ABSTRACT
The study of supernatural beliefs in non-Western cultures has hitherto remained almost exclusively within the domain of social anthropologists, whose major contribution has been the analysis of such beliefs within the context of social relations. The younger group holds more supernatural beliefs; both groups subscribe to the same extent to ‘modern’ as against ‘traditional’ ideas and values in spheres as marriage, education, social relationships and power; in the older group there was an inverse relation so that ‘traditionalists’ had higher index of supernatural beliefs scores. Thus only the older group conformed in its cognitive structure to the assumption built into J. L. M. Dawson’s ‘Traditional versus Western Attitude Scale’. Greater understanding of probability and chance goes together with fewer supernatural beliefs in the younger group. The salient finding is the high overall level of adherence to supernatural beliefs that prevailed among Ghanaian university students in 1968.
