Les fonctions de la religion dans les sociétés

This essay is based on Malinowski's work: The role of Magic and religion and Evans Pritchard's one : Witchcraft explains unfortunate events.
Both Malinowski's and Evans Pritchard's works take part in the debate on the function of religion in societies and for individuals. Both authors try to answer following what we can call a psychological functionalist approach. That is to say that they both show that religion is one element of society and so as all elements of society it fulfills a function for individuals. Malinowski suggests that religion and magic (which are strictly different) come from psychological needs for human beings and have a positive function that we will try to explain.