Witch Craft of the Azande
Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande
Aaron Wintrich
Professor Arthur
Anthropology of Religion
10/30/12
2,075 Words
Wintrich II
Witchcraft among the Azande is an integral part of everyday life. From highly involved communal practices to individual daily life, witchcraft and such happenings can take place at any time and to anyone. During his time among the Azande, Evans Pritchard originally thought of the Azande’s belief in witchcraft as naïve, believing that all mishaps were caused by bewitchment instead of taking personal responsibility. I personally find this interesting as it is a fine example of how people universally do not typically take responsibility for their misfortunes; instead they blame it on another. Why is this? Well, think to yourself, have you ever been stuck in traffic cursing at everyone else’s poor driving? The answer is probably yes because most people do not turn inwards towards themselves to see a potential problem. This is because we are sensory beings designed to sense and experience the world outside of ourselves. Turning inwards and seeing ourselves as the problem naturally is not something we as individuals do, this takes years or even a lifetime of fulfillment and maturity to realize. But this is further than I want to take us for now. Let us get back to our authors interpretation of Azande witchcraft and how his understanding of this topic changed the more time he spent among the Azande people. The author notes that a common argument to mishaps taking place among the Azande is that witchcraft is the only explanation, since the Azande take numerous precautions to certain things and yet misfortunes still take place. For example, a young boy who despite knowing there are bushes to watch out for when walking still happens to stub his toe. The young boys argument is that if all precautions were made and that he knew to watch out for such mishaps, how then could stubbing his toe take place? It must be witchcraft the
Aaron Wintrich
Professor Arthur
Anthropology of Religion
10/30/12
2,075 Words
Wintrich II
Witchcraft among the Azande is an integral part of everyday life. From highly involved communal practices to individual daily life, witchcraft and such happenings can take place at any time and to anyone. During his time among the Azande, Evans Pritchard originally thought of the Azande’s belief in witchcraft as naïve, believing that all mishaps were caused by bewitchment instead of taking personal responsibility. I personally find this interesting as it is a fine example of how people universally do not typically take responsibility for their misfortunes; instead they blame it on another. Why is this? Well, think to yourself, have you ever been stuck in traffic cursing at everyone else’s poor driving? The answer is probably yes because most people do not turn inwards towards themselves to see a potential problem. This is because we are sensory beings designed to sense and experience the world outside of ourselves. Turning inwards and seeing ourselves as the problem naturally is not something we as individuals do, this takes years or even a lifetime of fulfillment and maturity to realize. But this is further than I want to take us for now. Let us get back to our authors interpretation of Azande witchcraft and how his understanding of this topic changed the more time he spent among the Azande people. The author notes that a common argument to mishaps taking place among the Azande is that witchcraft is the only explanation, since the Azande take numerous precautions to certain things and yet misfortunes still take place. For example, a young boy who despite knowing there are bushes to watch out for when walking still happens to stub his toe. The young boys argument is that if all precautions were made and that he knew to watch out for such mishaps, how then could stubbing his toe take place? It must be witchcraft the