This paper uses the concept of causal stories to explore how death, sickness and misfortune lead to accusations of sorcery or witchcraft. Based on empirical research in Papua New Guinea, we propose a new analytical framework that shows how negative events may trigger particular narratives about the use of the supernatural by individuals and groups. These narratives then direct considerations about the cause of the misfortune, the agent who can heal it, and the appropriate response from those affected by the misfortune. We also categorise the factors that attract people towards magical causal narratives or towards competing non-magical causal narratives. We situate our analysis within a context of worldview pluralism, where individuals possess multiple worldviews, such as a magical worldview or a scientific worldview. We argue that causal stories operate to activate the dominance of one worldview or a combination of worldviews in given circumstances. Our theoretical contribution may be extended to discrimination and violence against those suffering from health-related stigma, as this too gives rise to competing causal stories that either take hold or are ignored depending upon diverse factors.

本文使用因果故事的概念来探讨死亡，疾病和不幸是如何导致巫术或巫术指控的。基于对巴布亚新几内亚的经验研究，我们提出了一个新的分析框架，该框架显示了负面事件如何触发个人和团体对超自然现象的使用的特殊叙述。然后，这些叙述将直接考虑不幸的原因，可以治愈的代理商以及受到不幸影响的人们的适当回应。我们还对吸引人们进入魔术因果叙事或竞争非魔术因果叙事的因素进行了分类。我们将分析置于世界观多元性的背景下，其中个人拥有多种世界观，例如魔术世界观或科学世界观。我们认为，因果故事在特定情况下会激活一种世界观或世界观组合的主导地位。我们的理论贡献可能会扩展到针对遭受与健康相关的耻辱的人的歧视和暴力，因为这也会引起相互竞争的因果故事，这些故事要么因各种因素而被接受，要么被忽略。