Magic, Science and Healing (SA0012)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : SPS-3-SAMSH

‘Do not trust those who analyze magic. They are usually magicians in search of revenge.’ (Bruno Latour).

Why do anthropologists fetishise magic? Magic, in contrast to science, has come to stand in for the difference that attracts us to so many of the societies that we study. Like science, magic is a way of knowing the world, and yet one of the longest standing debates in anthropology asks whether magic and science produce epistemological worlds that are ultimately incommensurable. Drawing on insights from anthropology and science studies we will consider the following debates: is it possible to distinguish between rationality and belief? How can magic and science be ‘political’? Why has the occult persisted in modern society, and why is it that science enchants? We will use ethnographies of witchcraft and sorcery, scientific laboratories, anatomy and immunology, and colonial science to engage with these debates. As we address these questions, we will consider whether the scholarly analysis of magic is ideological: on the one hand rationalising regimes of power over ‘others’ (the production of expertise), on the other serving as a sleight of hand through which to critique hegemonic narratives of modernity. We end the course with an analysis of magical and scientific modes of healing – shamanism, vaccination and pharmaceuticals.

Entry Requirements

? Costs : Visiting students must have prior study in Social Anthropology or closely related subject area; as a general guide we usually require students to have completed three courses at grade B or above.