Muggles and International Wizarding Relations

[aldrea279]

No: HPFGUIDX 39558


Ann wrote:
> what of those
> societies that accept the magical and supernatural? 
> Consider the amount of societies who believe in
> supernatural beings or powers; and in shamans
> ("part-time religious practitioner who is believed to
> have access to supernatural power that may be used for
> the benefit of specific clients, as in healing or
> divining"), sorcerers ("practitioner of magical
> rituals done to harm others") and witches ("persons
> believed to have the innate supernatural ability to
> harm others without the use of ritual")

Now, I don't know alot about Englad and I won't pretend to...but I 
don't think there are alot of shamans running around there.  Perhaps 
these are wizards in other parts of the world, as Ancient Egyptian 
sorcerers are really just ancient Wizards.

 [1].  What
> about Wiccans (who, I am aware, are _not_ HP style
> witches): "Many witches, wizards, druids, Cabalists,
> and shamans. . . practice modern magic in contemporary
> England and the United States, where their ranks are
> comfortably reckoned in the tens of thousands" [2].

Perhaps we will get a comment about it from Hermione in one of the 
books, but I find that unlikely.  You could say that such people are 
persons with magical blood in their veins, perhaps not enough to go 
to Hogwarts, or perhaps they refused Hogwarts.
 
> 	Would HP-style witches consider this type of magic to
> be trickery or to have a rational anthropological-type
> explanation?  Or would this be considered an equally
> valid form of magic?  (I think it would be nifty to
> have a class on "Comparative Magic" if these other
> kinds are accepted as real.  Might be able to use a
> "Philosophy/Ethics of Magic" as well).

Well, I suppose it's quite possible such a branch of magic could be 
accepted.  Fortune-telling seems to be(although not by everyone, as 
we see), and I wasn't expecting that to pop-up.

> 	2)  How, exactly, do HP magicals manage to remain so
> completely incompetent in the Muggle world?  It isn't
> as if they live _outside_ of it.  

Well, I don't know about that.  They could very well almost live 
completely outiside of it, as they seem to know almost nothing about 
it.  Hogwarts is undetectible to the Muggle-eye, as is the Knight Bus 
and Diagon Alley.  I think it's very well possible that many old-
family wizards *don't* go getting mixed up with Muggles.  They do 
tend to very much keep to themselves, but as we see with the newer 
generations, mixing is becoming more common.  Remember...I think it's 
Seamus Finnigan, but he talks about how his mom married his dad, a 
Muggle, and his dad didn't find out she was a witch until 
afterwards.  So there was some mingling going on there. 

Hagrid and Harry
> take the metro with Muggles in PS (Ch. 5); the
> Ministry car in PoA, though magical, is on the street
> with Muggle cars and drivers (Ch. 5); and seeing as
> Hogsmead is the only all-magical community around,
> almost all wizards would be living in or near Muggle
> communities.  

Yep, it seems to me as though the two worlds over-lap at will.  
Hogsmeade is clearly stated as the only all-magical *community*, but 
I'm betting there are some smaller models of such scattered 
throughout the Muggle world.  I've always taken that the way Muggles 
interpret Wizards is basically the way Vernon Dursley did in the 
first chapter of book one.  He though they were freaks, and usually 
sort of passed over them with a bit of a scoff.  And that was on a 
day when Wizards were being carelessly noticable.  On other days when 
they might take precautions to keep themselves unnoticed, I doubt Mr. 
Vernon Dursley would have been so distracted from his drills during 
his morning ride. 

 
<snip stuff from GoF>

 
> 	Their children must be quite bored without many other
> magical children around to play with.

Obviously that doesn't concern the Weasley's, seeing as how their 
children keep each other company.

> If they played
> with Muggles, I'd imagine being a bit more aware of
> how things worked.  At the very least, the children
> must be quite isolated--unless long trips are made
> regularly (at what age would something like floo
> powder be safe for kids?  What kinds of family
> transportation are there?  Would working parents
> really be able to regularly chauffeur their children?)
> 

Well, I don't know if I'd rule out Wizard children playing with 
Muggle Children.  I mean, when you're in your toddler/pre-school 
years, if you went up to one of your parents and tried to say 
that...I don't know, that kid over there ust turned that leaf into a 
frog, I don't think they'd take you all that seriously.

 
<snips stuff about world-wide DE's>  
 
> 	We saw that wizards can be patriotic/nationalistic
> during the World Cup Quidditch match.  Does Muggle
> politics spill into the international wizarding world?
>  Would real world language tensions in Canada, for
> example, spill into the magical world?  Does racism
> exist there?  Would any magical institution protest
> that there were too many magical immigrants around? 
> Or is prejudice primarily based on purity of blood? 
> Are Magicals involved in Great World Events?  Did they
> participate in any of the World Wars?  Watch the moon
> landing?  Fear nuclear war?

This is interesting, but I think so far you can only answer this with 
your own interpretation of the WW and how it works.  Wizards are 
people just as we are(and some of them are from Muggle families and 
thus exposed to the same stuff we are for 11 years straight), so them 
feeling racism is rather likely.
 
~Aldrea, who is very happy to say that she turns 15 today.