Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande

Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande is one of social anthropology's most noted texts. In this work E. E. Evans-Pritchard examines the witchcraft beliefs of the Azanade, a group of agricultural people in southern Sudan on the upper Nile. There are two main points he makes in the work. One is that witchcraft can be seen as a safety valve. A safety valve that releases potential harmful conflict into less damaging activities. The other is that it can be seen as an attempt to explain a complex alien world within in a society's own terms of reference. Together these make for a practical solution that is consistent and rational.

The work was a development of his earlier (1928). Oracle-magic of the Azande. Sudan Notes and Records, 11, 1-53..

The book
Evans-Pritchard, E.E. (1937). Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic Among the Azande. Oxford: The Clarendon Press

Contents
I. Witchcraft is an organic and hereditary phenomenon II. The notion of witchcraft explains unfortunate events III. Sufferers from misfortune seek for witches among their enemies IV. Are witches conscious agents? V. Witch-doctors VI. Training of a novice in the art of a witch-doctor VII. The place of witch-doctors in Zande society VIII. The Poison Oracle in daily life <ol>IX. Problems arising from consultation of the poison oracle</ol> <ol>X. Other Zande oracles</ol> <ol>XI. Magic and medicines</ol> <ol>XII. An association for the practice of magic</ol> <ol>XIII. Witchcraft, oracles, and magic, in the situation of death</ol>