1985 – 8(2)

TECHNOLOGY AND MAGIC

William EAMON
Associate Professor of History
New Mexico State University (USA)

Abstract

The author shows the resemblance between technology and magic. Both have the aim of taming the forces of nature and bringing them under their controle. Although their methods differ, the magician and the engineer pursue the same goal.

Résumé

L’auteur montre les similitudes entre la technologie et la magie. L’une et l’autre ont comme fin de dompter les forces de la nature et de s’en assurer le contrôle. Avec des méthodes différentes le magicien et l’ingénieur poursuivent le même but.

Samenvatting

De schrijver toont de gelijkenis aan tussen technologie en magie.
Beide streven er naar de natuurkrachten te bedwingen en de kontrole er over te
verwerven. Alhoewel hun methodes verschillen beogen de magiër en de ingenieur hetzelfde
doel.

In a seminal essay on the origin and function of magic in primitive societies, the late Bronislaw Malinowski attempted to reconstruct the situation in which magic appears. Malinowski wrote:

« Man, engaged in a series of practical activities, comes to a gap; the hunter is disappointed by his quarry, the sailor misses propitious winds, the canoe builder has to deal with some material of which he is never certain that it will stand the strain, or the healthy person suddenly feels his strenght failing … All practical activities lead man into impasses where gaps in his knowledge and the limitations of his early power of observation and reason betray him at a crucial moment. The human organism reacts to this in spontaneous outburts, in which rudimentary modes of behavior and rudimentary beliefs in their efficacy are engendered. Magic fixes upon these beliefs and rudimentary rites and standardizes them into permanent traditional forms »[[Bronislaw Malinowski, « Magic, Science and Religion », in Magic, Science and Religion and Other Essays (Garden City, N. Y., 1954), 85-90. ]].

The essence of this observation is that magic is essentially a craft activity; its goals and the goals of technology are similar in that both seek to control the natural environment by artificial means. Indeed, anthropologists tell us that every activity that craftsmen perform in primitive society is also believed to be within the capacity of a magician. The extent of their cooperation varies, of course: in general, the greater the danger and the more uncertain the outcome of the activity, the more magic seems to participate. Farming and fishing, for example, are aided to a limited extent by magic, whereas medicine and metallurgy, where technical skills are deficient, are historically so dependent on magic that they almost seem to have grown from it.

To the modern mind, however, magic and technology are almost universally distinguished from one another. Everyone knows that you do not build suspension bridges and spaceships by reciting an incantation. You build them through the coordination of skills and rational scientific principles. Without doubt, « science and technology » sounds more harmonious to our ears than « technology and magic ».

All this might lead us to the conclusion that, not only are magic and technology wholly different kinds of activities, but that belief in magic and technological progress are mutually exclusive. Indeed, it would seem to follow from Malinowski’s thesis that magic should decline as technological skills advance, and over long historical periods, this is probably the case. But it does not necessarily follow that magic and technology are hostile to one another. I hasten to add, however, that it is the farthest thing from my mind to make a case in this essay for magic. I do not believe that our current world energy crisis, for example, or any other problem that we face for which a technological solution may be appropriate, can be remedied by casting spells or reading horoscopes. I am only suggesting that, when an historian looks at technology, he should try to see it within the context of the culture in which it develops. It sometimes happens that this cultural context includes beliefs that are quite alien to those we ordinarily think are the most conducive to technological progress. And I am also suggesting that we sometimes learn more from the extremes of who we are than from how we conventionally view ourselves.