Could be. I don't 'do' witches and such. I will add that I've read that the Han Emperors had red-headed men as their 'magic' men. (Whatever a 'magic' man is.)
Could be. I don't 'do' witches and such.
LOL! Unfortunately I can't find a good summary review online, though a friend of mine from the History Department at U-Kentucky has written one I have a hard copy of. To sum up, Ginzburg's basic argument--building on Mircea Eliade's studies of Siberian shamanism--is that certain motifs in medieval witchcraft can also be found in Siberian shamanism, with the most likely route of transmission being from the Scythians via the Celts and the cult of Diana in Roman-influenced Celtic areas.
I will add that I've read that the Han Emperors had red-headed men as their 'magic' men. (Whatever a 'magic' man is.)
I don't know much about Han practices, but I'll look it up. I do know there's a heavy streak of shamanic magic in both Tibetan Buddhism and Chinese Taoism which are often classified as akin to Siberian shamanism. There's some information on this in the above-referenced Mircea Eliade, Shamanism:
First published in 1951, Shamanism soon became the standard work in the study of this mysterious and fascinating phenomenon. Writing as the founder of the modern study of the history of religion, Romanian émigré--scholar Mircea Eliade (1907-1986) surveys the practice of Shamanism over two and a half millennia of human history, moving from the Shamanic traditions of Siberia and Central Asia--where Shamanism was first observed--to North and South America, Indonesia, Tibet, China, and beyond. In this authoritative survey, Eliade illuminates the magico-religious life of societies that give primacy of place to the figure of the Shaman--at once magician and medicine man, healer and miracle-doer, priest, mystic, and poet. Synthesizing the approaches of psychology, sociology, and ethnology, Shamanism will remain for years to come the reference book of choice for those intrigued by this practice.