Talking it Through: Responses to Sorcery and Witchcraft Beliefs and Practices in Melanesia

Abstract

Title from screen (viewed on 30/06/15) The book is structured into three parts. The chapters in Part 1 discuss the social, economic and cultural dimensions to the belief in witchcraft and sorcery. Part 2 contains a number of chapters that deal with the legal dimensions to the belief in witchcraft and sorcery. Finally, the chapters in Part 3 explore some positive ways forward in overcoming one of the most problematic aspects of sorcery and witchcraft beliefs and practices today, namely sorcery accusation-related violence. The chapters in this part of the book highlight the diversity of witchcraft-and sorcery-related beliefs across Melanesia. It is clear that understanding the particular cultural context involved is fundamental to an understanding of the problems associated with the beliefs, as is argued by John Himugu (Chapter 5). He describes in some detail the beliefs of the Huli people in PNG and the way in which they have developed their own mechanisms to deal with the social issues they generate. As a result of this diversity, there are limits to the extent to which valid generalisations can be made in the context of sorcery- and witchcraft- related beliefs and practices. Further, accusations and counter-accusations are often embedded in particular local political landscapes, a point convincingly made by Siobhan McDonnell (Chapter 8) on the linkages between tensions over land and sorcery accusations in Vanuatu. She shows how land is a major source of social tension in rural areas in Vanuatu, and argues that solutions to nakaemas must recognise the social circumstances and relations that surround sorcery and that this must be built into any regulatory model.