Culture and Causality: Non-Western Systems of Explanation

Abstract

WILLIAM M. O'BARR [*] I INTRODUCTION Leave it to an anthropologist to claim that the scientific reasoning on which modern Western society depends is just another of the many systems humans have developed to explain the way things work. As a card-carrying anthropologist, I will say it as clearly as possible: Science is but one of many systems of thought, and it would do us well to think of it as satisfying the needs of a particular society and culture. Yes, science provides the basis for putting men on the moon and allowing women to decide whether to be pregnant. Because it works so well as a system of explanation and prediction in our society, we tend to dismiss alternatives outright. For many, the judgment that something is non-scientific is the basis for dismissal, disinterest, and disbelief. I propose that we suspend disbelief for a moment to look into the logic of some other systems of thought, explanation, and prediction to learn what we can about their sociocultural contexts and their functions in other cultures. Let the laboratory of anthropology be a stage on which we watch some dramas about human dilemmas and ask whether the essential themes these stories in other cultures present have any relevance for Western society. It will be immediately apparent that these stories are not about our own lives, but about what truths, if any, they may represent about the human quest to understand causes and effects. II THE FIRST DRAMA: A GRANARY TUMBLES DOWN IN THE SUDAN In his classic ethnography of the Azande people of the Western Sudan in Africa, E.E. Evans-Pritchard describes the misfortune of a man who took shelter from the sun in the shade of a granary. [1] The Azande use the granaries to store the bounty of their grain crops. In this area of unpredictable rainfall and frequent drought, famine is a common problem. When there is a bountiful harvest, it must be preserved for periods when there is none. The granaries are made of sun-dried clay and perched several inches off the ground to protect them from both puddles of rainwater and hungry or adventurous vermin. The perches are made from wood and are usually sturdy enough to support a granary that is heavy with stored grain. Evans-Pritchard tells us the story of a man who sat in the shade of a particular granary, leaned against a supporting perch, and died as it crumbled and the granary fell on top of him. [2] In our system of thought, we might say that the man was negligent not to check the strength of the supporting structure before leaning on it, or that the owner ought to be held responsible for not keeping his granary in good repair. Whichever way we go initially, we may, in the end, label the man's misfortune an accident. But this is not how the Azande approach the matter. They do not call an event like this, or other misfortunes such as a person falling and breaking a limb after tripping on a root, accidents. Rather, they see such things occurring as a result of witchcraft or sorcery. [3] Moreover, the Azande distinguish these causes: witchcraft, caused by human malevolence but unintentional and unknown even to the perpetrator; and sorcery, caused by similar human malevolence but intentional and known to the perpetrator. [4] Either kind can kill. Either kind can be the basis of a death resulting from a tumbling granary or personal injury resulting from a fall. As Freud claimed, in another time and place, so do the Azande: There are no accidents per se. Behind a person's misfortune lies another person who caused it. [5] Evans-Pritchard describes how the process of locating suspects--typically those who act in deviant, antisocial ways, some of the main characteristics of witches and sorcerers--and purging the community of the evil they have caused serve as primary mechanisms of social cohesion. [6] On such occasions, the Azande come together, name the social deviants, and select one or more of them to be punished or ostracized. …