RECENZIJE IN POROČILA O KNJIGAH / RECENSIONI DI LIBRI / BOOK REVIEWS 267 
Éva Pócs (Ed.), Body, soul, sPirits and 
suPErnatural communication. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge SCholarS PubliShing, 
2019, 487 P., illuStrationS.
This book presents the proceedings of the 
international conference organised by the 
East-West Research Group on religious 
Ethnology at the Department of Ethnology 
and Cultural Anthropology of the University 
of Pécs (Hungary) in December 2014. The 
conference aimed to offer a more nuanced 
picture than had existed before regarding 
the notions of the soul and spirits among 
different peoples of Europe.
The papers published in the first part of 
this volume discuss the problematic issues 
of the connections of body and soul. They 
include Vilmos Voigt’s article on Hungarian 
“spirit, soul” – lélek; Virág Dyekiss presents 
the ideas about the soul in the belief system 
of the Siberian Nganasan; Daiva Vaitkevi-
čienė writes about the shadow as the soul 
outside the body; Judit Farkas reports on 
her research among Hungarian Krishna 
believers; Kata Zsófia Vincze researches 
the relationship of body and soul which 
concerns sexual mores in the framework 
of Judaist laws, regulations, and customs 
of marriage. Willem Blécourt reveals how 
deeply rooted were the notions of the second 
body in Western European textual folklore. 
Francesca Matteoni discusses the spirits that 
helped witches to perform maleficent magic 
in English folklore. 
The objective of the second part of this 
book is to shed light on the notions of the 
soul and faith in life after death. Examples 
quoted by Tatjana Minniyahmetova present 
perceptions of the soul of the dead in Siberia. 
Suzana Marjanić cites examples from the 
folklore of the post-mortal and cataleptic 
soul. Éva Pócs discusses how the souls 
of the dead individuals excluded from the 
community can turn into assaulting demons 
in folk belief perceptions. Anna Judit Tóth 
focuses on the unburied dead who reappear 
as demons of vendetta by the ancient Greeks. 
Kaarina Koski researches the notions about 
the dead who live on in the shape of specific 
“cemetery spirits”. 
In the third part of this volume are presen-
ted beliefs and rites related to so-called double 
beings, which represent a special, archaic 
pre-Christian variant of soul notions, such as 
werewolves, vampire, witches, nightmares, 
and fairies. These figures – partly human, 
partly spiritual – are discussed by Julian 
Goodare and also by Lizanne Henderson, 
who writes about the folklore and literary 
traditions of the Scottish world of fairies. 
Sandis Laime discusses the possible origins 
of the Livonian werewolves; examples of 
vampires and their representations in oral 
narratives, films and works of literature are 
analysed in the contributions by Annemarie 
Sorescu-Marinković and Maria Tausiet.
The fourth part of this book is dedicated 
to communication with the spirit world: 
the otherworldly journeys of the souls, the 
dead who appear to humans, and New Age 
spiritualism. The techniques practised to 
obtain this goal, falling into a trance, for 
instance, are discussed in the paper by Mir-
jam Mencej, who researches the techniques 
related to circular movements. Christa Agnes 
Tuczay enlists medieval German examples 
of the “soul journey” seeking contact with 
the dead. Gordana Galić-Kakkonen resear-
ches the noted example of the worldly and 
otherworldly journey of Ramón de Parellós.
Different aspects of communication with 
the dead are also explored in the studies 
written by Alejandra Guzmán Almagro on 
the practice of exorcism; Ilaria Micheli pre-
sents these practices among certain African 
RECENZIJE IN POROČILA O KNJIGAH / RECENSIONI DI LIBRI / BOOK REVIEWS268 
tribes; Sarolta Tatár researches the Buryat 
folk religion; Vilmos Tánczos introduces 
the religious world of Moldavian Csángó 
man. Finally. Julia Gyimesi writes about 
the Budapest School of Psychoanalysis at 
the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and 
reveals the connections between spiritualism, 
parapsychology, and psychoanalysis.
This book gives a nuanced picture of the 
notions of body and soul associated with the 
Judeo-Christian tradition and other religions, 
denominations, and alternative practices; 
it can be concluded that the essays give a 
good insight into the folklore and literary 
representations of these concepts.
Monika Kropej Telban, Ljubljana 
Éva Pócs (Ed.), charms and charming. 
studiEs on magic in EvEryday lifE. 
LjubLjana: ZaLožba ZRC, ZRC SaZu 
(Studia mythologiCa SlaviCa – SuPPle-
menta 15), 2019, 311 P., illuStrationS. 
This book focuses on the verbal aspects of 
everyday magic. The authors devote their 
attention to phenomenological and theoretical 
studies of incantations and discuss various 
topics, including charms and ancient magical 
practices and their reception and diffusion. 
The studies of 18 renowned researchers fo-
cusing on charms, incantations and prayers, 
and their studies cover a wide spectrum 
of countries, from the United Kingdom to 
Russia and Iran are presented.
The book is subdivided into two parts; 
in the first, the range of roles these verbal 
magic played in everyday life is resear-
ched, from healing practices to the charms 
that repel witches and demons. Svetlana 
Adonyeva discusses contemporary magic 
practice in Russia, specifically magical 
writing and sending letters to the forest 
king or leshyi. Olga Khristoforova also 
presents contemporary Russian witchcraft 
through the terms of power. Evelina Rudan 
and Josipa Tomašić present Croatian folk 
prayers that are practised as charms next to 
a person’s deathbed, and work as clarifica-
tion of blurry and dangerous state between 
“here” and “there”. Valer Simion Cosma 
researches the role of Romanian priests 
as enchanters. Daniver Vukelić dedicated 
his study to the uroci – evil charms and 
spells in Croatian tradition. Davor Nikolić 
discusses folk prayers and verbal charms 
as irrational discourse through the spectre 
of rational argumentation. Tomas Kencis 
presents Latvian witchcraft against witches, 
Zsuzsa Závoti focusses on the aspect of 
mental disorder in Anglo-Saxon England