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evans-pritchard.pptSir Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
1902-1973
Author of
Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic
Among the Azande (1937)
The Nuer (1940)
Theories of Primitive Religion (1965)
(It was said of him that he and the
Nuer made each other famous.)
Zande boy with a
“fowl” in his hand,
preparing the benge.
Photo taken by
Evans-Pritchard,
ca. 1927-1930.
Evans-Pritchard
with Azande boys
ca. 1927-1930
(Photographer
unknown)
This is a picture apparently
taken by Evans-Pritchard,
ca. 1935, I suppose.
[the URL is too long to
reproduce here. I found
this by googling images
of “azande.”]
A Nuer Leopard Skin Chief
Edward E. Evans-Pritchard, Theories of Primitive Religion OUP, 1965.
After criticizing most theories of religious origins, starting with Tylor’s, E-P
Offers this statement as one reason why he thinks most theories are poor:
“I would further suggest that this [weakness] followed from their assumptions
that the souls and spirits and gods of religion have no reality. For if they are
regarded as complete illusions, then some biological, psychological, or
sociological theory of how everywhere and at all times men have been stupid
enough to believe in them seems to be called for. He who accepts the reality
of spiritual being does not feel the same need for such explanations, for,
inadequate though the conception of soul and God may be among primitive
peoples, they are not just an illusion for him.”
“The non-believer [among anthropologist] seeks for some theory – biological
psychological or sociological – which will explain the illusion; the believer
seeks rather to understand the manner in which a people conceives of a
reality and their relations to it.”
Citing ‘Wilhelm Schmidt “Religion can be truly grasped only from within.” (121)
