Evans-Pritchard

General Introduction

The Azande

concepts of witchcraft & magic

Discovering a witch

Iwa

Benge

*Evans-Pritchard’s Study

“The problem before us is to analyse native ideas about magic and to find out what types of magic they regard with approbation and what types they regard with disapprobation; whether their opinions in this respect are clearly defined and held by all members of the community and backed by legal sanctions; and what are the distinguishing attributes by which we can class any type of magic as good or bad.” [309 (23)]

*Witchcraft and culture

Explains the inexplicable

Explains misfortune

Fact of nature, not supernatural

This study illuminated the logic of witchcraft beliefs

*Witchcraft and Society

“magic is not simply an individual psychological process but is a traditional complex of ideas, beliefs and rites which are handed down from one generation to another.” [309 (23)]

*Integral part of culture

“Against criticism that it would appear that the traditional social facts of magic were often at war with tradition and society itself, [Hubert & Mauss] replied by showing that not only was sorcery… beyond all doubt part and parcel of transmitted culture, but also that it was often not illicit, but rather a tool of government.”[309 (23)]

*Morality and magic

“Just as the good man is one who acts in accordance with the established principles of social behavior, whereas as bad man is one who flouts the accepted laws and customs of his country, so good magic acts in favor of, and black magic acts against, justice and order.” [310 (25)]

*Terminology-Witchcraft

Mangu (witchcraft): hereditary trait in the stomach of the witch. Magic performed without rite, ritual or material aids. (sometimes even unconsciously, proven only by oracles)

“We have never actually seen a mangu, but it has often been described to us as an oval, blackish swelling or sack which sometimes contains various small objects…it is situated somewhere in the upper abdomen near the bile tract.”

“we…think it is probably the gall-bladder ot eh stomach itself in certain digestive periods.” [313 (29)]

*Mangu

Physical trait

Hereditary, transmitted along the lines of sex

Consistent with generally spiritual account of reproduction:

Spirit of womb unites with spirit of sperm

*Witch Meetings

“Witches usually combine in their destructive activities and subsequent ghoulish feasts. They assist each other in crime and they arrange their various schemes in concert. They are believed to possess a special kind of ointment with which they rub their bodies and litle drums they beat to summon others to congress.” [314 (31)]

*Sorcery

Ngwa (medicine or magic): performance of magic with aid of rituals, and objects. Anyone can learn to perform it.

*Role of Witchcraft

Mangu is ubiquitous. It plays its part in every activity of Zande life…in domestic life of homesteads as well as in communal life of district and court; it is the essential theme of mental life, in which it forms the background of a vast panorama of magic; its influence is plainly stamped on law and morals; it is prominent in such different spheres as technology and language.” [315 (32)]

 

“If blight seizes the ground-nut crop it is mangu; if the bush is burnt vainly in pursuit of game, it is mangu; if women laboriously ladle out water from a pool and are rewarded by but a few small fish it is mangu;…if a wife shows herself unresponsive to her husband, it is mangu;… if, in fact, any failure or misfortune falls upon anyone at any time and in relation to any of the manifold activities of his life he believes that it is due to mangu. [315 (32)]

*Oracles

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