In the rural areas of south-central Mexico, there are believed to be witches who transform themselves into animals in order to suck the blood from the necks of sleeping infants. This book analyzes beliefs held by the great majority of the population of rural Tlaxcala a generation ago and chronicles its drastic transformation since then.
"The most comprehensive statement on this centrally important ethnographic phenomenon in the last forty years. It bears ready comparison with the two great classics, Evans-Pritchard's Witchcraft Among the Azande and Clyde Kluckhohn's Navaho Witchcraft."—Henry H. Selby
Author(s): Hugo G. Nutini, John M. Roberts
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Year: 1993
Language: English
City: Tucson
Cover
Half Title Page, Title page, Copyright, Dedication
Contents
List of Maps and Tables
Preface
Glossary
Introduction
Chapter One. An Outline of Weathermaking, Nahualism, and Sorcery in Rural Tlaxcala
Chapter Two. The Belief System and Structural Context of Bloodsucking Witchcraft in Rural Tlaxcala
Chapter three. The Syncretic and Historical Development of Anthropomorphic Supernaturalism in Mesoamerica
Chapter Four. The Comparative Distribution and Definition of Witchcraft and Sorcery in Mesoamerica
Chapter Five. Anatomy of a Bloodsucking Witchcraft Epidemic
Chapter Six. The Empirical Evidence of Bloodsucking Witchcraft: Methodology and Systematic Presentation
Chapter Seven. Natural and Suernatural Explanations: The Logic of Witchcraft and Normative Expectations
Chapter Eight. The Diagnostic and Etiological Analysis of Bloodsucking Witchcraft
Chapter Nine. Social and Psychological Manipulations and the Ex Post Facto Rationalization of the Tlahuelpuchi Complex
Chapter Ten. Aftereffects and the Psychological Context of the Postsucking Period
Chapter Eleven. The Social and Psychological Functions of Bloodsucking Witchcraft
Chapter Twelve. An Epistemological Approach to the Study of Magic and Religious Supernaturalism
Conclusions
Notes to Chapters
References Cited
Index
About the Authors
