Moral Power The Magic of Witchcraft [Paperback]

Neither power nor morality but both. Moral power is what Sukuma farmers in Tanzania in times of crisis attribute to an unknown figure they call their witch. A universal process is involved, as much bodily as social, which obstructs the patients recovery. Healers turn the table on the witch through rituals showing that the community and the ancestral spirits side with the victim. In contrast to biomedicine, their magic and divination introduce moral values that assess the state of the system and that remove the obstacles to what is taken as key: self-healing. The implied sensory shifts and therapeutic effectiveness have largely eluded the literature on witchcraft. This book shows how to comprehend culture other than through the prism of identity politics. It offers a framework to comprehend the rise of witch killings and human sacrifice, just as ritual initiation disappears.

Acknowledgements
Preface

Introduction:The meaning of witchcraft

Chapter 1.Why magic works: Systemic healing
Chapter 2.The dancer: Gift and sacrifice
Chapter 3.Four forms of social exchange
Chapter 4.The witch: Moral power and intrusion
Chapter 5.Divination: A healing journey
Chapter 6.The pure reason of witch killing
Chapter 7.Spirit possession: Incarnating moral power
Chapter 8.Magic, ritual and the senses

References
Index

Although challenging to follow at times,Moral Power&will certainly stimulate debate on ideas and methods within medical anthropology. Through rich ethnographic vignettes that focus on Sukuma healers and patients, as well as his own initiation as a Sukuma healer, Stroeken challenges the anthropological discourse on witchcraft. Rather than focusing on Sukuma cosmology, Stroeken examines social exchanges of gift and sacrifice and the lƒ#