Witchcraft (or witchery) is the practice of magical skills, spells, and abilities. Witchcraft is a broad term that varies culturally and societally, and thus can be difficult to define with precision. Historically, the term was commonly associated with those who use supernatural means to cause harm to the innocent; this connotation remains in many traditional cultures worldwide, notably those of Asia, Latin America, Africa, the African diaspora, and indigenous communities in the Americas. In
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places such as the Philippines, witches are viewed as those opposed to the sacred indigenous religions. In contrast, anthropologists writing about healers in indigenous communities either use the traditional terminology of these cultures, or broad anthropological terms like "shaman". In the modern era, some use "witch" to refer to benign, positive, or neutral practices of modern paganism, such as divination or spellcraft, but this is primarily a modern, western, popular culture phenomenon. Belief in witchcraft is often present within societies and groups whose cultural framework includes a magical world view.
