Magico-religious Practices Research Articles

Ethnobotanical survey of plants used in magico-religious practices in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh, India.

Background: Local inhabitants of Kullu region of Himachal Pradesh, use various sacred plants for pleasing and worshipping local ‘devats’, in various religious ceremonies, but we are losing the sacred valuable knowledge at a rapid pace, hence the need to document and preserve this knowledge. Method: Ethno-botanical survey, field visits were conducted in different parts of Kullu district. Indigenous people, shamans, tantric, and local elderly members of society were consulted to collect the data. Informal discussions and interviews were done for data collection. Different use categories, the basic variables like frequency of citation (FC), use reports (UR), the number of uses (NU) and the ethno-botanical indices like relative frequency of citations (RFC), relative importance index (RI), cultural importance index (CI), and cultural value index (CV) were determined and compared. Result: The paper includes the list of 75 species under 46 families, used for Magico-religious beliefs along with their medicinal value. Most utilized parts were flowers, whole plant, leaves, seeds, followed by fruits. Ficus religiosa L. showed highest value in all the indices (CI =2, RFC=1, RI= 0.75), with highest number of citation (FC=25), Use report (UR=50), followed by Ocimum sanctum L. Conclusion: To maintain the age-old faiths, people of these areas, harvest plants sustainably and economically, these practices contribute in the ex-situ conservation of plants while fulfilling their values in magico-religious beliefs, as well as sustainable development of the area. Study also reveals the status of 21 rare plant species which need conservation. Keywords: Sacred Plants, Religious Ceremonies, Ex-situ Conservation, Magico-religious beliefs, Sustainable Development

Social construction of climate change and adaptation strategies among Senegalese artisanal fishers: Between empirical knowledge, magico-religious practices and sciences

African Atlantic countries are among the most vulnerable to global climate change (CC). Artisanal fishers are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of environmental change on the fisheries on which their livelihoods depend. Although we found that most fishers accept that CC is occurring locally, most believe that other environmental problems affecting fisheries are more important than CC. Opinions on the causes of CC vary widely according to the age and education level of fishermen. Most fishermen, mainly the older and less educated ones, attribute CC to divine will or magic-religious causes, while only one fifth link it to human activities. Older fishers were also more likely to apply traditional knowledge and religion to adapt to CC. In contrast, younger fishers were the most reluctant to attribute a reason to CC, but were the most willing to adopt modern technologies or adapt fishing methods to changing conditions. We found that most fishermen used a variety of approaches, including traditional practices, magic-religious practices and modern technologies, to adapt to CC; only a few fishers have adopted a single approach. Policies developed to help fishers adapt to CC should incorporate their sociological and cultural norms to promote policy acceptance, rather than treating non-scientific approaches as completely irrational or assuming that practitioners are fatalistic about the impacts of CC. Useful actions that are acceptable to fishermen in their adaptation to CC should involve a thorough understanding of social and environmental considerations.

Plants used for magico-religious purposes by the indigenous communities of sub-Himalayan Tract, Uttarakhand

Background: Plants play an essential role in every rural society's cultural and religious ceremonies. The focus of the study was to document the use of plants by the indigenous communities of sub-Himalayan Tract, Uttarakhand in magico-religious practices. Method: Information was extracted from eighty informants (50 men; 30 women) between 25 to 75 years of age. A semi-structured questionnaire, interviews, and participatory observations were made to collect data from the informants to meet the study's requirements. Results: The present study revealed 34 plants belonging to 31 genera and 25 families for the magico-religious practices. Fruits and whole plants are mainly used to conduct various social and religious practices, such as offerings in religious ceremonies. Herbs (59%) were the dominant forms, and wastelands (48%) were the dominant source of magico-religious plants. High Informant Consensus Factor (Fic) was recorded for the plants used in the sacred and religious rites (SAR) category. Species such as Datura stramonium, Ocimum tenuiflorum, Ficus benghalensis, Cynodon dactylon, Achyranthes aspera, and Calotropis procera were culturally most important based on cultural index value. Conclusion: The plant species play a vital role in practicing the religion and culture among the studied communities. Therefore, it is suggested that the indigenous communities of the sub-Himalayan region be monitored and contacted regularly about their beliefs. They must be informed and made aware of the importance of plant diversity and the significant loss that will occur if it is lost. Keywords: Uttarakhand, Indigenous communities, Magico-religious practices, Cultural Importance, Plants

SOCIO-CULTURAL BARRIERS TO YOUTH ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN AFRICA. A STUDY OF YOUNG CONGOLESE GRADUATES

This study was undertaken to investigate socio-cultural barriers to entrepreneurship among young graduates in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It is based on a field survey carried out in Kinshasa among 588 young Congolese graduates of higher and university education, aged 15 to 35 years. The results reveal that the lack of valuation of entrepreneurship in the community, the absence of entrepreneurial culture and negative societal attitude to youth entrepreneurship, witchcraft and magico-religious practices and the lack of family support and friends are important socio-cultural barriers in the DRC. Entrepreneurship is not valued in the DRC. It is considered a secondary activity to a main job. Society finds it less important to start one's own business or be self-employed, and so discourages young people from doing so. The fight against these socio-cultural obstacles can help encourage the realization of entrepreneurial projects through the creation of businesses by young Congolese graduates. The originality of this study is based on the field analyzed, namely the developing countries, specifically the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country less studied on the entrepreneurial level, and on its operational aim the development of entrepreneurship and the realization of entrepreneurial projects of young Congolese entrepreneurs.
 Keywords: Youth entrepreneurship, Socio-Cultural Barriers to Entrepreneurship, Young Congolese Graduates, Business Creation, DRC.

Environnement et hygiène de vie dans les pratiques médico-religieuses des sanctuaires grecs antiques : sources épigraphiques et littéraires

This article handles with a major notion in the therapeutic practices in ancient Greece, the diaitesis in a frame much more widened in the time and in the space, because holding in account the natural laws and the phenomena or atmospheric components which are imperative upon the nature of the man, even his lifestyle. The epigraphic and literary sources which we have allow us to understand how much this means of prevention was important in the medicine of sanctuaries, which was a learned mixture of the empirical knowledge and the magico-religious practices.

Women and Weasels: a Medico-religious Approach to Maternity in a Republican City of Lazio

Medicine and magico-religious practices went hand in hand in Greco-Roman societies, because they attached enormous importance to divine manifestations. Insofar as the gods were present everywhere and in all circumstances, it was necessary to scrupulously respect the rituals which were practised in their honour. Without these rituals, peace with the gods could be disrupted. In the town of Palestrina (Lazio), a votive deposit was unearthed near the foundations of a sanctuary. It contained several effigies of Juno as well as eight very original little statuettes with the breasts of a woman but the body of a weasel. In addition, there were also weasel’s bones and metal keys. Even though it seems logical to think that the religious complex and these offerings were evoted to the goddess, it is more difficult, however, to understand the link between Juno and the different offerings. Why were they placed there and by whom?

Ethnozoology among the Berbers: pre-Islamic practices survive in the Rif (northwestern Africa)

BackgroundEthnozoological knowledge is less documented than ethnobotanical. With this field study, we aim to record and analyze the Riffian Berber knowledge about the use of animals in traditional human and veterinary medicine. Our research question is what is their knowledge of ethnozoological practices?MethodsWe performed semi-structured interviews with local inhabitants in Riffian vernacular language. The reliability of the sampling effort was assessed by a rarefaction curve. Data were compared with previous studies in order to determine the geographical and historical extensions of described uses and possible conservation implications for the species used.ResultsWe obtained information regarding 107 ethnozoological uses based on 197 use reports. Among the 31 species used, mammals were most frequently cited. Diseases related to the traditional medicinal system were most frequently treated with these resources, as well as those of the respiratory, digestive, and musculoskeletal systems. Thirty percent of uses are associated with magico-religious practices. Only three of the species used are threatened at the global level, two of them extinct in the study area, indicating low potential damage to regional biodiversity from current practices utilizing native animals. Within modern Morocco, Riffians have continued practicing ethnozoological uses anathema to Islam, like the consumption of animals considered impure (dogs, jackals, wild boars, and hyenas).ConclusionsThe use of primarily mammalian species and of many animal body parts is likely related to the Berber belief in homology between the area of the human body in which the ailment occurs and the corresponding animal body part. These findings unveil the nature of ethnozoological practices, highly linked to folklore and culture-bound conditions, and lacking in the Western empirical rationale for nearly one third of reported uses. The consumption of animals considered impure according to Islam was probably initiated before the conquering of the Maghreb by Arabs in the seventh century and was maintained through the secular isolation of Riffians in mountain areas. This can reflect traditional healing habits being maintained over thousands of years.

Study on magico-religious plants in Mising tribe of Assam, India

Plants are traditionally utilized in various magico-religious beliefs of the Mising tribe in Assam, India. The present study attempted to document the utilization of plants in magico-religious practices, their valuation and prioritization based on importance and conservation priority and to assess the plant knowledge based on age and gender. It was studied from December 2014 to December 2017 through questionnaire survey and informal interviews. The data were collected from 80 informants belonging to 15 villages of three selected districts of Assam, India i.e. Dhemaji, Lakhimpur and Sonitpur. Overall, 63 plant species belonging 56 genera and 31 families were used in magico-religious practices. Poaceae was the dominant family and leaves were the dominant among plant parts. Sacred and religious rites (SAR), taboo (TAB) and magical belief system (MAG) were three major use categories. Of these, SAR was the dominant use category with 47 spp. SAR use category had the highest Fic value with 0.977 followed by MAG and TAB. No significant difference in plant knowledge was observed among three age groups i.e., young (<40 years), adults ( 40 to < 60 years) and old ( 60 years). The women had significantly higher plant knowledge than men in two use categories (MAG and TAB) and also in over all categories. The valuation of magico-religious plants was done based on cultural importance index wherein Brassica juncea had the highest CI index i.e., 1.401 followed by Mangifera indica, Areca catechu etc. Areca catechu and Gossypium arboreum were ranked 1st in MIS and SCP respectively. The present study is not intended to endorse the utilization of the magico-religious plants in a manner reported above; however, the study may lead to further detailed scientific investigation of the species.

Magicalized Socialism: An Anthropological Study on the Magical Practices of a Secularized Reincarnated Lama in Socialist Mongolia

Abstract Socialist regimes lead by the Soviet Union were one of the great experiments for human life “without religions”. In Mongolia, as in other socialist countries, modernity was constructed by expelling religious practices from the sphere of everyday life in the name of atheism. However, modernity has never completely succeeded in fully establishing secularization anywhere in the world, and the phenomena of magico-religious practices continue and even are rampant, not least behind the facades in post-socialist countries. In other words, it can be said that the affiliation between secularization, de-sacralization, and modernity, which many scholars imagined, was just fantasy. Following the way in which Talal Asad examines the “novel” form of secularism present in Euro-American societies, it becomes quite easy to understand that socialist modernity was formulated as the “novel secular” by the Soviet Union. While examining Soviet-style atheism or Soviet-formed secularization, we need to rethink the practices that are “in between” the religious and the secular. Mongols have been practicing religion secularly. We see this in how selecting reincarnated lamas has been a political act, and in the way they have been practicing secular politics so religiously – for example, the importance of fortune telling and shamanism in political decision-making. Further, we need to note that the socialist expulsion of institutional aspects of religions such as churches, clergies, and religious scriptures resulted in the spread of magical/occult practices. In this paper we explore Mongol practices that are in between the religious and the secular by examining Buddhist practices in Zavkhan Province, where people maintained strong worship for reincarnated lamas secretly and in disguise during the socialist era.

Honda Chikaatsu’s Spiritual Learning as a Means of Bringing Blessings and Guiding the Nation

AbstractThis article discusses the purpose, content and reception of the healing and spirit-possession methods of Honda Chikaatsu 本田親徳 (1822–1890) and his followers. It investigates what the methods were intended for, how they were practiced, and how they were received by the government, the common people and the elite. These methods were for all intents and purposes meant to benefit and glorify the new Imperial Japan under the Meiji government that Honda venerated and adored. Although the modernizing Meiji government outlawed such magico-religious practices, spirit-possession methods—and healing methods in particular—were in high demand among the faithful at shrines such as those where Honda’s disciples served as priests. At the same time, some very prominent individuals were intrigued by Honda’s spirit-possession methods and the strategic benefits they promised.

The social functions of shamanism.

Cultural evolutionary accounts of shamanism must explain the cross-cultural recurrence and variation in associated practices. We suggest that Singh's account of shamanism would be strengthened by considering the social functions of shamanism in groups. Shamanism increases social group cohesion, making it distinct from other magico-religious practices.

Magico-religious and social belief of tribals of district Udaipur, Rajasthan

BackgroundReligious beliefs and practices have long influenced human perceptions and uses of nature. Animals in particular play a prominent role in magico-religious practices and provide historical and cultural depth of these relationships. Understanding human-faunal relations is often fundamental to the cause of meaningful wildlife conservation. This study investigates the domestic and wild harvested species used for spiritual and religious purposes among the tribals of six tehsils of Udaipur district.MethodsThe ethnozoological data were obtained by an emic approach, applying different tools such as semi-structured interviews, participatory rural appraisal, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions. The scientific name and species of animals were identified using relevant and standard literature. Present investigation is a part of major concept worked out for study on tribal people and their beliefs. Ethnozoological information was collected by interview of 150 tribals. The questionnaire was prepared in Hindi keeping all parameters in mind. A total of 55 respondents (35 males and 20 females) answered to the magico-religious parameter. The collected data were analyzed through informant fidelity level (FL).ResultsThe present study was undertaken to have an insight of the ethnozoological uses of animals prevalent in Bhil, Meena, and Kathodi tribes inhabiting the Udaipur district of Rajasthan. A total of 25 animals used for magico-religious and social purposes were recorded from the study area. Out of the total number of animals, 60% (15) were mammals, 24% (6) were birds, 12% (3) were reptiles, and the rest 4% (1) were the mollusks. Of the total ethnozoological practices, 64% fall in the magico-religious category, 12% in socio-cultural category, 12% in the category of ethnomusical, and 12% in the category of taboos.ConclusionsThe tribal people maintain strong ties with animals at both the material and spiritual level. Study reveals that traditional people depend on local therapies either magico-religious or natural ones in absence of awareness, modern medical facilities, expensive drugs, and poor transportation. However, the use of animal material in such practices is on a decline.

Indigenous Healing Practices among the Deori Tribe of Majuli, Assam

Ethnic communities in general have their own ideas and opinions about health and has multifarious knacks to overcome the diseases. The overall health status of the tribal community is the outcome of the several interacting factors. The health of the ethnic people is invariably connected with socio-cultural and magico-religious practices since ancient times. They have developed indigenous ways of healing practices to protect their health against various kinds of diseases. There is a popular belief prevalent among them, that some of the diseases are caused by evil spirits as well as malevolent deities for which they observe specific rituals to appease them. Again, the pristine method of curing diseases and ailments in general are done by application of varieties of wild roots, herbs, plant as well as animal parts. However, with the establishment of modern Medicare facilities within the rural tribal areas, they avail the benefits of the same along with integrally sticking to their pristine medicare system. In this present endeavour a humble attempt has been made to examine the continuity and change of the ethnomedicinal practices related with health care system among the Deoris of two homogenous Villages of Majuli District of Upper Assam.

Medicine and Society in Ptolemaic Egypt by Philippa Lang (review)

Reviewed by: Medicine and Society in Ptolemaic Egypt by Philippa Lang A. Rosalie David Philippa Lang. Medicine and Society in Ptolemaic Egypt. Studies in Ancient Medicine, vol. 41. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2013. xiv + 318 pp. Ill. $151.00 (978-90-04-21858-1). Medicine in ancient Egypt has traditionally been studied either as an important aspect of pharaonic culture (from the Old Kingdom to the Late Period), or from the perspective of Greek medicine practiced in Egypt during the Greco-Roman Period. However, scholars have generally made little attempt to examine the exchange of influence between Egyptian and Greek medical systems, or to study the impact that demography, agriculture, botany, and magico-religious practices had upon medical practice. This book sets out to address these issues within the context of Ptolemaic Egypt, using evidence from Egyptian and Greek medical texts, as well as archaeological and artifactual material, to consider disease occurrence and healing methods in this period. Patterns of immigration to Egypt over the millennia are discussed in chapter 1, with special emphasis on the historical background of Ptolemaic Egypt. The effects of geography, climate, demographics, and biological conditions upon disease occurrence are considered, particularly with regard to changed epidemiological environments resulting from the influx of ethnic groups during this era. A sizeable number of Greek immigrants would have posed unprecedented medical challenges: possibly new disease strains (although there is no evidence of large-scale epidemics among new arrivals or indigenes); health hazards due to changes in diet and foodstuffs, as well as exposure to local bacteria, viruses, and parasites; and new concepts and treatments introduced by foreign medical practitioners associated with the immigrant communities. The extent to which medicine was regarded as part of ethnocultural identity is explored: did Greeks and Egyptians each pursue healing processes exclusive to their own communities, or was there any overlap or interchangeability between the two systems? In chapter 2, the role of the gods within the two traditions is considered, with particular emphasis on the oracular and medical practices at religious sanctuaries in Egypt and Greece. Chapter 3 discusses Egyptian and Greek theoretical perspectives (the perceived nature and causes of illness, which dictate the principles of diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy), and how disease may be differently understood and interpreted by medical professionals and the lay population. A crucial difference was that, whereas the Egyptians believed that divine intervention played an essential role in treating a patient, the Greeks, although mindful of the gods’ power to heal, generally attributed ill health to the impact of environmental and dietary factors on naturally occurring bodily substances. The modern differentiation of Egyptian medicine as “irrational” and Greek practices as “rational” is [End Page 741] also discussed, as is evidence for the transmission of medical ideas and practices between the two traditions during the Ptolemaic period. The next chapter explores the responses of the patients and medical practitioners to illness, and the methods of treatment that were utilized by professional and folk healers in both traditions. Chapter 5 identifies the practitioners of Egyptian and Greek medicine, and defines their roles in healing; it also considers and compares patients’ opportunities for seeking treatment in pharaonic and Ptolemaic Egypt. Further important issues are addressed in chapters 5 and 6. These include whether Egyptian pharaonic medicine had any impact on the naturalistic and highly theoretical medicine practiced by Greek physicians at Alexandria, whether the Alexandrian system had any real influence beyond the royal court and related circles, and whether the tradition of human mummification in Egypt facilitated opportunities for high-status Greek practitioners to undertake human dissection and vivisection in Alexandria. There is an extensive bibliography. However, important references have been omitted regarding the history of opium use in Egypt (p. 169)1 and pharmaceutical quantification (pp. 181–82).2 Typographical errors occur on pages 230 (repetition of the words “and resources”) and 49 (“bowels of water”). The book effectively addresses two levels of readership: as a scholarly work, it fulfils a long-standing need among Egyptologists, classicists, and medical historians for a readily accessible discussion of medical practice in Ptolemaic Egypt; and for the wider general readership, it provides well-evidenced information about various aspects of the subject area. A...

THE CIVILIZATIONS OF THE YAM: INTERRELATIONSHIPS OF MAN AND YAMS IN AFRICA AND THE INDO‐PACIFIC REGION

Τ Τ appears at first sight remarkable that the term le civilization de Tignarne -*should have been used independently by different authors to describe two farseparated areas of human culture. In West Africa the term was first used by Miege (1954) to describe the more easterly part of the forest zone of West Africa, between the Bandama River in central Ivory Coast and the Cameroon Mountain chain ; and between the drier parts of the savanna, around 8°-io° N. and the sea with its bordering swamps and lagoons. This area, also described as the West African Yam Zone (Coursey, 1965, 1967) depends for its staple food supplies on root and tuber crops, especially yams (Dioscorea spp.), in contrast to the areas to the north, where sorghums and millets provide the major staples, and to the west, where upland rice (Oryza glaberrima Stapf.) is dominant. The identical term has been used in the Pacific Ocean context (Haudricourt, 1964) to refer to at least parts of that area, based on Papuo-Melanesia but extending far out into the Pacific Ocean, where yams are major staple foods. The concept has been developed by Barrau (1963, 1965), the delimitations of this area of the Indo-Pacific being essentially as indicated by him. There are many differences between these two areas of the world, which outweigh the similarities. Nevertheless, on closer examination the application of this term to both is less surprising than it seems at first ; for in both the basis of the civilization is, in fact, the cultivation of yams. The introduction of new crops, especially sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam. and cassava (Manihot esculenta Cranz.), and others of American origin, in recent times, has reduced the dominance of yams as the material basis of the subsistence of the people, but in former times in some places within living memory yams provided substantially the greater part of the staple food. This was reflected in both these areas in the large volume of ritual and magico-religious practices associated with almost every aspect of yam cultivation and storage. These civilizations were then based on the yam not only in a material sense ; the crop was also fundamental to the cultural life of the people, to at least as great a degree as were the grain crops in Mediterranean and Asiatic cultures. To those who have received their scientific education within the framework of the cultural heritage of Europe and the Mediterranean world as have virtually all

Riding the Wind with Liezi: New Perspectives on the Daoist Classic edited by Ronnie Littlejohn and Jeffrey Dippmann (review)

Reviewed by: Riding the Wind with Liezi: New Perspectives on the Daoist Classic edited by Ronnie Littlejohn and Jeffrey Dippmann Yuet Keung Lo Riding the Wind with Liezi: New Perspectives on the Daoist Classic. Edited by Ronnie Littlejohn and Jeffrey Dippmann. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2011. Pp. viii + 264. Hardcover $75.00, isbn 978-1-4384-3455-1. The Liezi is one of the lesser-known Daoist classics in the West even though English translations of the text are not lacking. Scholarly studies are scarce, and thus the publication of Riding the Wind with Liezi: New Perspectives on the Daoist Classic, edited by Ronnie Littlejohn and Jeffrey Dippmann, should be celebrated. This new anthology contains Roger Ames’ helpful introduction and twelve essays by scholars who are mostly trained in philosophy and religion. The essays are grouped under the three headings of “The Liezi Text,” “Interpretive Essays,” and “Applying the Teachings of the Liezi,” but, strictly speaking, only the contributions of T. H. Barrett, Ronnie Littlejohn, and Jeffrey Dippmann (the last presented under “Interpretive Essays”) deal with the textual issues of the Liezi. Barrett provides a richly detailed history of how the classic was read in the first thousand years since its composition while the latter two offer different interpretations of those parts of the Liezi valorizing magico-religious practices promoted in the sectarian Daoism that was popular in early medieval China. The remaining nine essays explore a fairly consistent and well-known core of Daoist teachings concerning cosmology and its concomitant spiritual cultivation, where the self is viewed both as an autonomous locus of transformative praxis and an adaptive agent within a natural and social context that it inevitably implicates and confronts. Little surprise that the characteristic Daoist ideas of qi (vital energy), wuwei (nonaction), and ziran (spontaneity) appear in virtually all of these essays with varying emphases, if only in different ways of expression such as “unselfconsciousness” (P. J. Ivanhoe’s “The Theme of Unselfconsciousness in the Liezi”) and “effortless action” (Erin M. Cline’s “How to Fish Like a Daoist”). Many of the essays are comparative in nature (“Is the Liezi an Encheiridion?” by May Sim; “The That-Beyond-Which of the Pristine Dao” by Thomas Michael; “I, Robot: Self as Machine in the Liezi” by Jeffrey L. Richey; “Dancing with Yinyang: The Art of Emergence” by Robin R. Wang; and “When Butterflies Change into Birds: Life and Death in the Liezi” by David Jones). These, along with the three textual studies, perhaps justify the subtitle of the anthology. Most of the philosophical essays effectively annotate the Liezi with well-known ideas, such as qi, ziran, and wuwei, in Daoist (or, broadly, Chinese) thought and in [End Page 686] some cases Western philosophy and science, appealing to concepts such as determinism, God, Truth, and evolution. As they are, they could easily impress the reader that this oft-neglected classic is indeed little more than a derivation of early Daoist philosophy; the Liezi, then, is merely a convenient platform for rehashing typical Daoist ideas and appears to offer little that is original in itself. David Jones baldly and repeatedly admits that the Liezi is no different from other Daoist classics except that it articulates their common teachings more explicitly or accessibly. But this raises an important question: what is unique about the Liezi as a Daoist philosophical text? The anthology does not provide an answer. In fact, what some of the essays argue to be unique to the Liezi actually comes from the Zhuangzi. For instance, Jones, relying on a key passage in chapter 1 of the Liezi, contends that the classic “places the relationship between life and death in the more general context of a universal evolutionary framework” (pp. 141–142). While his argument is sound, it would hold equally well if his references to the Liezi are replaced with text selections from the Zhuangzi. The singular Liezi passage that substantiates his argument on “evolution” also appears in chapter 18 of the Zhuangzi (with differences that may deserve a careful examination), a critical fact that he does not acknowledge. Similarly, on the basis of the first two paragraphs in chapter 1 of the Liezi, Michael...

Animals for the Gods: Magical and Religious Faunal Use and Trade in Brazil

Religious beliefs and practices have long influenced human perceptions and uses of nature. Animals in particular play a prominent role in magico-religious practices and given the historical and cultural depth of these relationships, understanding human-faunal relations is often fundamental to the cause of meaningful wildlife conservation. This study investigates the domestic and wild harvested species used for spiritual and religious purposes by adherents of the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomble. Introduced by enslaved Africans, this belief system combines animal and plant traditions derived from Africa with many others assimilated from Amerindians. We identified a total of 129 species of animals (or animal derived products) used and/or sold for magico-religious purposes; of these, 34. 8 % (n = 45) are included in some list of threatened species. Most animals reported were mammals (n = 29), followed by mollusks (20), fishes (19), birds (18) and reptiles (16); the majority (78 %) of reported species were wild-caught from terrestrial habitats (62 %), followed by marine and estuarine (24 %), and freshwater (14 %). We identified an extensive commercial network of collectors, middlemen/distributors, shop owners, and consumers. Rarity of a given species was often positively associated with economic value. Considering the ubiquity and underground nature of these practices, future conservation strategists are encouraged to work with Candomble practitioners.

Preparation and use of plant medicines for farmers' health in Southwest Nigeria: socio-cultural, magico-religious and economic aspects

Agrarian rural dwellers in Nigeria produce about 95% of locally grown food commodities. The low accessibility to and affordability of orthodox medicine by rural dwellers and their need to keep healthy to be economically productive, have led to their dependence on traditional medicine. This paper posits an increasing acceptance of traditional medicine country-wide and advanced reasons for this trend. The fact that traditional medicine practitioners' concept of disease is on a wider plane vis-à-vis orthodox medicine practitioners' has culminated in some socio-cultural and magico-religious practices observed in preparation and use of plant medicines for farmers' health management. Possible scientific reasons were advanced for some of these practices to show the nexus between traditional medicine and orthodox medicine. The paper concludes that the psychological aspect of traditional medicine are reflected in its socio-cultural and magico-religious practices and suggests that government should fund research into traditional medicine to identify components of it that can be integrated into the national health system.

Julie Laskaris, The art is long: On the sacred disease and the scientific tradition, Studies in Ancient Medicine, vol. 25Leiden and Boston, Brill, 2002, pp. ix, 172, €69.00, US$81.00 (hardback 90-04-12152-8).

On the sacred disease has traditionally been seen as an example of rational, secular medical thought, diametrically opposed to magico-religious practices and superstition. Julie Laskaris argues instead that the work “is best understood as a sophistic protreptic speech that was meant to demonstrate its author's superior understanding and treatment of that disease for the purpose of attracting students and a clientele” (p. 2). Laskaris proposes “a new analytic model” through which to interpret the text (p. 6). This analysis, which she acknowledges owes much to Karl Popper, involves placing the text in its intellectual tradition. This is followed by a survey of modern scholarship on ancient medicine, which tells the historian of medicine nothing new, but is useful for others. Chapter 1 provides an excellent overview of early healers, the transmission of medical knowledge, and the important subject of religious healing. Chapter 2 summarizes On the sacred disease and discusses its early and modern receptions. For all its supposed importance as a harbinger of scientific medicine, the text was not highly regarded in antiquity. Its fame is a nineteenth-century construct. In Chapter 3, Laskaris argues clearly that On the sacred disease should be read as a sophistic protreptic speech. Chapter 4 examines how humoral physiology and its imbalance are used by the author to account for the disease. The length of these humoral explanations are driven, according to Laskaris, by “competition with the magico-religious healers” (p. 131). Were it not so then “the author … would surely have been inclined to make his own account as simple and unified as possible” (p. 133). This is an interesting, but speculative point. Laskaris maintains that the strongly argumentative style of texts such as On the sacred disease and On ancient medicine reflects either an inability or an unwillingness to offer alternative therapies to those provided by magico-religious healers. Because of such constraints, “polemical rhetoric was in effect the only avenue left to secular practitioners to demonstrate their superiority; the similarities in their practices and results prevented them from doing so by any other means” (p. 13). Laskaris' analysis successfully demonstrates that the text has strong protreptic elements which would have been useful in attracting a client base. She is also right to stress the highly competitive milieu in which all manner of persons styling themselves “healers” sought custom. Yet On the sacred disease should also be seen as a text written specifically to censure those practitioners (not just those of a magico-religious persuasion) who acted impiously by misusing the divine. For Laskaris, “statements concerning the divine nature of disease are not relevant to the logic of the author's ideas concerning causation, but are important, rather, for his rhetorical purposes” (p. 114). She notes that Philip van der Eijk regards the treatise as “expressing the author's genuine religious views” (p. 122, n. 77). I concur. If the author takes such pains to argue that epilepsy is no more divine than any other disease, he does so in part to help remove the stigma of an affliction that is associated with divine displeasure. Here the healer's first step in claiming to be able to treat the disease is to define it as an illness and not as a species of divine curse. In this respect, the healer may not be as rigidly “secular” as Laskaris maintains. Be that as it may, Laskaris has assembled sufficient material for the reader to look with fresh eyes at a most important early Hippocratic work, and to evaluate its place in the medical and scientific tradition.

There are Many Kongo Worlds: Particularities of Magico-Religious Beliefs Among the Vili and Yombe of Congo-Brazzaville

ABSTRACTThe article analyses the distinctiveness of magico-religious practices in the north-western sector of the vast Kongo cultural complex, namely among the peoples who refer to themselves as Vili and Yombe. On the basis of fieldwork and a critical examination of the sources, the article points out that such widely distributed terms of proto-Bantu origin asnkisicannot be covered by a single or even a multi-stranded definition; the variants, ranging from spirit to object, express local and time-specific beliefs. An approach that seeks a single Kongo universe is an ethnographic, historical and linguistic misreading that obscures existing regional concepts while possibly overlooking the importance of other notions. The article focuses on sorting out the basic ethnographic data relating to the beliefs current in the region and reveals not only long-standing aspects, some of them common to the wider Kongo world, but also those that have developed more recently in this particular coastal zone where different peoples trade and interact.