Schoeck_2010_EnvyATheoryOfSocialBehaviour.pdf

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ENVY AND BLACK MAGIC
Evans-Pritchard compares the Azande idea of envy-magic with our
concept of good and bad luck. If there is nothing we can do about a
misfortune, we console ourselves with the impersonal 'It was just bad
luck. ' The Azande ascribes it to mangu which originates from a certain
person. 20
The enemy in our midst
In his study 'The Enemy Within,' dealing with sorcery among the Amba
in East Mrica, E. H. Winter draws this distinction: that whereas witches
exist only in the imagination of the Amba, the European observer can be
in no doubt that there are individuals among them who do in fact practise
black magic, who engage in magic practices, that is, in order to harm
their fellow tribesmen. For the Amba the basic distinction between witch
and sorcerer lies in the motivation underlying their activity. Sorcery is
practised as a result of ordinary motives: envy, jealousy and hatred. It is
provoked by the occurrences of daily life, by social situations in which
feelings of hatred arise. For this reason the Amba find it understandable
if someone takes to magic, although they do, of course, condemn it.
Witches, on the other hand, bring down upon men every conceivable
kind of misfortune, driven by their lust for human flesh-a desire
incomprehensible to the normal Amba. Winter then suggests the following
analogy: the sorcerer who kills a relative for his inheritance corresponds
to the murderer in our society, while the witch corresponds to the
pathological murderer whose motives we cannot discover. We find this
analogy unacceptable because the whole of the literature on the subject
of African sorcery shows that the envious man (sorcerer) would like to
harm the victim he envies, but only seldom with any expectation of
thereby obtaining for himself the asset that he envies-whether this be a
possession or a physical quality belonging to the other. As we can show
again and again, every culture sees the envious man's reward either as the
pleasure of having deprived the man he envies of something, or else of
'punishing' him for owning the coveted asset, supposing this to be
indestructible-fame won by heroic deeds, for instance. Yet the Amba
and their interpreter, Winter, may very well be right in believing that
200p,cit.,p.148.