essay

Magic, sorcery, and football among the urban Zulu: a case of reinterpretation under acculturation

Black Africa; its peoples and their cultures todayNew YorkPublished In 1970 • Pages: 248-252

By: Scotch, Norman A..

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This source, the work of a professional anthropologist, discusses the ways beliefs in magic and sorcery have been re-worked in urban Durban in the context of competitive team sports. The author indicates that magic in this case continues to operate as a mediating factor in situations of stress, and alleviates interpersonal and intergroup antagonisms by displacing the apparent causes of success and failure.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Acculturation and culture contact
Sociocultural trends
Athletic sports
Magic
Sorcery
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Zulu
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2005
RegionThe area the document pertains to
Africa
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Southern 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
Jan Simpson ; John Beierle ; 1979
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)
Durban region, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
NotesAdditional notes
Norman A. Scotch
Includes bibliographical references
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
73097763
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Zulu (African people)