Kathleen Stahler Intro to Anthropology Proffessor Sensi Isolani April 14 2011 Article Review Magical Literacy Encountering a Witch s Book in Equador by Peter Wogan is an anthropological article from Anthropologist Quarterly It is about Wogan s experiences with magic and witchcraft in South America His interest is in the magical aspects of literature Wogan focused his research on the magical literacy beliefs of the people of Salasaca in the south of Quito Ecuador 1998 186 These indigenous people believed that books and words help magical powers Wogan s thesis is that even though these people believe that magic is in literacy writing symbolizes western power and identity and that their beliefs were rst formed by westerners 1998 187 Wogan rst decided to travel down to Salasaca when he began his research on the statues on San Gonzalo in their village Although San Gonzalo is the patron saint of a large Catholic church the Salacas say he is a witch saint who kills people with a book of written names San Gozalo is represented by two statues the statue outside the big church in Ambato the provincial capital near Salascaca and the small one foot copy of this statue maintaing in a private residence 1998 186 It was hard for him to nd information at rst because it was considered a taboo to speak about San Gonzalo He was able to gain the local s trust through because he spoke uent Quichua 1998 188 Wogan discovered that they believe that San Gonzalo is a wicth saint that kills people with a book of written names and that one of the two statues in Salasaca channel his black magic The other statue is a patron saint for white magic Wogan was interested in San Gonzalo because of the literacy magic connected to the statue San Gonzalo s power is a large book 1998 188 The owner of the book writes down his her victims names and then that person dies San Gonzalo never kills people arbitrarily or on his own initatuve the killin or suffering is carried out through San Gonzalo but always at the behest of some individual client 1998 189 When Wogan traveled down to Salasaca he discover that the current owners of the book were two witch sisters and they control the book The victims names can be removed for a price of 200 1998 189 Wogan wanted to track down the book of San Gonzalo and study it to see if it has any western in uences Wogan decided to test this saints powers by going through the traditional ritual Through mutual friends he was able to go and see the statue and sisters who owned book When he arrived the healer he declined to mention names told him that his ex girlfriend was jealous of him and his wife and that she had written his name in the book The owner then announced that my ex girlfriend was envious and trying to do me harm that she was the one responsible for my suffering She said the pain would start in my stomach and legs and eventually spread to my whole body turning into a grave illness 1998 189 When he asked to see the book the healer let him but he realized that she had penciled his name in She told him that for 200 he could remove his name but he did not because he believed that it was a scam 1998 190 When Wogan nally saw the book he was able to conclude that San Gonzalo was associated with whites and their powers San Gonzalo was a catholic saint and most of the statues textual sources were mostly catholic This proved his thesis to be correct Wogan used the ethnographic approach to his research 1998 186 His primary research was conducted by participant observation He participated in the book ritual to prove his hypothesis correct Wogan s point of view is expressed the most he seemed to favor his theory of white literacy It sounded like he knew that Catholic in uences would be found in the book even before he started searching for it I thought it was very naive of him to actively participate in black magic even if he didn t believe in it it could of caused him harm I thought that his research very relatable to the material that we covered in class It was a prime example of participant observation His research was very similar to Belmonte and Bourgeois s research because he involved himself with the Quichua community He lived with a family ate their food and observed their everyday lives He used participant observation to conclude his research and proved that whites have primary authority over literacy References Wogan Peter Quarterly 71 4 186 202 1998 Magical Literacy Encountering a Witch s Book in Ecuador Anthropologist