Sympathetic magic

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (April 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. (May 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Part of a series on
Magic
Background History of magic Magic and religion Psychological theories of magic
Forms Apotropaic magic Black magic Ceremonial magic Chaos magic Divination Evocation Goetia Gray magic Invocation Natural magic Necromancy Sex magic Shamanism Sigils Sympathetic magic Thaumaturgy Theurgy White magic Witchcraft
Religion Magic and religion Christian views on magic Folk religion Islam and magic Mysticism Shinto Thelema
Related topics Incantation Magical formula Magical organization Occult Western esotericism
v t e

Sympathetic magic, also known as imitative magic, is a type of

Similarity and contagion

James George Frazer coined the term "sympathetic magic" in The Golden Bough (1889); Richard Andree, however, anticipated Frazer, writing of sympathy-enchantment (German: Sympathie-Zauber) in his 1878 Ethnographische Parallelen und Vergleiche. Frazer subcategorised sympathetic magic into two varieties: that relying on similarity, and that relying on contact or "contagion":

If we analyze the principles of thought on which magic is based, they will probably be found to resolve themselves into two: first, that like produces like, or that an effect resembles its cause; and, second, that things which have once been in contact with each other continue to act on each other at a distance after the physical contact has been severed. The former principle may be called the Law of Similarity, the latter the Law of Contact or Contagion. From the first of these principles, namely the Law of Similarity, the magician infers that he can produce any effect he desires merely by imitating it: from the second he infers that whatever he does to a material object will affect equally the person with whom the object was once in contact, whether it formed part of his body or not.^[1]

Imitation

Imitation involves using

In 1933, Leo Frobenius, discussing cave paintings in North Africa, pointed out that many of the paintings did not seem to be mere depictions of animals and people. To him, it seemed as if they were acting out a hunt before it began, perhaps as a consecration of the animal to be killed. In this way, the pictures served to secure a successful hunt. While others interpreted the cave images as depictions of hunting accidents or of ceremonies, Frobenius believed it was much more likely that "...what was undertaken [in the paintings] was a consecration of the animal effected not through any real confrontation of man and beast but by a depiction of a concept of the mind."

In 2005, Francis Thackeray published a paper in the journal Antiquity, in which he recognised that there was a strong case for the principle of sympathetic magic in southern Africa in prehistory. For example, a rock engraving from Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa (dated at 4000 years before the present, BP) showed a zebra which had probably been "symbolically wounded", with incisions on the rump being associated with wounds. Ochre on the engraved slab could represent blood. A prehistoric rock painting at Melikane in Lesotho shows what appear to be men (shamans) bending forward like animals, with two sticks to represent the front legs of an antelope. Thackeray suggests that these men, perhaps shamans or "medicine-men" dressed under animal skins, were associated with hunting rituals of the kind recorded by H. Lichtenstein in 1812 in South Africa, in which a hunter simulated an antelope which was symbolically killed by other hunters, in the belief that this was essential for a successful hunt. Such rituals could be represented in prehistoric art such as paintings at Melikane in Lesotho. Thackeray suggests that the Melikane therianthropes are associated with both trance and the principle of sympathetic hunting magic. In 2005, in the journal Antiquity, Francis Thackeray suggests that there is even a photograph of such rituals, recorded in 1934 at Logageng in the southern Kalahari, South Africa. Such rituals may have been closely associated with both roan antelope and eland, and other animals.

In the Brandberg in Namibia, in the so-called "White Lady" panel recorded by the Abbé Henri Breuil and Harald Pager, there are "symbolic wounds" on the belly of a gemsbok-like therianthrope (catalogued as T1), which might relate to the principle of sympathetic hunting magic and trance, as suggested by Thackeray in 2013.

At the Apollo 11 cave in Namibia, Erich Wendt discovered mobile art about 30,000 years old, including a stone broken in two pieces, with a gemsbok-like therianthrope that closely resembles the Brandberg therianthrope which Thackeray catalogues as T1. Both examples of art may be related to sympathetic hunting magic and shamanism.

In 2013, Thackeray emphasised that in southern Africa, the principle of sympathetic hunting magic and shamanism (trance) were not mutually exclusive.

However, as with all prehistory, it is impossible to be certain due to the limited evidence and the many pitfalls associated with trying to understand the prehistoric mindset with a modern mind.

Modern examples of sympathetic magic

Though Frazer thought that sympathetic magic was a problem for undeveloped people, psychologist Paul Rozin and others have tested sympathetic magic using Ivy League college students. Regarding the principle of similarity, they found that the students were hesitant to eat fudge that had been molded to resemble dog feces. The principle of contagion was also evaluated by asking the students to drink some water that had been exposed to a sterilized cockroach, and again most students were hesitant. In addition, students were unenthusiastic when asked to don a T-shirt that had been worn by someone un-liked - even if the T-shirt had been washed. Rozin et al. found that not only past exposure resulted in sympathetic magic, but future exposure could as well. In an experiment in 1992, people did not want to put on a sweater that had been worn by someone with AIDS (past exposure). Many people also evaluated a Holiday Inn as less than ideal, if they knew that the same hotel was to be transformed into a facility for AIDS patients (future exposure).^[7]

Conversely, items such as holy water that are thought to magically possess healing powers can be ruined via scientific contagion. Researchers asked participants their opinion regarding holy water that had been processed to remove minerals (a “scientific process”); which were then put back. The participants felt that the water would be fine for drinking, but that it would have lost its religiosity.^[7]

See also

• Apotropaic magic – Magic intended to repel evil
• Cargo cult science
   – 1985 autobiographical book by Richard FeynmanPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets; the belief that replicating all aspects of a past experiment will also replicate the results
• Contagion heuristic – Perceived transfer of negative qualities through contact ― in psychology, the belief, often subconscious, that objects or locations associated with a good or bad past experience still have good or bad qualities
• Correspondence (theology) – Theological term for the relationship between two levels of existence; coined by Emanuel Swedenborg
• Law of contagion – Folk belief ― magical principle that any two objects that were once in contact will maintain an invisible connection unless it is deliberately broken
• True name#Folklore and literature – Name of a thing or being that expresses its true nature
• List of topics characterized as pseudoscience
• Magic (supernatural) – Practice of supernatural beings and forces
• Psychometry (paranormal) – Aspect of extrasensory perception ― purported ability to receive mental images of a past event by touching an object associated with the event
• Magical thinking – Belief in the connection of unrelated events
• Natural magic – Natural science during the Renaissance
• Totem – Emblem of a group of people
• Sigil – magical symbol, often representing a deity, a spirit, or the desired outcome of the spell

References