Anthropos: Anthropos, 92.1997,1/3

Anthropos, 92.1997,1/3

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschrift

Werks-URN (URL):: https://digi.evifa.de/viewer/resolver?urn=urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714820

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714820

Persistenter Identifier:: BV043334262

Titel:: Anthropos

Erscheinungsort:: Fribourg

Verlag:: Ed. St. Paul

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1906

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

Wissensgebiet:: Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie > Allgemeines

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenband

Werks-URN (URL):: https://digi.evifa.de/viewer/resolver?urn=urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711886

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711886

Persistenter Identifier:: 1513768301723

Titel:: Anthropos, 92.1997,1/3

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1997

Signatur:: LA 1118

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenheft

Titel:: Bd. 92, 1997, Heft 1-3

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

Zeitschriftenartikel

Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenartikel

Titel:: Savage Thought and Thoughtful Savages. On the Context of the Evaluation of Logical Thought by Lévy-Bruhl and Evans-Pritchard

Sonstige Person:: Heinz, Andreas

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

Anthropos 92.1997: 165-173 Savage Thought and Thoughtful Savages On the Context of the Evaluation of Logical Thought by Lévy-Bruhl and Evans-Pritchard Andreas Heinz Abstract. - Evans-Pritchard’s “Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande” promoted a fundamental change in the way anthropology views the logic of “primitive” mind. This change was achieved by implicitly refuting Levy-Bruhl’s concept of “prelogical mentality.” Disputing the formal inconsistency and the incomprehensibility of “primitive” thought implied far- reaching social consequences. Evans-Pritchard belonged to a new generation of anthropologists who tried to explain their change of paradigm by pointing to their direct encounter with “primitive” men. However, the barely mentioned background of this experience is set by different patterns of colonial rule, interacting with the produced anthropological discourse. [Prelogical thought, magic, evolutionism, changing paradigms, colonialism] Andreas Heinz, medical studies at the Ruhr-Universität Bo chum and Freie Universität Berlin, state exam 1987, M.D. 1988; clinical work at the Neurological University Clinic St. Josefs Hospital Bochum and the Department of Psychiatry of the Freie Universität Berlin, medical board certification in neurology 1993, in psychiatry and neurology 1994, psy chotherapy 1995; philosophical and anthropological studies at the Freie Universität Berlin, M.A. (Philosophy) 1994; since 1995 research fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health, Washington DC, funded by a Habilitation grant of the DFG. - Publications in Journal of Neural Transmission, Pharmacopsy chiatry, Psychiatry Research, Archives of General Psychiatry, Kriminologisches Journal, Beiträge zur nationalsozialistischen Gesundheits- und Sozialpolitik. Introduction Contemporary social anthropology focuses on the narrative style of the ethnographers (Geertz 1988: 9). How do they present the “there” and how important is the legitimizing allusion to the “grand narratives” that separate the “here” from the “there” (Lyotard 1993: xxiv)? This essay centers on the interaction of attitudes and expectations and the produced discourse. Reviewing Evans- Pritchard’s “Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande” it will be examined which theo ries and practices prestructured the work, how they influenced the encounter with the objects of field research and how the produced text influ enced the conceptualization of “primitive thought” at “home.” Evans-Pritchard’s work is specifically suited for such an analysis, as his description of magical thought of the Azande marks a turning point in the evaluation of “primitive thought.” His work has to be seen against the background of the grand systems of Tylor (1903) and Lévy-Bruhl (1985 [1910]), who tried to describe “primitive” thought as a “prelogical” or an “antecedent stage” of our own developmental stage. It is well known that Tylor and Lévy-Bruhl based their approach on the material provided by other European travel ers without ever meeting any so-called “primitive man” face to face. While their systems stressed the alleged undeveloped or incomprehensible state of “primitive” thought, Malinowski argued that magical practices are useful for the individual (Ma linowski [1929] 1987: lxxvi-lxxix). Malinowski’s new point of view is obviously linked to his field research, which allowed him to experience the function of the different practices in the context of the social life of the community (Kuper 1983: 75). Thus, however, the problem arose how to under stand the functional purpose of seemingly destruc tive practices such as the persecution of witches in “primitive” societies. Another problem was close ly linked: if personal contact allows “primitive men” to be seen as actors who perform utilitar ian choices, how can it be explained that they believe in such obvious nonsense like witchcraft and magic (Kuper 1983: 78)? If these questions were to be answered without recycling depreciat ing concepts of “undeveloped thought” or the “in ability to think logically,” a new approach had to be found that defined the methods of observation and the evaluation of their results. Evans-Pritchard established such a new paradigm with his descrip tion of witchcraft, oracles, and magic among the Azande. To do so, he engaged in field research in southern Sudan, then an “Anglo-Egypt Condo minium.” Great Britain and Egypt had been co

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