Prompt: In Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande, Edward Evans Pritcha

Prompt: In Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande, Edward Evans Pritchard shows that witchcraft is more than just “meaningless superstition.” In doing this, he attempts to show how witchcraft is a rational system of belief, which explains the world to the Azande. In “The Shell of the Nautilus,” Nils Bubandt argues that an emphasis on witchcraft as “belief” obscures the “central role of doubt and ambivalence in witchcraft” (p. 14). Using evidence from these texts, but using your own words, summarize each position as best as you can. Discuss which position seems more interesting, powerful, or appropriate to you, and why. Finally, discuss one or more contemporary examples where an emphasis on belief or an investigation of doubt and ambivalence might make a difference in understanding.