The Sorcerer and His Magic
E678761
"The Sorcerer and His Magic" is a classic anthropological essay by Claude Lévi-Strauss that analyzes the social and psychological functions of shamanism and magical practices in so-called "primitive" societies.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Sorcerer and His Magic canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7631369 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Sorcerer and His Magic Context triple: [Structural Anthropology, hasPart, The Sorcerer and His Magic]
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A.
The Sorcerer
"The Sorcerer" is a jazz composition by Herbie Hancock, best known as one of the tracks on his 1968 album "Speak Like a Child."
-
B.
The Sorcerers
The Sorcerers is a work associated with American intelligence officer and author E. Howard Hunt, reflecting his career in espionage-themed and politically charged writing.
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C.
El Mago
El Mago is the nickname of Argentine former professional tennis player Guillermo Coria, renowned for his exceptional clay-court skills and speed.
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D.
The Magic
The Magic is a self-help book by Rhonda Byrne that expands on the themes of The Secret by focusing on the transformative power of gratitude.
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E.
La Maga
La Maga is a mysterious, free-spirited woman who embodies emotional intuition and existential uncertainty in Julio Cortázar’s novel "Rayuela" ("Hopscotch").
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Sorcerer and His Magic Target entity description: "The Sorcerer and His Magic" is a classic anthropological essay by Claude Lévi-Strauss that analyzes the social and psychological functions of shamanism and magical practices in so-called "primitive" societies.
-
A.
The Sorcerer
"The Sorcerer" is a jazz composition by Herbie Hancock, best known as one of the tracks on his 1968 album "Speak Like a Child."
-
B.
The Sorcerers
The Sorcerers is a work associated with American intelligence officer and author E. Howard Hunt, reflecting his career in espionage-themed and politically charged writing.
-
C.
El Mago
El Mago is the nickname of Argentine former professional tennis player Guillermo Coria, renowned for his exceptional clay-court skills and speed.
-
D.
The Magic
The Magic is a self-help book by Rhonda Byrne that expands on the themes of The Secret by focusing on the transformative power of gratitude.
-
E.
La Maga
La Maga is a mysterious, free-spirited woman who embodies emotional intuition and existential uncertainty in Julio Cortázar’s novel "Rayuela" ("Hopscotch").
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
academic article
ⓘ
anthropological essay ⓘ |
| addresses | problem of how magic can "work" ⓘ |
| aimsTo | explain magical efficacy without assuming superstition ⓘ |
| analyzes |
belief of the community in magic
ⓘ
relationship between sorcerer and patient ⓘ symbolic efficacy of ritual ⓘ |
| arguesThat |
magical cures can be effective through belief and symbolism
ⓘ
magical practices have coherent social and psychological functions ⓘ the community’s belief sustains the power of the sorcerer ⓘ the patient’s belief contributes to the success of shamanic healing ⓘ |
| author | Claude Lévi-Strauss ⓘ |
| contributesTo |
theory of magic in anthropology
ⓘ
theory of ritual efficacy ⓘ |
| critiques | Western notions of "primitive" irrationality ⓘ |
| discipline | social anthropology ⓘ |
| examines |
experience of the audience
ⓘ
experience of the patient ⓘ experience of the sorcerer ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork | anthropology ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
magical practices in so‑called "primitive" societies
ⓘ
psychological functions of shamanism ⓘ social functions of shamanism ⓘ |
| genre | scholarly essay ⓘ |
| hasPerspective |
comparative
ⓘ
cross-cultural ⓘ |
| includes | case study of a shamanic curing session ⓘ |
| influenced |
later studies of shamanism
ⓘ
medical anthropology ⓘ symbolic anthropology ⓘ |
| languageOfWork | French ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
magic
ⓘ
ritual healing ⓘ shamanism ⓘ |
| partOf | Claude Lévi-Strauss’s early anthropological writings ⓘ |
| proposesConcept | symbolic efficacy ⓘ |
| publishedIn | 20th century ⓘ |
| setIn | indigenous societies ⓘ |
| subfield | structural anthropology ⓘ |
| subject |
belief systems
ⓘ
healing rituals ⓘ magic and rationality ⓘ religious practices ⓘ |
| theoreticalFramework | structuralism ⓘ |
| usesMethod |
ethnographic case studies
ⓘ
structural analysis of myth and ritual ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Sorcerer and His Magic Description of subject: "The Sorcerer and His Magic" is a classic anthropological essay by Claude Lévi-Strauss that analyzes the social and psychological functions of shamanism and magical practices in so-called "primitive" societies.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.