Abstract

British colonial experiments within southern Africa worked to limit the influence of non-visual evidence used to prosecute witches. Relying on Western sensory legalism that focused primarily on sight, British officials distrusted Indigenous customs that indicted witches through non-visual means. Often, during medicine murder trials in Basutoland of the 1940s and 1950s, southern African legal questions of conjuring and divining therefore focused on rituals of smelling that diverged from Western sensory protocols. These debates on Indigenous legalism and remnants of colonialism remain vital in discussions of the AIDS epidemic, laws against witchcraft, and the application of specific senses and herbal curatives in modern South Africa.

摘要

英国在南部非洲的殖民实验旨在限制非视觉证据起诉女巫的影响。依靠主要集中于视觉的西方感官法制，英国官员不信任通过非视觉手段起诉女巫的土著习俗。通常，在1940年代和1950年代在Basutoland进行的药物谋杀案审判期间，南部非洲关于魔术和占卜的法律问题因此都集中在与西方感觉规范背道而驰的气味仪式上。这些关于土著法制和殖民主义残余的辩论在讨论艾滋病的流行，反对巫术的法律以及现代南非对特定感官和草药的应用方面仍然至关重要。