A cognitive account of manipulative sympathetic magic

Frazer’s theory of sympathetic magic has been extremely influential in both anthropology and comparative religion, yet the manipulative aspect has not been adequately theorized. In this paper, I formalize sympathetic magical action and offer a naturalistic explanation of manipulative sympathetic mag...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hong, Ze (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Routledge 2022
In: Religion, brain & behavior
Year: 2022, Volume: 12, Issue: 3, Pages: 254-270
Further subjects:B Spatial Autocorrelation
B Evolutionary Psychology
B causal cognition
B Sympathetic Magic
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:Frazer’s theory of sympathetic magic has been extremely influential in both anthropology and comparative religion, yet the manipulative aspect has not been adequately theorized. In this paper, I formalize sympathetic magical action and offer a naturalistic explanation of manipulative sympathetic magic by attributing it to a combination of environmental regularities (i.e., things that are similar and/or physically proximate tend to co-vary) and human causal cognition (i.e., the tendency to mistake correlation as causation), and supply ample ethnographic and historical evidence for my arguments. In doing so I also specify the variables involved and re-classify sympathetic magic into four distinct types for analytic convenience.
ISSN:2153-5981
Contains:Enthalten in: Religion, brain & behavior
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/2153599X.2021.2006294