ABSTRACT
George P.Murdock summarizes a quantity of anthropological data on the causes which pre-scientific peoples have attributed to illness, and he attempts to account for the major causes so imagined (Murdock 1980).1 It is known that the perception and diagnosis of illness differs even in Western Europe from territory to territory (Payer 1990). To Murdock it was clear that witchcraft and the Evil Eye were recognized as the prime cause of illness in Babylonia (Murdock 1980: 38, 58, 62) and that the latter was and is a witchcraft technique in the circumMediterranean region (Murdock 1980:40). Not rare elsewhere, this technique for causing illness in others is significantly perceived in the very region to which our New Testament authors belonged. The Evil Eye is attested in 88 per cent of the societies of the region, but witchcraft is outranked by spirit aggression, which rates as important in 96 per cent of the constituent societies, the imaginary supernatural aggressors being major deities and gods (Murdock 1980:49; cf. Derrett 1985:99-103, Gerasenes/Girgashites). Spirit aggression figures even more largely in East Asia (Murdock 1980:51, Table 3). Mystical retribution as a cause of illness, if found in the Mediterranean region (Murdock 1980:52, 90), is proportionately less well represented there than in North America, where the native societies provide the largest number of instances.
