Wicked Witch

Few figures haunt the human imagination like the witch. While existing books and media have largely focused on the trials of Early Modern Europe and America, far less explored is the enduring global belief that certain people secretly wield destructive supernatural powers. Drawing on the author’s own field research and a wealth of cross-cultural evidence, this book examines how societies across the world imagine witches in strikingly similar ways: flying by night, shapeshifting into animals, inverting ordinary behaviour and committing horrifying acts – ritual murder, cannibalism, the abuse of children. By tracing these recurring ideas across vastly different cultures, the book uncovers remarkable patterns in human thought, fear and other emotions, and it asks why such concepts persist, pointing to deep social and psychological roots in human evolution.