Week two: Magic and Religion
Middleton: “Magic is a word with as many definitions as there have been studies of it. It most societies it is an integral part of the sphere of religious thought and behavior; in the industrialized West, it is more generally accepted as superstition and even as a form of sleight of hand used for entertainment.” (9: 82)
Scholars such as Frazer claim that magic is different from religion – Frazer, for example, “built up an evolutionary scheme with three main stages of thought, each paramount in turn: magical thought he placed as the most primitive, then religious thought, and finally scientific thought.” (Middleton 9:84)
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) placed magic at the earliest stage in religious thought. He maintained that magic “was based on emotional processes, the principal one being fear of nature, which appears hostile to human well-being and which is conceptualized as an evil force that can be controlled by magic.” (Middleton 9: 84)
Following Wundt was Gerardus van der Leeuw (1890-1950) – maintained that “the magician believes that he can control the external world by the use of words and spells.” (Middleton 9:84)
Magic and Sociology or the Sociology of Magic
After the thinkers who embraced an evolutionary approach to magic came a group of scholars who were pioneers of modern day Sociology
Émile Durkheim (1858-1917), Marcel Mauss (1872-1950) and Lucien Lévy-Bruhl (1857-1939) – all French scholars
Magic in its Social and Cultural Setting
Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942)
• Malinowski was the first important anthropologist to present a coherent theory of magic based upon his own field research in the Trobriand Islands of Melanesia.
• Malinowski separated magic from religion – developed a theoretical system derived from his time in the Trobriand Islands
• To the Trobriand Islanders, religion dealt with the most important fundamental aspects of human existence
• Magic, in contrast, dealt with less fundamental, more concrete problems
• Magic increases confidence and lessens risk
• Employed in very practical situations
• Besides the more mundane uses and situations, magic was employed to allow man to extend his abilities into the realm of the more miraculous or supernatural – here magic was used for purposes of attraction – i.e. Making a woman fall in love with an unattractive man – or rejuvenating an old man
• Harmful or so-called ‘black magic’ was also used
Middleton summarises some of Malinowski’s theories: “Magic protects people from failure and enables them to achieve success in which emotional and social involvement are high. Magic raises the psychological self-confidence of its believers, may help them achieve higher stages of technological and moral development, and may enable them better to organize their labour and to control cooperative work on which the well-being of society’s members depend ...” (9:86)
As Malinowski wrote, magic “ritualizes man’s optimism” (From Middleton 9:86)
The Later Symbolists
Best known of this group was E. Evans-Pritchard (1902-1973)
Wrote the influential book, Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic Among the Azande in 1937
Like Malinowski, he carried out extensive fieldwork (his focus was the Azande, a people from south-western Sudan)
He wanted to explore the hypotheses of Lévy-Bruhl – essentially, that modern Western societies are scientifically oriented in thought whereas “primitive” societies are “mystically oriented” and “use the supernatural to explain unexpected and anomalous events.” (Middleton 9:85)
Some of Evans-Pritchard’s theories:
• Magic “cannot be understood as an isolated phenomenon but only as part of a “ritual complex” composed of magic, witchcraft, divination and oracles” (Middleton 9:87)
• And, continuing ... “without belief in witchcraft Azande magic would have little meaning” (Middleton 9:87)
• “Witchcraft, oracles, and magic are like three sides of a triangle” (Evans-Pritchard 387)
• “Oracles and magic are two different ways of combating witchcraft.” (Evans-Pritchard 387)
Other definitions
Georg Luck, Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds
“I would define magic as a technique grounded in a belief in powers located in the human soul and in the universe outside ourselves, a technique that aims at imposing the human will on nature or on human beings by using supersensual powers.” (3)
“One important concept in all magic is the principle of cosmic sympathy, which has nothing to do with compassion but means something like “action and reaction in the universe.” All creatures, all created things, are united by a common bond. If one is affected, another one, no matter how distant or seemingly unconnected, feels the impact. This is a great and noble idea, but in magic it was mainly applied in order to gain control. Scientists think in terms of cause and effect, while magi think in terms of “sympathies” or “correspondences.” (3-4)
Word List
•Mageia: from magos (magoi = pl) – a Persian word
- mageia = magic
- magos (magoi) = priests and scholars of astrology, divination, etc
- also known as wise men
- when magic began to increase in Greece in the 6th and 5th Centuries BCE – the term ‘magos’ began to acquire more negative associations
- Graf writes: “for an Ionian of the end of the archaic era, the magos was put in the same category as the itinerant experts of private cults, men on the fringe of society, ridiculed by some, secretly feared by others” (22)
•pharmakeia = the employment of drugs or potions
- these were employed in a variety of situations, from relatively mundane forms of murder (straightforward poisoning), to medical usage, to more exotic applications (to affect both harm and healing)
•goêteia = wizardry or witchcraft – using a variety of techniques including potions
- there is also the word ‘goês’: a figure that combines ecstasy with ritual lament, healing, and divination.’ (Graf: 24)
- Graf writes: “He certainly is a marginal figure, but still in the service of the society; in Aeschylus, we find him as the specialist who brings back the dead from their graves” (28)
- Luck argues that “The term goeteia is a synonym for mageia, but has even more negative undertones” (21)
In Rome we have variations of these Greek words:
•magia: the science of the magi (Greek magoi)
- magic
- sorcery
•Magicus: adj = of or belonging to magic magical
•Magus (m) / maga (f): noun
in the masculine = a magician, a learned man
in the feminine = a female magician, an enchantress
RE: magic & religion hist
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