Naked wizards (warlocks, shamans): the role of the open body in magical usage

The article considers the problems of perception and the functions of an open body in magical practice. The author reveals that the exposure became a prerequisite for contacts with supernatural creatures, obtaining comprehensive support from them, magical power, material wellbeing. The most typical situations, in which public exposure was carried out in order to commit witchcraft, are reduced to harming the neighbours and transferring the results of rural labour to their farm with the help of witchcraft. The magical practices of the Siberian peoples often suggested exposure with the aim of contacting the world of spirits. The Christianized consciousness abandoned the positive assessments of exposure and began to regard nudity as a means for contact with the devil.