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Material objects as evidence of supernatural harm

In: Slovenský národopis / Slovak Ethnology, vol. 58, no. 5
Danijela Djurišičová
Detaily:
Rok, strany: 2010, 566 - 583
Jazyk: eng
Kľúčové slová:
material objects, witchcraft, sorcery, magic, cognitive anthropology
Typ článku: Articles
O článku:
Since Evans-Pritchard published his book on witchcraft among the Azande anthropologists have been classifying supernatural harm into two basic categories - witchcraft and sorcery. While witchcraft is usually described as an ‘essential’ property (a witch has ‘the innate’ supernatural power inherited or acquired during her life), sorcery involves magic practices. Anthropologists demonstrated, however, that such a distinction was not always possible to make: both types of supernatural harm could appear together. The paper is dedicated to the investigations of these concepts in Central Serbia. The author demonstrates that although people speak of ‘witch´s power’, they often talk about a witch´s magic practices as well. People´s attention is paid first of all to material objects as evidence of supernatural harm. The author applies the theoretical approach of cognitive anthropology to explain why the concept of supernatural power is not used in particular situations and real-time interactions and why people so often prefer concepts that are more concrete and refer to material objects. She demonstrates that those objects are characteried as the ‘vehicles’ of witchcraft essence, and that fear of supernatural harm is related to contamination.
Ako citovať:
ISO 690:
Djurišičová, D. 2010. Material objects as evidence of supernatural harm. In Slovenský národopis / Slovak Ethnology, vol. 58, no.5, pp. 566-583. 1339-9357.

APA:
Djurišičová, D. (2010). Material objects as evidence of supernatural harm. Slovenský národopis / Slovak Ethnology, 58(5), 566-583. 1339-9357.