian witchcraft, and they do give extensive references to their own work and that of others.
Even in its incomplete form, Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals is a major contribution to the study of witchcraft, supernatural belief, folk medicine (both supernatural and non-supernatural), theories of magic, incantations, and ritual. This edition is required reading for any scholar with an interest in these topics.
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[Review length: 723 words • Review posted on September 26, 2012]