Sorcellerie chamanique : « sanguma » chez les Lujere du cours supérieur du Sépik

Anthropologists writing on Oceania tend to classify most forms of malevolent magic as sorcery. Witchcraft appears to be a relatively rare phenomenon. Within the framework of a general psychosocial theory regarding the human predisposition to create images of the "Omnipotent Other", of which the witch is culturally preeminent, Melanesian sanguma is interpreted not as a form of sorcery but as witchcraft. Among the Lujere people of the upper Sepik River, sanguma witchcraft is integrated into an encompassing institution of shamanistic-witchcraft in the form of a shaman-witch, the nakworu, who both cures and kills. This oppositional role-set of the nakworu contrasts markedly with the traditional concept of the witch whose role is singularly destructive. The nakworu not only typifies, but symbolically mediates, the fragile balance between productive and destructive magic reflected in the tenuous ties of Lujere community life.Mitchell William E. M. Sorcellerie chamanique : « sanguma » chez les Lujere du cours supérieur du Sépik. In: Journal de la Société des océanistes, n°56-57, tome 33, 1977. pp. 179-189