Letter to Lily - About the Way of the World

Author: (English) Alan Macfarlane / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: What is witchcraft? Dear Lily: Almost every day we face confusion, unsure how to explain the causes of misfortune. Sometimes a friend gets injured, sometimes a child falls ill, sometimes we ourselves have accidents and suffer, and sometimes our perfectly planned things do not come to fruition. To cope with pain and prevent future misfortune, people naturally seek the roots of misfortune. Why, not earlier or later, did the car slip and crash today? Why, not A or B, but me, suffer from an unbearable illness? It is not difficult to find obvious reasons. The road was too slippery, the lighting too dim; yet we have driven on this road countless times without any problems. We drank untreated raw water, went to a new restaurant, or were bitten by insects; yet at other times, we took the same risks without getting sick. You see, from a young age, we learn to distinguish between two types of problems: "how" and "why." The first type asks about the way things happen, while the second asks about the reasons behind them.
There is a story about an African who contracted malaria and went to see a doctor, claiming to have been bewitched. The doctor said malaria was spread by mosquitoes, and the patient replied, "I know, but who sent the mosquitoes?" The causes of things are divided into two categories: one is material, and the other is what we like to attribute to human intention. A barn collapsed, crushing a North African Azande person. Everyone understood the direct cause was termites eating the wooden beams. But why was it specifically Zhang San who walked below, not Li Si? Who was the witch who turned an accident into a deliberate act? The things we have encountered since childhood always seem to be the result of someone else's decision, so we cannot help but believe that the suffering that torments us is caused by some force akin to human power. Once we identify this kind of cause, we have several options, depending on the culture we belong to. The cause we choose may be demons, ancestors, God, or witches. Choosing witchcraft as an explanation—that is, attributing it to the malice of another human being—has a series of advantages. Demons are basically uncontrollable; believing that ancestors (if we believe in them) are plotting against us makes us uncomfortable; and God, who should love and care for us, would not harm or torment us. In contrast, we know many people who both love and hate us, who may be secretly praying for our misfortune or indeed have the ability to carry out their malice because they are witches. Why not believe in witchcraft? In the vast majority of human societies today, people still believe that most of the world's suffering and troubles are caused by witchcraft. Explaining misfortune as the result of astrology, chance, or divine punishment is not as satisfying as attributing it to witchcraft, mainly because other superstitions leave us helpless.
Stars have no minds and are unreachable; luck is uncontrollable and comes and goes without reason; and God is mysterious and often angry with us. In contrast, witches can be investigated and targeted. They think like us, but with malice. We can seek the help of diviners to find them. Divination is the technique of investigating the causes of disasters, using a variety of oracles or shamanic rituals. Reading signs in mirrors or crystal balls, rolling dice, bones, or stones, examining footprints left in ashes, or summoning spirits to listen to their voices—through these methods, the witch responsible can be identified, and then action can be taken to eliminate them. We can also invent anti-witchcraft tools, such as special substances or sacrifices, to ward off evil or heal the victims. All divination methods take precautions to avoid being exposed. If the treatment fails, it is because the witch is too powerful, or the exorcism ritual was performed incorrectly. If the witchcraft accusation is wrong, it is because the real witch is setting a trap. Witchcraft superstition is a closed world and cannot be challenged from within. In the past, no one doubted the power of witchcraft; any atheists were either accused of being witches or of being bewitched by them. Witchcraft superstition is similar to other closed systems you may have heard of, such as certain ideologies. It can offer an explanation for many of the world's sufferings, and each new event only strengthens its power. For humans living in hardship, it is indeed very appealing.