2021 Volume 95 Issue 2 Pages 3-23
The global COVID-19 pandemic needs to be considered thoroughly by anthropologists conducting fieldwork on religion. The purpose of the present study is to examine, based on research on several areas in Africa, the methodological problems that researchers in the anthropology of religion may be confronted with when they investigate the relationships between religion and infectious diseases. Based on a case study of the Duruma in the coastal areas of Kenya, we first examine the influence of Christianity on the ideas of witchcraft and possessive spirits, which are closely concerned with the illness experience. Here the paper demonstrates that Christianity regards possessive spirits as an enemy of God, while it omits the process of clarifying the cause of misfortunes. We then examine the cases in several areas in Africa. Here I argue that HIV/AIDS is more likely to be connected with witchcraft than malaria. In particular, I focus on the point that it is relatively easy to understand the cause of Malaria and to trace the process of treatment, whereas the experience of HIV/AIDS is more ambiguous. Finally, it is suggested that urban hospitals are not merely places for medical services but venues where witchcraft discourses can be activated.
