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Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande
1937 book by E. E. Evans-Pritchard From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande is one of social anthropology's most noted texts. In this work E. E. Evans-Pritchard examines the witchcraft beliefs of the Azanade, a group of agricultural people in southern Sudan on the upper Nile. There are two main points he makes in the work. One is that witchcraft can be seen as a safety valve, that releases potential harmful conflict into less damaging activities. The other is that it can be seen as an attempt to explain a complex alien world in a society's own terms of reference. Together these make for a practical solution that is consistent and rational.[1][2][3]
The work was a development of his earlier (1928). Oracle-magic of the Azande. Sudan Notes and Records, 11, 1-53..
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The book
Evans-Pritchard, E.E. (1937). Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic Among the Azande. Oxford: The Clarendon Press
Contents
- I. Witchcraft is an organic and hereditary phenomenon
- II. The notion of witchcraft explains unfortunate events
- III. Sufferers from misfortune seek for witches among their enemies
- IV. Are witches conscious agents?
- V. Witch-doctors
- VI. Training of a novice in the art of a witch-doctor
- VII. The place of witch-doctors in Zande society
- VIII. The Poison Oracle in daily life
- IX. Problems arising from consultation of the poison oracle
- X. Other Zande oracles
- XI. Magic and medicines
- XII. An association for the practice of magic
- XIII. Witchcraft, oracles, and magic, in the situation of death
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References
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