Abstract

This article examines the problems raised by traditional definitions of magic and divination and re-evaluates the ways in which the Western world, especially since the nineteenth century, has viewed ‘magic’ as part of a series of dichotomies: religion vs. magic, science vs. magic. Main highlights and contributions to the search for a better understanding of magic include the works of Frazer, Malinowski, and Huber & Mauss. The recent input of multi-disciplinary approaches, for example, sociology and anthropology, while being important and helpful, in particular by highlighting the importance of context, also requires careful handling: the reader must be weary of the ideology of the observer, which often reflects a Western tendency to ‘classify’ rather than the views of the observed. Magic and divination need to be evaluated differently in the same space at different times and so it is important for any meaningful discussion to take place to focus on one specific culture and its worldview. Examples from the ancient Near Eastern world, that is, Egypt with its concept of Heka, and Mesopotamia will be used in order to search for a new conceptual framework to view magic and divination. It is suggested that terminology and cosmology give an entry point into a complex system of religious intermediation, in which belief in cosmic forces originating and controlled by the dominant deity or deities prevails. Magic and divination can only be understood as an integrated part of this framework.

DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2007.00047.x