Revista de Estudios Sociales

rev. estud. soc. | eISSN 1900-5180 | ISSN 0123-885X

Magia, brujería y violencia en Colombia

No. 15 (2003-06-01)
  • Carlos Alberto Uribe

Abstract

This article discusses the relationship between magic, witchcraft, cure, and contemporary Colombian social conflict. Based on an ethnographic study of a clinical case of mental sickness, the argument seeks to show how a situation of social conflict and chaos offers a privileged scenariofor witchcraft practices. Magic and witchcraft, it is argued, offer a via regia for exploring the maze created by suffering, repression and guilt (the pathos) in our culture –i.e. an analytical road to explain what igmund Freud called “the malaise of civilization”. In the discussion, the ocial pathology of the family –especially of the antioqueño family–receives a particular attention.

Keywords: magic, witchcraft, family in Colombia

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