In The Thinking Peasant, Larner focuses on relativism and its complex relation to ethnocentrism. In particular, she demonstrates that in many ways the two concepts are mutually opposed. Through a detailed investigation of witchcraft, she examines the problem of ethnocentrism and its relation to societies that are distant in terms either of time or of place. She examines the belief structure of pre-industrial Europe and discusses the problem of relativism in relation to pre-industrial beliefs.

KEY WORDS: Witchcraft, Relativism, Ethnocentrism, Alien belief-systems, Witch-hunting, Pre-industrial, Societies, Christianity, Religious observance, Blasphemy, Peasantry, Witchcraft control, Law and order crisis, Disease, Healing beliefs, Healers