Lecture 19 Witchcraft, sorcery and modernity

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Lecture 19Witchcraft, sorcery and modernity
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Witchcraft Sorcery - Magic
Superstition
Irrational
Pre-modern
Historical past
Pre-scientific
Fantasy
Tradition
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Defining witchcraft

• Witchcraft vs. sorcery
• Theory of causation
• Social commentary and expression of moral
  judgement
• Means of social action
• Individual freedom and creativity

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Witchcraft, religion, science and modernity

• Western assumption of progress towards
  enlightenment
• Durkheims evolutionary view of society
• Durkheim Religion is primitive science
• Religion is superseded by science

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Evans-Pritchard Azande magic

• Azande thinking was no less rational than
  European thinking
• Belief in witchcraft coexisted with rational
  explanations of causality
• Witchcraft provided a natural philosophy for
  explaining unfortunate events

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Azande witchcraft

• Witchcraft is not extraordinary or miraculous
• It does not replace empirical knowledge
• It explains coincidence
• Focuses on the socially relevant cause
• Gives social events their moral value

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Azande witchcraft and morality

• Follows the dynamics of social relations
• Expresses Azande moral values

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Witchcraft is thoroughly modern

• The powers of witchcraft and sorcery are
  ambivalent
• Dynamic and engaged with the world
• Creatively refashioned to suit new situations
• Emphasis on global processes rather than bounded,
  local contexts

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The Comaroffs Occult Economies

• No single and universal modernity
• Occult practices are an integral feature of
  millennial capitalism
• Capitalism itself is cultural and takes on
  particular local forms

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South African capitalism

• Unequal development and access to wealth
• A few become wealthy by the mysterious workings
  of the market
• Hopes for the majority have not been realised
• Magic of despair

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Creativity and modernity

• The key feature of witchcraft is its ambiguity
• An individual can connect to the supernatural
  directly
• Acts as a dynamic site for cultural and moral
  creativity
• Witchcraft and sorcery is always modern