secondary elaboration

is the azande recognition that while accidents may happen (primary elaboration), the further explanation for 'why me, why now'' Involves witchcraft.

Evans-Pritchard developed this term to Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande (1937) Evans-Pritchard discusses the notion of Azande witchcraft as a 'closed system' 'We may recall here some of the material in the introduction to this module. Evans-Pritchard speaks of the kinds of situations where witchcraft would be called upon to explain misfortune. He tells of a boy who injured his foot on a stump of wood on a path, and the subsequent failure of the boy's cut to heal. While Evans-Pritchard said that the Azande knew nothing of scientific medicine (this was in the 1920s... today the situation is somewhat different), he did emphasize that they knew perfectly well that one must exercise care in negotiating forest paths and that sharp pieces of wood cause cuts. Elsewhere, Evans-Pritchard elaborated on the Azande notion of witchcraft as a 'second spear' like the one which is necessary to bring down an animal who has been injured by a primary hunter. Witchcraft does not answer the question of 'how' so much as the question, 'why me, why now'' (net) As we have seen, Evans-Pritchard says that the Zande know perfectly well that it is the nature of old granaries to fall when one of the legs rots or is eaten by termites. Witchcraft would be used to explain why it fell when a particular person was sitting under it. Thus, the fact that granaries fall down owing to natural causes does not form a challenge to the closed system. (net)

secondary elaboration, n.All

secondary elaboration