Magic

Magic, prescientific belief that an individual, by use of a ritual or spoken formula, may achieve superhuman powers. Should the magic fail to work, it is assumed to be due to deviations from the correct formula. In his classic work The Golden Bow (1890) Sir James George Frazer classified magic under 2 main heads: imitative and contagious. In imitative magic the magician acts upon or produces a likeness of the desired object: Rainmakers may light fires, the smoke of which resembles rain clouds; voodoo practitioners stick pins in wax models of their intended victims. In contagious magic it is assumed that 2 objects once close together remain related even after separation: the magician may act upon hair clippings in an attempt to injure the person from whose body they came. Magic is crucial to many primitive societies, most tribes having at least an equivalent to a medicine man, who is believed to be able to provide them with extra defense against hostile tribes or evil spirits.