The Evil Eye Among The Azande

This article is about witchcraft and its different varieties of practices in different cultures. This article explains how witchcraft exists and plays an essential part in structural and functional aspects of a society. It also sheds the light on the journey of witchcraft from being profane and wicked to acceptable part of a culture.

The Huichol Indians are an indigenous group that lives “in the Sierra Madre Mountains of northwestern Mexico” (Woolcott). The Huichol religion is an animistic religion. According to Dr. Pamela Lindell, animistic religions are “religions that believe that all of nature – humans, animals, plants, rocks, the ocean, etc. - is animated by spirits and souls” (“Professor’s Notes 2” 3). To better understand the Huichol Indians and their religion, this paper examines Huichol myth, symbolism, rituals, religious specialists, and deities from various anthropological perspectives.

The concept of knowledge in many ways has opposing forms within the Native American context in comparison to the western context. The mutual area of which these two branches of philosophy meet is in respect to phenomenology. Phenomenology relates to science and truth prior to modern science and therefore has more of a connection natural existence of the world. The ideology of knowledge natural existence is key to Native American philosophy of knowledge

In such a field, the lesser agents of misfortune, the witches could flourish” (Ashforth, p. 102). Furthermore, with high unemployment rates and pervasive poverty, jealousy was seen as the principle motivator for the practice of witchcraft. In the same interview, Madumo continues, “It’s also about jobs. It’s the lack of jobs that’s contributed to the high volume of witchcraft. Because if someone is having a job, then his neighbors become jealous and will witch him so as to make him lose that job” (Ashforth, p. 102). Madumo cites these societal circumstances as a sociological causation for the rise of purported witchcraft.

In the Western world, magic is defined as the ability to alter one’s consciousness at will. The magicians perform hand tricks to startle the senses and free the audience from the outdated and restricted thoughts by inspiring awe and surprises within the individuals. This is the common image that we bring up when thinking of the word magic and magician. Westerners find no relation between magic and nature as the two are thought as two distinct concepts. However, people of the oral, traditional land conjure up different idea in regard of magic and nature. The two are correlated concepts as magic can be defined as “humans experience their own consciousness as simply one form of awareness among many others” (7). Magic is shifting out one’s consciousness to put it in others shoes. The others indicate the many beings regarded to have intelligence, the components of nature. By thinking in the perspective of other nonhuman entities, as Abram succeeded in doing in the traditional land, the magicians communicate with the nature. As the author mentions, “Countless anthropologists have managed to overlook the ecological dimension of the shaman’s craft, while writing at great length of the shaman’s rapport with supernatural entities” (6), the Western people simply fail to recognize the relationship between nature and magic because they have

Amish culture has been an attention grabbing field of study for many anthropologists. Currently, there population is only present in United States due to various historical events. Although Amish community has been living in United States for a considerably long time now which comprises of centuries but despite all the cultural influences from external forces, this community has successfully managed to retain its original character and essence. Where other communities have showed adaptation to sociological and cultural changes, Amish culture is present in its original form because of their closed social system. Their main mode of subsistence of Horticulture. Although this mode is considered to be a derivative of their way of obtaining financial independence but in reality this mode of living defines their Beliefs and values, Economic organization, Gender relations, Kinship Political organization and Social organization.

Witchcraft exists. Whether we choose to believe or not, its existence in worldwide cultures is undeniable. Its form takes many shapes that can be determined by the religion, economics, politics, and folk beliefs in each individual culture where it may take place. Its importance in our own, American, history should not go understated: Witches were a major dilemma for people who lived in 1692 Salem, Massachusetts, and as a result women (and men) were hanged due to undeniable belief in the power of Witchcraft. Today, belief in magic and witches has diminished with the increasingly secular nature of our culture, but we must accept there was a time when witches “existed”. While American culture has drifted away from ideas such as witchcraft, others have certainly not, with the primary example being Africa. Witchcraft in African culture accounts for many of the issues found within many of the continents communities. Correcting these issues, at least for a time, usually results in a community being “fixed” (examples are made in Adam Ashford’s account of witchery, Madumo, a Man Bewitched and the anthropological accounts being used for this essay). What is fascinating; however, are the parallels that can be made between witchcraft in different cultures. In a previous essay I touched on this topic by incorporating my definition of witchcraft as “a cultural means of being able to create particular moral boundaries by means of ‘magic’ thinking” (Brian Riddle, 2015). In this essay, I

Indigenous religions exist in every climate around the world and exhibit a wide range of differences in their stories, language, customs, and views of the afterlife. Within indigenous communities, religion, social behavior, art, and music are so intertwined that their religion is a significant part of their culture and virtually inseparable from it. These religions originally developed and thrived in isolation from one another and are some of the earliest examples of religious practice and belief. The modern world; however, has taken its toll on these groups and many of their stories, customs, and beliefs have been lost to, or replaced by, those brought in as a result of popular culture and the missionary work of Christians and Muslims.

Moreover, the belief in evil possession in the ancient Middle East led Arab countries to be among the first in the world to establish mental health hospitals. Unfalteringly, due to the Arab people readily blaming the panic of mental problems on the possession of evil forces, religious healers become desirable prior to using psychiatric services. In addition, various ones believe that through the powers of the jinn, voodoo, black magic, witchcraft and mediums can be explained. Subsequently, Arab communities blame the majority of mental problems on super-natural forces such as the jinn or the “evil eye.” Today, in public hospitals, where the main of patients speaks Arabic, the staff and doctor’s note of the presence of the jinn; which they witness and document in complaints from the patients. Virtually, they report demonic haunting, maddening whispers in their patience’s ears; becoming obsessive in scores of people’s

By investigating the piacular rites of the Australian aborigines, Durkheim suggests that social rituals create both a sense of grief and group duty. Primitive forms of mourning consist of “beating, bruising, lacerating, and burning oneself…sometimes [to the extent that] they do not survive their wounds” (402). Through these acts of self-inflicted pain and torment, members of society partake in a form of re-presenting the dichotomy of life and death. The emotional rites seem to stem from society itself, for the rites embody the rites of

Barth examines three groups in their relationships with the natural habitat and with one another in terms of using the concept of a niche, meaning “the place of a group in the total environment, its relations to resources and competitors” (Barth, 1079). The three groups Barth examins are the Pathans who are the sedentary agriculturalists; Kohostanis who practice agriculture and transhumant herding; and lastly the Gujars who are nomadic herders. The Gujars are under a single political leader that organizes groups by lineages and clans. The Pathans are seemed as the most powerful ones. All groups had different political systems that worked with one another.

Interestingly, the women’s connection with the spiritual and magical stands in contrast to the men’s rejection of anything that doesn’t adhere to their strict perception of morbid reality. Therefore, Allende quite clearly outlines “magical properties as essentially feminine” (Shaw, D. 1997:116) and spirituality in all its forms as a “province of the female of the species” (Hart, S. 2005:275) only. It can be argued that women and magic

The Enlightenment and the emerging of modern rationalism have paved the way to a worldview where the suspicion of witchcraft is not needed to explain the mysterious phenomena of this world. This is not the case in Africa. The belief in the existence of witches, evil persons who are able to harm others by using mystical powers, is part of the common cultural knowledge. Samuel Waje Kunhiyop states, “Almost all African societies believe in witchcraft in one form or another. Belief in witchcraft is the traditional way of explaining the ultimate cause of evil, misfortune or death.” The African worldview is holistic. In this perception, things do not just happen. What happens, either good or bad, is traced back to human action,

Witchcraft has become a phenomenon in the last few years, launching TV shows and movies onto the screens of televisions. It has become an inspirational topic for writers to launch their next book. But as entertaining as witchcraft maybe to us, it is feared by the Ibibio tribe in Nigeria. This paper will focus on the different aspects of the witchcraft of the Ibibio tribe including the tribe’s way of detecting, preventing, and the anti-witch hunt that put the tribe in the spotlight. Also, this paper will touch on the causations of the witchcraft epidemic.

“What is the supernatural?” Through the ages this phenomenon cannot be explained by the known laws of nature. If these supernatural elements lead to the happiness of man they are consider being benevolent, but If they cause suffering and misery they are called evil spirits. Literature has continuously been enriched by stories in