The answers to these questions come through divination which is a magical procedure by which the cause of a particular event or the future is determined. Once the guilty person is discovered retribution may be gained by public exposure and punishment or by counter witchcraft. D ivination is accomplished by many different methods around the world. Shamans usually go into a trance to find out the answers from their spirit helpers. The ancient Romans divined the outcome of battles or business deals by autopsying chickens and examining the condition of their livers.
Divination is still popular with many people in the United States today.
There are individuals who set up business to divine the future for their clients by examining such things as tea leaves in the bottom of a cup, lines in the hand, and tarot cards. I n societies in which magic and witchcraft are accepted as realities, mental illness is usually explained as being a consequence of witchcraft or the actions of supernatural beings and forces. In Nigeria, folk curers are licensed by the government to use supernatural means and herbal remedies to cure people who are suffering from mental illness. Nigeria also licenses doctors trained in Western medicine, which totally rejects the idea of illness being caused by magic or other supernatural causes. However, the Western trained doctors and the folk curers in Nigeria often work cooperatively and send each other patients that they cannot cure with their own approaches.