Abstract

To what extent have social scientists referred to logical skills to assess the rationality of peoples since the beginning of the twentieth century? And what has “logic” meant for them? In order to start addressing these issues, this study examines a famous and heated debate among social scientists on the rationality and logical skills of an ethnic group of North Central Africa—the Azande. Although logic as a scientific discipline has undergone major changes in terms of objects and approaches throughout the twentieth century, many social scientists relied on views on logic dating back to Antiquity or which are rather elementary to assess the Azande’s behaviors and reasonings. Their diverging representations of logic led them to formulate conflicting claims regarding the logical skills and rationality of this ethnic group. This study also shows that despite the diversity of their assessments, they proved to be reluctant to people the world with irrational minds on the basis of their views on logic.