ABSTRACT
One of the most interesting topics in the anthropology of religion is witchcraft. The term is also used to refer to other religious phenomena. Witchcraft, encompassing many of the features found in African witchcraft, was found in peasant communities in Europe from medieval to early modern times. The study of Zande witchcraft demonstrated that witchcraft beliefs and accusation reflect interpersonal behavior between people in stressful situations and that stressful behavior is frequently a recurring situation in particular social relationships. Witchcraft in small-scale societies, witches generally represent all that is evil and antisocial. Thus premodern malpractice became witchcraft. The concept of witchcraft in small-scale societies is largely based on the work of E. E. Evans-Pritchard among the Azande of the Sudan. Evans-Pritchard concluded that a belief in witchcraft serves three functions: it provides an explanation for the unexplainable; it provides a set of cultural behaviors for dealing with misfortune; and it serves to define morality.
