Magical Literacy: Encountering a Witch's Book in Ecuador

Abstract

Contributing to previous studies of literacy, witchcraft, and domination, this article argues that indigenous beliefs in literacy partly derive from actual experiences with writing; that is, in addition to symbolizing and critically commenting on dominant power, these beliefs are literally about literacy. Such a focus on actual experience with writing provides a fuller picture of indigenous reactions to literacy and power, particularly state and church power. The ethnographic focus is an Andean indigenous group's beliefs in witchcraft done through a book of names; the author also describes his own experience in finding his name in the witch's book. [literacy, witchcraft, domination, Salasaca, Ecuador] Since the period of European exploration to the present, and in every major area of the world, indigenous peoples have been reported to equate Western alphabetic writing with magical power, comparing writing to indigenous shamanism, witchcraft, and ritual methods for contacting supernatural spirits and foretelling the future. Such reports come from sources as diverse as Christopher Columbus and Thomas Harriot in the New World, nineteenthcentury missionaries in Africa and Australia, and contemporary anthropologists working in South America and Melanesia.' In scholarly accounts the following explanations for these sorts of beliefs in literacy have been offered: 1) writing is an incomprehensible novelty; 2) writing is related to indigenous beliefs; and 3) writing symbolizes social groups and their power. What follows is a review of these previous accounts, with suggestions about how they might be improved. The article then focuses ethnographically on a specific case of literacy in Ecuador, where I encountered witchcraft based on a written book of names. By correlating this witchcraft with an indigenous group's specific experiences with archival literacy, the article contributes to understanding of literacy. A secondary advantage to the case I examine is that it involves a personal encounter with witchcraft (finding my own name in the witch's book); due to its obviously secretive nature, witchcraft has rarely been reported in depth in the Andean ethnographic literature