Intro to of Evans Pritchard’s Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande Macat Anthropology

- [Narrator] Welcome to the
MACAT multimedia series.

The MACAT analysis of
E.E. Evans-Pritchard's

"Witchcraft, Oracles, and
Magic Among the Azande."

Can believing in witchcraft be rational?

English anthropologist, E.E.
Evans-Pritchard, believed so.

He came to this conclusion
after spending time

among the Azande tribe of south Sudan.

This led to his writing,

"Witchcraft, Oracles, and
Magic Among the Azande,"

in 1937.

Prior to Evans-Pritchard's
work many anthropologists

believed that tribal communities had

very irrational beliefs regarding magic.

For Evans-Pritchard, however, this was not

necessarily the case.

He argued that the Azande
belief in witchcraft

is in fact, rational and logical.

He believed that the Azande knew very well

how events happen.

For example, if a house
fell down due to termites,

they would understand that the termites

had weakened the wood causing collapse.

However, Evans-Pritchard
believed that for the Azande,

witchcraft explains
why these things happen

in the absence of scientific explanations.

In this way, the Azande
are no less intelligent

than western cultures, but
their capacity to reason

functions within the
limits of their culture.

For Evans-Pritchard, the people
of Azande have an internally

coherent system based on
mysticism, not science.

Witchcraft is used to explain coincidences

and accidents which were highly unlikely

and for which a reason
can otherwise be given.

To see Evans-Pritchard's
argument in greater detail,

imagine two cars traveling
towards each other,

both occupants drive every day

and neither has ever had an accident.

Today, however, the two drivers don't

see each other and crash.

Azande friend of the drivers
witnesses the accident

and blames it on witchcraft.

Importantly, he doesn't
think that witchcraft

forced the two cars together.

He knows that this was caused
by the drivers inattention.

Instead, witchcraft explains

why both drivers were distracted.

He knows they are both good drivers,

and therefore believes that there is

no other reasonable cause
for these lapses in focus.

Even if he knows that one
driver was checking his phone

at the time, there is a rational chain

of causation for the Azande man.

Witchcraft caused the distraction.

Which led to inattention and the crash.

Going further, if one
driver had narcolepsy,

and had fallen asleep.

Science would say that this
condition caused the crash.

To the Azande man though, this
is an incomplete explanation.

It is far from a normal occurrence,

and so witchcraft sent
the driver to sleep.

Both explanations make use of rationality,

and look at cause and effect.

They just use different evidence basis's

to approach the unanswered,
common sense questions.

E.E. Evans-Pritchard is
regarded as a vital figure

in the growth of the field
of social anthropology.

A more detailed examination of these ideas

can be found in the MACAT analysis.