Abstract
The historiography of scientific studies has suffered from a great impact, that is rarely referred to, from anthropological analyses of magic in so-called primitive societies. The emphasis brought by criticism during the 1950/1960’s of Evans-Pritchard’s 1937 classic, Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande, brought a fresh look at certainties already consolidated in Western thought, especially those relating to rational human characteristics and science. For the history, these criticisms were interesting because they were presented science as a historically situated activity, in the same way as magic. It favours, therefore, the proximity of historians tout court with the history of the sciences that resists its absences even today. This renewal helped to create a scenario that would enable David Bloor to develop the strong program of Sociology of Knowledge in the 1970s. Such a program indicates the analogous process that involves both the social production of beliefs and that of scientific truths. In this paper I evaluate the proximity of magic-science from the point of view of contemporary studies about scientific activity, questioning the concepts of rationality and logic as if they were exclusive qualities of scientific activity.
Highlights
There is no group of people, no matter how primitive, without religion or magic
A Simplified Orthodox Perception: What is the Difference between Magic and Science?. This is a non-issue for classical historiography of the sciences
One is consistent with logic and walks straight along the paths of truth-seeking, the other follows a tortuous obscure pathway in which contradictions and inconsistencies become the rule. Along this path traced by magic, there is the absence of logical reasonableness, only unjustified credulity materially feeds deceptions and severe errors
Summary
There is no group of people, no matter how primitive, without religion or magic. Just as there are not, by the way, any wild races that have no scientific attitude or science, though this. Winch's view observes the Azande society as a form of life in which the magic of the oracle is a part, as well as the development of the techniques that guarantee the collective subsistence.
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