Sorcery in the Era of 'Henry IV': Kinship, Mobility and Mortality in Buhera District, Zimbabwe

Recent studies of witchcraft and sorcery in Africa have described this domain as an all–powerful and inescapable discourse. This article, on a migrant labour society in Zimbabwe, discloses a situation in which this discourse and its interpretation are contested. It shows how existential insecurity, which gives rise to witchcraft accusations, relates to the high incidence of HIV/AIDS–related illnesses and death – euphemistically called Henry IV (HIV). Witchcraft accusations arise within kin–based networks that span rural and urban geographical areas, as it is these networks that people depend upon for their livelihoods. Thus, this article stresses the important link between witchcraft and kinship in a society that is not geographically bound, revealing how witchcraft discourse is assigned a place relative to other social phenomena.     

Sanguma and scepticism: questioning witchcraft in the highlands of Papua New Guinea

Some anthropologists prefer clear-cut depictions of the societies they study, preferring to ignore differences of opinion, failures of belief, and expressions of scepticism and doubt. This tendency is increasingly being challenged, and an emerging literature now explores scepticism. Contributing to this literature, I discuss the scepticism towards witchcraft expressed by my interlocutors in the Papua New Guinea highlands province of Chimbu. I do not juxtapose witchcraft to science, for witchcraft must be taken seriously – especially since accusations often have severe consequences. Expressions of scepticism bring into doubt the absolute certainty of witchcraft as the explanation for misfortunes such as illness and death, and its study provides a more nuanced picture of a society, showing how cultural norms can be transformed and the foundations of violence can be disrupted. This applies to the scepticism I heard expressed, because the challenge it poses to witchcraft accusations may help prevent further violence. An anthropology of scepticism could usefully be applied more broadly to many aspects of culture, since study of scepticism is one way of reaching an understanding of how social change occurs.     

Pentecostal peacefulness: virtue ethics and the reception of theology in Nepal

The anthropology of Christianity has struggled to theorize the place of theology in Christian social life. Drawing on Alasdair MacIntyre's account of virtue ethics, in particular his concepts of practice, narrative, and moral tradition, I explore the reception of Pentecostal theology in the Nepali city of Bhaktapur. I show how local Christians have drawn on Pentecostal eschatology to develop a pacifistic ethics, allowing them to negotiate local social and religious conflicts. The belief that Christ has decisively defeated evil spirits allows local Christians to detach themselves from cycles of aggression connected with witchcraft accusations, providing a space of security in which to cultivate distinctive practices of care. Connecting this local theology with a wider tradition in Pentecostal moral thought, I argue that MacIntyre's virtue ethics provides a powerful tool for interpreting the relationship between local circumstance and extra‐local theology, and for studying cross‐cultural patterns of theological reception.     

WITCHES AND ZOMBIES OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN LOWVELD: DISCOURSE, ACCUSATIONS AND SUBJECTIVE REALITY

Anthropological studies generally interpret discourses about witches and zombies in sub-Saharan Africa as critical commentary on the emergence of new forms of wealth, the commodification of labour, and the crisis of reproduction. Drawing on data collected in the Bushbuckridge area of the South African lowveld, I point to the limitations of these arguments and suggest that we can more fully capture the diverse and contradictory meanings of witches and zombies by separating discourses from actual accusations and from subjective realities. Whilst generic discourses highlight the use of zombies as a means of accumulating wealth, those accused of witchcraft are nearly always subordinate and impoverished persons who allegedly keep zombies as a means of survival. At the same time, these beliefs are connected to powerful psychological motivations, such as emotionally overwhelming experiences of bereavement, loss, and mourning. I suggest that witches and zombies derive their broad appeal from indeterminacy that defies interpretive control and constantly allows for alternative interpretations.     

'What else do we Bengalis do?' Sorcery, overseas migration, and the new inequalities in Sylhet, Bangladesh

In Sylhet, Bangladesh, remittances sent home by sons and husbands working abroad have led to new inequalities conducive to the proliferation of sorcery accusations. In cases of illness, sorcery is often the preferred diagnosis. The virilocal rule of residence positions the son's wife as an outsider and, as such, she has been traditionally viewed as the prime suspect in cases of sorcery. This structural tension has been intensified by overseas migration as sons working abroad increase the isolation and vulnerability of their wives. Patients and their families do not passively act out structural contradictions but actively pursue a sorcery diagnosis. Through a detailed case study of one woman's struggle to come to terms with infertility, I show how a diagnosis of sorcery acts as a face-saving mechanism in situations of material inequality between kin.     

“Predatory Sedentism”: Intimidation and Intensification in the Nigerian Savanna

While many studies have explored how agriculture changes when population density rises, this paper examines actions farmers may take to control whether population density rises. Using information from ethnographic fieldwork, colonial archives, and air photography, two agricultural groups migrating into an agricultural frontier in the Nigerian savanna are compared. Population density in Kofyar communities has risen to over 100/km ² ; Tiv communities, although older, have maintained population densities of around 50/km ² , in part through intimidation of encroachers. This use of intimidation is a component of a distinctive adaptive strategy that includes settlement stability, high population mobility tied to witchcraft accusations, relatively extensive cultivation allowing considerable off-time, and reliance on social networks to facilitate residential mobility and land access. Population pressure must be seen as an integral part of this adaptive strategy, rather than as cause or consequence.     

Geographic Variation in Human Mitochondrial DNA from Papua New Guinea

High resolution mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) restriction maps, consisting of an average of 370 sites per mtDNA map, were constructed for 119 people from 25 localities in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Comparison of these PNG restriction maps to published maps from Australian, Caucasian, Asian and African mtDNAs reveals that PNG has the lowest amount of mtDNA variation, and that PNG mtDNA lineages originated from Southeast Asia. The statistical significance of geographic structuring of populations with respect to mtDNA was assessed by comparing observed GST values to a distribution of GST values generated by random resampling of the data. These analyses show that there is significant structuring of mtDNA variation among worldwide populations, between highland and coastal PNG populations, and even between two highland PNG populations located approximately 200 km apart. However, coastal PNG populations are essentially panmictic, despite being spread over several hundred kilometers. Highland PNG populations also have more mtDNA variability and more mtDNA types represented per founding lineage than coastal PNG populations. All of these observations are consistent with a more ancient, restricted origin of highland PNG populations, internal isolation of highland PNG populations from one another and from coastal populations, and more recent and extensive population movements through coastal PNG. An apparent linguistic effect on PNG mtDNA variation disappeared when geography was taken into account. The high resolution technique for examining mtDNA variation, coupled with extensive geographic sampling within a single defined area, leads to an enhanced understanding of the influence of geography on mtDNA variation in human populations.     

Repair of spinal cord transection and its effects on muscle mass and myosin heavy chain isoform phenotype.

A number of significant advances have been developed for treating spinal cord injury during the past two decades. The combination of peripheral nerve grafts and acidic fibroblast growth factor (hereafter referred to as PNG) has been shown to partially restore hindlimb function. However, very little is known about the effects of such treatments in restoring normal muscle phenotype. The primary goal of the current study was to test the hypothesis that PNG would completely or partially restore 1) muscle mass and muscle fiber cross-sectional area and 2) the slow myosin heavy chain phenotype of the soleus muscle. To test this hypothesis, we assigned female Sprague-Dawley rats to three groups: 1) sham control, 2) spinal cord transection (Tx), and 3) spinal cord transection plus PNG (Tx+PNG). Six months following spinal cord transection, the open-field test was performed to assess locomotor function, and then the soleus muscles were harvested and analyzed. SDS-PAGE for single muscle fiber was used to evaluate the myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoform expression pattern following the injury and treatment. Immunohistochemistry was used to identify serotonin (5-HT) fibers in the spinal cord. Compared with the Tx group, the Tx+PNG group showed 1) significantly improved Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan scores (hindlimb locomotion test), 2) less muscle atrophy, 3) a higher percentage of slow type I fibers, and 4) 5-HT fibers distal to the lesion site. We conclude that the combined treatment of PNG is partially effective in restoring the muscle mass and slow phenotype of the soleus muscle in a T-8 spinal cord-transected rat model.     

Sick Again,Well Again: Sorcery,Christianity and Kinship in Northern Aboriginal Australia

This article concerns the ways in which Yolngu people of the Galiwin'ku settlement in northern Australia employ contemporary constructions of sorcery doctrines and Christian practices to rearticulate their kinship relations. In particular, I discuss the adaptation of sorcery ideas and accusations to present-day circumstances and the Christian healing processes that have emerged alongside traditional healing behaviours and biomedicine. Sorcery and Christianity at Galiwin'ku, I argue, are intertwined ethical models that enable the person and community to heal over and over again in accordance with the vicissitudes of postcolonial life. They continue the moral imperative of ‘looking after’ kin even as the net of ‘looking after’ has expanded to encompass new experiences, behaviours, and persons.     

Khoisan wind: hunting and healing

In this paper I draw on my findings and those of historical and recent Khoisan ethnography to attempt to explain how these southern African 'Khoi' and San peoples relate to wind and how the environmental phenomenon has informed their epistemology and ontology. I begin by fleshing out the knowledge and experience of wind among these past and recent hunter-gatherers and, pointing to continuity in wind relationships and the ideas that stem from them, I go on to demonstrate how wind weaves into Khoisan understandings of the body and illness. Despite extensive interest in Bushman healing, anthropologists have overwhelmingly concentrated on the 'trance' healing dance. My findings suggest this partiality has obscured the wider healing context in which the dance operates. Exploring the wider context, including massage, 'medicinal cuts', and witchcraft, reveals that the 'potency' conceived as central to the healing dance is, in certain contexts, equivalent to overlapping ideas of wind, arrows, and smell. Examination of the ethnography reveals that a number of the associations I make between wind and potency have been partially recognized in specific Khoisan contexts but, because comparative studies of Khoisan are difficult and unpopular, these similarities have gone largely unnoticed.     

Crab antics: the moral and political economy of greed accusations in the submerging Sundarbans delta of India

The livelihood of crab collecting, practised for generations in the Sundarbans forest of India, has undergone a radical moral makeover in recent years. Largely landless crab fishers are now the subject of frequent public denunciations by local authorities for their supposed greed and reckless endangerment of the entire ecosystem. While greed and its related category of need emerge from a local moral ecology of the region, internationally funded conservation campaigns and recent disruptions in the global crab supply chain reveal how accusations are activated and the means through which they play out amidst pre-existing village hierarchies. This article accounts for the political, economic, and moral shifts that underpin these accusations. In counterpoint, I present the defences of the accused, and explore crab collectors’ notions of a sufficient life and the rich moral distinctions they themselves make between greed (lobh), need (aubhav), desire (chahida), and habit (swabhav). I then step back to show the broader political contours that shape the discourse of ‘greedy’ crab collectors. I argue that both the conservation movement and allied state actors have distorted the material and moral resources intended to combat climate change and other environmental threats by scapegoating the politically disenfranchised: local fishers. Powerful stakeholders, as a result of their own political impotency, are deployed in a game of crab antics that fails to address the underlying environmental catastrophe while displacing the psychic burden of greed onto the poor.     

Perceptions about the value and cost of children: Australian and Papua New Guinean high school youth

The present study of 329 Australian and 281 Papua New Guinean (PNG) high school youth compared students' perceptions of the economic role of children, the importance of personal aspirations, evidence of support for the conjugal family and for cultural props. When asked about the number of children they wanted to have, the majority of students (86%) wanted from 2 to 4 children. Mean family sizes were 3.7 children for PNG males, 2.7 for PNG females, 2.5 for Australian males, and 2.9 for Australian females. 43% of PNG males wanted 4 or more children, but only 27% of Australian male students wanted this number. The most striking result is that PNG female students expected to have 2 or 3 children only, while their mean family size was slightly lower than Australian females. Thus, if values of children reflect fertility behavior, the analysis of values and costs of children would be expected to reveal a somewhat strong similarity between Australian youth and PNG female students, or at least a marked difference in the perceptions of PNG male and female students. As predicted, the economic role of children was more important to PNG students, and considerably less so to young Australians. Predicted differences in personal aspirations were less clear cut, but young Australians cited more frequently the restrictions and economic costs in having children. In addition, Australians emphasized more than PNG students the pleasure, pride, fulfilment and achievement in having children. As expected in a low fertility country, Australian students mentioned more often the love and companionship of children, although students in both countries had similar views about the impact of children on the marital relationship. Lineage and religious benefits from children were more salient to PNG youth.     

Witchcraft and the limits of mass mediation in Malawi

This article explores what the study of witchcraft in an African setting can contribute to current efforts to theorize mass mediation and the imagination it fosters. Recent ethnographies of witchcraft discourses in Africa have continued to associate them with the formation of small-scale groups, but evidence from Malawi shows how they enable subjects to imagine sociality on an indeterminate scale. The article deploys the concept of mediation to theorize how in this imagination witches mediate sociality as the unrecognized third parties who give rise to recognized social relationships of varying scale. The ethnography of witchcraft discourses in radio broadcasting and an impoverished peri-urban area demonstrates not only their relevance to apparently disparate contexts but also their potential to exceed the impact of the mass media. The case of a violent conflict involving Pentecostal Christians, South Asian entrepreneurs, Muslims, and members of a secret society provides an example of how arguments about witchcraft had a greater impact on the popular imagination than a mass-mediated report of the same conflict. The article concludes by arguing that witchcraft discourses should be accorded weight equal to the mass media in theorizing the imagination.     

From the body to the wallet: conceptualizing Akan witchcraft at home and abroad

This article focuses on the way that Akan witchcraft invokes imagery of new forms of modernity, especially a feature of the post-colonial monetary economy, the credit card. Credit card spending encodes relations within a technological monetary network, and it affects personal relations at home and abroad. The article is based on fieldwork carried out in 1990-1 at anti-witchcraft shrines in the Brong-Ahafo region of Ghana. It looks at young entrepreneurs who work in the large commercial cities, and who visit shrines in the Dormaa-Ahenkro district in order to buy protection from witchcraft. These young businessmen distinguish between two types of witchcraft and explain how a witch at home, as opposed to a witch abroad, does not have the business acumen or technological knowledge to harm their finances.     

Reconsidering Witchcraft: Postcolonial Africa and Analytic (Un)Certainties

African notions of witchcraft are neither archaic nor static but are highly flexible and deeply attuned to the conundrums of our contemporary world. Many anthropologists have recently argued that notions of the African witch provide commentaries on the meaning and merit of modernity as experienced in different historical and cultural settings. By exploring one particular type of witchcraft —that involving rain—amongst the lhanzu of Tanzania, this article suggests instead that some forms of witchcraft may be more pertinent to understanding local notions of "tradition" than "modernity." It is argued that the process of identifying rain witches provides lhanzu men and women with a way to circumscribe, contemplate, and, ultimately, reassert the veracity and significance of a conceptual category they call "tradition." The article concludes by critiquing the homogenizing effects of terms like the African witch and African witchcraft, compelling us to think in terms of pluralities rather than singulars. [Keywords: witchcraft, modernity, tradition, rainmaking, anthropological theory]     

Stonhet and Yelotop: Body Images,Physical Markers and Definitions of Ethnic Boundaries in Papua New Guinea

The Wampar of Papua New Guinea are an ethnic group with contested boundaries and a strong ethnic identity and consciousness. Since their first contact with White missionaries, government officials and anthropologists, body images have changed and become more important. ‘Foreign’ migrants from other PNG provinces are now coming in great numbers into Wampar territory, where they find wealthy Wampar make good marriage partners. From peaceful relations with ‘foreigners’ in the 1960s and 1970s, the situation has changed to the extent that Wampar now have plans for driving men from other ethnic groups out of their territory. Within two generations, ideas of changeable cultural otherness have developed into stereotypes of unchangeable bodily differences. In this paper, I describe (1) changes in the perception of foreigners, and in the definition of ‘foreigner’ itself, (2) body images of the Wampar, and (3) conditions for these changes.     

Education and the "new" inequality in Papua New Guinea

Literature has been produced over the last fifteen years in Papua New Guinea (PNG) concerned with the increasing level of socioeconomic differentiation which has accompanied political independence. Consensus exists that postcolonial PNG is experiencing increasing disparities in education, wealth, political power, and the general set of benefits typically associated with development and modernization. This author argues that studies of such growing socioeconomic stratification in the country have ignored or dismissed gender as a source of inequality. She focuses upon educational opportunity as the key to wealth and political power and shows that the most educationally disadvantaged group in PNG is rural women. Data to support her thesis are drawn from national censuses, the author's field work in the area of Madang Province, and literature on stratification. The national census includes data from both lowland and highland populations. Since the authors' field site is culturally and ecologically highland, however, the paper focuses upon the highlands, using data from nonhighland areas primarily for comparative purposes.     

An affinity technique for the isolation of Clostridium perfringens type C from man and pigs in Papua New Guinea

Necrotising enteritis caused by Clostridium perfringens type C (CwC) is an important cause of morbidity and death in highland regions of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the organism is readily isolated from clinical cases. Although detected in fluorescent antibody stains of faecal cultures, CwC has previously only once been isolated from normal people or from pigs in PNG. The difficulty results from the greater numbers of the much more common Cl perfringens type A (CwA) which is morphologically and culturally indistinguishable from CwC. Separation of CwC from the more numerous CwA has been achieved by utilising their antigenic dissimilarity. Silicate beads covered with specific antibody to CwC added to a mixed culture bound CwC cells while most of the unbound cells were washed away. When the beads were plated out type C organisms were recovered. In laboratory tests CwC was isolated from mixtures with CwA where the type A organisms predominated by one million to one. With this system type C organisms have been isolated from human and pig faeces from PNG.     

An affinity technique for the isolation of Clostridium perfringens type C from man and pigs in Papua New Guinea

Necrotising enteritis caused by Clostridium perfringens type C (CwC) is an important cause of morbidity and death in highland regions of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the organism is readily isolated from clinical cases. Although detected in fluorescent antibody stains of faecal cultures, CwC has previously only once been isolated from normal people or from pigs in PNG. The difficulty results from the greater numbers of the much more common Cl. perfringens type A (CwA) which is morphologically and culturally indistinguishable from CwC. Separation of CwC from the more numerous CwA has been achieved by utilising their antigenic dissimilarity. Silicate beads covered with specific antibody to CwC added to a mixed culture bound CwC cells while most of the unbound cells were washed away. When the beads were plated out type C organisms were recovered. In laboratory tests CwC was isolated from mixtures with CwA where the type A organisms predominated by one million to one. With this system type C organisms have been isolated from human and pig faeces from PNG.     

Urban-rural contrasts in explanatory models and treatment-seeking behaviours for stroke in Tanzania

Stroke is an emerging problem in sub-Saharan Africa, about which little is known since most research to date has been based on retrospective, hospital-based studies. This anthropological work, designed to complement a large community-based project on stroke incidence, focuses on local understandings and treatment-seeking behaviours in urban (Dar-es-Salaam) and rural (Hai) areas of Tanzania. Semi-structured interviews (n=80) were conducted with 20 stroke patients, 20 relatives of stroke patients, ten traditional healers, and 30 other local residents. In contrast to common expectations, and literature that finds witchcraft beliefs to be most common in rural areas, stroke in urban Dar was widely believed to emanate from supernatural causes (demons and witchcraft), while in rural Hai, explanations drew mostly on 'natural' causes (hypertension, fatty foods, stress). These different beliefs and explanatory models fed into treatment-seeking behaviours. The first option in Hai was hospital treatment, while in Dar-es-Salaam, where belief in demons led to hospital avoidance, it was traditional healers. In both sites, multiple treatment options (serially or simultaneously) were the norm. Analysis of patient and carer narratives suggested that causation beliefs outweighed other factors, such as cost and distance, in shaping effective treatment. Three policy implications are drawn. First, as other studies have also shown, it is important to engage with, rather than dismiss, local explanations and interpretations of stroke. Stroke awareness messages need to take into account the geographical and belief systems differences. Developing an understanding of explanatory models that recognizes that local beliefs arise from dynamic processes of social interaction will be critical to designing effective interventions. Second, there is a clear role for multiple healing systems with possibility of cross-reference in the case of a chronic, disabling condition like stroke, since biomedical treatment cannot offer a 'quick fix' while traditional healers can help people come to terms with their condition. Third, issues of communication between health services and their patients are particularly critical.