Stealing Penises: The Need to Combat Contemporary Witchcraft
Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 11:38 am
So my bedtime reading these days is a couple pages of Owen Davies' Witchcraft, Magic and Culture, 1736-1951. I like Davies, his book on Grimoires is terrific, and I've been slowly picking at the history of magic by reading books like Edward Peter's The Magician, the Witch and the Law.
One of the basic arguments in the first chapter in Davies is that you cannot directly curb belief in witchcraft with education or legislation, which Davies illustrates with a brief history and examples from the British Isles with the repeal of the Witchcraft Acts and related statutes. Now, there's more to it than that - England for example had for a very long time restricted education to the lower classes for various reasons - but a couple things pop out: even the more educated populations were not immune to belief to witchcraft, and while legislation did greatly diminish reported cases of witchcraft, it did so only by removing any legal remedy against witches.
Which is interesting because the issues with witchcraft that the British Isles were dealing with in the 18th century is the same sort of shit we're dealing with in sub-Saharan Africa (muti, witchsmellers, etc.), the Middle East (Saudi Arabia beheading "sorcerers", etc.), and other places. A little bit of regional variation aside, the supposed magic involved is pretty damn similar to what you see in 16th century Europe - ointments and potions made from human body parts, stealing penises, old women accused of levelling curses, etc. Legislation has afforded a few of the victims of witchcraft beliefs some protection, but has done little to deal with the beliefs themselves; education in general in Africa is so poor it too has not had a notable impact - not that it matters, since intelligence and schooling do not proof one against irrationality.
Spreading Christianity doesn't help much; the episode of theWitch of Endor and the supposed historical veracity of the Bible makes any fervent Christian a de facto believer in witchcraft as well - as Davies shows in his book, with quotes from politicians at the time the witchcraft statutes were repealed. Islam isn't significantly better, and that appliesworldwide. Certain major religious organizations like the Catholic Church have generally avoided persecuting witches in the last couple decades, but even they are divided on the subject.
tl;dr version: Same problems, different century. You need legislation and education to combat the belief in people stealing your penis, and even then it will probably never entirely go away. Africa is fuxxored.
One of the basic arguments in the first chapter in Davies is that you cannot directly curb belief in witchcraft with education or legislation, which Davies illustrates with a brief history and examples from the British Isles with the repeal of the Witchcraft Acts and related statutes. Now, there's more to it than that - England for example had for a very long time restricted education to the lower classes for various reasons - but a couple things pop out: even the more educated populations were not immune to belief to witchcraft, and while legislation did greatly diminish reported cases of witchcraft, it did so only by removing any legal remedy against witches.
Which is interesting because the issues with witchcraft that the British Isles were dealing with in the 18th century is the same sort of shit we're dealing with in sub-Saharan Africa (muti, witchsmellers, etc.), the Middle East (Saudi Arabia beheading "sorcerers", etc.), and other places. A little bit of regional variation aside, the supposed magic involved is pretty damn similar to what you see in 16th century Europe - ointments and potions made from human body parts, stealing penises, old women accused of levelling curses, etc. Legislation has afforded a few of the victims of witchcraft beliefs some protection, but has done little to deal with the beliefs themselves; education in general in Africa is so poor it too has not had a notable impact - not that it matters, since intelligence and schooling do not proof one against irrationality.
Spreading Christianity doesn't help much; the episode of theWitch of Endor and the supposed historical veracity of the Bible makes any fervent Christian a de facto believer in witchcraft as well - as Davies shows in his book, with quotes from politicians at the time the witchcraft statutes were repealed. Islam isn't significantly better, and that appliesworldwide. Certain major religious organizations like the Catholic Church have generally avoided persecuting witches in the last couple decades, but even they are divided on the subject.
tl;dr version: Same problems, different century. You need legislation and education to combat the belief in people stealing your penis, and even then it will probably never entirely go away. Africa is fuxxored.