As a book reviewer has put it in this book paradoxically older womens vulnerabil

As a book reviewer has put it in this book paradoxically older womens vulnerability to accusation stems not so much from powerlessness as from access to social and economic power in a male-dominated society in which mens status is eroding and their control over households is dissolving in the context of mass unemployment. Loss of male opportunity and broken families contribute to pervasive insecurity both spiritual and economic. Ashforth theorizes that changes in kinship and hence in the possibility of traditional protective ancestral ritual practices have accentuated the witchcraft problem a problem that local government and national polices have failed to properly acknowledge.