In the press in England there have been occasional flurries of concern
over
"Muti killings", bodies of mutilated children linked with 'African
Witchcraft'; I don't know if these fall into the same rumour/ folk myth
as
the satanic abuse cases in Scotland, where no concrete evidence seems to
have been presented: at least as far as I'm aware. Curiously in another
group I frequent, there's been a discussion of the witch trials in
Europe,
and the number of executions/ burnings that resulted. It sounds (from
the
little reports that I've read) that the South African variety of
witchcraft, practiced by the healers is probably closer to that
practiced in
Europe by the cunning-folk, and their take on their craft was very
different from out retrospective and romanticised view of what they up
to.
Tim
On this, Taylor, T. (2002). The Buried Soul: How humans invented death.
London, Fourth Estate. makes a case that these were cases of Muti - however,
I don't have enough information to know if his case holds up...
> My point also is that within the emergent (neo)Pagan community there
have
> been some tendencies to include indigenous traditions firstly, as
Pagan,
> and, secondly, without any real understandings of the changes those
> communities have undergone in our ghastly history. For one, the
negative
> reality of witchcraft in their culture. In a way, there is a
> romanticizing
> of many aspects of those cultures. I am acutely sensitive that
another
> minority White group re-identifies the same peoples with a term that
was
> always a negative allocation, depriving people of the right to
> self-identify, without any depth in understandings of the reality
> of those lives and spiritualites. The _Africanness_ in these modern
forms
> I see more in the following of a southern seasonal cycle and in the
> subsequent ritual adjustments. Of course there are a myriad of other
local
> adjuncts such as the use of indigenous herbs and incenses as well as
the
working
> with local energies.
Oh yes - I could not agree more. There is a tendency in some areas to
assume that everything that is not "of a religion of the book" is therefore
Pagan and indeed, entirely wholesome and good. Interestingly, one of the
issues Taylor deals with in the book is the constant denial of cannibalism
as a human practice. Unfortunately, again, I don't have the background to
know if he is a lone voice crying, as it were, or saying somethng that is
known but rarely said...?
Diotima
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