SHOE AND TALISMAN. THE STORY OF A POSSESSED YOUNG MAN

Abstract

The paper presents the case of possession of a young man (János) from a Transylvanian village inhabited mostly by Romanians and Hungarians. János’s family is ethnic Hungarian and while his mother is Calvinist, János, his father and brothers are Roman Catholic. János lives in a household with his mother and his youngest brother. The parents separated for years but live at walking distance from each other. At the time of the interview János only passed a long and difficult crisis. The memory of the experience was alive, both his mother and János gave detailed account of what happened.

This paper was written as part of the author’s PhD thesis on contemporary witchcraft in a village from the Aries river valley, Transylvania (2005) and became one of the chapters of her book (2009).

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