Chapter Three: Losing the Feel for the Craft

Things tell a story. They can unveil the direction our society is heading in. Efficient warfare epitomized by the drone simplicates violence. The ‘double tap’ technique lubricates civilian killing in the current phase when societies have become human terrain systems. Also in the Global South, such as in the socially stressed regions of eastern and central Africa, a simplex type of magic has emerged. Why would torturing a body with albinism traits yield fortune? To infer what exactly has changed to create this belief, the chapter uses ethnographic data to weave together the social, cultural and existential dimensions of medicine. The inference is extended to simplex society at large. Both technology and witchcraft are highly overrated in such society where meaning and feeling have bifurcated, and frames disappear from view.