How can the Azande witchcraft practice be understood in the light of epistemological relativism and rationalism?
In his excellent work, Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande, the anthropologist E.E. Evans-Pritchard portrays the convictions and practices of the African tribe, the Azande. As indicated by Azande conviction, different adversities experienced in day by day life may be credited to the activity of witches. Somebody may fall sick, harvests may come up short or a cottage may burst into flames. Such occasions may be because of the enchantment of a witch who lives close by. Azande witchcraft includes no ceremonies, spells or meds. Evans-Pritchard depicts it is a psychic demonstration whereby "the spirit of witchcraft" leaves
…show more content…
One of these, which Evans-Pritchard calls the "toxic substance prophet", is utilized to answer an exceptionally expansive scope of inquiries (1976: 122). The toxin prophet is the favored path for the Azande to figure out if a specific disaster is because of the activity of a witch. In the toxic substance prophet, a harmful substance known as benge is directed to a chicken (1976: 134-8). A progression of inquiries is postured. The chicken is either unaffected by the toxin or, all the more every now and again, has brutal fits. At times the chicken kicks the bucket. Be that as it may, generally as frequently it survives. The way in which the chicken responds to the toxic substance is translated as showing the vicinity or nonattendance of witchcraft. In specific circumstances, for instance if a legitimate matter is in question, toxic substance is regulated to …show more content…
The prophet serves as an epistemic standard which works in Azande society as the premise for convictions about witchcraft. I will utilize the Azande poison prophet as a case of an option epistemic standard, which may be engaged in backing of epistemological relativism. The contention I will present utilizes the old doubtful issue of the paradigm as the premise for the case of
The book begins with a brief history of the colonial witchcraft. Each Chapter is structured with an orientation, presentation of evidence, and her conclusion. A good example of her structure is in chapter two on the demographics of witchcraft; here she summarizes the importance of age and marital status in witchcraft accusations. Following this she provides a good transition into chapter three in the final sentence of chapter two, “A closer look of the material conditions and behavior of acc...
Witchcraft had always fascinated many people and been a very controversial topic in North America during (seventeenth) 17th century. Many People believe that witchcraft implies the ability to injure or using supernatural power to harm others. People believed that a witch represents dark side of female present and were more likely to embrace witchcraft than men. There are still real witches among us in the Utah whom believe that witchcraft is the oldest religion dealing with the occult. However the popular conception of a witch has not changed at least since the seventeenth century; they still caused panic, fear and variety of other emotions in people…………………….
In all of human history, people have written about inhuman beings, many of which include gods, demons, wizards, sorcerers, sorceresses, and witches. Nowadays mystical beings are seen everywhere in media. Most of society stopped believing in these creatures years ago, but for 17th-century Salem, witchcraft became a living nightmare (Fremon, 1999).
In the Malleus Maleficarum, Sprenger and Kramer’s basic argument about the origins of witchcraft is that witchcraft is found chiefly in women due to several reasons that focus on characteristics of women. Sprenger and Kramer argue that witchcraft in women is more probable because women were very naïve and impressionable, carnal lust is never satisfied in women, and they are of lower intelligence and weaker memories than men.
The thought of magic, witches, and sorcery to be fact is seen as preposterous in modern America. Coincidence is accepted as such and accusations of possession and bewitchment is extinct. When North America was first colonized by Europeans, however, the fear of magic and the like was all too real. Alison Games’s “Witchcraft in Early North America” describes the effects of the Europeans’ on the Native Americans and vice versa. As decades progressed, the ideas on witchcraft of the Spanish and British changed as well. “Witchcraft in Early North America” introduces different beliefs and practices of witchcraft of Europeans before colonization, Native Americans after colonization, the Spanish of New Mexico, and the British Colonies.
1 Nachman Ben-Yehuda The European Witch Craze of the 14th to 17th Centuries: A Sociologist’s Perspective. The University of Chicago, 1980. 15. 2 Levack! 123.3 Levack 164.
In this essay I will discuss the role of gender in witchcraft and why the majority of people executed as witches were women. There have been various explanations by different historians for why the majority of witches accused were women. One of the first models concerning Witchcraft and gender to be produced was the ‘Witch-cult‘ idea. This theory was devised by Margaret Murray in the early 20th century and revolved around the idea of Witchcraft being an actual pre-Christian religion. This pagan woman-based religion centred around ‘The Horned God’ who from the Christian point of view was Satan.
Witchcraft is said to be the most widespread cultural phenomenon in existence today and throughout history. Even those who shun the ideas of witchcraft cannot discount the similarities in stories from all corners of the globe. Witchcraft and its ideas have spread across racial, religious, and language barriers from Asia to Africa to America. Primitive people from different areas in the world have shockingly similar accounts of witchcraft occurrences. In most cases the strange parallels cannot be explained and one is only left to assume that the tales hold some truth. Anthropologists say that many common elements about witchcraft are shared by different cultures in the world. Among these common elements are the physical characteristics and the activities of supposed witches. I will go on to highlight some of the witch characteristic parallels found in printed accounts from different parts of the world and their comparisons to some famous fairytales.
Sidky, H. Witchcraft, lycanthropy, drugs, and disease: an anthropological study of the European witch-hunts. New York: Peter Lang Publishing Inc., 1997.
Witchcraft, Magic and Rationality. Social Anthropology seeks to gauge an understanding of cultures and practices, whether they are foreign or native. This is achieved through the study of language, education, customs, marriage, kinship, hierarchy and of course belief and value systems. Rationality is a key concept in this process as it affects the anthropologist’s interpretation of the studied group’s way of life: what s/he deems as rational or plausible practice. Witchcraft and magic pose problems for many anthropologists, as its supernatural nature is perhaps conflicting to the common Western notions of rationality, mainly deemed superior.
Witchcraft persecution peaked in intensity between 1560 and 1630 however the large scale witch hysteria began in the 14th century, at the end of the Middle Ages and were most intense during the Renaissance and continued until the 18th century, an era often referred to as the Enlightenment or Age of Reason. Representation of witches, nay, representation in general is a political issue. Without the power ot define the female voice and participate in decisions that affect women -similar to other marginalised groups in society- will be subject to the definitions and decisions of those in power. In this context, the power base lay with men. It can be said that the oppression of women may not have been deliberate, it is merely a common sense approach to the natural order of things: women have babies, women are weak, women are dispensable. However the natural order of things, the social constructs reflect the enduring success of patriarchal ideology. As such, ideology is a powerful source of inequality as well as a rationalisation of it. This essay will examine the nature of witchcraft and why it was threatening to Christianity.
In order to understand how labor is invoked in film, it is imperative to provide context to how labor influenced the culture around filmmaking. Labor in itself refers to the act of work, especially hard physical work. There is a high propensity for labor to be exploited due to varying external factors like financial crises and Hollywood is no exception. With the onset of unionization, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences created by Louis B Meyer, which eventually gave way to the formation of guilds for actors writers and directors to protect them. With a granting of the right to unionize, Hollywood itself was going through the need to protect labor.
I. INTRODUCTION The Enlightenment and the emerging of modern rationalism have paved the way to a worldview where the suspicion of witchcraft is not needed to explain the mysterious phenomena of this world. This is not the case in Africa. The belief in the existence of witches, evil persons who are able to harm others by using mystical powers, is part of the common cultural knowledge. Samuel Waje Kunhiyop states, “Almost all African societies believe in witchcraft in one form or another.
III. Smithson, Jayne. “Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion.” Class lectures. Anthropology 120. Diablo Valley College, San Ramon 2004.