Magic and Divination

1. Magic and Divination Chapter 7

2. Baseball Magic • Remember the article “Baseball Magic”? • Why is magic used in baseball? • What are taboos and fetishes?

3. Baseball Magic • Remember the article “Baseball Magic”? • Why is magic used in baseball? • Because it relies mostly on chance • People want to feel in control • What are taboos and fetishes? • Taboos are strictly forbidden actions or items • Fetishes are obsessions with ‘lucky’ objects

4. Introduction • What do you think of when you hear the term magic? • Our idea of magic is illusion, because it alters perceptions • Magic consists of activities and rituals that alter or control the supernatural

5. Introduction • Early anthropologists thought that magic was separate from religion because it did not involve spirits • Many thought it was a pseudoscience, used to make sense of their world • Many thought that magic would ‘evolve’ into religion

6. Introduction • Science is empirical: • It is observable, repeatable, testable • Involves hypotheses and theories • Does magic? No • But magic helps people make sense of their world; it involves trying to directly control aspects of their environment for a specific outcome • It is part of religion

7. The World of Magic • Magic: methods that allow a person to interact with supernatural and bring out specific outcomes • Some types: • Sorcery: usually seen as evil • Witchcraft: can be good or evil

8. Sorcery vs Witchcraft • Magic and Sorcery can use objects • Frazer’s 2 principles: • Imitative: • Represent a person • Voodoo doll, effigy • Contagious: • Use items that were in contact with person

9. Witchcraft • Witchcraft: use of psychic power to cause harm to others • Uses mind • Accusations are patterned because idea that sorcerers and witches only harm those they don’t like • Salem Witch Trials

10. Rules of Magic • James Frazer • Law of Sympathy • Magic depends on association between 2 things • It has 2 parts: • Law of Similarity and • Law of Contagion

11. Rules of Magic • Law of Similarity • Things that are alike are the same • Homeopathic or Imitative magic • Law of Contagion • Things that were once in contact continue to be connected • Contagious magic

12. Law of Similarity • This assumes that there is a causal relationship between similar things • Image Magic: making an image that represents someone and then injuring or killing the image to really harm the person • Voodoo dolls

13. Homeopathic Magic • Example is doctrine of signatures • In homeopathic or traditional medicine, people believe that there are natural signals in the plants showing people how to use them • Some think these were left by God

14. Homeopathic Magic • Example: • plants used to treat problems with blood are red • those for stomach are yellow (bile) • plants with white sap are used for nursing mothers.

15. Contagious Magic • Based on idea that things that were once in contact stay connected (hair, nails, clothing…) • Example: rabbit’s foot for luck • People also believe that an illness can be transferred onto an object in order to heal people • Tying a caterpillar on a child’s neck to cure whooping cough • New Guinea: put salve on arrow wound and on arrow so the injury transfers onto the arrow • However, enemy can counter this by repeatedly plucking bow to make injury worse

16. Function of Magic • Magic can be used in times of danger or in times of uncertainty • Connected to rituals, including those for good luck • Example: professional baseball players

17. Why Magic Works • Most things are not cause-and-effect, but actually coincidence • However, humans like to feel that they can control outcomes • Ideas of good and bad luck

18. Why Magic Works • Tyler looked at why it seems magic never fails • Magic attempts to bring about things that would have happened naturally • Rain rituals (eventually it will rain!) • People are very stubborn in changing their beliefs, even with evidence that they do not work • People do not ask for impossible things from magic

19. Why Magic Works • If the magic doesn’t work, people say that the ritual was not performed correctly • Or someone was doing counter-magic • People also have selective memory • We forget a lot that happens to us • Successes are remembered and failures forgotten more often

20. Why Magic Works • Self-fulfilling • People make things happen because they believe they will happen • Example: death magic • Person is so convinced of and worried about dying that it can lead to death

21. Magic in Society (Examples)Azande • Magic involves using objects, mostly plant materials called medicines • The object houses power and the ritual will release the power • Use doctrine of signatures • Example: plants with milky sap used to help a mother nurse her baby • Other uses: hunting, against sorcery, find love, cure diseases, avenge a murder • Rituals can often be personal and done in private

22. Magic in Society (Examples)Fore • Believe the disease kuru is caused by sorcery (we now know it is caused by eating brains at funerals) • Sorcerer would take remnants of someone (hair, nails, excrement) and bury it in cold ground. They he would beat it and recite a spell that would cause kuru • Example of contagious magic • To prevent this, people hide all their possible remnants

23. Magic in Society (Examples)Wicca • Neo-Pagan: revival of a pre-Christian practice • See their magical knowledge as a continuation of practices that were pushed underground by Christianity for many centuries. • Core of the ritual is movement of energy • Practitioner builds up energy in body and releases it at just the right time • Based on the worldview that there is power in all things • Rituals awaken power and direct it toward a goal • Use crystals, herbs, oils, images, etc. • Closely connected to nature • Supplements practical actions

24. Divination • Attempts to find out the unknown and to manipulate supernatural to get future information • Sees the world as things that interconnect • Magic is manipulating these connections

25. Forms of Divination • Inspirational: involves spiritual experience (ex. Possession) • Also known as natural or emotive • Noninspirational/Artificial: magic, reading natural events, using oracles (a device for seeing future)

26. Divination Forms • Inspirational divination involves an individual having direct contact with a supernatural being • Usually through ASC • Possession • Prophesy • Mediums • Ordeals involve a painful and dangerous test, usually to prove innocence • Putting hand into burning oil • Salem witch trials: trial by water (innocent drown, witches do not and are then burned)

27. Divination Forms Example of ordeal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iFsvhxsoGs (minutes 1-16 only)

28. Forms of Divination • Fortuitous: happens without conscious effort • Deliberate: happens because someone sets out to do them • There are different combinations of these types

29. Forms of Divination • Fortuitous Noninspirational: omens, ornithomancy (birds) • Fortuitous Inspirational: necromancy, possession, prophesy, mediums, oneiromancy • Deliberate Noninspirational: astrology, flipping a coin, magic 8 ball, Ouija board, palm reading, tarot cards

30. Divination Example • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdLa9yYt_jw

31. Techniques of Divination • Oneriomancy: interpreting dreams • Differ by culture • Can be seen as spirit guiding you in dreams

32. Techniques of Divination • Examples: • To see apes in your dream represents dishonesty, maliciousness, and lies. • To dream of a seal represents your good humor and ability to entertain others. • A dream in which you are toothless indicates your failure to succeed. • To dream that you fall and are frightened represents that you do not have balance or power in your life. • To dream that you are flying with ease and enjoying the view indicates that you are dealing with circumstances well.

33. Techniques of Divination • Necromancy: divination through contact with the dead (commonly ancestors) • Omens are frequent • Ornithomancy: reading the flight of birds • Tasseomancy: reading tea leaves • Palmistry: reading lines of palm of hand • Phrenology: reading shape of head • Mechanical divination: manipulate objects • Ouija board, tarot cards

34. Divination Example • Azande oracles • Most common is iwa, or rubbing-board oracle • Small wooden board with a ‘female’ and ‘male’ pieces • Only an oracle after rubbed with medicines and buried in ground • As lid is moved across surface, a smooth motion is ‘no’ and sticking is ‘yes’ • Used to get fast answers to common questions

35. Divination Example

36. Divination Example • Azande oracles • Dakpa is termite oracle • Used for more important questions and takes longer to answer • Two sticks are places in termite mound overnight • More reliable (no human error) • Benge, the poison oracle, is most important oracle • Used in legal matters and in times of crisis • Feed poison to chickens and watch reaction to get answers • Poison is hard to find and chickens cannot be eaten

37. Divination Example • Astrology • Foundation is that movement of planets and stars influences humans’ lives • Began in Babylonia for the good of the community • Spread to Greece, Rome, and Egypt • Led to the zodiac

38. What’s Your Sign? • Read your sign description. • Is it accurate? • Do you think your sign governs your actions or events in your life?

39. Discussion • 1. Define and give examples of homeopathic magic and contagious magic. • 2. Do we consider items like Ouija boards and Magic 8 balls as religious devices in the US? Why or why not? Do they work? Explain. • 3. What is your opinion of your horoscope? Would you consider this a religious practice? Explain. • 4. Is divination a harmless hobby (like astrology or fortune telling)? Or can it have negative consequences? Explain your answers.