Copyright 1995 by Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc. magic The use of a certain ritual action to bring about the intervention of a supernatural force, either in human affairs or in the natural environment, for a specific purpose is called magic. The term has a wide range of reference, from major ritual performances to conjuring tricks. Nineteenth-century anthropologists were particularly concerned with distinguishing between magical and religious activity, seeking in their evolutionary approaches to present magic and religion as belonging to different stages of cultural development, with magic as the earlier form. It has been suggested that whereas religious acts generally involve a personal approach to spiritual powers, magical activity is largely impersonal, a ritual technology that constrains and controls rather than supplicates the powers it wields. Nevertheless, the true complexity of the interrelationship of religious and magical beliefs and practices is now widely recognized. The role of magic varies from culture to culture, from a central position in primary rituals involving the well-being of an entire community--as with some major hunting or agricultural rituals (see FERTILITY RITES)--to minor, peripheral, private acts of magic. Both public and private magic can and do exist within single societies. Black magic or sorcery (see VOODOO) may be used destructively to bring misfortune or death, and it is often distinguished from WITCHCRAFT by its use of magical techniques, such as spells or charms. Witchcraft relies on an internal quality or disposition of the witch. An example of a true sorcerer is the tohunga makutu of the New Zealand Maori, who has to learn his special magical practices, which are said to make it possible for him to destroy humans. Beneficial, or white, magic is used to ward off such attacks as well as to prevent natural calamities; magical healing is among its aspects (see SHAMAN). Much of white magic is directly concerned with the productive activities of a particular society. The fishing and agricultural magic of the people of the Trobriand Islands in Papua New Guinea is an example. Love charms are also considered white magic. In casting spells, the appropriate use of words is sufficient to release or activate a power. The importance of the words is variable. In some Melanesian and Polynesian societies the precise wording of a spell is a crucial part of the magic. Other cultures, such as that of the Azande of the Sudan, lay less stress on wording, being content with conveying the spell's general meaning. For the Azande, magical objects such as special woods and roots are of greater significance. The objects used in magic are regarded as repositories for or symbols of the powers engaged, or, as with the destruction of wax figures of victims in sorcery, symbolically connected to the aims of the magic. Magical acts may be performed by individuals on their own behalf, or a magician with specialized knowledge of the rites may be consulted. In some societies associations of magical specialists exist. Magical knowledge is sometimes bought and sold or can be passed on through inheritance. The magician, both in the preparation and the performance of a rite, may need to be aware of a complex set of rules and restrictions, such as food taboos, that may influence the efficacy and safety of the magic. Sir Edward TYLOR and Sir James FRAZER, who advanced influential anthropological theories of magic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, saw it as pseudoscientific. Tylor proposed that magic was based in the erroneous equation of physical causality with the association of ideas. This notion was elaborated by Frazer, who saw two basic principles in magical thought: that like produces like and that an effect resembles its cause, and that things formerly in contact continue to act on one another. The magic based on similarity he termed homeopathic, that based on contact contagious. The destruction of a victim's likeness is homeopathic magic, the burning of a lock of his hair for the same destructive purpose is contagious magic. These are the two forms of sympathetic magic. Frazer fitted magic into an evolutionary scheme in which, as its techniques were found unproductive, magic would be succeeded by religion, which in turn would be followed by scientific enlightenment. The influential sociologist Emile DURKHEIM, however, stressed the dependence of magic on collective religious belief and ritual. Magic contrasted with religion in that it did not involve a church, a moral community, but its powers were derived from notions of the sacred established within such a community. After working (1914-18) among the Trobriand Islanders, the anthropologist Bronislaw MALINOWSKI developed a pragmatic theory of magic that stressed its psychological value. Where there is uncertainty of practical success of the outcome of uncontrollable events, magical acts, he suggested, reduce the anxieties involved, thus widening the apparent range of an individual's ability to deal with the environment. Through work in the 1920s and '30s with the Azande, Sir Edward EVANS-PRITCHARD provided an account of magic functioning in a full social context as part of a logically coherent belief system. The emphasis on viewing magic as part of a total belief system and on the contexts of magical action has continued in many contemporary studies. Christian Clerk Bibliography: Cavendish, Richard, A History of Magic (1977; repr. 1991); Christopher, Milbourne, The Illustrated History of Magic (1973); Davis, W., Magic and Exorcism in Modern Japan (1980); Evans-Pritchard, E. E., Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande (1937) and Theories of Primitive Religion (1965; repr. 1985); Flint, V. I., The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe (1991); Frazer, James G., The Golden Bough, abr. ed. (1925; repr. 1987); Lessa, William A., et al., Reader in Comparative Religion, 4th ed. (1979); Malinowski, Bronislaw, Magic, Science and Religion, and Other Essays (1948; repr. 1984); Marwick, Max, ed., Witchcraft and Sorcery (1970; repr. 1987); Middleton, John, comp., Magic, Witchcraft and Curing (1967); Neusner, J., et al., Religion, Science and Magic (1989); Thomas, Keith V., Religion and the Decline of Magic (1971); Tylor, E. B., Primitive Culture, 2 vols. (1871; repr. 1986). See also: PRIMITIVE RELIGION.