Kapferer, Bruce (2002) Sorcery, modernity and the constitutive imaginary: hybridising continuities. Social Analysis, 46 (3). pp. 105-128.

PDF (Published Version) - Published Version Restricted to Repository staff only

Abstract

[Extract] The cosmologies implicated in sorcery practice are human-centric. Within them, human beings are at the heart of processes that are integral in the formation of their psychical, social and political universes. Sorcery fetishises human agency, often one which it magically enhances, as the key mediating factor affecting the course or direction of human life-chances. The fabulous character of so much sorcery practice, its transgressive and unbounded dimensions, a rich symbolism that appears to press towards and beyond the limits of the human imagination, is surely connected to the overpowering and totalising impetus that sorcery recognises in human agency and capacities. Sorcery is that magical additional force that unites with the intentional direction of human beings into their realities – a creative and destructive directionality. Such sorcery must needs affect the lives of others because of their co-presence, their ongoing involvement in each other's life circumstances.

Item ID:	13674
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1558-5727
Keywords:	social change; sorcery; Sri Lanka
Date Deposited:	04 Mar 2013 02:27
FoR Codes:	16 STUDIES IN HUMAN SOCIETY > 1601 Anthropology > 160104 Social and Cultural Anthropology @ 100%
SEO Codes:	97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970116 Expanding Knowledge through Studies of Human Society @ 100%
	More Statistics