Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande

Rating:
Summary: African Witchcraft
Review: Although somewhat dated (being written around the turn of the century), this book is an excellent cultural survey of Zande magico-religious beliefs. The author spent time amongst the Azande of the Sudan and was one of the first westerners to study about the belief in witchcraft and sorcery. I would like to point out that in the terms of this book, witch is used to define malicious (or at least selfish) sorcerers. No offense to Wiccans or other New Agers, but traditional African religion does regard witchcraft as something that is evil, or at least negative. Aside from the material about witches, there is also a wealth of information about oracles and how the Azande detect the witches within their societ. This is a study of the religious beliefs of the Azande, and I strongly recommend that anyone with an interest in African cultural or religion to take a look at this book. Please do note that it is somewhat dated, and contains somewhat paternalistic views towards African society. And furthermore, Zande culture (which is alive and well in the Sudan) has changed somewhat over the years. Nonetheless, I strongly recommend this book

Rating:
Summary: A fine work of Anthropology
Review: Evans Pritchard is one of the foremost anthropologist in the twentieth century as well as being one of the first to do serious work in Africa. In this book his main focus is the three oracles of the Azande in the Sudan. These being in order of decreasing importance: the poison oracle, the termite oracle, and the rubbing board oracle. He spent extended time researching and was directly feed information from an informant who being taught the secrets of witchdoctors. On the negative side it does have a somewhat condescending tone to African Culture as well as to Africans in general. However, this takes away little from the whole product. the Abridged version is almost as good as the unabridged and is well worth the read.

Rating:
Summary: A fine work of Anthropology
Review: Evans Pritchard is one of the foremost anthropologist in the twentieth century as well as being one of the first to do serious work in Africa. In this book his main focus is the three oracles of the Azande in the Sudan. These being in order of decreasing importance: the poison oracle, the termite oracle, and the rubbing board oracle. He spent extended time researching and was directly feed information from an informant who being taught the secrets of witchdoctors. On the negative side it does have a somewhat condescending tone to African Culture as well as to Africans in general. However, this takes away little from the whole product. the Abridged version is almost as good as the unabridged and is well worth the read.

Rating:
Summary: Great anthropological work
Review: I am in an anthropology class that studies magic, witchcraft,and healing among other cultures. This book was assigned for the class.

Evans-Pritchard explains everything in great detail, and although the book is over 70 years old, he makes the culture seem alive to the reader. E-P doesn't write as though the Azande witchcraft beliefs are inferior to our own, and he admits that while he lived among them, he accepted their beliefs. He explains, at length, that their beliefs are just as logical as our own, they just stem from different premises.

The writing itself is very clear and concise, and I have had no problems reading 120 pages of it over the weekend. It's genuinely interesting and reads almost like a novel. The main ideas are easy to catch and highlight, so it is an easy book to study. E-P doesn't bog the reader down in details but adequately explains everything of the Azande's beliefs. His analysis of the beliefs are objective and easy to follow, yet not condescending.

Overall, a very interesting book that I would recommend to anybody who is interested in anthropology in general or religious beliefs of other cultures in particular.

Rating:
Summary: A controversial classic!
Review: This is an abridged reprint of a book originally published in 1937.

This book by anthropologist Evans-Pritchard is best understood as a reaction against the work of the earlier anthropologist Levy-Bruhl. Levy-Bruhl had argued that "primitive" people have a "pre-logical" mentality, in that they are willing to accept worldviews that include contradictions. Evans-Pritchard disagrees, and uses the case study of the Azande, an African tribe, to make his point.

The Azande routinely appealled to "witchcraft" in their daily lives. (I cannot say how accurate Evans-Pritchard's account was of the Azande during his stay, or how much they have changed since the 30's.) For example, the Azande would explain at least some bad events as the result of witchcraft being practiced against them, and would use a "poison oracle" to determine who the witch was. ("Azande" is the noun, "Zande" is the adjective, like "Britons" vs. "British.") At first glance, this all seems irrational. However, Evans-Pritchard sets out the Azande beliefs in a way that shows that they form a fairly coherent system. He also notes that it was possible for him to live according to these beliefs during his stay with the Azande.

This book (and some of Evans-Pritchard's essays) have stimulated an immense amount of secondary literature. Peter Winch (see his articles in Bryan R. Wilson, ed., _Rationality_) argues that Evans-Pritchard did not go far enough, because Evans-Pritchard claims that the Zande beliefs (while not "pre-logical"), are nontheless unscientific, and mistaken. Winch argues that the test of whether something (e.g., electrons or witchraft) is real depends on the language and culture within which the judgment is being made. Consequently, it is simply a sort of category mistake to desribe the Zande beliefs as unscientific, since "science" is our standard of rationality, not their standard.

Charles Taylor (in an essay in the volume of his collected papers on "rationality and the human sciences") argues against Winch that, since the Azande beliefs have empirical consequences (e.g., there should be "witchcraft-substance" in the intestines of actual witches), it must be possible to test the Zande claims. Consequently, the Zande beliefs can fail (or conceivably pass) scientific verification.

If you are interested in contemporary anthropological studies of Africa, you should look for a more recent book. However, this is an interesting gateway to some challenging debates over how to think about rationality cross-culturally.