The attempt to gain insight into a question or situation through a ritual or magical practice, reading signs, events or omens rather than through ordinary observation or inference. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Typical RegionSourced to the subject's own accountNo single region: documented across virtually every culture studied, though the specific method used, such as astrology, tarot reading, rune casting, tea-leaf reading or water scrying, is often region- and tradition-specific. 1 Documented YearSourced to the subject's own accountThe year E. E. Evans-Pritchard published Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande, the foundational ethnographic study of the Azande poison oracle and other divination practices. Connections
Associated With
Consulting the dead for guidance, a divinatory act, is one of the documented ways a belief in continued ancestral influence is put into practice.
Source Wikipedia: Veneration of the Dead
A shaman's work in mediating between community and spirit world routinely includes acts of divination as one of its central purposes, alongside healing and guidance.
Source Wikipedia: Shamanism
Belief in witchcraft functions as an explanatory framework societies use to account for misfortune; divinatory practice (identifying who is responsible) and witchcraft accusation are documented as working together in societies where both are live beliefs, most famously E.E. Evans-Pritchard's account of the Zande poison oracle, not yet a live entity on this atlas.
Source Wikipedia: Witch-Hunt
Studied By
Documented the Azande poison oracle and other divinatory practices as part of the same 1937 study.
Source Wikipedia: E. E. Evans-Pritchard
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Divination
WikipediaOpening definition, description
Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of a magic ritual or practice.
Methods section, typical region
astrology, Tarot card reading, rune casting, tea-leaf reading, Ouija boards, automatic writing, water scrying, numerology, pendulum divination and countless more.
View the Source 2. Wikipedia: E. E. Evans-Pritchard
WikipediaWitchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande, 1937
his classic Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande (1937)
- Studied By: E. E. Evans-Pritchard
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