214 
Ralph Bolton 
Anthropos 69. 1974 
catharsis. Some degree of reduction in the theft victims’ anxieties and frustra 
tions seemed to occur as a result of participation in the ritual. 
Undoubtedly another function of this sorcery session was to diminish 
the amount of interpersonal tension and potential conflict generated by the 
thefts. The diminution was to take place immediately. The sorcerer had ex 
plicitly instructed the ritual participants to forget the theft and to treat 
their suspects and enemies kindly from that point forward. The session put 
an end to potential confrontations with the suspects. It removed the grounds 
for further developments in overt hostility. This effect can hardly be ignored, 
for, as we recall, the suspects tended to be neighbors, kinsmen, and other 
individuals of significance to the victims. Since the ultimate penalty had 
been imposed, the guilty party’s fate determined, social relationships with 
the suspects could be normalized. 
It should be emphasized, perhaps, that the probability of this type of 
sorcery having a successful outcome is extremely high. In fact, the greater 
the distress of the person who hires the sorcerer, the more likely it will be 
that he will perceive the results as favorable. After all, Timotea presented a 
long list of names of suspects. Given the high mortality and morbidity rates 
in Incawatana, the likelihood that one of the persons will become seriously 
ill or die is quite good, especially since the sorcerer specified not a minimum 
period during which the effect would occur, but rather that it would happen 
sometime after three weeks had gone by. And, of course, as the number of 
named suspects increases, the chances for a “successful” result also increase 
markedly. It is difficult to think of a way in which this session could have 
failed. 
In writing about the Nyoro divination séance, John Beattie stated 
(1967: 64-65): 
It became clear to me that night that, whatever else the possession cult is (and I 
have discussed others of its aspects and functions elsewhere), it is, or may be, good 
"theater”. In the context of what is on the whole a drab and monotonous peasant exist 
ence this may well be an important reason, even though by no means the only one, 
for its continued survival and popularity. 
This conclusion can be said to apply to the Kallawaya sorcery session 
with equal force, for Kallawaya sorcery is nothing if not, indeed, “good theater”- 
Bibliography 
Adams, R. N. 
1959 A Community in the Andes: Problems and Progress in Muquiyauyo. Seattle- 
Bandelier, A. F. 
1910 The Islands of Titicaca and Koati. New York. 
Beattie, J. H. M. 
1967 Consulting a Nyoro Diviner: The Ethnologist as Client. Ethnology 6; 57-65- 
Bolton, R. 
1972 Aggression in Qolla Society. Ph. D. Dissertation, Cornell University.