[Buddha-l] Re: Magic

[Joy Vriens]

Lance,

>I don't really know. Ideas of dangerous witchcraft are, as far as I  
>know, rather widespread in many cultures. I assume that there would  
>be ideas of such a kind in at least some of the cultures of  
>North-East India in the fourth and third centuries A.D. But I have  
>not researched the matter. 

Coming back to the documentary about the Sora tribe I mentioned in a message to Curt, the last year the film crew went to Orissa, the shaman had died and the rituals were then being led by his former female assistant. She was leading the rituals with two other female assistants. What struck me too about the Sora tribe, was that there didn't seem to be any difference between men and women as far as positions of spiritual power were concerned. She was treated with exactly the same respect. I draw two remarks from this. 

I guess that since the Sora tribe was practising Shamanism, that Shamanism is one of the oldest forms of religion and that the Brahman culture reached Orissa only very late, I think one can assume that during the fourth and third centuries A.D. this is what the Sora tribes were practising then as well. I can't imagine the position of women as leading shaman rituals has changed since then. If that is indeed the case, then I guess that they would qualify as "witches" (from a rationalist point of view).

>An alternative would be to assume that the education of women was not   
>socially acceptable at the time the rule was formulated. If so, the   
>specific permission to teach reading and writing (lekha) is   
>interesting. 

Yes. The second remark is of a more feminist nature. I think "witches" only exist in male dominated "mysogynist" cultures where the main religious positions are held by men. A women appealing to religious or spiritual power would very likely be considered a witch or something similar.

I learned that this tribe called Sora is known by various names such as "Savara", "Sabara", "Sora" and "Soura". This makes them even more interesting from a "Sahajika"/tantric point of view. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sora_tribe