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EN
The practice of Obeah divination among people of African descent in the Americas has long been established to originate from West Africa. But the place of origin has remained a subject of speculation. The earliest speculated places of origin were the Akan and the neighbouring Popo. Most recent studies using demographic size and linguistic evidence have concluded that Obeah originated from among the Igbo of the Bight of Biafra in Nigeria. This paper disputes this conclusion and shows that demographic size is least relevant and the linguistic evidence is faulty. It then argues that in spite of the marginal role of Benin Kingdom, Obeah and its early practice are most likely derived from the Edo-speaking people of Benin Kingdom, Nigeria. It substantiates this with historical evidence and etymological inferences from the practice of slavery in the kingdom and its involvement in the Trans-Atlantic trade.
EN
The paper aims to investigate Polish lexis belonging to the semantic fields of DIVINATION and WITCHCRAFT. The material was excerpted from the 18th-century trilingual Nowy wielki dykcjonarz (New grand dictionary). The semantic fields under analysis were divided into subfields. In the case of DIVINATION, the subfields of DIVINATION PRACTISES and PEOPLE FORETELLING THE FUTURE were identified. In turn, WITCHCRAFT was subdivided into MAGICAL PRACTICES, PEOPLE PRACTISING MAGIC and EFFECTS OF MAGIC. The analysis of the retrieved material suggests that the number of individual lexemes is relatively small and usually polysemic, which appears to contradict the popularity and prevalence of divination and witchcraft in the 18th-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as established by cultural historians. The supposed misrepresentation of the semantic fields under scrutiny may reflect the didactic nature of the Polish part of the dictionary.
EN
The subject of the article is a terminological reflection on the definition and interpretation of magic and witchcraft in the light of research by anthropologists and scholars of religion from the second half of the XIX c. to contemporary times. The views of evolutionists E. B. Tylor and J. G. Frazer, sociologists E. Durkheim, H. Hubert and M. Mauss, social anthropologist B. K. Malinowski, philosopher E. Cassirer and structuralist C. Lévi-Strauss are discussed. The principle criterion differentiating religion from magic is man referring to supernatural powers and beings. Practicing magic is socially approved of and has as its goal the good of an individual or social group. In the life of nonliterate peoples, religion and magic are united and that is why we speak of the religious-magical character of their beliefs, rituals and behaviour. Contemporary anthropologists and scholars of religion treat magic and religion as a field complementary and closely related with each other in the cultures of nonliterate peoples. Magic must be differentiated from witchcraft, whose goal is to conjure evil upon a person or community. E. E. Evans-Pritchard identified among the Azande people (southern Sudan) two types of wizardry: acquired sorcery which meant that the sorcerer consciously uses mixtures, spells and rites attempting to conjure evil and inborn witchcraft in which the witch based upon inherited psychic power unconsciously injures others by sending or activating a certain substance. This division is not universally applied in Africa, since inborn witchcraft appears much more rarely among African peoples than acquired sorcery. Faith in charms fulfils a cognitive, psychological, social, political and legal role. At the dawn of modern transformations in Africa, witchcraft is linked with jealousy, hidden aggression, social and economic inequality and the desire for power. On the one hand, Africanists stress the increase in witchcraft practices and a return to anti-witchcraft movements, and on the other hand, they draw attention to the fact that modernization and secularization related with it slowly contribute to lessening searching for explanations of misfortunes, illness and death in witchcraft beliefs.
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PL
Bazując głównie na własnych doświadczeniach i badaniach terenowych w Togo w artykule przedstawiono sposób, w jaki tradycja wplata się w nowoczesność, a także ukazano, jak w dyskursie politycznym i społecznym wykorzystuje się światopogląd oparty na religii tradycyjnej. Czy odrzucenie tradycji przez młodych wiąże się z jej hamującą rozwój siłą? Analizie poddano: imperatyw solidarności rodzinnej, który utrudnia rozwój jednostki, rytualizm zmuszający do poświęcenia wszelkich oszczędności na organizację wydarzeń świątecznych oraz czarownictwo, które pozwala na wytłumaczenie nierówności w życiu publicznym. We wszystkich tych obszarach tradycja nie tylko jest obecna, ale odgrywa ważną rolę jako czynnik stabilizujący, wyjaśniający i ogarniający rzeczywistość społeczną.
EN
Based mainly on the author’s own experience and field research in Togo, the article outlines the way in which tradition is woven into modernity, as political and social discourse uses a worldview based on traditional religion. Is the rejection of tradition by young people related to its strength of inhibiting the development? The following were analyzed: the imperative of family solidarity, which hinders the development of the individual and ritualism forcing to sacrifice any savings for the organization of festive events and witchcraft, which provides the explanation of inequality in public life. In all these areas, the tradition is not only present, but it plays an important role as a stabilizing factor, explaining and encompassing social reality.
DE
Der Aufsatz stellt dar, wie in Afrika die Tradition und die Modernität verflochten sind, wie die religiös begründete Weltanschauung durch den sozialen und politischen Diskurs ausgenutzt wird und warum die jungen Afrikaner die Tradition verneinen. Bremst die Tradition die ökonomische und soziale Entwicklung? Der Verfasser analysiert Imperative der Familiensolidarität, die die individuelle Selbstverwirklichung verhindert, Ritualismus, der alle Ersparnisse für die Veranstaltung der Feierlichkeiten verbraucht und Hexerei, die es erlaubt, Ungleichheit auf der politischen Ebene zu erklären. In allen oben erwähnten Faktoren ist die Tradition nicht nur anwesend, sondern sie spielt auch wichtige Rolle in dem Sozialleben.
EN
The beginnings of sorcery trials in Prague date back to the end of the 15th c. In the period before the Battle of White Mountain (1526–1620) only isolated cases of a magic offense (in the form of sorcery) can be documented in Prague. This is despite the fact that since the last third of the 16th c. there has been a noticeable increase in the number of sorcery trials in the Bohemian lands, and the first, isolated cases of witchcraft can also be recorded. One of these cases of sorcery took place in 1553 at the court of the Lesser Town of Prague. The plaintiff in this trial was the royal gunsmith and bell caster Tomáš Jaroš. Relatively more serious cases of witchcraft and sorcery took place in Prague only during the Thirty Years’ War. In 1624 four women from Prague-Hradčany were accused of pimping and practicing magic. One of them was sentenced to be expelled from Prague. In 1630, Mariana Příhodová, the wife of a bricklayer, was investigated in the Old Town of Prague on suspicion of magic and superstitious practices. She was acquitted by the Court of Appeal. In 1631, Lidmila Husáková was arrested in Prague’s New Town on charges of practicing magic, healing practices and divination. She was imprisoned and investigated for almost half a year. She was released from prison after a sharp intervention by her authority, countess Anna Benigna of Fürstenberg. The largest Prague witchcraft case during the Thirty Years’ War took place in 1644. This year, a special commission investigated 19 boys from Prague between the ages of eight and seventeen for the alleged invocation of the Devil at the Jesuit School in the Lesser Town of Prague.
PL
Początki procesów o magię i procesów o czary w Pradze należy datować na koniec XV w. W okresie od objęcia tronu czeskiego przez Habsburgów (1526) do bitwy na Białej Górze (1620) można udokumentować jedynie pojedyncze przypadki procesów o praktyki magiczne w Pradze. Jest to o tyle symptomatyczne, że w ostatniej tercji XVI w. wyraźnie zauważalny jest wzrost liczby procesów o magię na ziemiach czeskich, a odnotowano też wówczas pierwsze, odosobnione jeszcze przypadki czarostwa. Jeden z procesów odbył się przed sądem Małej Strany (Mniejszego miasta praskiego) w 1553 r., a powodem w nim był królewski rusznikarz i ludwisarz Tomáš Jaroš. Poważniejsze sprawy dotyczące oskarżeń o magię i czary miały miejsce w Pradze dopiero w czasie wojny trzydziestoletniej. W 1624 r. cztery kobiety z Pragi-Hradczan zostały oskarżone o stręczycielstwo i uprawianie praktyk magicznych. Jedna z nich została skazana na wypędzenie z Pragi. W 1630 r. na Starym Mieście przeprowadzono dochodzenie przeciwko Marianie Příhodovej, żonie murarza, która została oskarżona o uprawianie magii i zabobonnych praktyk. Została jednak uniewinniona przez Sąd Apelacyjny. W 1631 r. Ludmiła Husáková została aresztowana na Nowym Mieście w Pradze pod zarzutem uprawiania magii, znachorstwa i wróżbiarstwa. Była ona więziona i przesłuchiwana przez prawie pół roku. Z więzienia została zwolniona dopiero po zdecydowanej interwencji jej pani, hrabiny Anny Benigny von Fürstenberg. Największa praska sprawa o czary w czasie wojny trzydziestoletniej odbyła się w 1644 r. Wówczas to specjalna komisja przeprowadziła dochodzenie w sprawie 19 chłopców z Pragi w wieku od 8 do 17 lat za rzekome wywoływanie diabła w szkole jezuickiej na Małej Stranie.
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