In the 1980s, America was gripped by widespread panics about Satanic cults. Conspiracy theories abounded about groups who were allegedly abusing children in day-care centers, impregnating girls for infant sacrifice, brainwashing adults, and even controlling the highest levels of government. As historian of religions David Frankfurter listened to these sinister theories, it occurred to him how strikingly similar they were to those that swept parts of the early Christian world, early modern Europe, and postcolonial Africa. He ...
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In the 1980s, America was gripped by widespread panics about Satanic cults. Conspiracy theories abounded about groups who were allegedly abusing children in day-care centers, impregnating girls for infant sacrifice, brainwashing adults, and even controlling the highest levels of government. As historian of religions David Frankfurter listened to these sinister theories, it occurred to him how strikingly similar they were to those that swept parts of the early Christian world, early modern Europe, and postcolonial Africa. He began to investigate the social and psychological patterns that give rise to these myths. Thus was born Evil Incarnate , a riveting analysis of the mythology of evilconspiracy. The first work to provide an in-depth analysis of the topic, the book uses anthropology, the history of religion, sociology, and psychoanalytic theory, to answer the questions "What causes people collectively to envision evil and seek to exterminate it?" and "Why does the representation of evil recur in such typical patterns?" Frankfurter guides the reader through such diverse subjects as witch-hunting, the origins of demonology, cannibalism, and the rumors of Jewish ritual murder, demonstrating how societies have long expanded upon their fears of such atrocities to address a collective anxiety. Thus, he maintains, panics over modern-day infant sacrifice are really not so different from rumors about early Christians engaging in infant feasts during the second and third centuries in Rome. In Evil Incarnate , Frankfurter deepens historical awareness that stories of Satanic atrocities are both inventions of the mind and perennial phenomena, not authentic criminal events. True evil, as he so artfully demonstrates, is not something organized and corrupting, but rather a social construction that inspires people to brutal acts in the name of moral order.
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Add this copy of Evil Incarnate: Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and Ritual to cart. $6.53, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Brownstown, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2006 by Princeton University Press.
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Add this copy of Evil Incarnate: Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and to cart. $20.00, good condition, Sold by Moe's Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Berkeley, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2006 by Princeton University Press.
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Good in Good jacket. Jacket is rubbed, lightly worn and slightly creased along edges. Binding is tight. Fingerprint smudges on top edge of text block and small ink mark on bottom edge, not visible on pages. Ink inscription from previous owner on half-title page, but all other pages are clean and unmarked.
Add this copy of Evil Incarnate: Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and to cart. $49.00, very good condition, Sold by The Haunted Bookshop rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Iowa City, IA, UNITED STATES, published 2006 by Princeton University Press.
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Very Good in Very Good dust jacket in Very Good jacket. Signed and inscribed to a named individual by the author on the half-title page. Clean and bright except for a gift note on the front free endpaper; hard cover and dust jacket show minor wrinkling and shelf rubbing around spine ends, otherwise excellent.; Signed by Author.
Add this copy of Evil Incarnate Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and Satanic to cart. $98.94, like new condition, Sold by RARE BOOK CELLAR rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Pomona, NY, UNITED STATES, published 2006 by Princeton University Press.