NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cadence" data-source="post: 8588933" data-attributes="member: 6701124">Google scholaring, it looks like in some cultures there is the connection, but the two anthropology dictionaries I cited above seem to be against it being the general meaning.   :::shrugs:::Do you have a favorite general anthropology text/article/dictionary that defines it with using spirits as a major or required thing for sorcery in general?  (Only one I found that was definitely the definition you've heard was a web-page at Oregon State).In any case... random googling got me away from some work. Just going through google scholar, Bleyenberg & Stroeken (2017) - Anthropology and Medicine - discuss how a rash is viewed in Tanzania: "pese is Bembe sorcery [using a powder], now found in Kigoma, while kisigo is a disagreement between a local bad spirit and one's ancestral protective ancestor". In one area the rash is viewed as the first, it is viewed as the second in another, and the two accounts have been merged in some areas with the sorcerer sending the kisigo spirit.Bratrud (2021) book chapter about Melanesia have some sorcery involving sprits and some not, they "deliberately manipulate spirits and use poisonous plants and toxics to cause sickness, death and misfortune to those who frustrate them."  He notes that "As argued by John Himugu (2015), it is therefore important to have a clear understanding of the particular cultural context of the sorcery notion in question."  Himugu notes  three distinct things in the beliefs of the Huli of New Guinea are called sorcery in English:  "poisons (tomia), spells (gamugamu) or spirts (dama) for invoking spiritual powers and forces."  The use of dama are "the most dangerous form of sorcery" for them. Looking up the case of Kuru in the Fore society, it looks like there were believed to be two types of illnesses - those caused by other humans (using rituals done by sorcerers using different materials) and those caused by nature spirits (not resulting from sorcerers)  - Linderbaum, 1971 - there is no mention of the former rituals using separate spirits.</blockquote>

Verification