Were-Creatures of the Eurasian Ecumene: Variations on a Theme
| Author | David Gordon White |
|---|---|
| Published | 2020 |
| Format | Research paper |
TL;DR — A religious-studies article asking what becomes of werewolves in lands without wolves, tracing shape-shifting sorceress traditions across Eurasia.
Published in Journal Asiatique 308.1 (2020), pp. 63–83, by David Gordon White of UC Santa Barbara, a historian of South Asian religion.
White surveys Eurasian traditions in which human sorceresses turn into local animals (jackals, wolves, hyenas, foxes, bats, owls). In Roman and medieval Islamic sources these figures mostly appear in horror literature and accounts of foreign exotica, while in medieval South and East Asia they were absorbed into esoteric tantric traditions, where they played a positive role in the practitioner’s transformation.
What it is: a peer-reviewed article in a long-running orientalist journal; scholarship about folklore and magic, not an occult text.
Where this came from
- A copy saved in October 2026.
21 pages. A PDF copy is held in Kyle’s private archive; it is not linked or shared here.