Deadly Words: Witchcraft In The Bocage By Jeanne Favret-Saada

The book Deadly Words: Witchcraft in the Bocage by Jeanne Favret-Saada is about witchcraft practiced in Bocage, an area of Western France. Since Bocage is a more rural area of France, Favret-Saada explains that the practice of witchcraft is unique here because, “…geographical and cultural ‘isolation’ are partly responsible for the ‘survival’ of ‘these’ (witchcraft) beliefs” (Favret-Saada 1980, 3). Throughout the book, Favret-Saada discusses problems within the realm of ethnography and how simply observing or writing about a practice is not the same as experiencing it. Thus, she argues that one does not understand Bocage witchcraft without experiencing it first-hand. Favret-Saada goes into detail about the experience of bewitchment and the

Because being bewitched meant that you would experience a series of misfortunes, it would be hard to decipher bewitchment versus natural series of events when looking at archaeological evidence, if any was even present. For example, a series of misfortunes while being bewitched could include: “…a heifer dies, the wife has a miscarriage, the child is covered in spots, the car runs into the ditch, the butter won’t churn, the bread won’t rise, the geese bolt, or the daughter they want to marry off goes into a decline” (Favret-Saada 1980, 6). Because these types of events can happen at any time, it is nearly impossible to tell if someone was bewitched or if it was just a coincidence. Also, from an archaeological perspective, there would be no material evidence left behind that would suggest witchcraft was involved. There was much secrecy surrounding the identities of the supposed witches, too. Favret-Saada said, “Whenever I was told stories about witches, it was (1) a tone of denial: ‘I don’t believe in all that rot and (2) by someone who was not personally involved: the stories were always about someone else’s misfortunes. And they always ended abruptly with the episode of naming the witch” (Favret-Saada 1980, 44). Also, although witches may be identified, there was no guarantee that the person was actually the one casting the spells to the bewitched. Favret-Saada also says, “…the bewitched cannot know how the witch operates because an accusation of witchcraft is always a post facto deduction, relating strange or catastrophic events to the supposed behavior of someone acting secretly…the bewitched learn about most of what they know about witchcraft from their therapist; most witch stories come from the same source and are part of what the unwitcher teaches his patients” (Favret-Saada 1980, 144). Thus, the bewitcher seems to play more of a role at explaining/deciphering the witchcraft than