religion, magic, and witchcraft - part 2

week 8-12

witchcraft is a type of magic with lots of

social ramification

• lots of stereotypes

• becoming more and more popular, though, now

witch - definition

people suspected of practicing social prohibited forms of magic, either deliberately or unconsciously

• they are usually scapegoats (blamed for lots), members if persecuted groups, and reflect social tensions

a witch can also be a substance, or something within a persons body

allegations of witchcraft

erupt in ‘waves’ in response to social tensions

• for ex, in a time of migration + the arrival of HIV, witches were blamed

sorcerer - definition

someone who actively seeks to harness supernatural power to affect others or control conditions

• can be positive or negative

• is a pragmatic, conscious practicing involving acts of magic that lead to person power

the use of magic is very purposeful to increase personal power

divination

the use of magic in the supernatural realm to understand the future or about things that may be hidden

• wanting to know about the unknown through oracles, looking at signs, or the use of religious specialists who deploy certain agents

  • using DNA is a form of divination, since you are using signs to understand the future (usually health related)

what do witches, sorcerers, and divination have in common?

magic

magic is the

‘work’ that witches do, the ‘power’ that oracles utilize to divine the future, and what sorcerers use

what is magic?

an idea/belief that the relationship between an act and its effect rests on a mystical connection (rather than an empirical or scientific one)

• manifests in texts, spells, acts, rituals, and objects

problematic anthropological history of magic - Stanley Tambiah

understanding of magic was tide into trying to figure our what religion is, which lead to magic and religion being seen as a separate dichotomy

• Protestantism argued for the importance of ‘thinking’ about God, rather than ecstatic experience

• influenced thinking about religious as faith/belief (rather than religion as practice, altered states, rituals, or magic)

very Eurocentric way to look at magic!

Edward Taylor - what magic, religion, and science have in common

they are explanations of the world and the events in it

• but did have opinions on which was more or less primitive

James Frazer - what is magic?

an attempt to compel supernatural forces or beings to act in certain ways

• he believes that religion, on the other hand, is an attempt to please these beings

suggests that a core concept is the idea of sympathy - like produces like

what does Frazer mean by “like produces like”?

items (like) associated with or symbolic of the intended victim an identify them (like) and carry out the spell

1. The Law of Similarity

2. The Law of Contagion

the law of similarity

imitative magic: if thing X is like thing Y, whatever is done to X will happen to Y

• consider voodoo dolls

the law of contagion

contagious magic: things once in contact with something else/a person can still have an effect on that thing/person

• if a paper falls out of a book, we can do a spell on that paper to impact the whole book

• polyjuice potion: we use somebodies hair to look like their entire body

how evolution relates to early division of magic and religion

magic was seen as the most primitive, followed by religion, and then science as the most rational/developed system of explanation

• magic seen as ‘faulty’, ‘defective technology’, or merely ‘psychological’

  • significantly correlates with colonization

magical thinking - a psychological category

where we perceive that we can change events by thinking about them

• typical of young children (bc they’re not developed) but seen as problematic in adults (bc it isn’t a ‘rational’ way to look at the world

• North American views of magic consider it to be superstition or belief in supernatural

thinking of magic as faulty - impacting anthropology

religion was distanced from magic, they reglegated magic to:

• the past

• ‘primitives’ that are ‘pre-rational’ (non Westerners)

• women

all belief in magic (and ASC) were seen as irrational, and all results seen as psychological

Tylor’s explanation for why magic is still widely practiced, even though its ‘false’

assigns it to psychological effects

• legacy relevant to today - some still assume magic works as a psychodrama, placebo effect, or a self-fulfilling prophecy

  • BUT, this does not account for its potency, realness, and consequences

  • we need to consider how it feels real for people

  • seeing science as the only rational way to think perpetuates colonialism and patriarchy

how contemporary anthropologists consider magic

use the word magic to refer to practical, conscious actions intended to effect supernatural change

• look at local usage and cultural applications to see how magic/religion is understood (looking at the particular)

an example of looking at the particular in magic

witchcraft!

Eurocentric views of witchcraft

communicate values, typically about greed, s3xuality, and a nightmare of witches prowling around at night

• often directed at women, especially the excesses of woman

• associated with anti-social and deviant behaviour

what anthropologists look at

how is anti-sociality deployed? (when are people labelled a witch?)

why would ‘rational’ people develop an interest in practicing magic or witchcraft?

how does witchcraft and sorcery work to police behaviour and reinforce social values? (ppl get killed when accused!)

how does it explain misfortune and illness, and what are the consequences for those that are accused

similarities between witches and poor neighbours - Pamela Moro

same qualities: being unsocial, isolated, stingy, unfriendly, and moroseness, etc.

• people in social marginal positions are vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft

witchcraft and sorcery - power

we can ask under which circumstances power is wielded and when a behaviour becomes deviant - who, what, and when does it become anti-social, and what is done about it?

by what authority do we determine behaviour to be deviant and power-to-be-wielded problematically?

• accusations of witchcraft tell us about these things!

• before, this has largely been determined by the Catholic/Protestant church

shifts correlated with increase in accusations of witchcraft

in sub-Saharan Africa, shifts in globalization, economic, and political shifts (and the social shifts that come with those)

• new corporations come in, lots of moving for work, new dynamics in families, certain ppl did rly well while others failed, so people start asking why?

• then, HIV/AIDS came in; another misfortune they want to blame on something/someone

HIV and witchcraft

HIV - understood to be self inflicted thru immoral behaviour

witchcraft - beyond the individuals control, a product of malicious human action, blame is externalized

• so, more socially acceptable as an illness narrative

  • but, households afflicted by the illness may become socially isolated and lose support, leading to L economic situations

using witchcraft to explain misfortune/illness

can have devastating implications

• using witchcraft to blame economic shifts that favour some over others + upsurge in illness/death

• we blame witches in manifestations of uncertainty, moral disquiet, and unequal rewards in contemporary moments

why are so many people into astrology now?

we are in a period of tremendous social change

• social tension + COVID

• so, we are drawing on magic

Ajala & Ediomo-Ubong - reading intro

Ibibio (people of South Nigeria) - belief in witchcraft is extremely influential

• believe they have power to determine or alter another person’s life

• accusations toward older women, unkind/unfriendly/social distant people, and more recently children

those accused are despised, excluded, and ignored

Ajala & Ediomo-Ubong - witchcraft and health seeking beh

many reject modern medical services and prefer traditional healers/faith-based healing

• these alternatives are thought to counteract the power of witches

BUT: but increases morbidity and mortality

Ajala & Ediomo-Ubong - witchcraft among the Azande

witches associated with misfortune, jealously, and rivalry

• witchcraft beliefs often create social tension and conflict

Ajala & Ediomo-Ubong - witchcraft among Nupe and Gwari

witches as evil, capable of destroying life mysteriously, consume souls of others

Ajala & Ediomo-Ubong - social threats

some define witchcraft as harm caused thru supernatural powers

• seen as a threat to the community

• represents hostility

Ajala & Ediomo-Ubong - 2 roles in witchcraft beliefs

1. those who perceive hostility - individuals who believe someone is harming them through witchcraft

2. those accused of causing hostility - believed to possess supernatural harmful powers

Ajala & Ediomo-Ubong - fear of witchcraft accusations can

reduce social tension in certain relationships

• can regulate conflict

• esp since most accusations are of people close to them

Ajala & Ediomo-Ubong - Ibibio and Azande

shared beliefs - witchcraft is not based on rituals, spells or magical medicines. it is considered a psychic or supernatural act

• used to believe it was an inherent quality, now Ibibio belief suggests the powers are acquired from an existing witch

Ajala & Ediomo-Ubong - witchcraft substance

ibibio believe in a physical substance located in the stomach

• can force the witch to vomit it out

• may not be visible unless supernatural powers are used

Tiv believe is tsav, which grows in the heart and looks like a liver. can be good or bad

Ajala & Ediomo-Ubong - harm from witches

agricultural, disease spread, and physical attacks

Ajala & Ediomo-Ubong - nighttime

Ibibio believe witches gather at night in groups

Ajala & Ediomo-Ubong - 2 meanings of witchcraft

1. behavioural meaning → someone who behaves abnormally or antisocially, deviance

2. someone who confesses to practicing magic or is identified by trad doctors, spiritualists, or other witches

Ajala & Ediomo-Ubong - 2 types of witches

1. black witchcraft - evil

2. white witchcraft - non-harmful

Ajala & Ediomo-Ubong - healthcare in Ibibio

traditional medicine widely used, combines medical knowledge + spiritual beliefs + social relationships

• act as mediators between witches and patients

Witches of Gambaga - film overview

women who are accused of witchcraft are often beat (attempted to be killed) or exiled

• Gambaga has a place for runaway witches, but they must work for the chief

• need lots of money to leave

• must be proven to not be a witch before they can leave

  • guilt determined by chicken

neo-paganism

a new-ish religious movement, but often not considered religious (a broad term for polytheistic, nature-based spiritual traditions)

• issue with definitions

sexuality in witches

either extreme - use sex to manipulate or are too ugly for sex

gender and witches

the term ‘witch’ was used in a derogatory way for the excesses of women (what ppl think they are doing too much of) or for them breaking social norms

• in the actual practice of neo-paganism is feminism and equality!

1960s and witches

• we know religion can be a force for change (new religious movements) or to conserve (fundamentalism)

in response to the rise of new religious movements, the anti-cult movement pushed back + the rise of the American fundamentalist Christian movement

• they meshed AFM movement with politics to push back against these new movements

• truing to keep patriarchal traditions, very b/w way to look at religion (we are right, they are wrong)

moral panic in 1970s

turned into a moral panic of satanic cults and satanic ritual abuse

• films were released about possession

• got people wrapped up with ideas of cults, and that all cults are satanic

  • huge pop-culture change

michelle remembers - book from 1980s

work of a woman and a psychiatrist who uncovered repressed memories of satanic ritual abuse

• media frenzy spurred fears about children at school being forced to engage in ritual beh of a devious nature

• blamed on games (dungeons and dragons) and heavy metal music LMAO

created fears that satan can repress memories

what was a result of this moral panic?

new mix of right-wing Christianity, psychiatry, social work, and law enforcement

• new diagnosis of multiple personality disorder (aka dissociative identity disorder) lead to possibility of possession!!

• witchcraft and neo-paganism was also lumped in with this!

Interview with Sabina Magliocco - overview

a cultural anthropologist and folklorist

• know for research on modern Pagan and witchcraft communities

Interview with Sabina Magliocco - her book: Witching Culture

examines modern Paganism in North American

• emphasizes personal spiritual experience rather than strict doctrinal belief

• one of the fastest growing religious movements in North America

Interview with Sabina Magliocco - characteristics of neo-paganism

Focus on nature spirituality.

Celebrates seasonal festivals.

Rituals involve creativity, symbolism, and community participation.

Spirituality is often experiential rather than dogmatic.

Interview with Sabina Magliocco - folklore

neo-paganism is largely influenced by folklore and historical scholarship

Interview with Sabina Magliocco - folklore is not ____, but instead

static

continuously evolving and being adapted

Interview with Sabina Magliocco - rituals in paganism

highly artistic and participatory

• combine elements from ancient mythology, folk tradition, and personal creativity

Interview with Sabina Magliocco - purpose of ritual

1. Creates a sense of community

2. Transforms ordinary consciousness

3. Encourages spiritual experience

4. Connects participants with nature and the divine

Interview with Sabina Magliocco - important tool in rituals

music

Interview with Sabina Magliocco - festivals

many pagan traditions celebrate the wheel of the year, with 8 festivals

• they emphasize connection with seasons, celebration of agricultural rhythms, and community gatherings

Interview with Sabina Magliocco - brigid

a Celtic goddess

• eventually incorporated into Christianity (common pattern)

she has her own festival, she is a symbol of creative inspiration and associated with renewal and transformation

pagans celebrate the

divine feminine

Interview with Sabina Magliocco - magic

viewed as symbolic thinking, emotional engagement, psychological transformation

• not always viewed as supernatural power

Interview with Tanya Luhrmann - overview

psychological anthro who studies how culture shapes subjective experiences

• how do ordinary people come to experience invisible beings as real?

• how do cultural practices shape perception and interpretation of inner experiences?

  • studied modern witches, psychiatrists, and Evangelical Christians

Interview with Tanya Luhrmann - witchcraft: training

modern magic required training the imagination, including

• visualization

• meditation

• rituals

• symbolic actions

goal is to learn to experience magic as real

• belief often comes after practice not before

Interview with Tanya Luhrmann - witchcraft: process of magical training

1. Practice rituals.

2. Experiences become vivid.

3. Person begins to believe experiences are real.

Interview with Tanya Luhrmann - witchcraft: imagination can become ___ real

perceptually

• so, they train the mind to pay attention to internal experiences and treat imagination as meaningful

Interview with Tanya Luhrmann - psychiatry: interpretation

experiences such as hearing voices are symptoms of illness

• models are culturally shaped (Western/Eurocentric)

Interview with Tanya Luhrmann - Christians: God

describe talking with, hearing, and feeling the presence of God

training includes:

1. prayer

2. worship

3. meditation on scripture

4. journaling convos with God

with repetition, believers become better at perceiving God’s presence

Interview with Tanya Luhrmann - so, why do people experience invisible as real?

they learn it, they are taught it through their culture

• all depends on interpretation

Coven - overview

4 individual women who practice modern witchcraft

• we see them try out different covens

• we see them look into their family history to learn more about the type of witchcraft in their bloodline

  • lots of discussion about past lives

anthropologists and death

started to notice that people were doing something with death (specific rituals around death were seen)

• the idea that something happens after death is common

how people conceive of the dead/how we feel about death in general shapes

how the living interact with them

spirits, ghosts, and ancestors

all given special and unique status in the afterlife, and have diff effects on the living

• the ancestral world (in many cases) is an extension/model of the real world

• our ancestors are thought to act like people in this world

2 major attitudes shape the interaction between the living and the dead

1. that the dead have left the society and are separated from the living

2. the dead remain active members of society (just in a different role)

cult of the dead

in societies where dead are separated from the living

• return of the dead is undesirable, could result in disruption of social order and routine of life

• based on a fear of the dead

• function of beliefs and practices → aid in overcoming the grief the survivors feel for the dead

  • separation is awful, sad, and very strong

  • most rituals work to keep living and dead separte

ancestor cults

in societies where the dead are active and ongoing members

• the living are concerned with the welfare of their ancestors

• funeral ceremonies undertaken to ensure smooth transition for the ancestor, focusing on them retuning to society in a new status

  • ancestors play a positive role to the group

  • rituals, customs, and rites ensure the comfort of the dead person in the after life

rituals in ancestor cults

mostly about keeping the dead comfortable and making the transition to the afterlife properly, needs to be done in this life

• reinforces society’s customs through expression of unity and ensuring that the participants will get the same treatment in their deaths

protection in ancestor cults

participation and accuracy in performing rites ensures protection against misfortune thru supernatural punishment

• ghosts understood to fulfill this role; considered to be dead people with unfinished business with the living (have human motivations)

• they haunt people - tells us about ourselves and what we will do to avoid this

western funerals

often very sad

• dead is separate from us, buried

• after death they are taken to morgue or cremated

our reactions to dead bodies tell us about our experiences and ideas about death → a clear separation between the living and the dead

berawan funerals

goal → keep a close eye on the decaying body

1. first stage: rites performed immediately for 2-10 days, corpse placed in large jar/coffin

2. second stage: corpse is stored in longhouse/platform in graveyard for 8 months (very visible)

3. third stage: corpse moved to longhouse for 6-10 days, family entertains guests, bones removed and cleaned

4. fourth stage: remains/bones moved to mausoleum

berawan funerals - implication

funeral rites make sense with mourning practices, related rituals, myths, and beliefs

• believe soul is separated from body at death, and can’t reanimate the decaying corpse, but also can’t enter the land of the dead until its a perfect spirit

• journey of spirit mirrors the decaying corpse, only when the body is gone can the spirit move on

  • tremendous fear that a non-human spirit will reanimate the corpse, creating an unkillable spirit - so, we protect it and keep an eye on it!

Peter Metcalf - others as ‘exotic’

as we learn to think of other people’s ways as natural, we simultaneously begin to see our own as strange

• Berawan were unnerved by American burial practices, and were disgusted by the embalming (to delay decomposition) and putting in a coffin (all alone in the cold)

cannibals as monsters

made into monsters in our culture, French Colonialists used the word Zombie to perpetuate racism and colonialism

• used it to justify assert superiority of their group over native Haitians

zombies

an ‘other’, based on our collective fears abt the relationship between the living and the dead: they look like our loved ones but are soulless

• cannot act rationally, cannot be reasoned with, act as non-persons, and we ALL have the potential to be monsters

  • apart of the view that the dead should not come back in this realm

  • apart of the view that the person-hood is in the brain, explaining why they say Zombies eat brains and have no brains

Wari’ cannibalism - Beth Conklin

wrote an ethnography about the practice of mortuary cannibalism by the Wari’

• argues for the necessity in understanding the practice of cannibalism as embedded within wider cultural frameworks, rather than as a singular facet of a ‘primitive’ or ‘savage’ tribe

  • prejudice views label these people as monsters for eating flesh

theories of cannibalism

often laced with a sense of deviance:

• people eat others to either incorporate some aspect of the other/gain power from/over them

Conklin says, though, the Wari’ practice of eating dead relatives is situated in notions of kinship, identity, the body, and cosmology

• eating the corpse is a sense of transformation in the face of death and the families bereavement

Wari’ - cultural view of the body

they see the body as a significant symbolic and physical site of social interaction and relationship

• believe we relate to people thru their physical beings

• understandings of Wari’ identity say a person is created by bodily processes and fluids thru their stages of growth and development

Wari’ - understanding of spiritual realm (white-lipped peccaries)

humans and animals understood to have predatory-prey relationships MIRRORED in the relationship between the dead and the living

• certain prey animals (white-lipped peccaries) are seen as appropriately edible, based on spiritual characteristics

  • they are believed to be provided as ancestors, offering themselves as food to support the community

• when individuals die, they are incorporated into the realm of ancestors, whose spirits become embodied in the white-lipped peccary, who then offer themselves as food

a TRANSFORMATION

what does consuming the body do for transformation?

a loved one becomes transformed from a living person to an ancestor through eating the body

• since the physical body is so central to the Wari’ identity, it is transformed thru dismemberment, roasting, and consumption

• eating transforms grief and separates the living from the dead

  • the body is the connection, so eating them = consuming their grief

but now…

it illegal to eat people, so they have been forced to stop their traditions

• can have significant implications on wellbeing and burial feelings

day of the dead

people visit cemeteries to clean, repaint, and decorate graves

altars in homes prepared with offerings of food, drink, candles, and flowers (things the deceased would like!)

• veil between the living and the dead is very thing

• death is not feared - death imagery is common in stores, parties, offices, etc.

day of the dead - consuming items from altars

• the living puts out the best of everything on the alters

• the living eats it and the dead consumes the essence (flavour and scent)

  • they belong to the same realm; they are sharing food

• we know the dead has visited if smell and taste disappear, strange noises, food rolling, liquid level lowering, etc.

day of the dead - relationships

relationships between the living and the dead are expressed at an individual and community level

• the living welcome, feed the dead, carry out their obligations

if you don’t treat the dead well, something bad can happen to you or ur community

• so, u are honoring yourself, the dead, and your community

day of the dead - death and life

life - a journey involving struggle, hard work, but redemption

death - a step in the journey toward eternal life, not a tragedy since it leads to a better life

• familiar, natural, inevitable

• awareness of death + closeness to the dead = greater appreciation for life

archaeology of death

we noticed a change, there was a new pattern showing that people were making meaning out of death

• people were being buried with objects, indicating a belief that they would need them

one of the functions of religion

to deal with uncertainty and unknowability that is the human condition

• how we understand the nature of death, ancestors, souls, and ghosts tells us about the supernatural part of us (like a soul) and its relationship to the living body

• attempts to deal w uncertainty abt this relationship form the basis of ritual action, beliefs, and worldview

  • bread and butter of anthro of religion

  • our end of life rituals inform us abt the relationship between our physical body and soul, for ex

death - in general

a fundamental human experience, but the ways of understanding it are elaborated by the ways we treat the dead and postulate their continuance

anthropology of death looks at

variation in how the living and the dead interact with one another, how desired this interaction is, the kinds of deaths that occur (and their responses), and the disposal of bodies

• how do our actions in this life determine life after death?

early days of anthro of death

strong interest in uncommon forms of death, but overall tendency to look for universal features in responses to death

• resulted in huge comparative efforts

• now, we focus on more sophisticated ethnographies on the particulars of death (looking at death within a culture, not simply searching for universals)

much work on the anthro of death is centered on

life!

• we look at death as a disturbance of the social order/body, and a break in social and family networks

• how grief and mourning function in society

• the variety of mortuary rituals and how they work

  • such as rites of passage (as most funeral rites are these)