week 10

Question 1

It plays its part in every activity of Azande life

Answer 1

• In agricultural, fishing, and hunting pursuits;
• In domestic life of homesteads as well as in communal life of
  district and court;
• It is an important theme of mental life in which it forms the
  background of a vast panorama of oracles and magic;
• Its influence is plainly stamped on law and morals, etiquette and
  religion; it is prominent in technology and language;
  There is no niche or corner of Azande culture
  into which it does not twist itself

Question 2

The Azande + witchcraft

Answer 2

The concept of witchcraft provides the
Azande with a natural philosophy by
which the relations between people and
unfortunate events are explained and a
ready and stereotyped means of reacting
to such events.

Question 3

Witches use physic power to:

Answer 3

Injure
Kill
Damage
Cause sickness

Question 4

Sorcerers use physic power to

Answer 4

Injure
Kill
Damage
Cause sickness

but with rites, spells and potions

Question 5

An act of witchcraft is a ___ act

Answer 5

psychic

Question 6

what did the azande think of witches

Answer 6

AZANDE believe that some people are witches and can injure them in virtue of an inherent quality.

Question 7

what do Oracles and witch-doctors do

Answer 7

Provide people with recourse against witches and sorcerers

Question 8

Oracles ask for

Answer 8

divine guidance to determine if witchcraft or sorcerers were involved

Question 9

Witch doctors can

Answer 9

heal the effects of witches

Question 10

(rationality of witchcraft beliefs) Evans-Pritchard argues that within the Azande cultural context

Answer 10

witchcraft beliefs are logical and internally
consistent. He emphasizes how Azande
understand witchcraft in terms of cause
and effect, with witches believed to act
according to specific motives and
intentions

Question 11

(in social function of witchcraft beliefs) Evans-Pritchard argues that

Answer 11

Evans-Pritchard illustrates the social
functions of witchcraft beliefs within
Azande society. Witchcraft accusations
are often used to explain personal
misfortunes or conflicts within the
community. These serve as a means of
social control, regulating behaviour and
maintaining social order.

Question 12

Evans-Pritchard’s Critique of Colonialism

Answer 12

His work addresses misinterpretations of
indigenous belief systems. He argues
against the dismissal of witchcraft beliefs
as primitive superstition and instead
advocates for a relativistic (i.e., emic) and
contextualized understanding of Azande
ritual practices

Question 13

Witchcraft and Colonial Policies in Kenya and colonial authority

Answer 13

Ultimately, colonial officials reviewed witchcraft
policy and admitted to the importance of local
expertise by permitting locals to assess witchcraft cases and acknowledged the confliction of British law with the attitudes of Kenyans

Question 14

Witchcraft and Democracy

Answer 14

Ethnographic insights into the lived experiences of individuals accused of witchcraft, as well as the social and political contexts in which these
accusations occur. Considers the role of witchcraft accusations in resolving disputes, exerting social control, and expressing grievances within communities

Question 15

Jeanne Favret-Saada

Answer 15

• fieldwork in Bocage region (western france) in 1960s/70s
• shows how witchcraft accusations and rituals are embedded in social fabric and cultural logic of community
• highlights how words, rumours, and gossip play a central role in witchcraft accusations
• challenged the conventional understanding of witchcraft as purely irrational or superstitious
• reveals that witchcraft is connected to broader social, political and economic realities in rural communities

Question 16

when did the salem witch trials happen

Answer 16

1692 - 1693

Question 17

Malefizhaus (Bamburg, Germany) was used for

Answer 17

or imprisonment, torture and interrogation of witches (1627). Built 1626, destroyed 1635. 1,200 witches executed during those nine years (one every three days)

Question 18

In Woman, Church, and State (1893)
argued

Answer 18

the church was responsible for women’s oppression throughout history. Argued that witches persecuted in the Early Modern period were pagan priestesses adhering to an ancient
religion venerating a Great Goddess

Question 19

Wicca (The Craft)

Answer 19

Neo-pagan movement that arises with first wave Feminism inthe first part of the 1900s. A founding text, “The Book of Shadows” was compiled in the 1940s

Question 20

what are the 3 characteristics of Wicca (the craft)

Answer 20

1.) Nature-Centric Beliefs: sacredness of the Earth,
2.) Polytheistic and Pantheistic: diverse array of deities
3.) Emphasis on Personal Experience and Empowerment:

Question 21

what are the main parts of each wave feminism and reclaiming witchcraft

Answer 21

1st wave = Wicca (The Craft)

2nd wave = B. Ehrenreich + D. English 1973 work

3rd wave = There has also been a rise in identification with spirituality outside religion, whether through what Davie (1994) calls ‘believing without belonging’ or through a
‘progressive spirituality’ (Lynch, 2007) that sees the earth as sacred and works for social change across and beyond institutional religion

Question 22

Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English In 1973 published

Answer 22

work in which they asserted that the women persecuted had been the healers and midwives.
suppressed this to undermine
women and support the development of male
medical practitioners.

Witch hunts were a form of social control

Caliban and the Witch provides a historical and theoretical analysis of the relationship between capitalism, patriarchy, and the persecution of women, showing that gender oppression was intertwined with the development of capitalist economies

Question 23

Vodou magic refers to

Answer 23

the magical and ritual practices associated with Haitian Vodou

Question 24

Haiti brief history

Answer 24

• Indigenous people are the Taíno
• First successful revolution led by enslaved people in 1791 (The Haitian Revolution 1791-1804). The revolutionary Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803) successfully overthrew French owners

Question 25

Vodou is

Answer 25

Vodou is a dynamic and diverse spiritual tradition that encompasses a wide range of practices

Some common practices and concepts associated with Vodou magic include:
- Spellcasting
- Divination
- Spiritual Cleansing
- Protection and Warding
- Sacrifice and Offerings:
- Spirit Possession

Question 26

Vodou practitioners have a developed sense of the relationship between

Answer 26

humans, spirits and the natural world

Question 27

There are three spiritual components associated with the physical being (vodou)

Answer 27

1.) Mét-tét, or “Master of the Head”, a loa, that
enters the individual at some point in early life
2.) The [pet]it-bon-ange, or “little angel,” is a
person’s consciousness and ego. When the body dies, the ti-bonanj stays nearby for a while and then moves on to heaven
3.) The gros-bon-ange, or “big angel,” comes from the ancestral spirits and is returned to the
underworld after death, until recalled

Question 28

The gros-bon-ange is thought to be

Answer 28

eternal and unchanging, representing the core
essence of a person, influencing a person’s life path and spiritual journey

Question 29

(Haitian) A year and a day following the death of a person, the family undertakes to reclaim the

Answer 29

gros-bon-ange from the waters of the
abyss below the earth and to lodge it in a
govi where it may hence forth be invoked
and consulted in the event of illness or
other difficulties and so may participate in
all the decisions that normally unite the
members of the family in counsel.
Out of the mouth of that jar issue the
counsels and wisdoms by which the
deceased continues to aid and advance his
descendants

Question 30

A “vevè” is

Answer 30

a symbolic diagram or pattern and used in rituals and ceremonies to invoke and communicate with specific spirits, also known as lwa (loa).

Question 31

Voudoun possession

Answer 31

under certain conditions, the loa may temporarily displace the gros-bon-ange of a living person and become the animating force of that physical body. This we know as “possession”.

Question 32

Zombies

Answer 32

the body without a soul, matter without morality

Question 33

Vodou dolls

Answer 33

Dolls may play a role in some Vodou rituals
as symbolic representations of spirits or
individuals, but they are used for protection,
healing, or spiritual communication

European Witchcraft:
In medieval Europe, practitioners of witchcraft were often accused of using poppets or effigies in malevolent spells to harm their enemies

Popular Culture:
The depiction of Voodoo dolls as instruments of harm gained prominence in popular culture through literature, films, and other media.