Hi Bill,

Quote Originally Posted by Bill Meara View Post
Interesting thread. I was reminded of an incident with the Contras in Central America. A fairly senior USG officer had flown in to harangue them about something. A big meeting was arranged. After the visitor finished haranguing, the top commander said he wanted to discuss a "special problem." He told the Washingtonian that the Sandinistas were training witches and that these women were infiltrating Contra units and putting curses on key commanders. The curses caused small animals to grow in their stomachs. "Julio, go get that thing that came out of the stomach of Wilfredo..." The gringo from Washington thought they were kidding, and he was laughing like a fool. I realized they were serious, and was trying to get him to stop laughing.
There are too many incidents of this sort that have happened; it's one of the reasons I was advocating recruiting practitioners of magic who are already in the US forces to deal with situations like this. That particular incident sounds like a fairly standard witchcraft type accusation. Jeane Favret-Saada's Deadly Words: Witchcraft in the Bocage deals with the dynamics of it quite well, as does E.E. Evans-Pritchard's Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande.

What is truly bothersome, is that every time a "Westerner" laughs at something like this, it insults the people who brought it to their attention. What a great way to win friends and influence people.

Quote Originally Posted by Bill Meara View Post
The commanders were Central American country folk, and those people have a lot of these kinds of beliefs. Before anyone gets too scornful and superior, it might be a good idea to consider how some of the rituals in OUR religions might appear to outsiders. Incense and holy water come to mind.
Too true, Bill. Or how about some of "our" beliefs that we don't consider religious but that others do? Say, equality of individuals, or that strange supernatural being called "the Law" - clearly a supernatural being!!!

Marc