Understanding a Primitive Society

Abstract

This chapter provides a general discussion of what is involved in the understanding of human social life. Like many other primitive people, the African Azande hold beliefs that people cannot possibly share and engage in practices which it is peculiarly difficult for people to comprehend. They believe that certain of their members are witches, exercising a malignant occult influence on the lives of their fellow. They engage in rites to counteract witchcraft; they consult oracles and use magic medicines to protect themselves from harm. An anthropologist studying such a people wishes to make those beliefs and practices intelligible to himself and his readers. Evans-Pritchard, on the contrary, is trying to work with a conception of reality which is not determined by its actual use in language. The difference is not merely one of degree of familiarity, however, although, perhaps, even this has more importance than might at first appear.