Paul Stoller's Transformation

At first, Paul Stoller didn’t believe in sorcery or magic, but he undergoes a transformation from a non-believer to believer. This paper attempts to explain Paul’s transformation through the use of Tanya Luhrmann’s theories of magic. Luhrmann’s theories of the changing intellectual process, coping with dissonance, and a slow interpretive shift explains how Paul Stoller’s comes to believe in sorcery. Paul Stroller is an anthropologist who becomes an apprentice to Songhay sorcerers. His study extends over five field stays, in which he learns incantations, ingests specific foods of initiation, and participates indirectly with sorcery (Stoller, Olkes, 1987, p.ix). Although Paul knew of the practice sorcery he believed that science

This changing process includes the sharing of knowledge from other magicians, therefore offering new and different ways of changing their intellectual thought process and their perspective (Luhrmann, 1989, p. 115). Luhrmann further explains that as a magician continues to practice magic it becomes more reasonable and believable, not realizing that this is because of changing intellectual process. Magicians come to believe that theory of magic can be tested and proven to be true (Luhrmann, 1989, p. 116,

Susan describes the roars that came in the middle of the night, adding that when she went to investigate she found nothing. Paul explains to Susan that this was a sorcerer’s spell, which usually last three days, with the intention of scaring him away. Susan expresses her disbelief while Paul offers to bury a source of protection under her threshold (Stoller, 1987, p. 140, 141). This is an interesting statement for prior to visiting Susan, Paul states that this event was a bad dream. At this point it seems that Paul is unsure of what to