essay
Witchcraft and sorcery in a Gusii community
Witchcraft and sorcery in East Africa [by] John Beattie [and others • London • Published In 1963 • Pages: 221-255
By: LeVine, Robert Alan.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Witchcraft and sorcery is a preoccupation of the Gusii people living in and around Nyansongo, in Southwestern Kenya. This document describes in detail beliefs about witches, including information on how one becomes a witch, methods used in witchcraft, ways of combating witchcraft, and punishment of witches. In addition the author discusses the roles of the sorcerers in the society. These individuals attempt to kill by magical means the particular witch who is harming his client and to protect the client and his/her family from further witchcraft.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Adjustment processes
- Ingroup antagonisms
- Household
- Family relationships
- Polygamy
- Clans
- Offenses against the person
- Theory of disease
- Sorcery
- Life and death
- Magicians and diviners
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Gusii
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2000
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Eastern Africa
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle ; 2005
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- no date
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- not specified
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- southwestern Kenya
- NotesAdditional notes
- Robert A. LeVine
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 255)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 63025974
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Gusii (African people)