Magic and Science

Jolly, Karen Louise

doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_9420

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…However—often despite histories of colonization—many of the world's peoples are not invested in this dichotomy. As Jolly (2008: 1249) puts it, “in Western thought, then, magic has become something marginal, separate from or opposite to a main-stream tradition of religion or science. Non-Western practices of magic seen in their own cultural context are not the opposite of religion or science, but are complementary to their political, social, and religious orders; magic is not the other in their worldview, but is part of the norm.” According to Tambiah (1990:83), views of magic as a domain outside of (or opposed to) science “will disappear only when we succeed in embedding magic in a more ample theory of human life in which the path of ritual action is seen as an indispensable mode for man anywhere and everywhere of relating to and participating in the life of the world.” Our investigations of weather magic in Vanuatu strongly support this view: “magic” is a concept imposed from the outside, as there is no strong dichotomy between magic and the mundane/natural in Indigenous ni-Vanuatu thought.…”

Section: Weather Magic Narratives: Origins and Present Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

“…However-often despite histories of colonization-many of the world's peoples are not invested in this dichotomy. As Jolly (2008Jolly ( : 1249 puts it, "in Western thought, then, magic has become something marginal, separate from or opposite to a main-stream tradition of religion or science. Non-Western practices of magic seen in their own cultural context are not the opposite of religion or science, but are complementary to their political, social, and religious orders; magic is not the other in their worldview, but is part of the norm."…”

Section: Magical Practice As Environmentalmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Weather Magic as Environmental Knowledge in Southern Vanuatu

Balick

Harrison

Kelso

et al. 2022

Journal of Ethnobiology

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This paper presents weather magic practices from the islands of Tanna and Aneityum, in southern Vanuatu, and highlights how this phenomenon is a critical domain of Indigenous environmental knowledge, particularly knowledge involving plants. Recent literature suggests that diverse cultural systems, such as music, can be viewed as domains of environmental knowledge, and we propose that magical systems should be afforded the same recognition. Although anthropological work in Melanesia has historically featured various magical practices, relatively little has been said about how these have been used to influence or understand the weather, and even less has been presented directly by Indigenous weather magic practitioners, who are co-authors on this paper. In this contribution, we intersperse anthropological and ethnobotanical commentary with verbatim narratives provided by three local experts in weather magic from southern Vanuatu, including oral histories, contemporary narratives, and the results of ethnobotanical surveys. The detailed knowledge that weather magic practitioners on these islands hold regarding their local environment represents an important means of transmitting not only cultural heritage, but also botanical knowledge, the maintenance of which may be critical for current and future conservation efforts. This research documents rich cultural traditions of local and global significance which are worthy of the attention and preservation afforded to other forms of Indigenous environmental knowledge. The goals of magic and those of science are not necessarily inherently opposed, and we show that magical practice can indeed involve and even preserve a detailed and powerful mode of knowing the environment.

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Section: Weather Magic Narratives: Origins and Present Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Magical Practice As Environmentalmentioning

confidence: 99%