[...]was a ="trms">matter between ="trms">society and the accused did not exist (='lgc'>='lgc'>--> the ="trms">presentday distinction between criminal and civil ="trms">complaints meaningless)
raising a formal ="trms">complaint required='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•the accuser to furnish proof of the allegation
="lsts lst1">•to submit to severe penalties agreed in advance if the judge was unconvinced of the ="trms">complaint's merit
='strcls'>*it was complex, expensive, and very risky to enter into this formal framework in order to address disputes or everyday injustices='strcls'>* ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> most ordinary people did not do so, choosing instead to pursue local and less formal modes of redress

15th and 16th century ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> this procedure changed dramatically (with the emergence of the witch in europe)
="lsts lst1">•witch was understood as an ="trms">agent of satan
="lsts lst1">•="trms">responsibility of civil and ="trms">religious ="trms">authorities to protect pious christians (from a power that would overwhelm the faithful regardless of their individual acts, intentions, or beliefs)

inchoate suspicion (of the fearful, the resentful, the spiteful) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> reporting ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> inquisitors (="trms">positioned as experts) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> take this suspicion forward administratively ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>*impersonal ="trms">sociological sense='strcls'>* (='lgc'><='lgc'>-- an ='thdf'>example of Weberian rationalization)

to suspect someone of maleficium was not new ='lgc'>--='not'>✕='lgc'>='lgc'>--> (in witch accusations) ="trms">authorities were now eager to act on suspicions in dependently


unresolved sexual desires ='lgc'>+ such passion would be redirected in pathological, ="trms">perverse manner ='lgc'>==="nms">Häxan='lgc'>='lgc'>==> witch accusations

="large lg2" stl="font-size:112%"> the film emphasizes the crucial role sex played in discerning what constituted witch="trms">craft and its status as a knowable ="trms">category of (malefic) human practice


a great deal of demonological thinking was devoted to justifying the fact that civil and Church officials, despite their fears, by and large were not bewitched


following satan's idiom...

="nms">Häxan's tortured ="trms">relation to “the truth”
the ="trms">question of ="trms">="trms">empirical certainty and reenactment haunts the status of the film as evidence

='strcls'>*acting the ideal type breathes life into the emptied, cliched figure='strcls'>* ='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•Christensenrelying on the fact that the truth of the witch will take its most visible form by acting her out ="trms">mimetically (='lgc'>='lgc'>~= Christensen chooses to “play” satan using his idiom to breathe life into his witch)
="lsts lst1">•Flaherty knew that the ="trms">visceral force of Nanook of the North depended on the felicity of his Inuit ="trms">interlocutors reenacting themselves




Christensen seems to be offering a cure for the ='strcls'>*secularized christian blindness='strcls'>* at the heart of ='strcls'>*="trms">positivist human ="trms">science='strcls'>* ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> his audience is pulled in “through a lens of ="trms">science ='lgc'>=/= as misguided inquisitors”


="large lg1" stl="font-size:112%"> working with ='strcls'>*="trms">figurative givens of witches and demons='strcls'>* ='lgc'>--="trms">formulate='lgc'>='lgc'>--> visual thesis (about uncanny, mobile power)

etchings into a ="trms">material
carving outlines into the image of figures that have been hiding in plain sight


beautifully ="trms">composed tableau of the torture chamber
static plane of the tableau ='lgc'>=/= sense depth signify an open or free space

totality of (depicted) violence ='lgc'><='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="trms">composed alterity of the s="trms">cene's sty="trms"nttrm="listen,alist,ilist,llist,olist,ylist,ulist">listic cor="trms">respondence between accused and inquisitor

(Christensen's ="trms">method of) oscillating rhythm between tableau and face
="prgrph">-suppressing perspective and depth of field in favor of a continuous ="trms">affective movement as expressed in the face
='lgc'>--="ppl">Baxstrom='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="nms">Häxan is not grounded in a setting here; it is grounded in the forms of life ="trms">present in the shot

sense of corporeal alienation from herself ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> inhabit a script not her own ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> critical to the “success” of witch="trms">craft confessions

witch stereotype='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•="trms">Wild Ride
="lsts lst1">•pact with the Devil solemnized through sexual ="trms">intercourse-
="lsts lst1">•cannibalism
="lsts lst1">•دیگ cauldron as the locus of the rite
="lsts lst1">•='strcls'>*massed, coordinated, female ="trms">nature of witch="trms">craft='strcls'>*


judicial machinery of a witch trial required evidence of criminal acts that (by de="trms">finition) could not be witnessed


in ="nms">Häxan
="prgrph">-the power of cinema to witness exceeds that of the witch hunter
="prgrph">-what it does is “worse” than ="trms"nttrm="righ,rigo,riga,rigi,trig,rign">rigging the truth ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> it aligns itself (not with a concept of truth or the real but) with the power of the witch


(="nms">Häxan and many criminal ="trms">story films) works through ="trms">instruments of knowing rooted in the ='strcls'>*dynamics of the confession='strcls'>*
='at'>#="nms">ajayeb ="trms">storytelling

...="trms"nttrm="cluster,club">clumsily rendered, the w="trms"nttrm="righ,rigo,riga,rigi,trig,rign">riggling demons reflect an ="trms">interesting set of variations to the witch stereotype, both ="trms">ontologically and visually
(Maria giving birth to demon ="trms">children)


Thomas Aquinas's theorization of the ='strcls'>*virtual bodies='strcls'>* (of angels)
="prgrph">-angels do not need bodies for their sake but for ours ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> un="trms">natural couplings could produce ="trms">children, but that the bodily essence of devils would rule out the possibility that these ="trms">children would themselves be demons


16th century ="trms">author primarily concern with Satan's ability to manipulate and ="trms">pervert ="trms">language (in="trms"nttrm="cluster,club">cluding ="trms">erotic ="trms">language)


="trms">wild flowing hair of the women ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> a common visual ="trms">="trms"nttrm="metaph,metamorph,metabol,metal">metaphor for sexual promiscuity and disorder


images of canniba="trms"nttrm="listen,alist,ilist,llist,olist,ylist,ulist">listic night witches were explicitly a demonological variation on long-standing popular conceptions

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xxxxxx



persistence of witch="trms">craft
how witch="trms">craft might still exist as more than just one of many choices available on a personal empowerment “menu”
="prgrph">-how rituals pertaining to magic came to be understood as a problem of knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge

='strcls'>*magic binds forces that would otherwise overflow life='strcls'>*
a great subterranean need to “bind” forces that would otherwise exert themselves with impunity and without any greater explanation or meaning
='lgc'>='lgc'>--> enacting a de="trms">historification of a form of life that would otherwise be overwhelmed by the brutal timeliness of ="trms">historical being
="ppl">Baxstrom > de ="ppl">Martino, Janet

making the precarity of our ="trms">presence an object of knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge

(firm un="trms">questioning belief ='lgc'>=/=) local doubt ='lgc'>--sustins='lgc'>='lgc'>--> witch="trms">craft (in Buli -Bubandt)
...face off with a persistent, seemingly eternal, spectral threat

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Rolley

an anatomical (not geographical knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge, diabolical atlas) demonological understanding

Renessancian ="trms">world encounters ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> geo
='lgc'>[='strcls'>*='lgc'>]Renaissance='lgc'>: the age of demonology, the age of ="trms">cosmographic revolution (='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="trms">nature of ="trms">causality)
="prgrph">-="trms">presence of the devil in geographical space
="prgrph">-com="trms">posite and cross-disciplinary ="trms">network of nonhuman ="trms">causality and transmedia ="trms">writing ='lgc'>[demonologists ='lgc'>+ ="trms">cosmographers ='lgc'>+ ="trms">travellers='lgc'>]
="lsts lst1">•demonology='lgc'>: identifiable shared discursive field ='lgc'>-='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='gtrw'>go to ="ppl">Baxstrom
="lsts lst1">•demon ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> gunpowder (="trms">according to Rabelais and others) is the diabolical element amongst the classic tricolon='lgc'>: gunpowder, the nautical compass, and the printing press

emergence of a ="frds scrmbld"nttrm="Christianson">Christian ="trms">science of the devil (in the medieval West) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> liberation of demons (from supralunar to sublunar ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> into earthly realms)

Sabbat='lgc'>: an outpost of hell very much belonging to this ="trms">world

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="large lg3" stl="font-size:110%">
='strcls'>*finding ghost is what we are all here for='strcls'>*

...nagging mischief they cause can turn deadly
violently jerks the body of the medium around
occasionally threatening or attacking onlookers

“keep filming” one of the old women whispers behind me ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> i do what i am told='lgc'> = i do exactly what i want to do

="large lg4" stl="font-size:112%"> ="trms">anthropologist='lgc'> = i cannot directly “see” the demon or the spirit ='lgc'>[='lgc'>~ what i am told to see, ='at'>@="nms">apass ='at'>#feedback='lgc'>], but i am convinced that they are there


(="nms">ajayeb ='lgc'>--='qstn'>?='lgc'>='lgc'>-->) older practices of defining ="trms">social facts and the discovery, ="trms">interpretation, and de="trms">finition of the ="trms"nttrm="already,spread">read ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> (roots of the predis="trms">position of research='lgc'>:) to sense, ="trms">interpret, and eventually master forces that appear to be nonsensical and yet are held to be essential to the reality of everyday ="trms">social life

='lgc'>[mad:='lgc'>] ='thdf'>the notion of ='strcls'>*irrational='strcls'>* as a privileged space in medical discourses (in France in the 19th century) ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> a mysterious and extra-="trms">social ="trms">language that the rising medical profession could adapt to its own purposes

“nonsense” of the “native”

="large lg5" stl="font-size:148%"> (="ppl">Baxstrom's work on witch craze ='lgc'>[in 16th century='lgc'>] ='lgc'>--arguing='lgc'>='lgc'>-->) the problem of establishing proof in reference to the invisible forces has durably shaped our modes of investigating human ="trms">social and cultural life

='lgc'>[="nms">="nms">ajayebnameh [...]