Why does witchcraft continue to intrigue successive generations of Anthropologists - Essay Example

? INTRIGUES OF WITCHCRAFT TO ANTHROPOLOGISTS BY PRESENTED Intrigues of Witchcraft Introduction Scholars delved into analysis and in-depth examination of witchcraft practices in the late 19th century (Jackson, 1989, p. 105). Since then, the practice has continued to intrigue numerous scholars, in particular, anthropologists. Consequently, they have come up with numerous, imaginative interpretations and theories related to this practice. They have conducted numerous studies and largely described witchcraft as a psychosocial factor among that exists among societies such as American Indians, early modern Europeans and Africans. The findings have been applied to the study of witchcraft in practices in the earlier and in the contemporary societies. Remarkably, witchcraft plays a significant role in the society, as explained in numerous theories that have been developed by modern and earlier anthropologists. According to Detweiler (1975), numerous theories that have been established by different scholars generally demonstrate that witchcraft acts as a form of social control, serves as a way through which life misfortunes are explained and helps in releasing social tension. These three distinct functions are the reasons as to why witchcraft has intrigued anthropologists throughout since establishment of the discipline of anthropology. This paper looks at these functions of witchcraft in both the modern and in the early societies, as explained by various anthropologists. Discussion Anthropologists have learnt that witchcraft serves as a way of explaining the causes of life misfortunes. Human beings in all societies find explanations for all misfortunes that occur in their lives. In some societies, there are no rational explanations to some disturbing events, using conventional ways. There is high possibility for people in such societies to attribute these events to witchcraft practices. Their thoughts regarding the alternative causes of these events give them logical, coherent explanations which fully or partially satisfy their beliefs. This approach was developed by Evans-Pritchard in his study of Azande witchcraft. Azande is an ethnic group of people that live in Central Africa where they practice agriculture (Evans-Pritchard , 1937). They are famous for their witchcraft called mangu, which plays a significant role in shaping their understanding of the world and occurrences. They believe that some individuals are witches and posses the power of affecting others adversely. This power is believed to be inherited and acts at an unconscious level. The witch is believed to exercise this power physically without conscious intention and without speech or rite. The Azande people attribute most of the misfortunes that occur in their society to witchcraft. In case a misfortune is significant and leads to the suffering of a person, they look for a neighbour of the affected person who might be the source of unfortunate in order to find a resolution. In case they do not find out, they look for a ‘poison oracle’ in order to consults and determine the individual who might be the have caused the misfortune. The members of this society also consult the oracle before engaging in important ventures to determine whether misfortunes will occur. The poison oracle is a chicken which is fed with a particular quantity of poison known as benge. If the chicken or more than one chicken die, this is a sign of misfortune. After the aggressor or the witch is determined, he or she is approached by an intermediary and he or she responds by ‘blowing water’ over the dead chicken’s wing while asserting his or her good intentions towards the harmed person (Evans-Pritchard, 1937). Witchcraft appears in numerous aspects of the Azande and as Evans-Pritchard noted, it plays a role in determining their chances for luck or adversity. Generally, it plays a bog role in explaining particularity of events. Evans-Pritchard illustrates that when an experienced woodcarver splits wood perfectly during his work, the split is attributed to witchcraft, despite his knowledge and skills in woodwork (Evans-Pritchard, 1937, p. 67). When a rotten granary falls on a man who dies later, it is understood that the fall is caused by rottenness but the presence of the man next to the granary when it falls is believed to be caused by witchcraft. However, a misfortune is not attributed to witchcraft if it is found that it has resulted from immorality, taboo-breaking or other suspect or incompetent behaviour. A study conducted by Basso on Western Apache of American Southwest supported Evans-Pritchard’s argument. Witchcraft in this society provides reasons for sudden deaths or sicknesses that do not have a visible cause. Beidelman, another anthropologist, found that the Kuguru of East Africa believe that witches cause misfortunes such as sudden deaths, sicknesses, miscarriages, difficulties in child births, sterility, sicknesses in livestock and poultry, poor crops, lack f rains and bad luck in hunting (Detweiler, 1975). The Gisu of Uganda also attribute failures to witchcraft while the Gusii of Kenya perceive witchcraft as a perfect excuse for economic disasters and diseases. Marwick, in an ethnographic study of Cewa of Northern Rhodesia found that the members of this society blame witchcraft for more than half of the deaths that occur in this society (Detweiler, 1975). Therefore, witchcraft can serves as a good explanation for the undesirable events that occur within a society. It serves as a means to explain the causes of the unpleasant fortunes that lead to grief and anxiety and hence help people to cope with them the outcomes of the misfortunes. The findings by the various anthropologists help in understanding how people in earlier societies used to explain undesirable events in their lives. For instance, Thomas established that witchcraft was used as an explanation for undesirable occurrences such as poverty, death, military failure and sicknesses in the 16th and 17th centuries in England (Thomas, 1971). Witchcraft has also been found to be a check for antisocial behaviour (Detweiler, 1975). It has been established that people may strictly adhere to social norms due to fear of being accused of being a witch or due to fear of becoming a witch. The study conducted by Basso found that members of Western Apache avoid some things such as engaging in unsanctioned sexual liaisons, accumulations of wealth and hostility due to fear of being associated with witchcraft. Young people in this society give respect to and take care of elders for the same reason. Beidelman also found that young people of the Kuguru of East Africa seek approval for all important activities from their parents to avoid being accused of engaging in witchcraft. Fontaine arrived at similar conclusions during a study about the beliefs of the Gusii of Kenya. According to Fontain, an eccentric is perceived as a witch in the Gusii community and the fear of being branded as a witch forces individuals to conform to norms established in this community (Detweiler, 1975). Children are taught at an early age that people who fail to conform are stigmatized, an experience that is described as being dangerous. Every individual who achieves success in this society must make sure that he fulfils his obligations at family and societal levels and he interacts well with all people, lest he provokes jealousy or envy of others who might harm him using witchcraft or be suspected of using the influence of witchcraft to attain his position. Generally, the fear of witchcraft in the Gusii community serves as a warning to individuals to avoid engaging in improper behaviour. Beatie also found that witchcraft plays that same role in Bunyoro community. Kluckhohn found that fear of being branded a witch or becoming a witch among Navaho tends to enforce conformity to societal norms (Demos, 1969). Additionally, Crawford in an ethnographic study of societal beliefs in Rhodesia found that fear of being associated with witchcraft sanctions people from engaging in antisocial behaviour. According to him, this fear can be manipulated “in much the same manner as allegations of heresy in medieval Europe or Communism in modern America” (Crawford, 1968, 278). According to Macfarlae (1970), the fear of witches may also have played a great role in shaping social behaviour in the early modern England. During the Tudor and Stuart period, commercial and agricultural expansion, increase in prices and population pressures led to the breakdown of the traditions of charity and poor relief under the manorial system. However, Thomas explains that witchcraft helped to reinforce “the traditional obligations of charity and neighbourliness” (Macfarlae, 1970, 42),Though other forces worked towards weakening the system, fear of witchcraft deterred people against abandoning the old moral code established in this society. The code required all people to love their neighbours and to be generous to them. According to Thomas (1971), this model was also evident in New England where fear of witches served the purpose of deterring people from deviating from the requirements of moral code or from deviating from the set behavioural patterns. Midlefort examined the witch hunts that existed in South-western Germany in the 16th and 17th centuries and concluded that some witchcraft practices may have served the function of controlling eccentricity and deterring women from engaging in irresponsible acts. During that time, there was a shift in family patterns associated with a rise in the number of unmarried women in Germany. According to Midlefort, unmarried women were increasingly susceptible to charges of engaging in witchcraft. Therefore, witchcraft may have been used as a tool for controlling social behaviour in modern American Indian communities and African and in early modern Europe (Macfarlae, 1970). In the Salem case, Christians and other regions had a firm belief that the devil could actually give certain people called witches the power to harm others in return of their unending loyalties. To prevent such harm, a witchcraft are gripped the entire European region between 1300 and 1600 and as a cleansing by the society in which thousands of women were accused of being witches and were executed (Aune, 2003). Aune narrates, the Salem case was fascinating. In 1692 in Osborne a witch named Tituba a confessed she was a witch and narrated a harrowing tale of how the devil had visited her and bid her to serve him. Interestingly, the charges of Martha Coy in Salem, a loyal member of the mainstream church in Sarem village was fascinating as it revealed an important aspect of witchcraft; if a staunch Christian could be a witch, then any one could (Aune, 2003). The governor even went further to question the woman’s four year old daughter in disbelief, which opened the flood of more people being brought before the deputy governor and his assistants for questioning on witchcraft. The Salem case portrayed witchcraft as not only a social problem, but largely affected the political dynamics, and was held as a political problem. Witchcraft can function in the society as a mechanism for releasing frustrations, aggressive impulses and anxiety. According to Detweiler (1975), projective impulses of an individual’s aggressive impulses into witchcraft help in releasing mental stress. Witchcraft may also help in releasing tension that builds up in a community. In a society that is going through rapid change, accusations of witches help in offsetting conditions of disorganization and in bringing back equilibrium. According to Margaret Mead, human beings often project their fear onto agents when faced with a deep culture change, especially when course of change is not clear or is associated with some insecurity (Sperber, 1982). In addition, findings of the study conducted by Crawford in the modern Rhodesia indicated that witchcraft activities increase as the feeling of insecurity increases (Crawford, 1968, p. 278). This explains the fact that incidences of witchcraft activities and allegations in Africa increased in 1940s, stirred by the return of Africans who served in armed forces abroad and returned home with numerous ideas. Kluckhohn’s study supported this argument noting that United States’ forces had taken full control of Fort Summer in Navaho by 1875. The Navaho society was consequently destroyed by war and was undergoing through complete readjustment. Around then, cases of witchcraft suspicions, witchcraft trials and real witchcraft practice rose to maximum. Stewart (1973) also examined that there were increased incidences of witchcraft activities among Mohave Indians in 1859 following a defeat of their military by the US forces. Boss’s study of the Western Apache reaches the same conclusion arguing that witchcraft functions as a mechanism for releasing stress in the a society during periods of rapid and disruptive social change. Witchcraft has played an important role in restoring societal order, especially in the early and modern African and American Indian societies and also in the early modern European. The three major functions of witchcraft are that it serves as a way through which life misfortunes are explained, that witchcraft acts as a form of social control and helps in releasing social tension. These functions are evident in almost all societies in which witchcraft is practiced. As mentioned, witchcraft practices have a long history but in-depth examination of the practice by Anthropologists started in the late 19th century. The interest in studying witchcraft was largely triggered by its roles in the society. Remarkably, the interest did not end in the initial stages of the study of the issue. Rather, it has continued to catch the curiosity of the successive anthropologists, as examined in this paper. This is mainly due to the fact that witchcraft plays similar and very important role in the contemporary societies as it used to do in early societies. Importantly, it has continued to shape the way people interact with one another and has been used as a tool of controlling behaviours of individuals in societies. In most in which witchcraft is practiced, its role affects all, including the elite. The elements of witchcraft practice examined in the modern societies are useful to anthropologists in understanding earlier societies that used to practise it. List of References Aune, A.J., 2003, Witchcraft as Symbolic Action in Early Modern Europe and America, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, 6(4), 765-777. Crawford, 1968. Witchcraft and Sorcery in Rhodesia, London: Brill Archive. Demos., 1969, Underlying Themes in the Witchcraft of Seventeenth-Century New England, London: Routledge. Detweiler, R., 1975. Perspectives of Salem Witches, The History Teacher, 8(4) , 596 - 610 Evans-Pritchard 1937. The notion of witchcraft explains unfortunate events. In Witchcraft, oracles and magic among the Azande, Oxford university press Jackson, M., 1989. The Witch as category and as a person" & "The man who could turn into an elephant", in Paths toward a clearing. Bloomington: Indiana university press. Macfarlae, A., 1970. Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England: A Regional and Comparative Study , NY: New York Press Sperber, D. 1982. Apparently irrational beliefs", in On anthropological knowledge, Cambridge: CUP Stewart, K. M., 1973. Witchcraft Among the Mohave Indians, Ethnology, 12, 322- 323. Thomas, K., 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic, NY: Blackwell. Read More