Abstract
This paper proposes an interdisciplinary explanation of the cross-cultural similarities and evolutionary patterns of witchcraft beliefs. It argues that human social dilemmas have led to the evolution of a fear system that is sensitive to signs of deceit and envy. This was adapted in the evolutionary environment of small foraging bands but became overstimulated by the consequences of the Agricultural Revolution, leading to witch paranoia. State formation, civilization, and economic development abated the fear of witches and replaced it in part with more collectivist forms of social paranoia. However, demographic-economic crises could rekindle fear of witches—resulting, for example, in the witch craze of early modern Europe. The Industrial Revolution broke the Malthusian shackles, but modern economic growth requires agricultural development as a starting point. In sub-Saharan Africa, witch paranoia has resurged because the conditions for agricultural development are lacking, leading to fighting for opportunities and an erosion of intergenerational reciprocity.
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Notes
The importance of capital assets may also explain the prominence of evil-eye beliefs among pastoral herders.
This might partly explain the importance of trust (in the cosmic order or a supreme god) in pan- or monotheistic religions that arose in more developed agrarian societies.
That economic slowdown and an increase in witch hunting were mainly caused by the Little Ice Age, as these authors assert, is less clear. Climate studies differ about the precise timing of the Little Ice Age, and in Oster’s analysis the statistical correlation of population and de-urbanization with witch hunting is much stronger than that with climate change.
For demographic-economic fluctuations in sub-Saharan Africa in the twentieth century, see Koning and Smaling (2005) and references therein.
See also the finding by Widner and Mundt (1998) that, in Africa, participation in voluntary associations and social capital or generalized trust were quite unrelated.
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Acknowledgments
I thank Koos Gardebroek and Anoushka Gehring for their assistance with statistical analysis and literature study, and Rijk van Dijk, Toon van Eijk, Frans Huijzendveld, Paul Richards and three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments. The author remains responsible for the views expressed in this paper.
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Appendix: Analysis of SCCS Data
Appendix: Analysis of SCCS Data
Witchcraft Belief
An indicator for witchcraft belief was based on the attribution of illness to sorcery (V655) or witchcraft (V656) and on evil-eye belief (V1188). This last variable was reduced to a 1 to 4 scale to make it comparable to the other ones. If one of the variables was 4, witchcraft belief was coded as 4. If values for all three variables were available, witchcraft belief was coded as the maximum of these values. Cases with strong evil-eye beliefs in Table 2 are cases where evil-eye belief was recoded as 4.
Mode of Subsistence
Mode of subsistence was based on ecologically classified subsistence type (V858) and fixity of residence (V150). If subsistence type was in the 1–5 interval (hunting, gathering, fishing, anadromous fishing, mounted hunting) and fixity of residence was 1 (nomadic), mode of subsistence was coded as “nomadic foraging.” If subsistence type was in the 1–5 interval but fixity of residence exceeded 1, mode of subsistence was coded as “(semi-)sedentary foraging.” If subsistence type was 6 (pastoralism), mode of subsistence was also coded as “pastoralism.” If subsistence type was 7 (shifting cultivation with digging sticks or wooden hoes), mode of subsistence was coded as “shifting cultivation without metal hoes.” If subsistence type was in the 8–11 interval (horticultural gardens, advanced horticulture with metal hoes, intensive agriculture with no plow), mode of subsistence was coded as “other hand-tool farming systems.” The cropping frequencies and population densities of these types differed only weakly and/or ambiguously, while they were substantially above those of shifting cultivation without metal hoes and below those of subsistence type 12 (intensive agriculture with plow). In this last case, mode of subsistence was coded as “plow agriculture.”
Resource Stress
An indicator for resource stress was based on occurrence of endemic starvation (V1261), persistence of famine (V1268), and chronic resource problems (V1685). The rating of these variables was transformed to a 1–5 scale. Resource stress was coded as the arithmetic mean of these values.
Relation between Witchcraft Belief and Mode of Subsistence
Because of the ordinal or nominal nature of the variables involved, the relation between witchcraft belief and mode of subsistence was analyzed through ordered probit regression. Nomadic foraging was used as the default mode of subsistence and the other modes were included as dummies. Table 3 summarizes the results. Other hand-tool farming systems, plow agriculture and pastoralism are positively and significantly related to witchcraft belief. Seminomadic foraging and shifting cultivation without metal hoes are also positively related with witchcraft belief, but these relationships are not significant.
Relation between Witchcraft Belief and Resource Stress
The hypothesis that evolved agrarian societies are not especially prone to witchcraft belief but that resource stress can cause witch fears to rekindle was tested by including resource stress as well as an interaction term for resource stress and plow agriculture in the regression. Resource stress itself had no significant effect on witchcraft belief. However, the effect of the interaction term proved significant, while the significant effect of plow agriculture itself disappeared (Table 4). Including interaction terms for resource stress and the other modes of subsistence gave no significant results, suggesting that the dependence on resource stress was specific for plow agriculture.
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Koning, N. Witchcraft Beliefs and Witch Hunts. Hum Nat 24, 158–181 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-013-9164-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-013-9164-1