Magic and witchcraft essays

Magic and witchcraft essays Beliefs in magic and witchcraft are both rational and have a social function in the social context in which they occur: discuss in relation to ethnography. Understanding the social function in the social context of magic and witchcraft, depended upon an understanding the meaning of magic and witchcraft. A well known British anthropologist Edward Evans- Pritchard, have study a group of African people call Azande, a tribe of Southern Sudan. According to his theory witchcraft and magic have different connotation in Zande culture and they have been distinguished. The word mangu is translated as witchcraft and in certain respect witchcraft and sorcery are similar. Both have common function, but their techniques are different. Witchcraft was said to be a psychic power which often inherited, it can be activated if the owner became angry or jealous, and this power are normally unconscious as well as limited to those with the substance in their body. Sorcery is skill which can be learnt by anyone and can be passed on through study. This skill also knows as black magic which can be defines as evil use of medicines. Both are used for pernicious private ends against the lives and property of law-abiding citizens. The word ngwa is translated as magic. Zande magic comprise the common characteristic of magic the world over, rite, spell, idea, tradition, and moral opinion associated with its use, taboo and other conditions of the magician and the rite (Evans-Pritchard, E., Witchcraft among the Azande, in Marwick M (ed) Witchcraft and Sorcery, 1970, Penguin.). In the same way as Zande social grouping, witches have their hierarchy, status and leadership. They gain experience by the tuition of elder witches. Generally specking, the older a man grows the more potent becomes his mangu and the violent and unscrupulous its use. So a child born of a witch parent has only little mangu, and can only do little...