Belief in witches influences social processes within the community, dictating to residents with whom to continue the family line and who to help and whom to avoid. Some scientists believe that witches are more often called unreliable members of a group who are not ready to cooperate, and for this they are subjected to social exile, but a study published in the journal Nature Human Behavior suggests that "witches" are as prone to altruism as others. …
Beliefs in witchcraft and witches are still found in different groups and communities. Witches are shunned, and if they are not executed, then one way or another subjected to exile. Anthropologists are trying to understand the function of the witch hunt, and their opinions are divided. Some believe that witches in small communities refer to people who are not cooperative, hostile, or untrustworthy. Others believe that they are accused of witchcraft in order to weaken rivals. Ruth Mace from University College London, along with colleagues from China, decided to find out how the status of a "witch" affects relationships within the group and try to understand which of the explanations for belief in witchcraft is more correct.
To do this, they conducted research in five farming villages in China, where the belief in witches is still prevalent. In this village, some people are accused of witchcraft, and this label extends to the entire household (be it the family or any group of people who live and farm together) and is inherited down the female line. Witches are suspected of having supernatural powers, in particular, it is believed that they can poison food. Information about who in the village is considered a witch, what the wealth of each of the houses, and other data scientists collected from interviews with one or more villagers, and their own observations of the help of fellow villagers to each other in their work.
Distribution of relationships between "witches" (squares) and "non-witches" (circles) in one of the Chinese villages. a) helping each other during farming, b) giving gifts, c) sexual partners, d) biological relationship. / Ruth Mace et al., Nature Human Behavior, 2018.
In surveys, scientists estimated the proportion of homes inhabited by people who are reputed to have supernatural powers at 13.7 percent. Scientists have tracked the various connections between the houses in the village, such as helping with farming, giving gifts, relationships between sexual partners, and family ties, to establish patterns and understand whether families of "witches" and "non-witches" are divided. The researchers found that "witches" are often grouped into small clusters, and the distribution of connections is not random in all of the above situations (P ≪ 0.001 for each of the four), the preferences of "friends" for the purposes of cohabitation and childbearing turned out to be especially strong.
The researchers also found that despite the fact that the law forbade women to have more than three children, women “witches” on average had fewer of them than “non-witches”, but this effect did not extend to men. They also found that the genealogical relationship in the “witches” subgroup (r = 0.152) was somewhat denser than among the “non-witches” (r = 0.125), and was weak between the two subgroups (r = 0.083).
To test whether belief in witches really helps society to identify unscrupulous group members, the researchers compared willingness to share resources using a simple economic game in which participants were asked to donate resources to their anonymous fellow villagers.
Results of the economic test game for willingness to share. Each member disposed of 10 yuan, and could donate from 0 to 10 yuan. “Witches” and “non-witches” showed very similar results (P = 0.7282). / Ruth Mace et al., Nature Human Behavior, 2018.
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The game was attended by 564 players, 80 of them were from the houses where the "witch" lived. Scientists compared the results of these subgroups and found no difference (P = 0.7282) in the willingness to donate money (out of the 10 yuan given to the players, which roughly corresponds to the average earnings in a village for a few hours of work) to an anonymous fellow villager, who was randomly selected.
The researchers note that the label "witch" defines the rules by which the population of the village decides who to help and who does not, and with whom to continue the family. However, it should be noted that the study was not longitudinal, that is, the scientists drew conclusions based on the situation that developed at the time of observation (in 2012). The authors tend to believe that belief in witchcraft has a function of weakening competitors, but this hypothesis could not be confirmed or refuted in this study. Scientists also did not find confirmation of the hypothesis about unreliable relatives, but it is worth considering that the results of the economic game could be contaminated by the fact that some of the players had a specific experience of exile, and it cannot be argued that at the time of the accusation of witchcraft, these people were likewise prone to altruism.
Anna Zinina
