Understanding Sorcery
There is no single agreed upon definition of sorcery. Opinions differ depending on practices in different cultures. However, a common thread runs through differences which are evident from the discussion below:
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DOI: 10.4324/9781003516415-7
5.1.1 Sorcery as a Global Phenomenon
Sorcery has a long history all over the globe.
It is one of the hallmark research areas for anthropologists. The mysteries of magical spells and faiths towards the rituals have time and again attracted the attention of anthropologists to delve into in-depth research (Niehaus 2010:715). Renowned anthropologists have discussed in detail the ways of practice of sorcery, its motives, and the cultural significance among the inhabitants in different corners of the world (Pilling 1962 and Moro 2017). Evans-Pritchard (1937) mentioned that sorcery is nothing but a skilful practice of rituals with the help of some particular substances and utterance of magical spells with a strong intention (Evans-Pritchard 1937:8).The term ‘sorcery’ was derived from the Latin word ‘sortiarius’ around the 12th century (Hanks 1979). The practitioner of sorcery means a sorcerer (male) and the word originated from the Old French word ‘sorcier’ (Illustrated Oxford Dictionary 2011:647). The word sorceress (female) has its root in the French word ‘sorceresse’ from the middle of the 13th century (Hanks 1979). In the early Christian era, the term ‘sorcery’ was applied to recognise any magician or sorcerer. From the Middle Ages it was attributed only to those who practised magic for the purpose of allegedly harming others (Melton 1998). Sorcery generally indicates some magical spells, especially created songs and some strange or abnormal gestures of the practitioners. The spells of this magical practice remain a perpetual mystery to the whole world. In this regard, Kallet (2009) has mentioned about mystical songs like ‘Stop! In The Name Of Love’ which is enchanted during rites for a couple to make the boundary between the two (Kallet 2009).
On a global level sorcery connotes varied meanings depending on geographical contours, traditional beliefs, and cultures. Accordingly, studies of sorcery have been made through various flexible approaches depending on the parameters mentioned above. According to cultural practice, sometimes sorcery has been analysed metaphorically and then subjected to a reality (West 2005:43). Sometimes people talk about sorcery while others openly discuss the same on democratic political level through radio and media (West 2005:39). It is treated as a kind of political language in Cameroon and Papua New Guinea (Lattas 1993). Social control of the four tribal people - Paiute, Arande, Trobriand, and Zuni - are predominantly dependent on sorcery. For these people sorcery and social justice are almost synonyms. The presence or absence of super-ordinate punishment actually gives an idea about the social acceptance of sorcery. Absence of super-ordinate punishment portrays that sorcery is not that important to the particular society (Pilling 1962). McKnight studied the relation between sorcerer and victim from their first to fifth generations in terms of the impact of sorcery on various domains among the Lardil community of Morington Island. He emphasised on numerous activities of life - initiation, marriage, elopement, scarcity of food, stealing of food, etc. Moreover, the techniques of sorcery have also been used to take revenge for the death of someone’s father (McKnight 1981). The deep influence of sorcery on menstruation and sexual intercourse has also been observed (Dukun community) in Java (Retsikas 2010) and the death rituals in South India (Nabokov 2000). Sometimes, both sorcery and witchcraft are denoted as special forms of ‘socially regulated conflicts’ among the clans or different linguistic groups who share a common territory (Patterson 1975).
Social status and economic conditions of the victims are important elements in sorcery. The sorcerer never performs any activity without money and other earthly materials (Davidson 2017).
Studies reveal that the sorcerer wants to position himself as a regulatory unit of the entire population (Davidson 2017 and Forsyth 2016). The practitioners come from various socio-cultural backgrounds and most of the time they are outcasts. Every sorcerer seems to be endowed with some cajolery abilities. Throughout the globe, sorcerers are categorised under several types, such as chaos sorcerer (who derived their power from any natural elements like air, water, soil, etc.), storm sorcerer (who received their magical power from lightning, thunder, and storm), cosmic sorcerer (who gained power from the continuous cycle of the sun, moon, and stars) and dragon sorcerer (who received magical powers through some instinctive connection with the dragon, either through blood ties or any magical infusions) (Tweet, Cook & Williams 2003:48-50). These special types of sorcerers are presumed to be presiding over the celestial world of the enigmatic mingling of good and evil. Sorcery usually gets aired through cultural speech and the language of symbols and people experience this by means of threats, accusations, allegations, and so on (West 2007:46-56).5.1.2 The Making of a Sorcerer
Most of the sorcerers comprehend their distinctive power on or before their adolescence regardless of the society. The origin of the sorcerer’s power is rendered with manifestations of unexpected and often annoying behaviours, such as ghostly lights or mysterious sounds. In the course of time, several sorcerers perceive that they were solely responsible for a chaos due to the rendition of their act and an afterthought which makes them try to fix the situation (Tweet, Cook & Williams 2003). After comprehension of their magical abilities, sorcerers get trained in their abilities of magical spells from any expert through a long term learning process. Sorcerers can select the way of applying their works either for noble purposes (healing practice) or for harmful purposes (Callan 2007). During the mystical practices use of substances like vermillion, animal blood, etc.
is common (Padmanabhan & Sorrels 1958). Sorcery is believed in some quarters to be a manipulative phenomenon irrespective of culture (Mackay 2009). The enchanter can practise the cultural rites both privately and in a public place or secretly at private places. At the initial phase of their training, these practices are generally performed at secret places. To be an effective sorcerer one must go through some specific rituals. These enigmatic rituals could vary on the basis of cultural traditions and geographical boundaries. Mackay (2009) has emphasised on these unrevealed parts of sorcery. We find mention of such rituals in earlier works. Malleus Maleficarum is the first pillar of the literature on Demonology, published in 1486 in Greek language. Hammer of Witches is a translated version of this magical epic by Mackay (2009). He expressed the stages of sorcery as the motive of Satanism and identified the ‘six basic beliefs’ about the activities of a sorcerer. These are:i. “a pact entered into with the Devil”, which refers to transformation of magical power of a sorcerer into the power of the Devil to make it more powerful
ii. “sexual relations with the Devil” which indicates the establishment of both imaginary and real sexual relations with the Devil (their omnipotent God)
iii. “aerial flight for the purpose of attending”, which refers to a special power used to meet with the Devil or Satan to fulfil a particular purpose
iv. “an assembly presided over by Satan himself”, which means getting some instructions directly from Satan, how to execute some notorious activities
v. “the practice of maleficent magic”, which is a specially performed rites to intentionally harm someone
vi. “the slaughter of babies”, which is a mischievous act of killing babies in a large number (see Mackay 2009:21)
5.1.3 Sorcerer and Witch: Gender Stereotyping
Numerous studies have distinguished sorcery from witchcraft by saying that it depends on the learning process.
Evans-Pritchard differentiated the terms sorcery and witchcraft on the basis of the intention of the activity and manipulation of the human body (Evans-Pritchard 1937:8-9). Forsyth and Eves (2015) have mentioned the ‘gendered nature of sorcery and witchcraft’ in their famous book Talking It Through. They emphasise the nature of perpetuation of these two magical practices. Women always play a predominant role as a witch; whereas men play a predominant character in sorcery in Papua New Guinea (Forsyth and Eves 2015:07). Lardil of Australia identified sorcery as a male dominated magical practice (Fortune 1932 and McKnight 1981). Mitchell has focused on the magical spells especially in the Middle Ages. He highlighted “the roles of Witch, a female by gender had seen a decline whereas the belief in sorcerer increased over time in the north” (Mitchell 2013: 199). In Greek and Roman literature of the 14th century, women were solely responsible for both sorcery and witchcraft. In The Hammer of Witches, Malleus targets the entire feminine gender as perpetrators of sorcery (Mackay 2009:26). However, it is not a fact that women are always exclusively selected for witchcraft and not for sorcery. In the Medieval period (16th and 17th centuries) several countries like Iceland, Scandinavia, and northern parts of Europe expressed that women get privilege in obtaining knowledge of magical practices in both witchcraft and sorcery (Mitchell 2013:175). Contrastingly, Fortune mentioned that, “witchcraft is the woman’s prerogative, sorcery the man’s” (Fortune 1932:150). In terms of cultural rites, the gender rigidity has been seen throughout the globe. Analysis of the perception of magical practices through different ages in history demonstrates that up to the medieval period both genders were equally capable of being experts in sorcery and witchery; whereas in the modern period witchery is dominated by women and sorcery elicits male identity.5.1.4 Sorcery in the Indian Scenario
Magical practice, including sorcery, is one of the age-old practices in India.
The Mahabharata (Hindu scripture) mentions Ghatothkacha (son of Bhim, the second brother of the Pandavas) having some magical skills which were exposed in the battle of Kurukshetra (Zlatar 1997 and Jain 2018). Now-a-days, the term sorcery is locally termed as bhanamati or banamati in Karnataka and Telengana; jhar-phook and jadu-tona in Bihar and West Bengal; and Mayong1 in Assam (Bhardwaj 2017; Menon 2014; Keshavan 1989; Rahman 2013 and Nag 2020).There are many evidences of sorcery and their ritualistic behaviours. Blind faith and irrational thinking may result in an emotional state of suffering which drives a human being to lean towards sorcery. In the recent past two boys died and two fell severely ill during the performance of some bizarre enchantment in the Malda district of West Bengal (Nag 2020). A little girl (ten years old) was brutally sacrificed for the enchantment in Magadi, Karnataka (Bhardwaj 2017). During the practice of sorcery the unexpected disappearance of a child is very common. It is said that the practitioner generally tries to please and control some spirits using these acts. In India a sorcerer usually follows any one out of the five, namely magical spells, gestures, cabalistic designs, drugs, and mysterious actions (Padmanabbhan & Sorrels 1958). Sacrifice of a child and necromancy are very much prevalent in several districts of Karnataka like Chamarajnagar, Kalaburagi, and Ballari. Moreover, residents of Gadagi or Bidar of Karnataka strongly confide that bhanamati is the only reason for their physical difficulties such as body ache, vomiting, dizziness, etc. (Keshavan, Narayanan & Gangadhar 1989). On several occasions, incidents of the practice of sorcery and the details of victimisation had occupied the front pages of numerous newspapers in Karnataka. The stoical occurrence in Gulbarga in Karnataka is one of them. The villagers of Pastapur in Gulbarga of Karnataka are closely connected with sorcery. Pastapur has numerous stories of afflictions and miseries associated with the practice of sorcery. Sudden appearances of prominent scars on the thigh and abdomen of a man resembling tattoo marks, and the abrupt sharp voice of a young woman abruptly turning into a ‘gurgling sound’ are some of the instances of the manifestation of sorcery (Menon 2014).
The practitioners of such mysterious enchantments are widely known as Tantrik, Ojhaa, or Baba in different corners of India. Lemon, chilli, and vermilion are the main substances used by them irrespective of culture and geographical areas (Rahman 2013 and Benzow 2012). Magicians and sorcerers or witches were recognised equally before the advent of tantra in India and everyone continued to perform rituals for recreation and healing. There is no evidence that they were tantric in any significant way. It is not clear whether they were associated with each other in terms of ideology even though they have their own distinct identities and specific deities (Davidson 2017). Davidson (ibid.) tried to focus on the durability of these systems in the present era and their continuity as a source of some specific rituals and community based tantric traditions (Davidson 2017). The way of execution of cultural rites is feasibly different for these weird practices. On the basis of the implications of mantra or magical spells, it is hard to distinguish between sorcery, witchery, and tantra.
Barua (2013) emphasised the implications of mantras in sorcery practices in Assam. Zara Mantra (fever spell) reveals that fever is propagated as a black monster with six arms, four legs, three heads, and nine bright eyes. Bhut, preta, pisad, daitya, jakh, jakhini, khetar, khet- arani, dakini, gulai, and mor are the eleven local popular names of invisible spirits who are considered gentle in the district of Kamarupa (the land of necromancy and magic) in Assam in medieval times. Mythology says Assam was popular as Kamarupa when Kamadeva was restored to his original physical form on this land after getting burnt by Shiva’s wrath. It spread far and wide in Kamarupa that it is the land where even a dead person can be resurrected (Barua 2013). An aged sorcerer mentioned that in the past luki mantra (magical spells applied to hide in thin air) and bagh badhon mantra (magical spells used to control a tiger) were applied at Mayong in Assam (Rahman 2013). A huge mantra literature has been developed in Assamese language. This mantra can be categorised into two i.e., Karati- mantra and Dharani mantra which have tremendous effect on the local people. The language of these mantras is really mysterious and also very difficult to extract the meaning (Barua 2013). Now-a-days, sorcery is practised in different corners in Assam and used for various purposes, such as avoiding misfortune, curing diseases of both human beings and animals, curing snake bites, inducing others to sleep, persuading a woman to follow a man, and so on (Barua 2013).
Now-a-days, sorcery is practised in different corners in India like Karnataka, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, and some other states. It is used for various purposes as mentioned above.
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