ABSTRACT
The main objective of the modern anthropological fieldworker is to discover principles governing the interaction of the members of the society he is studying. In seeking material on sorcery and witchcraft that is likely to aid his general sociological analysis, the fieldworker may profitably combine methods traditionally divided between anthropology and sociology. In the early stages, his primary task is to acquire a full qualitative understanding of informants' beliefs and the extent to which these form a consistent system in the sense of being logically interrelated. Accusations of witchcraft and sorcery may be taken as indices of social tension in the relationships in which they occur, i.e. as social strain-gauges. In a specific sense, the sociology of witchcraft and sorcery dates from Evans-Pritchard's studies of the Azande. An approach somewhat similar to G. Simmel's and one throwing light on the social processes associated with beliefs in, and accusations of, witchcraft and sorcery, is that of von Wiese.
