Witch Hunts Lead to Murders in India and Tanzania BENJAMIN RADFORD
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
[ NEWS AND COMMENT Witch Hunts Lead to Murders in India and Tanzania BENJAMIN RADFORD While many people think of witch hunts as dusty relics of a bygone age, the persecution, torture, and execution of suspected witches continues to the present day in many places. For exam- ple, in July 2014, forty-five-year-old Saraswati Devi, a resident of a small Indian village near Nepal, was accused of being a witch after a local mystic identified her as having practiced black magic. Over a dozen villagers beat Devi to death as punishment while her two children tried to intervene. The problem is especially bad in India; according to a report in the February 23, 2014, issue of the Indian newspaper Mint, The National Crime Records Bureau says 2,097 murders were committed between 2000 and 2012 where witch hunting was the motive. Once practiced only by tribal communi- Belief in witchcraft has led to hor- ties, witch hunting is now becoming rific murders and mutilations in re- common among Dalits and other cent years outside of India, including minority communities. The idea of a witch is common across all the Accusations of witchcraft in South America and East Africa. In affected [Indian] states. They are 2008, a mob of hundreds of young men thought to possess an evil eye or are a complex sociocul- killed eight women and three men in mouth, they eat humans, kill cattle, tural phenomenon and rural Kenya. The victims were accused destroy crops, and cause illness. But of witchcraft—having supposedly cast witch hunting is not just the result involve many factors. of such superstition. Family disputes spells that lowered the intelligence of over property, land rights of women, Belief in magic is certainly the village’s children. In some cases the and village-level and gender conflicts body parts of albinos—those afflicted are some of the other reasons for an essential element, but with the skin pigmentation disorder— witch hunts in India, historians say. the persecution of witches are sought after for use in magic spells In many parts of the world belief in often involves issues of and rituals. (See “Body Parts Stolen witches is common, and black magic is from African Hospital for Magic Use,” considered a normal part of everyday gender, race, and class. SI, News and Comment, March/April life. A 2010 poll of eighteen countries 2014.) in sub-Saharan Africa found that over In October 2014 seven people in half of the population believes in magic. the East African country of Tanza- Witch doctors are consulted not only nia were killed following accusations for healing diseases but also for placing communities (such as witch doctors of witchcraft. According to the Mail or removing curses or bringing luck. and traditional healers) are often in- and Guardian, “‘They were attacked It is not unusual for people to consult volved in identifying and persecuting and burnt to death by a mob of vil- witch doctors seeking magical assis- innocent women as witches. Once mys- lagers who accused them of engaging tance when preparing for a job inter- tical methods are used to “verify” who in witchcraft,’ the police chief for the view, starting a business, or seeking a is a witch, the justice can be gruesome, western Kigoma region, which borders mate. Those who are seen as having including banishment, rape, disfigure- Burundi, Jafari Mohamed, told Agence positive roles in rural, non-Western ment, torture, and death. France-Presse. Among those ar- Skeptical Inquirer | January/February 2015 5 rested on suspicion of carrying out the religion. The Christian bible, for exam- places. Levack notes, killings was the local traditional healer, ple, explicitly calls for accused witches In New England the great major- or witchdoctor.” to be put to death per Exodus 22:18, ity of women accused of witch- The victims, most of whom were which states, “Thou shalt not suffer a craft before the Salem episode of elderly, were burned alive and in some witch to live” (KJV). 1692 were dependent members of cases hacked to death with machetes. Accusations of witchcraft are a com- the community who qualified for Nearly two dozen people were arrested, plex sociocultural phenomenon and in- poor relief. In Norway, where large numbers of accused witches and the fact that a witch doctor was volve many factors. Belief in magic is were described in trial records as among them is not unusual. It’s not certainly an essential element, but the extremely poor, most of those who clear what sparked the attack, but often persecution of witches often involves is- were actually convicted were beg- witchcraft accusations follow some sues of gender, race, and class. Most of gars. There are a number of reasons unexplained misfortune such as an ac- the Indian women are poor and of low why the people who filled the lower cident, a sudden sickness, or a village caste. Brian Levack, professor of history ranks of society incurred accusations of witchcraft. Poor people, especially drinking well drying up. If there is no at the University of Texas at Austin poor women, were the weakest and obvious, immediate explanation, the and author of The Witch-Hunt in Early most vulnerable members of society. event may be blamed on a suspected Modern Europe (2006), notes that the witch—usually a women or an elderly targeting of women (and of lower-class Lawmakers in India, Tanzania, and person. Other times the witchcraft ac- women in particular) was prevalent in elsewhere have begun to address the cusations are used as a pretext to settle early European witch hunts: “we can problem, but the roots of these super- personal grudges or confiscate the vic- be fairly certain that the great major- stitions are centuries old and may never tim’s property. ity of those persecuted came from the be eliminated. The belief in and persecution of lower levels of society . the mere fact witches is universal and dates back that so many witches were unattached Benjamin Radford is deputy editor of the millennia. Often all that is needed is women of no apparent social distinc- Skeptical Inquirer and author or co- a belief in magic, though sometimes tion points to this conclusion.” author of seven books on media literacy, witchcraft is prohibited by organized The same was true in many other skepticism, and critical thinking. Astronomer Jean Dommanget of Belgian Comité PARA Dies at Age Ninety Jean Dommanget died on October (“The Mars Effect” of Michel Gauquelin) paranormal. He made frequent interven- 1, 2014, at the age of ninety. He were investigated by the committee. tions in the media to denounce the false was an astronomer and head of the Dommanget was president of the claims of the paranormal. Département Astrométrie et Dynamique Comité PARA from 1980 to 2007. He Dommanget resigned the presidency des Corps Célestes at the Royal took care from then until 2009 of the of the Comité PARA at the end of 2007 Observatory of Belgium. He was an drafting of the Nouvelles Brèves , an an- and became vice president for three internationally acknowledged specialist nual publication of the committee. It was years. After his vice-presidential term in the domain of double stars and a through his initiative that a book titled he ceased his activities within the com- longtime scientific consultant to the La Science Face au Défi du Paranor- mittee to devote himself to research on Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. mal was edited to celebrate the fiftieth the orbits of double stars undertaken He joined the Comité PARA in 1960. birthday of the committee. The book, fifty years earlier at the Observatory. Comité PARA is the Belgian Commit- of which he wrote several chapters, Jean Dommanget was an affable, tee for the Scientific Investi gation of describes the history of the committee, competent, enterprising, and firm man Purported Paranormal Phe nomena, the experiments it conducted, and the who devoted himself for more than founded in 1949. He im mediately took paranormal beliefs it examined. He gave thirty years to defending reason and to a significant part in its activities, in par- many lectures about astrology and other allowing the Comité PARA to achieve its ticular when the “Signal du Sourcier” subjects and participated in several TV mission. We will not forget him. (Prof. Yves Rocard) and “l’effet Mars” shows battling against supporters of the — Comité PARA 6 Volume 39 Issue 1 | Skeptical Inquirer [ NEWS AND COMMENT Aboriginal Cancer Treatment Controversy in Canada PAUL BENEDETTI For the second time in 2014, Canada’s who was also struck by acute lympho- kemia. In fact, without chemotherapy McMaster University Children’s Hos- blastic leukemia. The girl and her fam- (which cures about 90 percent of chil- pital found itself locked in a battle ily, members of the Mississaugas of New dren with this disease), the chance of with aboriginal parents who took their Credit First Nations, decided in May to survival is zero. respective daughters off chemotherapy cease chemotherapy and use unproven In the latest case, hospital officials and turned to alternative medicine and alternative medicine treatments at the have told the court they have no evi- traditional aboriginal healing. Hippocrates Healing Centre. Makayla dence of any child with leukemia ever In October the Hamilton, Ontar- was given an 80–85 percent chance of being saved by “traditional medicine.” io-based hospital took child welfare recovery with chemotherapy. Without “This child has a life-threatening ill- authorities to court for refusing to inter- proper treatment, she will die, doctors ness [and] without standard treatment vene in the latest case involving an elev- told the Hamilton Spectator, which is will not survive, so our sole focus is try- en-year-old from the Six Nations reserve covering the cases.