ABSTRACT
In this book’s journey through the colorful world of people’s suspicions I have called attention to overlaps between conspiracy theories and sorcery beliefs. Though some studies refer to both, they do not explicitly compare and contrast them (e.g., Farmer 1992). Academic analysts have rarely looked simultaneously at conspiracy theories and sorcery arguments that were generated within the same social setting. These scholars may have assumed that conspiracy theories and sorcery beliefs are fundamentally distinct. Indeed, their relationship is usually described by dichotomous oppositions, e.g., Western vs. non-Western, modern vs. traditional, rational vs. magical (Sanders and West 2003:6–7). However, in the Zimbabwean case study I saw both types of explanatory models simultaneously, which allowed me to compare and contrast them within a single setting.
