ArticleScientific reports2022
Same-sex competition and sexual conflict expressed through witchcraft accusations.
Article in Scientific reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Witchcraft, Envy, and Norm Enforcement in Mauritius.Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.) · 2024Article
- The Agential View of Misfortune.Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.) · 2024Article
- Does bride price harm women? Using ethnography to think about causality.Evolutionary human sciences · 2024Review
- Gendered conflict in the human family.Evolutionary human sciences · 2023Review
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
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Abstract
There is significant cross-cultural variation in the sex of individuals most likely to be accused of practising witchcraft. Allegations of witchcraft might be a mechanism for nullifying competitors so resources they would have used become available to others. In this case, who is targeted may result from patterns of competition and conflict (same-sex or male-female) within specific relationships, which are determined by broader socio-ecological factors. Here we examine patterns of sex-specific accusations in historic cases from sub-Saharan Africa (N = 423 accusations). Male 'witches' formed the greater part of our sample, and were mostly accused by male blood-relatives and nonrelatives, often in connection to disputes over wealth and status. Accusations of women were mainly from kin by marriage, and particularly from husbands and co-wives. The most common outcomes were that the accused was forced to move, or suffered reputational damage. Our results suggest that competition underlies accusations and relationship patterns may determine who is liable to be accused.
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