Midterm Review
Problems with Defining Magic - Otto
1)many cultures do not have a category that matches our modern category of "magic" - in other words, "magic" is a category that we impose on cultures/texts/foreigners 2)there is a very broad range of phenomena that scholars classify as "magic" 3)semantic diversity (e.g., witchcraft, medicine, etc.—are these included under the category 'magic' or not?) 4)ethnocentric biases (e.g., we impose our modern western notion onto ancient Babylonian magical texts) 5)long history of magic's negative connotation, which taints research with undesirable ideological implications
"magic is a spurious system of natural law"
Frazer - In short, magic is a spurious system of natural law as well as a fallacious guide of conduct; it is a false science as well as an abortive art. Regarded as a system of natural law, that is, as a statement of the rules which determine the sequence of events throughout the world, it may be called Theoretical Magic: regarded as a set of precepts which human beings observe in order to compass their ends, it may be called Practical Magic.
""Summa Theologica, Article 4. Is it wrong to wear amulets? 1. It would seem that it is not wrong to wear inscribed amulets about the neck. Sacred words should be no less efficacious when written than when spoken, and it is legitimate to utter them for the purpose of producing certain effects, for instance, to heal the sick, thus to say the Our Father or the Hail Mary; it is legitimate to call on the Lord's name according to Mark, in thy Name they shall cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents (Mark 16:17-18). Therefore, it seems legitimate to wear sacred words on one's person, as a remedy for sickness or for any kind of distress. 2. Moreover, sacred words are no less effective on the human body than on snakes and other animals. Now certain incantations are effective in controlling snakes, or in healing other animals; it is written in the Psalms, Their madness is according to the likeness of the serpent, like the death asp that stops its ears, which will not hear the voice of the charmers nor of the wizard that charms wisely (Psalms 57:5-6). So it is lawful to wear sacred words as a remedy for human ills. ... In every incantation or the wearing of written words, two points seem to call for caution. The first concerns what is said or written; if it implies invocation of the demonic, it is clearly superstitious and unlawful. ... A second point for caution: besides the sacred words the inscription may contain emblems of vanity, for instance, signs other than that of the cross ... Hence: 1. It is lawful to pronounce divine words or to invoke the name of God if we do so to honour him alone from whom the benefit is hoped. But it is unlawful if done in connection with any vain observance. 2. Incantations, with snakes or other animals, are not unlawful if we attend only to the sacred words and divine power. Incantations, however, often imply unlawful observances, and rely on the demonic for their result, especially in the case of snakes; the serpent was the first instrument used by the devil to deceive man ..."
Aquinas on amulets
"All the arrangements made by men for the making and worshipping of (pagan) idols are superstitious, pertaining...to consultations and arrangements about signs and leagues with devils, such, for example, as are employed in the magical arts, and which the poets are accustomed ... to celebrate. And to this class belong, but with a bolder reach of deception, the books of the haruspices and augurs. In this class we must place also all amulets and cures which the medical art condemns, whether these consist in incantations ... or in hanging or tying on or even dancing in a fashion certain articles, not with reference to the condition of the body, but to certain signs hidden or manifest; and these remedies they call by the less offensive name of physica, so as to appear not to engage in superstitious observances, but to be taking advantage of the forces of nature. Examples are the ear-rings on top of each ear, ... or telling you when you hiccup to hold your left thumb in your right hand. To these we may add thousands of the most frivolous practices, ...(such as) when friends are walking arm-in-arm, a stone, or a dog, or a boy, should come between them. And the kicking of a stone, as if it were a divider of friends, does less harm than to cuff an innocent boy if he happens to run between men who are walking side by side. .... To tread upon the threshold when you go out in front of the house; to go back to bed if anyone should sneeze when you are putting on your slippers; to return home if you stumble when going to a place; when your clothes are eaten by mice, to be more frightened at the prospect of coming misfortune than grieved by your present loss."
Augustine
"The folly of observing stars in order to predict events of a life But to desire to predict the characters, the acts, and the fate of those who are born from such an observation, is a great delusion and great madness. And among those at least who have any sort of acquaintance with matters of this kind..., this superstition is refuted beyond the reach of doubt. For the observation is of the position of the stars, which they call constellations, at the time when the person was born about whom these wretched men are consulted by their still more wretched dupes. Now it may happen that, in the case of twins, one follows the other out of the womb so closely that there is no interval of time between them that can be apprehended and marked in the position of the constellations. Whence it necessarily follows that twins are in many cases born under the same stars, while they do not meet with equal fortune either in what they do or what they suffer, but often meet with fates so different that one of them has a most fortunate life, the other a most unfortunate. As, for example, we are told that Esau and Jacob were born twins, and in such close succession, that Jacob, who was born last, was found to have laid hold with his hand upon the heel of his brother, who preceded him? Now, assuredly, the day and hour of the birth of these two could not be marked in any way that would not give both the same constellation. But what a difference there was between the characters, the actions, the labours, and the fortunes of these two, the Scriptures bear witness ..."
Augustine
a) MISHNAH. ONE MAY GO OUT [ON THE SABBATH] WITH A HARGOL'S EGG, A FOX'S TOOTH, AND A NAIL FROM [THE GALLOWS OF] AN IMPALED CONVICT AS A PROPHYLACTIC: THIS IS R. MEIR'S VIEW; BUT THE SAGES FORBID THIS EVEN ON WEEKDAYS ON ACCOUNT OF 'THE WAYS OF THE AMORITE.' b) GEMARA (= Talmudic commentary). ONE MAY GO OUT [ON THE SABBATH] WITH A HARGOL'S EGG, which is (an amulet) carried for earache; c) AND WITH A FOX'S TOOTH, which is worn on account of sleep: a living [fox's] for one who sleeps [too much], a dead [fox's] for him who cannot sleep. d) AND A NAIL FROM [THE GALLOWS OF] AN IMPALED CONVICT. It is applied to an inflammation, e) AS A PROPHYLACTIC: THIS IS R. MEIR'S VIEW. f) Abaye and Raba both maintain: Whatever is used as a remedy is not [forbidden] on account of the 'ways of the Amorite' (i.e., an illicit form of non-Jewish magic outlawed in Leviticus 18:3). g) Then if it is not an [obvious] remedy, is it forbidden on account of the ways of the Amorite? h) But surely it was taught: If a tree casts its fruit, one paints it with sikra [= red paint] and loads it with stones. i) Now, as for loading it with stones, that is in order to lessen its strength. j) But when he paints (the infected eye) with sikra [= red paint], what remedy does he effect? (Surely it is only magic?!) k) That is in order that people may see and pray for it. l) Even as it was taught: And he [the leper] shall cry, 'Unclean, unclean' (Leviticus 13:45): he must make his grief publicly known, so that the public may pray for him. ... m) A tanna [= a rabbi] recited the chapter of Amorite practices (from another rabbinic work called the Tosefta) before Rabbi Hiyya b. Abin. n) Said he to him: All these are forbidden as Amorite practices, save the following: If one has a bone in his throat, he may bring of that kind, place it on his head, and say thus: 'One by one go down, swallow, go down one by one': this is not considered the ways of the Amorite. o) For a fish bone he should say thus: 'Thou art stuck in like a pin, thou art locked up as [within] a cuirass; go down, go down.' p) He who says, 'Be lucky, my luck [gad gedi] and tire not by day or night,' is guilty of Amorite practices. ... q) If husband and wife exchange their names [as a way to ward off evil], they are guilty of Amorite practices. r) [To say], 'Be strong, o ye Barrels'! is [forbidden] as the ways of the Amorite. ... s) He who says to a raven, 'Scream,' and to a she-raven, 'Screech, and return me thy tuft for [my] good,' is guilty of Amorite practices. t) He who says, 'Kill this cock, because it crowed in the evening,' or, 'this fowl, because it crowed like a cock,' is guilty of Amorite practices. u) He who says. 'I will drink and leave over, I will drink and leave over,' is guilty of the ways of the Amorite. v) He who breaks eggs on a wall in front of fledglings, is guilty of Amorite practices. w) He who stirs [eggs?] before fledglings [= a young bird?] is guilty of Amorite practices. x) He who dances and counts seventy-one fledglings in order that they should not die, is guilty of Amorite practices. y) He who dances for kutah [= a preserve or relish made of bread crusts and sour milk], or imposes silence for lentils, or cries for beans [that they should be well prepared], is guilty of Amorite practices. z) She who urinates before her pot in order that it should be quickly cooked is guilty of Amorite practices.
Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 67a-b
•made a strong distinction between magic, religion, and science, esp. regarding concepts of causality— •magic: attempt to dictate events through technical actions (such as rituals) based upon 'faulty' idea that magic rituals affected natural events •religion: appealing to God / Christianity (?) - i.e., God is behind all events •science -understand the 'true' reasons events happen
Frazer
"But is not Zande belief in witchcraft a belief in mystical causation of phenomena and events to the complete exclusion of all natural causes? The relations of mystical to common-sense thought are very complicated ... Here I wish to state the problem in a preliminary manner and in terms of actual situations. I found it strange at first to live among Azande and listen to naive explanations of misfortunes which, to our minds, have apparent causes, but after a while I learnt the idiom of their thought and applied notions of witchcraft as spontaneously as themselves in situations where the concept was relevant. A boy knocked his foot against a small stump of wood in the centre of a bush path, a frequent happening in Africa, and suffered pain and inconvenience in consequence. Owing to its position on his toe it was impossible to keep the cut free from dirt and it began to fester. He declared that witchcraft had made him knock his foot against the stump. I always argued with Azande and criticized their statements, and I did so on this occasion I told the boy that he had knocked his foot against the stump of wood because he had been careless, and that witchcraft had not placed it in the path, for it had grown there naturally. He agreed that witchcraft had nothing to do with the stump of wood being in his path but added that he had kept his eyes open for stumps, as indeed every Zande does most carefully, and that if he had not been bewitched he would have seen the stump. As a conclusive argument for his view he remarked that all cuts do not take days to heal but, on the contrary, close quickly, for that is the nature of cuts. Why, then, had his sore festered and remained open if there were no witchcraft behind it? This, as I discovered before long, was to be regarded as the Zande explanation of sickness. ... [We] give a false account of Zande philosophy if we say that they believe witchcraft to be the sole cause of phenomena. This proposition is not contained in Zande patterns of thought, which only assert that witchcraft brings a man into relation with events in such a way that he sustains injury."
Evans-Pritchard
"In classifying Zande notions and behaviour I have made use of further categories to which some students may object. I will ask them not to deliver judgement here but to withhold their opinions till they have read the book. In any case, such are the meanings I attach to the terms, and if any one wishes to attach different meanings to them or to class the facts under different headings he is at liberty to do so. Terms are only labels which help us to sort out facts of the same kind from facts which are different, or are in some respects different. If the labels do not prove helpful we can discard them. The facts will be the same without their labels."
Evans-Pritchard
"It is an inevitable conclusion from Zande descriptions of witchcraft that it is not an objective reality. The physiological condition which is said to be the seat of witchcraft, and which I believe to be nothing more than food passing through the small intestine, is an objective condition, but the qualities they attribute to it and the rest of their beliefs about it are mystical. Witches, as Azande conceive them, cannot exist. The concept of witchcraft nevertheless provides them with a natural philosophy by which the relations between men and unfortunate events are explained... Witchcraft beliefs also embrace a system of values which regulate human conduct. Witchcraft is ubiquitous. It plays its part in every activity of Zande life; in agricultural, fishing, and hunting pursuits; in domestic life of homesteads as well as in communal life of district and court... its influence is plainly stamped on law and morals, etiquette and religion; it is prominent in technology and language ... if termites do not rise when their swarming is due and a cold useless night is spent in waiting for their flight it is witchcraft; if a wife is sulky and unresponsive to her husband it is witchcraft; if a prince is cold and distant with his subject it is witchcraft... if, in fact, any failure or misfortune falls upon any one at any time and in relation to any of the manifold activities of his life it may be due to witchcraft ... Witchcraft is to him a commonplace happening and he seldom passes a day without mentioning it. ... Witchcraft is a classification of misfortunes."
Evans-Pritchard
Theoretical Magic: the natural rules behind why events happen in the sequence and order that they do—e.g., why someone gets sick eating bananas once, but not every time; why there are hurricanes, etc. Practical Magic: people do things based on what they think works in order to achieve certain goals—e.g., athletes have a routine or ritual prior to any event, such as baseball players who spit a certain number of times before an at-bat or pitchers who rub the ball a certain way before every pitch.
Frazer
Whose ideas are these? •sympathetic magic •law of similarity •law of contagion •historical evolution of human species: magic > religion > science
Frazer
"One can only obtain the full range of a Zande's ideas about causation by allowing him to fill in the gaps himself, otherwise one will be led astray by linguistic conventions. He tells you "So-and-so was bewitched and killed himself" or even simply that "So-and-so was killed by witchcraft." But he is telling you the ultimate cause of his death and not the secondary causes. You can ask him "How did he kill himself?" and he will tell you that he committed suicide by hanging himself from the branch of a tree. You can also ask "Why did he kill himself?" and he will tell you that it was because he was angry with his brothers. The cause of his death was hanging from a tree, and the cause of his hanging from a tree was his anger with his brothers. If you then ask a Zande why he should say that the man was bewitched if he committed suicide on account of his anger with his brothers, he will tell you that only crazy people commit suicide, and that if everyone who was angry with his brothers committed suicide there would soon be no people left in the world, and that if this man had not been bewitched he would not have done what he did do. If you persevere and ask why witchcraft caused the man to kill himself the Zande will reply that he supposes someone hated him, and if you ask him why someone hated him your informant will tell you that such is the nature of men. For if Azande cannot enunciate a theory of causation in terms acceptable to us they describe happenings in an idiom that is explanatory. ... Witchcraft explains why events are harmful to man and not how they happen. ... [p. 150=> ]Belief in death from natural causes and belief in death from witchcraft are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, they supplement one another, the one accounting for what the other does not account for."
Evans-Pritchard
Belief= In general, magic and witchcraft have their own internal logic and rules of thinking that make sense to the community that believes in and uses them. Moreover, magic can co-exist with natural causation and biomedical ideas.
Evans-Pritchard
1) magic is mystical; experience cannot refute ● 3) unsuccessful single 'magic' medicine does not mean all 'magic' medicine is ineffective 6) beliefs are event-specific; therefore, contradictions are not noticed 10) witchcraft can cause error in a magical ritual; therefore, when a magical ritual doesn't work, it doesn't work because of magic! Magic doesn't work because of magic. 11) magic takes credit for things that will happen naturally 12) magic is never the single explanation for something—it only makes this or that more or less successful than it would have otherwise 13) magic is often conjoined with empirical actions 17) they don't know 'science'- they have no clocks, for instance 18) they don't test the efficacy of their medicines
Evans-Pritchard on why the Azande don't perceive the futility of their magic
"But as time goes on [religion] in its turn proves to be unsatisfactory. For it assumes that the succession of natural events is not determined by immutable laws, but is to some extent variable and irregular, and this assumption is not borne out by closer observation. On the contrary, the more we scrutinise that succession the more we are struck by the rigid uniformity... that the operations of nature are carried on. Every great advance in knowledge has extended the sphere of order and correspondingly restricted the sphere of apparent disorder in the world... Thus the keener minds, still pressing forward to a deeper solution of the mysteries of the universe, come to reject the religious theory of nature as inadequate, and to revert in a measure to the older standpoint of magic by postulating explicitly, what in magic had only been implicitly assumed, to wit, an inflexible regularity in the order of natural events, which, if carefully observed, enables us to foresee their course with certainty and to act accordingly. In short, religion, regarded as an explanation of nature, is displaced by science. But while science has this much in common with magic that both rest on a faith in order as the underlying principle of all things... The difference flows naturally from the different modes in which the two orders have been reached. For whereas the order on which magic reckons is merely an extension, by false analogy, of the order in which ideas present themselves to our minds, the order laid down by science is derived from patient and exact observation of the phenomena themselves."
Frazer
"By religion, then, I understand a propitiation or conciliation of powers superior to man which are believed to direct and control the course of nature and of human life. Thus defined, religion consists of two elements, a theoretical and a practical, namely, a belief in powers higher than man and an attempt to propitiate or please them. Of the two, belief clearly comes first, since we must believe in the existence of a divine being before we can attempt to please him. ... But if religion involves, first, a belief in superhuman beings who rule the world, and, second, an attempt to win their favour, it clearly assumes that the course of nature is to some extent elastic or variable, and that we can persuade or induce the mighty beings who control it to deflect, for our benefit, the current of events from the channel in which they would otherwise flow. Now this implied elasticity or variability of nature is directly opposed to the principles of magic as well as of science, both of which assume that the processes of nature are rigid and invariable in their operation... The distinction between the two conflicting views of the universe turns on their answer to the crucial question, Are the forces which govern the world conscious and personal, or unconscious and impersonal? Religion, as a conciliation of the superhuman powers, assumes the former member of the alternative."
Frazer
"If an Age of Religion has thus everywhere, as I venture to surmise, been preceded by an Age of Magic, it is natural that we should enquire what causes have led mankind, or rather a portion of them, to abandon magic as a principle of faith and practice and to betake themselves to religion instead. ... The shrewder intelligences must in time have come to perceive that magical ceremonies and incantations did not really effect the results which they were designed to produce, and which the majority of their simpler fellows still believed that they did actually produce. This great discovery of the inefficacy of magic must have wrought a radical though probably slow revolution in the minds of those who had the sagacity to make it. The discovery amounted to this, that men for the first time recognised their inability to manipulate at pleasure certain natural forces which hitherto they had believed to be completely within their control. It was a confession of human ignorance and weakness."
Frazer
"In the first place a consideration of the fundamental notions of magic and religion may incline us to surmise that magic is older than religion in the history of humanity. We have seen that on the one hand magic is nothing but a mistaken application of the very simplest and most elementary processes of the mind, namely the association of ideas by virtue of resemblance or contiguity; and that on the other hand religion assumes the operation of conscious or personal agents, superior to man, behind the visible screen of nature. Obviously the conception of personal agents is more complex than a simple recognition of the similarity or contiguity of ideas; and a theory which assumes that the course of nature is determined by conscious agents is more abstruse and recondite, and requires for its apprehension a far higher degree of intelligence and reflection, than the view that things succeed each other simply by reason of their contiguity or resemblance... Thus, if magic be deduced immediately from elementary processes of reasoning, and be, in fact, an error into which the mind falls almost spontaneously, while religion rests on conceptions which the merely animal intelligence can hardly be supposed to have yet attained to, it becomes probable that magic arose before religion in the evolution of our race, and that man essayed to bend nature to his wishes by the sheer force of spells and enchantments before he strove to coax and mollify a coy, capricious, or irascible deity by the soft insinuation of prayer and sacrifice. The conclusion which we have thus reached deductively from a consideration of the fundamental ideas of magic and religion is confirmed inductively by the observation that among the aborigines of Australia, the rudest savages as to whom we possess accurate information, magic is universally practised, whereas religion in the sense of a propitiation or conciliation of the higher powers seems to be nearly unknown."
Frazer
"Wherever sympathetic magic occurs in its pure unadulterated form it assumes that in nature one event follows another necessarily and invariably without the intervention of any spiritual or personal agency. Thus its fundamental conception is identical with that of modern science; underlying the whole system is a faith... in the order and uniformity of nature. The magician does not doubt that the same causes will always produce the same effects, that the performance of the proper ceremony, accompanied by the appropriate spell, will inevitably be attended by the desired result, unless, indeed, his incantations should chance to be thwarted and foiled by the more potent charms of another sorcerer. ... He can wield [power] so long as he strictly conforms to the rules of his art, or to what may be called the laws of nature as conceived by him. To neglect these rules... is to incur failure, and may even expose the unskilful practitioner himself to the utmost peril. If he claims a sovereignty over nature, it is a constitutional sovereignty rigorously limited in its scope and exercised in exact conformity with ancient usage. Thus the analogy between the magical and the scientific conceptions of the world is close. In both of them the succession of events is assumed to be perfectly regular and certain, being determined by immutable laws, the operation of which can be foreseen and calculated precisely... Both of them open up a seemingly boundless vista of possibilities to him who knows the causes of things... Hence the strong attraction which magic and science alike have exercised on the human mind; hence the powerful stimulus that both have given to the pursuit of knowledge... The fatal flaw of magic lies not in its assumption of a sequence of events determined by law, but in its total misconception of the nature of the particular laws which govern that sequence."
Frazer
"Yet the history of thought should warn us against concluding that because the scientific theory of the world is the best that has yet been formulated, it is necessarily complete and final."
Frazer
"both assume that things act on each other at a distance through a secret sympathy, the impulse being transmitted from one to the other by means of what we may conceive as a kind of invisible ether, not unlike that which is postulated by modern science for a precisely similar purpose, namely, to explain how things can physically affect each other through a space which appears to be empty."
Frazer explaining law of similarity and contagion
"I think that the first people to have projected this disease [epilepsy] as "sacred" were men like those who are now mages [magoi] and purifiers [kathartai] and beggar-priests [agurtai] and vagrant-charlatans [alazones]. These people purport to be extremely reverent of the gods and to know something more than the rest of us. They use the divine to hide behind and to cloak the fact that they have nothing to apply to the disease and bring relief. So that their ignorance should not become manifest, they promoted the belief that this disease was sacred. They added further appropriate arguments to render their method of healing safe for themselves. They applied purifications [katharmoi] and incantations [epaoidai] and told people to refrain from bathing and many foods unsuitable for the sick to eat: among fish they banned red mullet, black-tail, grey mullet, and eel (for these are the most hazardous); among meats goat, venison, pork and dog (for these are the meats that upset the stomach most); among poultry cock, pigeon, the otis-bird and all those birds considered to be least indigestible; among vegetables mint, garlic, and onions (their sharpness is deleterious for a sick man). They also forbade the wearing of a black cloak (for black is deathly), the lying on or wearing of goatskin, the placing of foot upon foot or hand upon hand (for this is shackling). These measures they establish because of the divine nature of the disease, as if they know something more. And they talk of other causes too, so that if the sick man becomes well again, they may claim a reputation for cleverness, but that if he dies, their defense can be based on safe ground and they can have the excuse that it is not they themselves who are responsible, but the gods. If they have given their patient no drug [pharmakon] to eat or drink and if they have not soaked him in baths, they cannot be thought responsible. I think that none of the inland Libyans could enjoy good health, because they lie on goat skins and eat goat meat, since they have no blanket or cloak or shoe that is not derived from the goat. For they have no herds other that of goats. If the consumption of these and their application to the body causes and fosters disease while abstinence from them heals and cures it, the god can no longer be held responsible, and purifications offer no help. Rather it is the foods that cure and harm, and the effect of the divine disappears."
Hippocrates
"Thus I think those who try to cure these diseases in this way believe them to be neither sacred nor divine. For where the diseases can be dislodged by purifications and therapy of this kind, what is to prevent them being inflicted on and made to attack men through the use of corresponding techniques? So the cause is no longer divine, but human. For the man who is capable of banishing such an illness through exhaustive purifications [perikathairôn] and magic [mageuôn] is equally capable of inflicting it by using complementary techniques. By this argument too the prospect of a divine effect is abolished. With such claims and contrivances they pretend to know something more and they deceive men by giving them sacred purifications, and most of their talk is directed to the divine and to supernatural powers. But I think their talk does not demonstrate their piety, as they believe, but rather their impiety, claiming as it does that the gods do not exist, while their supposed piety and their devotion to the divine is impious and unholy. I will show you why. They claim to know how to draw down the moon, make the sun disappear, create bad weather and good, rains and droughts, render the sea impassable and the land sterile, and all the other things like this. Those skilled in these things say that such effects are achievable through the performance of rites or some other cleverness or practice. But they seem to me impious, to believe that the gods do not exist and that they have no power, and I think there is no extreme action that they would forbear to undertake, since the gods hold no terror for them. For if a man will draw down the moon by magic [mageuôn] and sacrifice, make the sun disappear and create bad weather and good, I for my part would not consider any of this divine, but human, if the power of the divine is defeated and enslaved by human cleverness. But perhaps it is not so. Perhaps it is just that men trying to make a living invent all manner of things and make elaborate claims, especially with regard to this disease, and stick the blame for each form of the disease on a god. For they do not blame just one, but several gods for these things. ... For they purify those who are in the grip of a disease with blood and other such things as if they were subject to pollution [miasma] or avenging ghosts [alastores], or were bewitched [pepharmagmenoi] by men, or had done some unholy deed. They should do the opposite to these men: they should sacrifice, pray, and bring them into temples and supplicate the gods. Yet they do none of these things, but just purify them. Some of the purifications [katharmôn] they bury in the earth, some they throw into the sea, and some they carry off to the mountains, where no one will touch them or tread on them. But they ought to take them into temples and return them to the god, if the god is indeed responsible. But I don't believe that the human body is polluted by a god, when it is so corrupt and the divine is so holy. But if the body happens to have been polluted or made to suffer by some third party, I believe that it would be purified and made holy by the god rather than polluted by him. The divine is what purifies and makes holy the greatest and most unholy of our errors and the dirt that attaches to us as a result. We ourselves mark out boundaries for the temples and sanctuaries of the gods, so that no one should cross them if he is not pure. When we enter them we are sprinkled, not in the belief that we are being polluted, but so that we may be cleansed of any prior pollution we have. This is what I think about purifications."
Hippocrates
This is a charm to overturn sorceries and oaths and curses and knocks and magic rites and aversions, from Abba son of Barkhita onto Imi daughter of Rebecca, onto Lili and onto Mar the children of Imi and onto all who cursed them. I have adjured you by the holy angels, and by the name of Metatron the pure angel, Nidriel and Nuriel and Huriel and Sasgabiel and Hapkiel and Mehapkiel, those seven angels that are going and overturning the heavens and the earth and the stars and the zodiac signs and the moon and Plaedes. May you go and overturn evil sorceries and powerful magical acts and an oath and a curse and a knock and a magic rite and trumpet blowings and bans—that he has in his house and in his body and in his frame—for the benefit of Abba son of Barkhita. ... Again, I adjure upon you, evil sorceries and powerful magical acts and oaths and curses and knocks and magic rites and aversions of aversions and any evil that is upon Abba son of Barkhita, that you may go and be overturned upon any who cursed them. And by the name 'YN and amen from this day and for ever. Amen amen selah Hallelujah, immediately. This is a charm for overturning an evil Yaror that is upon Abba son of Barkhita. May it be overturned upon Imi daughter of Rebecca and may it turn away and go out from him, from Abba son of Barkhita.
Jewish Magic Bowl (VA.2416)
· #1 because: "Only emic terminology effectively captures the socially conferred meaning of a particular action" (245). · the definition of magic should thus come from within the societies that we study: "Consequently, any definition must fully take into account specific constructions of magic rather than adhere to a set of predefined objective criteria that will, in most cases, impose our own society's construction of magic without providing significant insight into the other culture, its beliefs and social practices" (245).
Kimberly Stratton
"A pointed bone or a stick, an arrow or the spine of some animal, is ritually, in a mimic fashion, thrust, thrown, or pointed in the direction of the man to be killed by sorcery. ... The emotional setting, the gestures and expressions of the sorcerer during the performance ... are of the greatest importance. If a spectator were suddenly transported to some part of Melanesia and could observe the sorcerer at work, not perhaps knowing exactly what he was looking at, he might think that he had either to do with a lunatic or else he would guess that here was a man acting under the sway of uncontrolled anger. For the sorcerer has, as an essential part of the ritual performance, not merely to point the bone dart at his victim, but with an intense expression of fury and hatred he has to thrust it in the air, turn and twist it as if to bore it in the wound, then pull it back with a sudden jerk. Thus not only is the act of violence, or stabbing, reproduced, but the passion of violence has to be enacted .... the emotional state of the performer, a state which closely corresponds to the situation in which we find it and which has to be gone through mimetically."
Malinowski
"Magic is akin to science in that it always has a definite aim intimately associated with human instincts, needs, and pursuits. The magic art is directed towards the attainment of practical aims. Like the other arts and crafts, it is also governed by a theory, by a system of principles which dictate the manner in which the act has to be performed in order to be effective. ... Both use a special technique. ... with Sir James Frazer, we can appropriately call magic a pseudo-science."
Malinowski
"the most important element in magic is the spell. The spell is that part of magic which is occult, handed over in magical filiation, known only to the practitioner. To the natives knowledge of magic means knowledge of spell, and in an analysis of any act of witchcraft it will always be found that the ritual centers round the utterance of the spell. The formula is always the core of the magical performance. ... Or again the magician uses words and sentences which express the emotion under the stress of which he works his magic, and the action which gives expression to this emotion"
Malinowski
Belief = Magical rituals = expressions of emotion and Magic spells imitate their desired ends, and express the relevant emotion of those desired ends
Malinowski
Belief= Spells are not always 'neutral' but are often intertwined with religious traditions -invoke figures (e.g., Jesus, Moses, etc.) -invoke mythological symbols from scriptures (e.g., Creation) -quote scripture (e.g., Bible) Hence, religious ideas and figures can make the magical ritual or spell effective.
Malinowski
Believes •influence by Freudian theory—defines magic as a way for people to deal with crisis in situations where they have no control •studying magic gives us insight into primitive man's longings and wisdom, and the "mysteries" of the world
Malinowski
Magic is "the union of man's steadfast desire with the wayward whim of chance, then every desire, positive or negative may—nay, must—have its magic."
Malinowski
•This person, like Frazer, says magic is pseudo-science that does not really "work", but •unlike Frazer, does not follow evolutionary model: magic > religion > science
Malinowski
"What is the cultural function of magic? We have seen that all the instincts and emotions, all practical activities, lead man into impasses where gaps in his knowledge and the limitations of his early power of observation and reason betray him at a crucial moment. Human organism reacts to this in spontaneous outbursts, in which rudimentary modes of behavior and rudimentary beliefs in their efficiency are engendered. Magic fixes upon these beliefs and rudimentary rites and standardizes them into permanent traditional forms. Thus magic supplies primitive man with a number of ready-made ritual acts and beliefs, with a definite mental and practical technique which serves to bridge over the dangerous gaps in every important pursuit or critical situation. It enables man to carry out with confidence his important tasks, to maintain his poise and his mental integrity in fits of anger, in the throes of hate, of unrequited love, of despair and anxiety. The function of magic is to ritualize man's optimism, to enhance his faith in the victory of hope over fear. Magic expresses the greater value for man of confidence over doubt, of steadfastness over vacillation, of optimism over pessimism."
Malinowski - Magic ritualizes human optimism for situations in which humans have little control
""On the other hand, rites do exist which are consistently magical. These are the evil spells or maléfices, and we find them regularly qualified as such by both law and religion. The casting of evil spells is illicit and expressly prohibited and punished. This prohibition marks the formal distinction between magical and religious rites. It is the fact of prohibition itself which gives the spell its magical character. There are religious rites which are equally maleficent, such as certain cases of devotio, the imprecations made against a communal enemy, against persons violating tombs or breaking oaths, and all those death rites sanctioned by ritual taboos. We might go so far as to say that there are evil spells which are evil only in so far as people fear them. The fact of their being prohibited provides a delimitation for the whole sphere of magical action. We have, in other words, two extremes which form the differing poles of magic religion: the pole of sacrifice and the pole of evil spells. Religion has always created a kind of ideal towards which people direct their hymns, vows, sacrifices, an ideal which is bolstered by prescriptions. These are areas which are avoided by magic, since association with evil as an aspect of magical rites always provides humanity with a rough general notion of magic. ... [M]agical and religious rites often have different agents; in other words, they are not performed by one and the same person. By way of exception, a priest performing a magical rite does not adopt the normal comportment of his profession: he turns his back to the altar, he performs with his left hand what he usually does with his right, and so on and so forth. ... [T]here is the choice of place where the magical ceremony is to be performed. This is not generally inside a temple or at some domestic shrine. Magical rites are commonly performed in woods, far away from dwelling places, at night or in shadowy corners, in the secret recesses of a house or at any rate in some out-of-the-way place. Where religious rites are performed openly, in full public view, magical rites are carried out in secret... Thus, as far as society is concerned, the magician is a being set apart and he prefers even more to retire to the depths of the forest. Among colleagues too he nearly always tries to keep himself to himself. In this way he is reserving his powers. Isolation and secrecy are two almost perfect signs of the intimate character of a magical rite. They are always features of a person or persons working in a private capacity; both the act and the actor are shrouded in mystery. In fact, however, the various characteristics we have so far revealed only reflect the irreligiosity of magical rites. They are anti-religious and it is desired that they be so. In any case, they do not belong to those organized systems which we call cults. Religious practices, on the contrary, even fortuitous and voluntary ones, are always predictable, prescribed and official. They do form part of a cult. Gifts presented to gods on the occasion of a vow, or an expiatory sacrifice offered during illness, are regular kinds of homage. Although performed in each case voluntarily, they are really obligatory and inevitable actions. Magical rites, on the other hand, while they may occur regularly (as in the case of agricultural magic) and fulfil a need when they are performed for specific ends (such as a cure), are always considered unauthorized, abnormal and, at the very least, not highly estimable. Medical rites, however useful and licit they may be made to appear, do not involve the same degree of solemnity, nor the same idea of an accomplished duty, as do expiatory sacrifices or vows made to a curative divinity. When somebody has recourse to a medicine man, the owner of a spirit-fetish, a bone-mender or a magician, there is certainly a need, but no moral obligation is involved. ... We have thus arrived at a provisionally adequate definition of magical phenomena. A magical rite is any rite which does not play a part in organized cults - it is private, secret, mysterious and approaches the limit of a prohibited rite. Magic is a living mass, formless and inorganic, and its vital parts have neither a fixed position nor a fixed function. They merge confusedly together. ... In sum, the functions of magic are not specialized. Magical life is not compartmentalized like religion. It has not led to the growth of any autonomous institutions like sacrifice and priesthood. And, since magical facts cannot be divided up into categories, we have been forced to think in terms of abstract elements. Magic is everywhere in a diffuse state.
Mauss
· "I propose, therefore, that we define magic not according to a concrete set of practices, which are universally defined (even according to a broad polythetic model), but as culturally specific ideas about illegitimate and dangerous access to numinous power, whose local applications need to be considered on their own terms in order to understand the work they do in their respective societies. This approach avoids inappropriately imposing post- Enlightenment, post-Reformation categories and conceptions onto other cultures since attention to emic terminology and context reveals which practices are considered magic (or the equivalent) within that society and how those labels function ideologically. At the same time, such an approach enables the category magic to be applied comparatively when the concept (or one that is analogous) is demonstrated to operate in that culture... I emphasize the culturally specific nature of magic beliefs as well as the ideological work they do."
Stratton
"Magic has no genuine kinship with anything apart from religion on the one hand and science and technology on the other. We have said that magic tends to resemble technology, as it becomes more individualistic and specialized in the pursuit of its varied aims. Nevertheless, these two series of facts contain more than an external similarity: there is a functional identity, since, as we pointed out in our definition, both have the same aims. While religion is directed towards more metaphysical ends and is involved in the creation of idealistic images, magic has found a thousand fissures in the mystical world from whence it draws its forces, and is continually leaving it in order to take part in everyday life and play a practical role there. It has a taste for the concrete. Religion, on the other hand, tends to be abstract. Magic works in the same way as do our techniques, crafts, medicine, chemistry, industry, etc. Magic is essentially the art of doing things, and magicians have always taken advantage of their know-how, their dexterity, their manual skill. Magic is the domain of pure production, ex nihilo. With words and gestures it does what techniques achieve by labour. Fortunately, the magical art has not always been characterized by gesticulations into thin air. It has dealt with material things, carried out real experiments and even made its own discoveries. Nevertheless, we could say that it is still a very simple craft. All efforts are avoided by successfully replacing reality by images. A magician does nothing, or almost nothing, but makes everyone believe that he is doing everything... The art of the magician involves suggesting means, enlarging on the virtues of objects, anticipating effects, and by these methods fully satisfying the desires and expectations which have been fostered by entire generations in common. ... Magic is linked to science in the same way as it is linked to technology. It is not only a practical art, it is also a storehouse of ideas. It attaches great importance to knowledge - one of its mainsprings. In fact, we have seen over and over again how, as far as magic is concerned, knowledge is power. But while religion, because of its intellectual character, has a tendency toward metaphysics, magic - which we have shown to be more concerned with the concrete - is concerned with understanding nature. It quickly set up a kind of index of plants, metals, phenomena, beings and life in general, and became an early store of information for the astronomical, physical and natural sciences. It is a fact that certain branches of magic, such as astrology and alchemy, were called applied physics in Greece."
Mauss
"Magical knowledge seems to have been passed on from individual to individual, just as in the teaching of science and techniques. The means of transmitting magical rites among the Cherokee are instructive on this score. There existed a whole body of magical scholarship and schools of magicians. In order to pass on magical knowledge to individuals, magic had to make it intelligible to individuals. Then there developed experimental or dialectical theory which naturally enough neglected the unconscious collective facts. The Greek alchemists and their successors, our modern magicians, tried to deduce it from philosophical principles. Moreover, all magical systems, even the most primitive or popular, justify their remedies by reference to past experience. And magical systems have developed through objective researches and genuine experiences. They have progressively benefited from discoveries which have been both true and false. In this way, the relative role of the collectivity in magic has been whittled down. It diminished because the collectivity banished everything of an irrational or an a priori nature. In this way, magic began to approximate to the sciences and finally came to resemble them in so far as it claimed to result from experimental researches and logical deductions made by individuals. In this as well, magic more and more came to resemble technology, which itself responds to the same positive and individual needs. Except for its traditional character, magic has tried to cast off all collective aspects. Everything involving theoretical and practical achievements now becomes the work of individuals, and it is exploited only by individuals."
Mauss
"So far we have managed to define only ritual, not magical ritual, and we must now attempt to distinguish it from religious rites. Frazer, as we have seen, proposed his own criteria. The first is that magical rites are sympathetic rites. But this is not sufficient. There are not only magical rites which are not sympathetic, but neither is sympathy a prerogative of magic, since there are sympathetic practices in religion. During the festival of Succoth, when the great priest in the temple of Jerusalem poured water onto the altar, hands held high above his head, he was obviously performing a sympathetic rite destined to bring about rain. When, during a holy sacrifice, a Hindu officiant prolongs or shortens at will the life of the sacrificial victim, following the peregrination which accompanies the libation, the ritual is still eminently sympathetic. In both cases the symbolism is perfectly clear; the ritual appears to act by itself. However, in each of these rituals the dominant character is religious. The officiants, the atmosphere of the place, the presence of divinities, the gravity of the actions, the aims of the people attending the rite - all leave no doubt in our minds on this score. Sympathetic rites may therefore, be either magical or religious. The second criterion proposed by Frazer is that a magical rite normally acts on its own, that is, constrains, while a religious rite worships and conciliates. The former has an automatic, immediate reaction; the latter acts indirectly through a kind of respectful persuasion - here the agent is a spiritual intermediary. However, this is far from satisfactory as an explanation. Religious rites may also constrain and, in most of the ancient religions, the god was unable to prevent a rite from accomplishing its end if it had been faultlessly executed. Nor is it true ... that all magical rites have a direct action, since spirits and even gods may be involved in magic. Finally, spirits, gods and devils do not always automatically obey the orders of a magician; the latter is often forced to supplicate to them."
Mauss
"Though we may feel ourselves to be very far removed from magic, we are still very much bound up with it. Our ideas of good and bad luck, of quintessence, which are still familiar to us, are very close to the idea of magic itself. Neither technology, science, nor the directing principles of our reason are quite free from their original taint. We are not being daring, I think, if we suggest that a good part of all those non-positive mystical and poetical elements in our notions of force, causation, effect and substance could be traced back to the old habits of mind in which magic was born and which the human mind is slow to throw off."
Mauss
For a spleen, a proven salve. From early morning until the sixth hour of the day: barley meal and lard from pigs and very sour vinegar; salt. For eyelids, that they not swell: blood of bats and blood of shrimp, when the moon is waning. ... ... For a little child, to make the child's teeth grow before that child has pain: Put the foam from wax on the child's swollen (gums). For a person who is swollen: gold brine in which the gold is immersed. Grind it with oil. Anoint the person until that person gets better. Voice of winds when there are no winds, voice of waves when there are no waves, voice of Amun, the three deities. Amun, where are you going in this way, in this manner? I am going to the south wind northward... ... ... A great lizard: In this way, while it is still fresh, burn it, grind it with vinegar, put it with incense. Put it on eyes that have discharge. They will get better. A little fresh fat from a sow: Grind it. Put it on sores that have appeared at the anus, along with real honey. For teeth that hurt: a small amount of warm milk from an ass. Wash out your mouth with it, and they will get better. For ears that hurt: a little calf gall. Put it into his ear and under his teeth, and they will all get better. A person who has trouble taking a shit: Smear his belly with calk <marrow>, and he will get better. If there is a little child crying: Smear the child's skull with calk marrow or calf brains.
Meyer and Smith (eds.), Ancient Christian Magic: Coptic Texts of Ritual Power - Text 1: Book of Ritual Spells for Medical Problems
For a woman's love, a really effective charm (?). Write these signs on a sheet of tin. Offering: wild herb (?), froth from the mouth of a completely black horse, and a bat. Bury it at the woman's door. You see its potency quickly. (signs and letters) I adjure you by all your holy names, with your offerings, and your amulets, and your thrones upon which you sit, and your garments that cloth you, and your perfect steles, [and your] residences in which you dwell. I adjure you by all these things for the sake of a heartfelt love and a pang and a heartfelt madness in the heart of N. daughter of N. Quickly! I adjure the great power of Bersebour, the king of the demons... I adjure you by all these things. Let her not eat or [drink or lie down (?)] or sit, until she becomes like a [black(?)] dog that is crazy for its pups, and, as for a drop of water dangling from a jar like a snake, desperate [for the] soul of N. son of N, until she comes to N. Quickly! ...
Meyer and Smith (eds.), Ancient Christian Magic: Coptic Texts of Ritual Power - Text 2: Erotic Spell to Attract a Woman
Historia Naturalis 30.1-6 I. In the previous part of my work I have often indeed refuted the fraudulent lies of the Magi [=Persian Zoroastrian priests], whenever the subject and the occasion required it, and I shall continue to expose them. In a few respects, however, the theme deserves1 to be enlarged upon, were it only because the most fraudulent of arts has held complete sway throughout the world for many ages. Nobody should be surprised at the greatness of its influence, since alone of the arts it has embraced three others that hold supreme dominion over the human mind, and made them subject to itself alone. Nobody will doubt that it first arose from medicine, and that professing to promote health it insidiously advanced under the disguise of a higher and holier system; that to the most seductive and welcome promises it added the powers of religion, about which even today the human race is quite in the dark; that again meeting with success it made a further addition of astrology, because there is nobody who is not eager to learn his destiny, or who does not believe that the truest account of it is that gained by watching the skies. Accordingly, holding men's emotions in a three-fold bond, magic rose to such a height that even today it has sway over a great part of mankind, and in the East commands the Kings of Kings. II. Without doubt magic arose in Persia with Zoroaster. On this our authorities are agreed, but whether he was the only one of that name, or whether there was also another afterwards, is not clear. ... ... V. As Osthanes said, there are several forms of magic; he professes to divine from water, globes, air, stars, lamps, basins and axes, and by many other methods, and besides to converse with ghosts and those in the underworld. All of these in our generation the Emperor Nero [=Roman emperor, 54-68 C.E.] discovered to be lies and frauds. In fact his passion for the lyre and tragic song was no greater than his passion for magic; his elevation to the greatest height of human fortune aroused desire in the vicious depths of his mind; his greatest wish was to issue commands to the gods, and he could rise to no nobler ambition. No other of the arts ever had a more enthusiastic patron. Every means were his to gratify his desire - wealth, strength, aptitude for learning - and what else did the world not allow! That the craft is a fraud there could be no greater or more indisputable proof than that Nero abandoned it; but would that he had consulted about his suspicions the powers of Hell and any other gods whatsoever, instead of entrusting these researches to pimps and harlots. Of a surety no ceremony, outlandish and savage though the rites may be, would not have been gentler than Nero's thoughts; more cruelly behaving than any did Nero thus fill our Rome with ghosts.
Pliny
Enneads 4.4.40 But how do magic spells work? By sympathy and by the fact that there is a natural concord of things that are alike and opposition of things that are different, and by the rich variety of the many powers which go to make up the life of the one living creature. For many things are drawn and enchanted without anyone else's magical contrivance: and the true magic is the "Love" and also the "Strife" in the All. And this is the primary wizard and enchanter, from observing whom men came to use his philtres and spells on each other. For, because love is natural to men and the things that cause love have a force of attraction to each other, there has come into existence the helpful power of a magical art of love, used by those who apply by contact to different people different magical substances designed to draw them together and with a love-force implanted in them; they join one soul to another, as if they were training together plants set at intervals. They use as well figures with power in them, and by putting themselves into the right postures they quietly bring powers upon themselves, since they are within one universe and work upon one universe. For if anyone put a magician outside the All, he could not draw or bring down by attractive or binding spells. But now, because he does not operate as if he were somewhere else, he can work on his subjects knowing by what way one thing is drawn to another in the living being. And there is a natural drawing power in spells wrought by the tune and the particular intonation and posture of the magician - for these things attract...
Plotinus
Enneads 4.4.43 But how is the good man affected by magic and drugs? He is incapable of being affected in his soul by enchantment, and his rational part would not be affected, nor would he change his mind; but he would be affected in whatever part of the irrational in the All there is in him, or rather this part would be affected; but he will feel no passionate loves provoked by drugs, if falling in love happens when one soul assents to the affection of the other. But, just as the irrational part of him is affected by incantations, so he himself by counter-chants and counter-incantations will dissolve the powers on the other side. But he might suffer death or illnesses or anything bodily from such incantations; for the part of the All [in him] would be affected by another part or by the All, but he himself would be unharmed. (That the effects of magic do not follow immediately, but later, is not out of line with nature.)
Plotinus
For an abscess one should say thus: 'Let it indeed be cut down, let it indeed be healed, let it indeed be overthrown; Sharlai and Amarlai are those angels who were sent from the land of Sodom to heal boils and aches: bazak, bazik, bizbazik, mismasik, kamun kamik, thy colour [be confined] within thee, thy colour [be confined] within thee, thy seat be within thee, thy seed be like a kalut and like a mule that is not fruitful and does not increase; so be thou not fruitful nor increase in the body of So-andso.' Against ulcers one should say thus: 'A drawn sword and a prepared sling, its name is not Joheb, sickness and pains.' Against a demon one should say thus: 'Thou wast closed up; closed up wast thou. Cursed, broken, and destroyed be Bar Tit, Bar Tame, Bar Tina as Shamgez, Mezigaz and Istamai.' For a demon of the privy one should say thus: 'On the head of a lion and on the snout of a lioness did we find the demon Bar Shirika Panda; with a bed of leeks I hurled him down, [and] with the jawbone of an ass I smote him.
Shabbat 67a
"If Western anthropologists faced with certain ritual procedures of non-Western societies view them as "magic" that is empirically false and doomed to concede to the claims of science, they are right as far as their own history is concerned, irrespective of the truth of the assertion elsewhere. There is no denying that in Europe there is some kind of developmental sequence by which out of more "primitive" notions and "magical" practices more "scientific" notions and experimentation were born. The process was by no means linear but it is true that alchemy gave way to chemistry, astrology to astronomy, leechcraft to medicine, etc. It is also to be borne in mind that old concepts from Greek natural philosophy (such as "atoms", "species", "force", "attraction") and from Greek medicine (especially the Hippocratic corpus) still persist (in form) although they have been transformed (in meaning) in the process. Somewhere in the middle of the transition it is very plausible that science differentiated out of magic, while magic itself was at the same time making "empirical" claims. It may very well be that the Western experience is a privileged case of transition from "magic" to "science"."
Tambiah
