magic and culture

Many cultures believe in particular magics. In ancient civilization, some of those magic beliefs are made up by kings in order to have a better control of their people in their border, or to gain powers positions and titles. For example, in ancient China, there was a boy who really wanted to push over his uncle who was the king at the time. At that year people believed in fish can bring good luck, so he put a piece of paper he wrote, says "Min will be king" into the fish, throw them in the sea. when the fisherman caught the fish, saw the paper, eventually spread the words, Min succeeded in his boycott. Other than power control, people used magic when they can't explain things in ancient times, things can be explained by science that people in the past didn't know. Why is the child born with it's spine showing off outside of it's skin? Nowadays called spina bifibia, in ancient times, some people identify that with "his parents did bad things so magic punished him"...