Sanguma in Papua New Guinea: Spirit Belief, Social Explanation, and Gendered Violence

Record summary

Anthropological and human-rights work on sanguma describes a culturally specific vocabulary for harmful occult agency, frequently linked in modern cases to illness, death, misfortune, jealousy, and disputes. It is valuable for comparison with Western witchcraft narratives because the category is embedded in kinship, Christianity, economic change, and local politics. Researchers disagree about how much contemporary accusations reflect older traditions, imported Christian demonology, or changing social pressures. The topic should be approached through named field studies and case reports rather than generalized claims about Papua New Guinea.