Thread: fairy impostors in the Great Famine.

County Longford, central Ireland. 1847. A land of 'ruin and desolation'. Starving, desperate people trudge the roads and lanes, doing what they can to survive.

Near the village of Ballinalee lives Anne Lyons and two adult daughters. Occupying a farm meant the Lyons women weren't starving. But it was still a terribly hard time. Six months earlier they'd buried James, husband and father.

Then, one November evening, someone knocked at the door. Elisabeth, 18, answered. It was a short man, resting on a stick.

Thread: witchcraft in comparative perspective.

How similar is witchcraft, as found across the world? It's been debated by students of this topic for several decades, if not longer. (C19th and early C20th folklorists loved comparative theories: think of J. Frazer's Golden Bough) Until recently, the differences loomed large. So let's start with a notable one of those.

In parts of sub-Saharan Africa, it's said that witches owe their evil abilities to a special organ, near the liver. See this video, about E. Evans-Pritchard's research on Azande witchcraft.