Witchcraft And Fire

Many of the acts associated with witches that are prevalent in the literature on this subject seem to be of a diabolical nature. The primary cause of this is that the elites had access to a literary medium which tended to leave behind sources that the historian can access in a more direct manner than the mainly oral traditions of popular culture (p. 61 course manual). These oral traditions were the primary means of conveyance for these

Witchcraft exists. Whether we choose to believe or not, its existence in worldwide cultures is undeniable. Its form takes many shapes that can be determined by the religion, economics, politics, and folk beliefs in each individual culture where it may take place. Its importance in our own, American, history should not go understated: Witches were a major dilemma for people who lived in 1692 Salem, Massachusetts, and as a result women (and men) were hanged due to undeniable belief in the power of Witchcraft. Today, belief in magic and witches has diminished with the increasingly secular nature of our culture, but we must accept there was a time when witches “existed”. While American culture has drifted away from ideas such as witchcraft, others have certainly not, with the primary example being Africa. Witchcraft in African culture accounts for many of the issues found within many of the continents communities. Correcting these issues, at least for a time, usually results in a community being “fixed” (examples are made in Adam Ashford’s account of witchery, Madumo, a Man Bewitched and the anthropological accounts being used for this essay). What is fascinating; however, are the parallels that can be made between witchcraft in different cultures. In a previous essay I touched on this topic by incorporating my definition of witchcraft as “a cultural means of being able to create particular moral boundaries by means of ‘magic’ thinking” (Brian Riddle, 2015). In this essay, I

During the seventeenth-century of New England many Puritans had the mindset of believing in super natural behaviors, which were unexplainable by natural law or phenomena, such as witchcraft. Witchcraft can be defined by the use of sorcery or magic to communicate with the devil. Because witchcraft accusations were so dangerous in their society, it was punishable by death, although hard to convict on such little physical evidence. Witches in New England were hanged from either scaffolds or trees. The Puritans attitudes and assessments of witchcraft were rational, although various groups of New Englanders viewed witchcraft differently.

During the 1600’s there were many opinions and lifestyle changes because of witches, this time period is slightly before and during the Salem Witch Trials. In any group of people with large numbers, there are always going to be outcast, whether it’s just a birthmark or a personality tweak. That’s just life. Well in the 1600’s if you were born with red hair and freckles and both ur parents were brunette and brown eyes, then you were considered and outcast and possibly even referred to as a witch. If you were socially awkward in any way or any kind of a social outcast then you would fall into the category of a witchcraft person. If accused of being a with many things were possible to happen, killed banished. Neither are very good alternatives but it is a choice. Most people think of a witch as an older women with a huge wart, tall black hat, and riding on a broom. However this is not

Those who claimed to know the future and weren’t prophets were convicted of blasphemy and witchcraft and were punished. It was considered witchcraft because fortune-telling required a direct relationship between a human or witch and unholy spiritual powers. During the Middle Ages, witchcraft in ecclesiastic or church courts was presided over by church-appointed officials. This may have caused biased opinions and also links to religion being a cause of the harsh punishment. In medieval judicial proceedings, torture was sometimes used as a means of extracting information concerning witchcraft, and confessions were not uncommon. Historical evidence states that many confessed out of fear of being tortured and not because they were truly guilty.

"Thou shall not suffer a witch to live,” Exodos 22;18. Men or women with an unexpected flap of skin on a person's body or as “witch”s tit”. Anger followed by mischief. A man that could hold a rifle, arm barrel. What do these things have similar?They were all accused of witchcraft. In 1692 they were many trials accusing people of witchcraft. What could have caused the Salem witch trial hysteria of 1692? These causes were that they were fundamentalist,ergotism,hysteria.

The purpose of this book was to examine the history and social life of Salem Village to try to figure out what was the cause of the events that occurred there. I believe that the authors achieved their objective at least they did to me. Boyer and Nissenbaum's explanation for the outbreak of witchcraft accusations in Salem hinges on an understanding of the economic,

Most observers now agree that witches in the villages and towns of the late Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century New England tended to be poor. They were usually not the poorest women in the community, but the moderately poor. Karlsen tries to show that a woman who was vulnerable was most likely to be accused of being a witch. Even women who had gained wealth because of the death of a husband were prime candidates.

more competence as an explanation due to evidence now being needed to prove someone guilty, there was still a aspect of psychological pressure towards obeying God and putting themselves forward for punishment in order to live a better afterlife.

Witches have been feared by man since the 14th century in Europe when they believed women were given evil powers for loyalty to the devil. Although some others believed it was the result of consuming the fungus “Ergot” which was found in rye, wheat and other cereals. According to Jess Blumberg multiple people were caught using witchcraft as he mentions in her post “More than 200 people were accused of witchcraft and twenty were executed”. Later in colonial times there was a widespread of witchcraft throughout the new pioneer villages. People believe that it became worse from all the anxiety from the fear of death from disease, savages, smallpox and the after war effects of the British war with France. All this anxiety was driving the Puritans

“For us it is not lawful to introduce any doctrine of our own choosing, neither may we choose some doctrine which someone else has introduced by his own choice.” (Peters, 1980, p. 30). As early as the second century CE, Christian writers, such as Tertullian (ca. 160 – ca. 200 CE), began defining what it was to be a heretic and what heresy could lead to (Peters, 1980, p. 29). Medieval churchmen believed there was much to fear from heresy, but the practice of witchcraft was especially troubling, as their greatest fears of heresy could be summoned by means of magic.

Reginald Scot explores the common perceptions towards witches in the late sixteenth century, which he claims they were commonly old, lame, full of wrinkles, poor (Levack 2004: ?), although not necessarily solitary (Larner 1984: 72). Scot claims that their appearance often caused alarm among many in the community and caused the neighbours to find truth in witches utterings. One could argue women were often ascribed with such stereotypes, for they were both physically and politically weakened, and were unable to distance themselves from accusations (levack 1984: 127). It is apparent the oppression of these women could represent an attempt to maintain hegemony in a patriarchal society in the late sixteenth century. Coincidentally, most women accused of sorcery often lived out of the constraints of male authority, where they would live alone, perhaps for the rest of her life.

In the 1600’s New England started to encounter events of witchcraft, many where people were frightened to even go out of their homes.The New Englanders were willing to migrate to a different country because of the recent conditions that made the townspeople feel more mindful of who they would interact with. Stacy Schiff states,“ New England delivered greater purity but also introduced fresh perils.” Simply the migraters thought relocating would make their lives

"At the word witch, we imagine the horrible old crones from Macbeth. But the cruel trials witches suffered teach us the opposite. Many perished precisely because they were young and beautiful."

There are countless reports throughout history of occurrences where society feared one another, but rarely were there occurrences where society felt feared and confident of one another. There was once a society that feared accusation, but trusted their struggles would disappear with the help of another. Witchcraft was the incredible yet terrifying thing that was responsible for this great uproar in some societies. According to the text Identity, Race and Power, witchcraft is a belief system that serves as a method of social control by directing anger towards others (Miller et al. 2013:214).. Throughout history the individuals with political power would use witchcraft as an excuse to maintain order throughout a given society. Looking at particular societies in Malta and South Africa this paper seeks to provide evidence as to how witchcraft operates to maintain a sense of “order”.