Magic and Rituals.....

The word magic in the eyes of anthropologists is used in reference to any action which people think can persuade or compel the supernatural to act in some particular or desired way. The application of magic in a society usually depend on how much people in society rely on pleading or trying to persuade the supernatural powers to act on their behalf, whether people in society believe that they can compel supernatural is also a point of consideration. Methods of persuading or compelling can be much different from society to society, for an example prayer is considered as asking while performing voodoo is presumably compelling. Practice and belief of magic may involve manipulation of supernatural for bringing good or evil for an individual or a community or a whole society.

Magical rituals have been observed in many societies to ensure good crops, for the replenishment of game, for the fertility of cattle or other domestic animals, for avoidance and possible cure of illness in humans. Special rituals are present to protect a group from invaders and other threats which the people of society are subjected too. These rituals are designed in welfare of society and there is a belief that if not practiced the society will face doom and destruction because it can make supernatural unhappier. These rituals persuade or compel supernatural to act on behalf of people practicing them. We often tend to associate magic with simpler and backward society but as much as 80,000 people in United States take magic as a serious issue. Magic is also seem to be employed in cure and the practitioners are called shaman or witch doctors, but the use of magic to bring about evil or harm has gained the more popularity and evoked most interest.

Sorcery and Witchcraft:

Both sorcery and witchcraft are termed as attempts to invoke the spirits and supernatural to bring harm for people. It is believed that sorcerers and witches can work harm on individual's behalf by performing characteristic rituals and practices. Although the words sorcery and witchcraft are often used interchangeably, but they are also distinguished quite often. Sorcery generally includes the use of materials, objects, medicines and other things to invoke supernatural harm or malevolence. Witchcraft is said to accomplish the same by the power of thoughts and emotions alone. Due to this reason witchcraft is often considered much dangerous than sorcery because it leaves no evidence behind, in fact evidence of witchcraft can never be found and hence the lack of visible evidence make accusation of witchcraft harder to prove and even harder to disprove. While sorcery can be caught quite easily as it leaves behind lot of traces in the form of material and objects.

Witchcraft was part of everyday living for Azande of Zaire, in central Africa. It was not used to explain events which were known such as carelessness or violation of a taboo, but it was used to explain other events which were unexplained. For say a man is gored by an animal. He must be bewitched because he was not been gored on several other animal hunts. Some of the pots of a skilled potter break, some of the bowls of a skilled carver cracked. There must be some witchcraft as other pots and bowls were also treated the same way but they did not break. Many such events which do not possess a specific confirmed answer are explained by witchcraft. May be this is only the belief of people and following events has nothing to do with witchcraft but at-least the concept of witchcraft is providing an answer to the unexplained questions.

The craze of witches in Europe in sixteenth and seventeenth century and the trial of witches in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, remind us that fear of people can increase or decrease in a society within a very short period of time. Scholars have often tried to explain these witch hunts, most say one factor is political turmoil. Which give rise to widespread distrust and anxiety in the minds of people. In the case of Europe during sixteenth and seventeenth century there was a political disturbance as small regional political units were being incorporated into national states and political allegiances were in flux. The commercial revolution and other related changes were creating a new social class namely 'the middle class'. In the case of Salem the government of Massachusetts colony was unstable and there were much internal problems. In the year 1692 which is termed as year of witchcraft hysteria, Massachusetts was left without an English governor, and subsequently judicial practices broke down. These conditions saw accusation of single person for witchcraft and which eventually become accusation of hundreds and execution of twenty people. Undermining of legitimate political and judicial procedures has generated a widespread fear of witches.

It is much possible that witch epidemics which were responsible for accusation and execution of people as witches were real epidemics and has nothing to do with witchcraft. The disease found in Salem as well as in other European communities is a fungus disease called ergot, which generally grow on rye plant. The rye flour is then used to prepare bread that people of Salem ate may have been contaminated by ergot. It is now known and generally expected that people who eat grain products contaminated by ergot suffer convulsions, hallucinations and other symptoms such as something is crawling on skin. Ergot contains LSD, the drug responsible for hallucinations and other type of delusions that resemble with some severe mental illness. The victims of bewitchment in Salem have symptoms similar to ergot poisoning today. So, it can be assumed that the accusations were false and there was no point of executions in the name of witchcraft and all happened due to lack of knowledge.

Whether or not epidemics of witchcraft hysteria were due to ergot poisoning or due to political turmoil or both, but still in the ethnographic record people believe in sorcery and witchcraft in the first place and no matter what evidence we put forward they always tend to keep their belief. But we need to understand why so many societies believe that they can invoke or influence supernatural powers to work harm or good for people. Out of many one possible explanation could be that the lack of procedures and judicial authorities to deal with offence and crime may give rise to general believe of sorcerers and witches. All society needs a mechanism of social control which deters the would-be offenders and criminals. In the absence of such system sorcery may be a very effective way of social control that is if you are responsible for harm of anyone the person you mistreated or caused harm will practice sorcery against you and due to result of that you could become ill or even die. Some believe a little and some believe more in idea of magic but in a cross cultural research it has been clear that every society has a belief in some kind of magic. We will discuss about  different magic practitioners in my next post till then enjoy reading some cross cultural believes about magic i hope i have made myself clear.............................................................Tarun Joshi