Witchcraft, Sorcery, and Magic | Anthropology Optional for UPSC PDF Download

Witchcraft, Sorcery, and Magic
 Harmful sorcery is the use of magic, supernatural beings, or other supernatural powers to deliberately attempt to harm or destroy another person, group or community. The individual who practices sorcery is known as sorcerer. Witchcraft is an inborn and often unconscious capacity to work evil. Deliberate action undertaken by an individual for the purpose of doing harm is sorcery.
On the contrary, unconscious action of individual for the purpose of doing harm is witchcraft, just as sorcery requires sorcerers, witchcraft requires witches. But witches, in contrast to sorcerers, are not people who have practiced on employed supernatural means to destroy people, crops, cattle and property. Witches are individuals who have evil intentions and activities attributed to them. Thus the practice of sorcery actually occurs, but the practice of witchcraft is imaginary. Destructive magic is. performed by sorcerers and witches. Sorcery is sometimes socially approved and sometimes socially disapproved. Often it forms as a force of social control. Witchcraft socially disapproved. It is classed as morally bad. It provides a native theory of failure, misfortune and death.
Some anthropologists have classified black magic or hostile magical practices into sorcery and witchcraft on the basis of the demonstrability of techniques. For these anthropologists sorcery includes only harmful magic. Unlike Firth, they do not consider beneficial magic also as sorcery. They simply consider beneficial sorcery as form of protective magic. As such they treat both sorcery and witchcraft as destructive magic or black magic.
Sorcery includes several hostile magical practices. In sorcery the technique used by the practitioner or sorcerer lean be demonstrated. The sorcerer, for example, may recite a spell; stick a thorn into an image of the victim, breath on a bundle of feathers. Such techniques of the sorcerer can be demonstrated.
Bone-pointing is the technique of sorcerers in Melanesia. The sorcerer points out some magical object at an intended victim with the goal of causing disease or death. Sorcerer ritually imitates throwing a magical stick, either an arrow or the spine of some animal, in the direction of the person the magic is intended to kill. For the magic to work, the sorcerer must perform the procedure with an expression of hatred. He thrusts the bone in the air, twists it as if in anger in the wound, and then pulls it out with a sudden jerk Both the physical act and the emotional state of passion have to be imitated to achieve results.
Object intrusion is another technique used by the sorcerers for carrying on their act of sorcery. In this technique pins or other sharp objects are stuck into a representation of the intended victim. This technique is employed by a several sorcerers belonging to the tribes of India. Manipulation of objects is another important technique used by sorcerers. In this technique the sorcerers manipulate something that was once a part of the victim, such as fecal material, hair or fingernails. Sometimes an intended victim can be tricked into touching or using some object that has been treated in a magical way. Sorcerers in Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia, India and Africa mostly use the technique of magical manipulation of something that was once a part of the victim. The magic practiced with the help of such technique is contagious magic.