[Mihalic] Witchcraft

[Thomas H. Slone]

Dan Jorgensen recently wrote on ASAONET that "poisen" and "sanguma" 
are no longer the terms used for witchcraft in Tok Pisin.  Mihalic 
List members might be interested to know that our dictionary entry 
was cited in the ASAONET discussion on this topic.  Jorgensen wrote 
that "wiskrap" is the commonly used term and that it represents a 
different type of sorcery, linked to "Third Wave Evangelism".  Third 
Wave Evangelism is apparently a type of post-evangelistic 
Christianity that incorporates the need to combat demonic forces. 
Specifically, this type of witchcraft is a recent phenomenon 
associated with the AIDS epidemic and the folk concept that AIDS/HIV 
is associated with sorcery (i.e., the belief that there is no such 
thing as natural death).

Some recent news stories on witchcraft in PNG may be of interest:
http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2004/s1117012.htm
http://www.time.com/time/pacific/magazine/20010507/witch.html
http://www.wwrn.org/parse.php?idd=9020&c=14

--Tom Slone