Hi David,
I would be interested to know what your Lagonian (?) friend defines as a
witch, and how he sees it as different from the magic he does.
Morgan Leigh
PhD Candidate
School of Sociology & Social Work
University of Tasmania
On 23/02/2013 2:05 PM, David Mattichak wrote:
> Hi Morgan;
>
> I am not really surprised that this is happening in Papua New Guinea- it
> is probably the wildest place on earth and the modern world has really
> only touched the edge of its ancient ways. I have been told that Port
> Moresby, where almost all Westerners are in the country, is one of the
> most violent and dangerous cities anywhere.
>
> At the same time I see some parallels with West Africa too where
> attacking witches is still very common. Over the past few months I have
> been corresponding with a fellow magician who lives in Lagos and his
> main concerns are finding magick that he can use to protect himself from
> 'witches'.
>
> We have to stop seeing these things as primitive superstitions and
> address them as real aspects of the cultures in which they are seen as
> being important before we can begin to understand what is going on let
> alone do anything about it. Unfortunately Papua New Guinea seems to be
> another example of the destructive and degenerative influence that
> western culture has upon native peoples in 'underdeveloped' countries.
>
> Thanks for the link, always an interesting topic.
>
> David
>
>> Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2013 12:10:26 +1100
>> From: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Sorcery definitely not happening.
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>
>> Oops, obviously it is The Global Mail not The Conversation...
>>
>>
>>
>> On 23/02/2013 11:13 AM, Morgan Leigh wrote:
>> > http://www.theglobalmail.org/feature/what-to-do-about-witchcraft/563/
>> >
>> > Here's an interesting story from The Conversation about killings of
>> > alleged witches and sorcerers in Papua New Guinea. The story naively
>> > assumes that sorcery doesn't exist and that people are just to dumb to
>> > know that people die from disease. Thus the prescribed cure is to
>> > educate people in western understandings of things and the problem will
>> > surely go away. I do not discount the possibility of blaming others as a
>> > coping mechanism for the death of loved ones, but it is sad to see
>> > western cultural imperialism being imposed on another people because the
>> > westerners can't conceive of the possibility of sorcery actually
> existing.
>> >
>> > Morgan Leigh
>> > PhD Candidate
>> > School of Sociology & Social Work
>> > University of Tasmania
>> >
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