MAGIC

a concept used to describe a mode of rationality or way of thinking that looks to invisible forces to influence events, effect change in material conditions, or present the illusion of change. Within the Western tradition, this way of thinking is distinct from religious or scientific modes; however, such distinctions and even the definition of magic are subject to wide debate. ritual performance or activity believed to influence human or natural events through access to an external mystical force beyond the ordinary human sphere. It constitutes the core of many religious systems and plays a central social role in many nonliterate cultures. At one time magic was considered entirely distinct from religion, as consisting of external manipulation rather than supplication and inner grace, and it is still so regarded by many religious thinkers. Contemporary anthropologists and historians of religion, however, tend to hold that since both magic and religion are concerned with the effects on human existence of outside mystical forces, they are generically similar and connected, the specific difference being that magic is usually a more impersonal and mechanical affair, with an emphasis on technique. There are usually considered to be three main elements in magic: the spell or incantation, the rite itself, and the ritual condition of the performer. Excellent examples of spells are recorded from the earliest times and especially in Greco-Egyptian papyruses of the 1st to the 4th century AD. These include both magical recipes involving animals and animal substances and also instructions for the rites necessary to ensure the efficacy of the spells. The frequently archaic and esoteric vocabulary of incantations may represent in a symbolic sense the mysterious nature of spiritual power and in a practical sense the restriction of human access to it. Personal names are commonly used in spells by magicians to work good or harm upon individuals. This power is regarded in some societies as so strong that each individual bears two namesa real one that is kept a careful secret and an everyday title, through which no magic can be worked. Gods and spirits are commonly believed to have special magic names, known only to a chosen few. Along with spells may be included the material objects or medicines used in many societies. The techniques of magic have generally been interpreted as supposed means to specific ends (e.g., the ensuring of an enemy's defeat; the summoning of rain). Another view ascribes a more symbolic, expressive character to such activity. The magic may serve to state and maintain the formal culture and organization of the society; thus, a rainmaking ritual has also the function of stressing the importance of rain and the agricultural activities associated with it. Even though regarded as an everyday and natural phenomenon in the societies it characterizes, magic is nonetheless considered as potentially dangerous and polluting, as is any sacred or religious object or activity. Both the magician and the rite itself are typically surrounded by the observance of taboos, by purification procedures, and the like. Failure to observe such precautions nullifies the magic, and the precautions indicate to the participants and witnesses the importance of the rite itself and the ends desired. Strains of magic in Western tradition, formerly associated with heretics, alchemists, witches, and sorcerers, persist in modern times in the activities of self-styled satanists and others. The terms witchcraft, shamanism, and sorcery are frequently confused with magic and with each other on the basis of apparent similarities among the practices. For a treatment of magic as entertainment, see conjuring. Additional reading General works E.M. Butler, The Myth of the Magus (1948, reissued 1993), and Ritual Magic (1949, reissued 1998), are studies of European magic and its sources; and Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science During the First Thirteen Centuries of Our Era, 2 vol. (1923), is a broad survey of Western sources from the Greco-Roman and medieval periods. Arthur C. Lehmann and James E. Myers (compilers), Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion: An Anthropological Study of the Supernatural, 5th ed. (2001), is an important collection of essays; and Ninian Smart, Worldviews: Crosscultural Explorations of Human Beliefs, 3rd ed. (2000), is an introduction to various belief systems using the six-dimension approach. Works on the theory of magic Among the most important early works on the theory and practice of magic are Edward B. Tylor, Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Language, Art, and Custom, 3rd American ed., 2 vol. (1889, reprinted 1977), a foundational anthropological study; mile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1915, reissued 1976; originally published in French, 1912), a classic statement of the sociological approach to magic; and J.G. Frazer, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, 3rd ed., 12 vol. (191115), one of the seminal works on magic and religion. Other significant early works are Bronislaw Malinowski, Magic, Science, and Religion, and Other Essays, ed. by Robert Redfield (1948, reprinted 1992); Marcel Mauss, A General Theory of Magic (1972, reprinted 1975; originally published in French, 190203), an early anthropological study; and Sigmund Freud, Totem and Taboo: Some Points of Agreement Between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics (1950, reissued 1999; originally published in German, 191213), a psychoanalytic interpretation. Studies that employ a context-sensitive or cross-cultural approach include Mircea Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (1964, reissued 1989; originally published in French, 1951); Claude Lvi-Strauss, Introduction to the Work of Marcel Mauss (1987; originally published in French, 1950), and "Le Sorcier et sa magie," Les Temps modernes, 4(41):385406 (March 1949); Ralph Merrifield, The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic (1987); and Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah, Magic, Science, Religion, and the Scope of Rationality (1990), a survey of Western and anthropological theories. Jacob Neusner, Ernest S. Frerichs, and Paul Virgil McCracken Flesher (eds.), Religion, Science, and Magic: In Concert and in Conflict (1989, reissued 1992), is a collection of essays on definitional theories and case studies; and Hildred Geertz, "An Anthropology of Religion and Magic, I," Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 6(1):7189 (Summer 1975); and Keith Thomas, "An Anthropology of Religion and Magic, II," Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 6(1):91109 (Summer 1975), debate Thomas's rise-and-fall theory. Magic in the ancient world Useful studies of magic in the ancient world are Campbell Bonner, Studies in Magical Amulets: Chiefly Graeco-Egyptian (1950); Georg Luck (trans. and ed.), Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds (1985, reissued 1987), a collection of texts; Marvin Meyer and Richard Smith (eds.), Ancient Christian Magic: Coptic Texts of Ritual Power (1994, reissued 1999); and R. Campbell Thompson, Semitic Magic: Its Origins and Development (1908, reissued 2000). Magic in the medieval and early modern world Charles Burnett, Magic and Divination in the Middle Ages: Texts and Techniques in the Islamic and Christian Worlds (1996); Valerie I.J. Flint, The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe (1991, reissued 1993); Richard Kieckhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages (1989, reissued 2000), historical survey and analysis, and "The Specific Rationality of Medieval Magic," American Historical Review, 99(3):813836 (June 1994); and Henry Maguire (ed.), Byzantine Magic (1995), are helpful surveys of medieval attitudes toward magic. Valuable studies on more specific topics of medieval magic include Alexander Murray, "Missionaries and Magic in Dark-Age Europe," Past & Present, 136:186205 (August 1992), a study of Europe during the era of conversion; Edward Peters, The Magician, the Witch, and the Law (1978, reissued 1992), a study of the evolution of attitudes toward practitioners of magic; and Joshua Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion (1939, reissued 1987), on medieval Jewish magic of eastern Europe. Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England (1971, reissued 1997), an influential study based on an anthropological theory; Brian Vickers (ed.), Occult and Scientific Mentalities in the Renaissance (1984); D.P. Walker, Spiritual and Demonic Magic: From Ficino to Campanella, new ed. (1958, reissued 2000), which examines magical theory of the Renaissance; and Frances A. Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (1964, reissued 1999), are good introductions to magic in the early modern period. Magic in the modern world Important studies of magic in modern world civilizations are Francis L.K. Hsu, Exorcising the Trouble Makers: Magic, Science, and Culture (1983), and Religion, Science, and Human Crises (1952, reprinted 1973), on China; E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic Among the Azande (1937, reissued 1968), on African magic and witchcraft; A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, The Andaman Islanders (1922, reissued 1964); and Lee Siegel, Net of Magic: Wonders and Deceptions in India (1991). Karen, Louise Jolly