Occult Violence and the Savage Slot

Understanding Tanzanian Witch-Killings in Historical and Ethnographic Context

Datos Bibliográficos

ID20041271
AutoresAmy Nichols-Belo (0000-0001-5916-805X, autor de correspondencia)
Año2025
Páginas190-204
Fecha de publicación2025-02-21
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoCHAPTER
RevistaWitch Studies Reader (SOURCE_BOOK)
EditorialDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/9781478060369-014
OpenAlexW4407319200
ISBN9781478060369
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas17

In Tanzania, violence against elderly women accused of witchcraft is often conflated with other forms of occult violence, including the sacrificial murders of people with albinism. These so-called witch killings are often viewed as a response to gender discrimination in land tenure disputes, poverty, or modernity broadly defined. Instead, this chapter analyzes this violence from a historically continuous approach that situates witch killing within vigilante violence and as a response to considerable social pressure, priming, and activation. Finally, this chapter argues that narratives about occult violence circulate both locally and globally because they fill the savage slot described by Trouillot

Criminology · Occult · Pathology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Medicine · Psychology · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies