Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.

Video 12.1: Intro to of Evans-Pritchard’s Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic Among the Azande
Description: Macat provides a summary of Evans-Pritchard’s research on witchcraft and magic, which highlighted that such beliefs were far from irrational, but were instead, complex means of understanding cause and effect in the world.

Video 12.2: Religion
Description: CrashCourse summarizes the structural understanding of religion, and how potent religious organization and belief can be as a force of cultural change.

Video 12.3: Girl's Rite of Passage
Description: National Geographic presents the story of a group of young Apache girls undergoing their rite of passage to become women.

Video 12.4: Black Magic
Description: This short clip dives into Sonora, where witchcraft and magic work alongside, and often in the shadow of, widespread Catholicism. The prevalence of black magic demonstrates a cultural gap unfulfilled by the dominant religion, creating spaces where indigenous practices can fill such spiritual and supernatural needs.

Video 12.5: The Power of Ritual
Description: Dimitris Xygalatas describes the power of religious ritual in maintaining cultural cohesion and identity, focusing especially on rituals that seem otherwise harmful, such as ritual piercing or fire-walking.