ABSTRACT
Today, Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande is understood to be the key originator of the anthropological study of witchcraft. Evans-Pritchard argued that witchcraft perceptions and beliefs were highly context-specific, and that although one could partially participate in these, one could never truly "become" a Zande or a Nuer. Tanya Luhrmann's work, meanwhile, shows a turn in the anthropology of knowledge toward deconstruction of "belief". If the enactment and expression of "beliefs" are pragmatic and context-specific, Witchcraft continues to challenge anthropologists who question the "reality" of different belief systems and the conscious intention of those who enact them. The anthropologist Harry West argues that supernatural beliefs cannot be assumed to be merely metaphors for more "concrete" phenomena and experiences. For the believers, the existence of spiritual forces and beings is just as "real" as the existence of those inhabiting the material realm.
