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harry potter - Were There Witches and Wizards In The Americas Before Europeans Arrived?


We know that today there are witches and wizards in countries throughout the world (at least in the Potter-verse). But how about before European colonization and immigration? Were there magical people amongst the Incas or Mayans? Or among the native tribes in North America?


How about in Australia, Africa, or parts of Asia before Europeans spread to those areas?


Or did all witch and wizard bloodlines originate from Europe?



Answer



They were magical Native Americans, as well as other cultures too.


The Pottermore article titled History of Magic in North America showed that there were magical people in The Americas long before the Europeans arrived. Magic appeared all over the globe, not just in Europe.



Though European explorers called it ‘the New World’ when they first reached the continent, wizards had known about America long before Muggles (Note: while every nationality has its own term for ‘Muggle,’ the American community uses the slang term No-Maj, short for ‘No Magic’). Various modes of magical travel – brooms and Apparition among them – not to mention visions and premonitions, meant that even far-flung wizarding communities were in contact with each other from the Middle Ages onwards.



The Native American magical community and those of Europe and Africa had known about each other long before the immigration of European No-Majs in the seventeenth century. They were already aware of the many similarities between their communities. Certain families were clearly ‘magical’, and magic also appeared unexpectedly in families where hitherto there had been no known witch or wizard. The overall ratio of wizards to non-wizards seemed consistent across populations, as did the attitudes of No-Majs, wherever they were born. In the Native American community, some witches and wizards were accepted and even lauded within their tribes, gaining reputations for healing as medicine men, or outstanding hunters. However, others were stigmatised for their beliefs, often on the basis that they were possessed by malevolent spirits.


(Pottermore - History of Magic in North America - (published March 11th, 2016))



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