Sabina Magliocco
Encyclopedia
Sabina Magliocco is a professor of Anthropology and Folklore at California State University, Northridge
(CSUN). She is an author of non-fiction books and journal articles about folklore, religion, religious festivals, foodways
, witchcraft
and Neo-Paganism in Europe and the United States.
A recipient of fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
, National Endowment for the Humanities, Fulbright Program
and Hewlett Foundation, Magliocco is an honorary fellow of the American Folklore Society
. From 2004 to 2009, she served as editor of Western Folklore
, the quarterly journal of the Western States Folklore Society. At CSUN, she is faculty advisor for the CSUN Cat People, an organization dedicated to humane population control and maintenance of feral cats on the university’s campus.
, the daughter of Italian immigrants. Her father first arrived in the USA in 1953 on a Fulbright Fellowship specializing in psychiatry and neurology. Her mother joined him after they were married in 1958. From 1960 to 1976, her family spent summers living in Italy
, specifically Rome
, San Felice Circeo
, Lazio and Castiglione della Pescaia
, Tuscany
.
Her family moved from Topeka to Cincinnati in 1966, where Magliocco graduated from Walnut Hills High School (Cincinnati, Ohio)
in 1977.
She graduated magna cum laude from Brown University
, at Providence, Rhode Island
, in 1980 with a BA in Anthropology
. At Indiana University’s Folklore Institute, Bloomington, Indiana
, she received her MA (1983) and Ph.D. (1988) in Folklore
, with a minor in Anthropology.
. Her other teaching positions have included UCLA (1994), UC Santa Barbara (1995), UC Berkeley (1995–1997), and her current position at California State University, Northridge, where she has been teaching since 1997. She became chairman of the Department of Anthropology at Northridge in 2007.
(Italy) during the 1980s, studying the effect of socio-economic transformation on the traditional festivals of a pastoral
highland community. The Two Madonnas and Le due Marie di Bessude were the result of this research. Magliocco's studies of contemporary Neo-Pagans in the San Francisco Bay Area
provided the subject material for Witching Culture and Neo-Pagan Sacred Art and Altars. In Cornwall, England, her fieldwork on the Padstow
May Day celebration was used to produce Oss Tales. Magliocco is currently working on a project based on traditional healing practices in Italy.
She has written several journal articles that have had significant impact on modern scholarship about witchcraft and the USA revival of Italian-American Stregheria
. Magliocco is an initiate of Gardnerian Wicca
.
, 2004)
Neo-Pagan Sacred Art and Altars: Making Things Whole (University of Mississippi Press
, 2001)
Le due Marie di Bessude: festa e transformazione sociale in Sardegna (Ozieeri, Italy: Edizioni Il Torchietto, 1995)
The Two Madonnas: the Politics of Festival in a Sardinian Community (1993; 2nd Edition, Waveland Press, 2005)
“Italian American Stregheria and Wicca: Ethnic Ambivalence in American Neopaganism,” in Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives, ed. by Michael Strmiska (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO
, 2006), 55–86.
California State University, Northridge
California State University, Northridge is a public university in Northridge, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, California, United States....
(CSUN). She is an author of non-fiction books and journal articles about folklore, religion, religious festivals, foodways
Foodways
In social science foodways are the cultural, social and economic practices relating to the production and consumption of food.- Definitions :...
, witchcraft
Witchcraft
Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...
and Neo-Paganism in Europe and the United States.
A recipient of fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Mr. and Mrs. Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died April 26, 1922...
, National Endowment for the Humanities, Fulbright Program
Fulbright Program
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, is a program of competitive, merit-based grants for international educational exchange for students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists, founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946. Under the...
and Hewlett Foundation, Magliocco is an honorary fellow of the American Folklore Society
American Folklore Society
The American Folklore Society is the US-based professional association for folklorists, with members from the US, Canada, and around the world. It was founded in 1888 by William Wells Newell, who stood at the center of a diverse group of university-based scholars, museum anthropologists, and men...
. From 2004 to 2009, she served as editor of Western Folklore
Western Folklore
Western Folklore is a quarterly academic journal for the study of folklore published by the Western States Folklore Society. It was established in 1942 as the California Folklore Quarterly and obtained its current name in 1947...
, the quarterly journal of the Western States Folklore Society. At CSUN, she is faculty advisor for the CSUN Cat People, an organization dedicated to humane population control and maintenance of feral cats on the university’s campus.
Early life and education
Magliocco was born December 30, 1959, in Topeka, KansasTopeka, Kansas
Topeka |Kansa]]: Tó Pee Kuh) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County. It is situated along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...
, the daughter of Italian immigrants. Her father first arrived in the USA in 1953 on a Fulbright Fellowship specializing in psychiatry and neurology. Her mother joined him after they were married in 1958. From 1960 to 1976, her family spent summers living in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, specifically Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, San Felice Circeo
San Felice Circeo
San Felice Circeo is a town and comune in the province of Latina, in the Lazio region of central Italy.It is included in that Circeo National Park...
, Lazio and Castiglione della Pescaia
Castiglione della Pescaia
Castiglione della Pescaia is an ancient seaside town in the province of Grosseto , Italy. The modern city grew around a medieval fortress and a large fishery, from which it got its designation...
, Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
.
Her family moved from Topeka to Cincinnati in 1966, where Magliocco graduated from Walnut Hills High School (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Walnut Hills High School (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Walnut Hills High School is a public college-preparatory high school in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Operated by the Cincinnati Public Schools, it houses grades seven through twelve and maintains a culturally diverse student body. The school has been given an excellent rating by the Ohio...
in 1977.
She graduated magna cum laude from Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
, at Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
, in 1980 with a BA in Anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
. At Indiana University’s Folklore Institute, Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the southern region of the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 80,405 at the 2010 census....
, she received her MA (1983) and Ph.D. (1988) in Folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
, with a minor in Anthropology.
Career
After working on post-doctoral research in Italy with a Fulbright fellowship in 1989, Magliocco began her career teaching classes in Folklore and Anthropology. From 1990 to 1994, she taught at the University of Wisconsin–MadisonUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
. Her other teaching positions have included UCLA (1994), UC Santa Barbara (1995), UC Berkeley (1995–1997), and her current position at California State University, Northridge, where she has been teaching since 1997. She became chairman of the Department of Anthropology at Northridge in 2007.
Fieldwork and research interests
Magliocco did fieldwork in northwestern SardiniaSardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
(Italy) during the 1980s, studying the effect of socio-economic transformation on the traditional festivals of a pastoral
Pastoral
The adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...
highland community. The Two Madonnas and Le due Marie di Bessude were the result of this research. Magliocco's studies of contemporary Neo-Pagans in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
provided the subject material for Witching Culture and Neo-Pagan Sacred Art and Altars. In Cornwall, England, her fieldwork on the Padstow
Padstow
Padstow is a town, civil parish and fishing port on the north coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town is situated on the west bank of the River Camel estuary approximately five miles northwest of Wadebridge, ten miles northwest of Bodmin and ten miles northeast of Newquay...
May Day celebration was used to produce Oss Tales. Magliocco is currently working on a project based on traditional healing practices in Italy.
She has written several journal articles that have had significant impact on modern scholarship about witchcraft and the USA revival of Italian-American Stregheria
Stregheria
Stregheria is a form of ethnic Italian form of Wicca originating in the United States, popularized by Raven Grimassi since the 1980s. Stregheria is sometimes referred to as La Vecchia Religione The word stregheria is an archaic Italian word for "witchcraft", the modern Italian word being...
. Magliocco is an initiate of Gardnerian Wicca
Gardnerian Wicca
Gardnerian Wicca, or Gardnerian Witchcraft, is a mystery cult tradition or denomination in the neopagan religion of Wicca, whose members can trace initiatory descent from Gerald Gardner. The tradition is itself named after Gardner , a British civil servant and scholar of magic...
.
Books
Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America (University of Pennsylvania PressUniversity of Pennsylvania Press
The University of Pennsylvania Press is a university press affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
, 2004)
Neo-Pagan Sacred Art and Altars: Making Things Whole (University of Mississippi Press
University Press of Mississippi
The University Press of Mississippi, founded in 1970, is a publisher that is sponsored by the eight state universities in Mississippi:*Alcorn State University*Delta State University*Jackson State University*Mississippi State University...
, 2001)
Le due Marie di Bessude: festa e transformazione sociale in Sardegna (Ozieeri, Italy: Edizioni Il Torchietto, 1995)
The Two Madonnas: the Politics of Festival in a Sardinian Community (1993; 2nd Edition, Waveland Press, 2005)
Film
Oss Tales & Oss Oss Wee Oss Redux: Beltane in Berkeley (with John Bishop; Media Generations Productions, 2007)Significant articles
“Aradia in Sardinia: the Archeology of a Folk Character,” in D. Green and D. Evans, ed., Ten Years of Triumph of the Moon: Essays in Honor of Ronald Hutton, 40–60. Bristol, UK: Hidden Publishing, 2009.“Italian American Stregheria and Wicca: Ethnic Ambivalence in American Neopaganism,” in Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives, ed. by Michael Strmiska (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO
ABC-CLIO
ABC-CLIO is a publisher of reference works for the study of history and social studies in academic, secondary school, and public library settings.-History:...
, 2006), 55–86.