Strange Beliefs: Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard

[DharmaTroll]

YouTube has a fantastic documentary about the work of the pioneering
anthropologist E. E. Evans-Pritchard who was one of the first
researchers to try and understanding the psychology of people he was
studying and was one of the founders of social anthropology and
influential in a change of perspective in understanding other
cultures.

He is most well known for his 1937 book "Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic
among the Azande" where he studied the role of magic and prophecy in
the lives of the Sudanese Azande people from their perspective.

This was one of the first times that an anthropologist had attempted
to understand other cultural beliefs as a coherent system, rather than
simply listing the 'nutter' or 'irrational' practices from a Western
perspective.

One of his main conclusions was that the Azande were making rational
decisions based on different assumptions, in contrast to the general
colonial opinion that the people of Africa were somehow 'backward'.

See the documentary at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q9HyONL_10

--DharmaTroll