Symbolism and magical acts

Authors

• Svein Bjerke

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67127

Keywords:

Symbolism, Magic, Ritual -- Efficacy, Anthropology

Abstract

Why do people believe in the efficacy of magical acts? And how can we explain this belief? Various answers have been given to these questions, but in this paper the focus is on the presentation and criticism of one particular analytic framework closely associated with the discipline of social anthropology; a "symbolist" approach because its adherents consider magical and religious actions and beliefs to be systems of messages cast in symbolic codes, about the social (and in some cases also the natural) order. The study of magical acts and ideas provides us with a touch-stone for probing the validity of the symbolist approach in general.