Sorcery and the Criminal Law in Vanuatu

This paper examines the problems of incorporating norms of customary law into the substantive criminal laws of a Melanesian state system. It focuses on the particular crime of sorcery in Vanuatu. It explores the historical and sociological contexts to the belief in sorcery in society today, and also how behaviour generated by the belief (allegations of sorcery and sorcerer-related attacks) is dealt with by the non-state customary legal system. It then investigates how the state has treated the issue of sorcery, discussing both legislative initiatives and also a number of cases brought before the courts in recent years. The paper argues that merely transplanting substantive norms from the customary system into the state system without consideration of the procedural and institutional framework those norms were developed within, or the ramifications the law may have on other aspects of the legal system, is doomed to failure. Finally, it highlights a number of issues that must be considered in order to successfully initiate a more fruitful process of legal pluralism

Book Review: Siva in the Forest of Pines: An Essay on Sorcery and Self-Knowledge

A review of Siva in the Forest of Pines: An Essay on Sorcery and Self-Knowledge by Don Handelman and David Shulman

Sorcery Cases in Papua New Guineas Village Courts: Legal Innovation Part IV

This In Brief argues that the repeal of Papua New Guinea's Sorcery Act 1971 has been functionally irrelevant for village courts, which face the issue of sorcery with far more frequency than higher courts ever did. The Sorcery Act, a piece of late colonial-era legislation that was a half-hearted attempt to reflect the social milieu of Papua New Guinea, criminalised the use of sorcery for 'evil purposes'. It was repealed in 2013 in the wake of several high-profile and gruesome killings related to sorcery accusations, because of a widespread perception that the Act could make available a defence in cases involving violence toward suspected sorcerers. Dissatisfaction with the Act had been building for some time, even though a sorcery-related defence has almost never succeeded in court (Demian 2011; Forsyth 2015). In addition to repealing the Act, Prime Minister Peter O'Neill introduced draconian penal measures such as the extension of the death penalty to sorcery-related murders (BBC News 2013).AusAI

Sorcery in the Black Atlantic

Most scholarship on sorcery and witchcraft has narrowly focused on specific times and places, particularly early modern Europe and twentieth-century Africa. And much of that research interprets sorcery as merely a remnant of premodern traditions. Boldly challenging these views, Sorcery in the Black Atlantic takes a longer historical and broader geographical perspective, contending that sorcery is best understood as an Atlantic phenomenon that has significant connections to modernity and globalization. A distinguished group of contributors here examine sorcery in Brazil, Cuba, South Africa, Cameroon, and Angola. Their insightful essays reveal the way practices and accusations of witchcraft spread throughout the Atlantic world from the age of discovery up to the present, creating an indelible link between sorcery and the rise of global capitalism. Shedding new light on a topic of perennial interest, Sorcery in the Black Atlantic will be provocative, compelling reading for historians and anthropologists working in this growing field

Pope John XXII

Throughout his pontificate, John XXII exhibited a marked concern over matters of sorcery, divination, and demonic invocation. The pope feared magical assaults and assassination attempts on his own person, and he used charges of heresy, sorcery, and idolatry as political weapons against his enemies. He also promoted the more general persecution of sorcery by ordering papal inquisitors to take action against sorcerers and by issuing a sentence of automatic excommunication against all those who practiced any form of demonic invocation that entailed the supplication or worship of demons. His bull on this matter, Super illius specula (Upon His Watchtower), remained an important part of the legal apparatus against practitioners of sorcery for the remainder of the Middle Ages

Sorcery and its Menace Among Muslims, Islamic Da'wah in Perspective

This paper is a contribution and a piece of Da'wah towards enlightening Muslims on the menace of sorcery and sorcerers. The work has highlighted some of the major reasons why some Muslims with weak Iman seek the help of sorcerers for worldly things thereby harming their fellow being. It is therefore, the application of Islamic Da’wah that would assist in reminding Muslims in avoiding the menace of sorcery. It has been discovered from the interview that sorcerers have destroyed many family relationships and created damage to some marriages, also economic backward to sorcery goers. The paper also found out that some sorcery goers do regret their actions after coming in contact with the truth. This study was conducted using a survey method, and data were collected through in-depth interviews. The results of this study showed the need for a sustainable Da'wah to combat the issue of sorcery and sorcerers that have become a menace among Muslims which have affected their Iman. The study recommended that there was an urgent need for engagement of various stakeholders in Nigeria and beyond, to checkmate the issue of sorcerers and their activities in the society. &nbsp

Reflecting on loss in Papua New Guinea

This article takes up the conundrum of conducting anthropological fieldwork with people who claim that they have 'lost their culture,' as is the case with Suau people in the Massim region of Papua New Guinea. But rather than claiming culture loss as a process of dispossession, Suau claim it as a consequence of their own attempts to engage with colonial interests. Suau appear to have responded to missionization and their close proximity to the colonial-era capital by jettisoning many of the practices characteristic of Massim societies, now identified as 'kastom.' The rejection of kastom in order to facilitate their relations with Europeans during colonialism, followed by the mourning for kastom after independence, both invite consideration of a kind of reflexivity that requires action based on the presumed perspective of another

Sorcery

This is a film review of Sorcery (2023), directed by Christopher Murray