Poverty and Witch Killing - Miguel (2005) Flashcards
circumstances of rural western Tanzania (Meatu District)
poor, isolated, semi-arid district with lor per capita income
- no direct phone lines back in the 2000s
crop failures, bad rains, other misfortunes are blamed on witches
witchcraft, poverty and violence in Meatu
witchcraft beliefs strong among sukuma in tanzania
witches harness occult powers to harm others (not just weather and crops but other successes and misfortunes)
likelihood of witch murders
government figures suggest there were over 3000 murders from 1970-1988
more recent data shows over 3000 nationally during 2005-2011
- >500 annually
1 in 500 annual risk of witch murder for old women (roughly 40x the overall murder risk in the US)
witch killing statistics from data collected
about 1 witch killing every 11 years
- doubles in years of extreme weather
about half of attacks are fatal
- non-fatal attacks lead to women fleeing
half of all murders are witch murders
vulnerability of the area to economic shocks
1 out of 5-6 years with drought/flood
- drought more common
disease epidemics (e.g. cholera, measles) also very likely
many economic/health shocks where bad events are attributed to the malice of witches
population characteristics of the area
only about 4 years of average schooling per adult
- poor and remote part
very few women’s groups so little organising or activity
- more in other parts of Africa
who are ‘witches’ in Tanzania?
96% are female
average age of 58 years
- quite old in an area where life expectancy isn’t high
victims come from relatively poor households in terms of wealth, assets and livestock ownership
most victims are killed during the pre-harvest ‘hungry’ season of the year (April-July)
- typically killed by family members or other kin
- link between extreme poverty and witch attacks
perspectives from anthropology
families/communities that kill/neglect/allow people to die to deal with extreme resource scarcity
model of within-household resource allocation
biologically need to consume C* to survive
in good rainfall years, household income is greater than or equal to NC but in drought/flood years, it falls below this line
equal division of income among the household means everyone starves in the simple model
- unequal division with resources directed to more productive/powerful members is an option to allow some (N-1) to survive
main patterns in the data from Meatu
years with extreme rainfall shocks (e.g. droughts/famine) lead to sharp drops in household consumption and often to famine
- major difficulties with saving in this area
impact of disease epidemics on witch killing is weaker than the impact of rainfall shocks
- once in every 8 years, measles/cholera/other epidemic but no strong correlation with income levels
two types of misfortunes can befall a community (both which beliefs say witches can control)
- drought hits economic circumstances
- disease epidemic doesn’t hit economic circumstances as much
villages with moderate adherents of traditional religions have especially large increases in witch murders in extreme rainfall years
augmentation of data with information on localised temperature through satellite data
years with higher average temperatures associated with more witch killings
- drought years tend to be hot and dry (low rainfall)
upwards-sloping relationship between how much hotter it is on average in a year and the increased risk of witch killing in the year and village
going from -0.25 to 0.25C annually, there’s an increase of about 40% more witch killings on the base of 9% a year
- about 4 percentage points
lessons from witch killings in Tanzania
income shocks lead to violence against elderly women (witches)
- within-household resource conflicts might lie at the heart of this violence
- related findings for medieval European witch killings
child-witch accusations in war-torn and desperately poor African countries may have a similar underlying economic rationale
gender and witch killing
social isolation - patrilocal marital exogamy
- women marry outside of their village/clan and move into their husband’s community
- women are socially isolated and have to build relationships with strangers
political marginalisation
- male-dominated council of the sungu-sungu which provides a foundation for witch killing instead of helping them
