Witches Of Waitiki

Throughout the history of witchcraft it has been hard to establish if any of these accusations on ‘witches ' were actually true due to lack of records and proof, although it now seems certain that the vast majority of women incited were innocent. In the book "The Bewitching of Anne Gunter" we can see how these allegations can be completely fabricated for personal gain and revenge.

When learning of witchcraft in the seventeenth century, it is important to understand the faith at the time. Knowing the what the people, at the time,

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

Tensions rose between young women and girls(Accusers/Afflicted) and older women who showed signs of deviance(Accused witches). In a single year, one hundred and fifteen local people were accused of witchcraft, and twenty were executed. The ordeal was a “role reversal of unique dimensions”(43). The “afflicted” girls were able to exert control over everyone else - as a means to outlet aggression. Young women were the weakest community members and they felt powerless. By accusing older women, some widows who held more power and challenged the male dominated pattern of land ownership, the younger women were able to exert life-and-death power over the

The witchcraft phenomenon of the Renaissance period was shaped by a wide range of cultural factors; witchcraft was not necessarily subject to a single cohesive idea or concept, and it was often instead a conglomeration of many different societal concerns, concerns which spanned through all spheres of society. Textual evidence from this period provides insight into the way in which witches were conceived, and how witches were dealt with, while visual images present a companion visualisation of the tensions, which influenced created the witch, and the imagery, which came to be associated with witchcraft.

To completely understand the history of New England witchcraft you have to understand the role of colonial women. The author of this book, Carol Karlsen, used a lot of Secondary and primary sources to support her thesis. She uses first hand accounts of witch

Upon meeting some of the accused I felt very surprised that these reputable women would ever be suspected of witchcraft. Never had I seen such pure women be convicted as witches, never the less there were suspicions and I must investigate it to my full potential.

Prior to the fifteenth century, rural European women were highly revered and respected pillars of rural community life; not only considered mothers and wives, but seen as community leaders, physicians, and sources of strength and wisdom. Women had a special and imperative role in rural life, and even those that lived on the fringes of society were well respected as the village healers and wise women. These old women would possess the wisdom of the ages and pass it on to others. This respect for women quickly deteriorated, however, during the witch hunts. The belief spread that women were morally weaker than men and driven by carnal lust, therefore making them more susceptible to being tempted by the Devil, and thus practicing witchcraft. (Levack p. 126) As people took this belief to heart, it is apparent that society would be affected indefinitely by such intolerance.

Long Ago in the 1500's there used to be a mobilization of witches. They were formed together to protect the people of Restaria. Furthermore it was over 20 witches within the radicalized group, all of them ran from Restaria. All except Seven they stayed as a united front to protect their town from the demons who rose through the night in the air. Nevertheless after the bloody war the witches bodies were never found. Also their nemesis were left on the ground to see. The whole town saw what happened but no one could believe it. Years, Centuries later as time grew and decades past. The witches tale became a folklore they started becoming bed time stories, pictographs, ideas for movie directors. Along the older generations it brought back nostalgia

In such a field, the lesser agents of misfortune, the witches could flourish” (Ashforth, p. 102). Furthermore, with high unemployment rates and pervasive poverty, jealousy was seen as the principle motivator for the practice of witchcraft. In the same interview, Madumo continues, “It’s also about jobs. It’s the lack of jobs that’s contributed to the high volume of witchcraft. Because if someone is having a job, then his neighbors become jealous and will witch him so as to make him lose that job” (Ashforth, p. 102). Madumo cites these societal circumstances as a sociological causation for the rise of purported witchcraft.

This book summarizes the life of a female Indian servant and her involvement in the 1692 witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts. To begin it gives background information of the Arawak Indian woman named Tituba, which reveals cultural influences. It tells how Tituba was captured and sold into slavery and shifted from one cultural world to another, from South America to Barbados then to Massachusetts, where she was forced to separate from friends and her culture to acclimate and thrive in another; as a servant she had no say in the matter. Her obligations as a servant were to fulfill

Personal Statement - The delusion of witchcraft stemmed from fear. Fear of savages, fear of women gaining control and ultimately fear of the unknown.

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.

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.

Besides continuing a history of physical violence against women to enforce gender expectations, witchcraft accusations also present men with opportunities for economic advancement through property acquisition. Unlike the spontaneity of witch huntings in response to ailments and misfortune, witchcraft accusations against widows are carefully calculated attacks with the intent of stripping women of land claims granted to them. “Along with a general ideological, religious, and political attack on women, there was also a specific attack on women’s land rights and the strengthening of men’s domination over land” (Kelkar, Nathan, & Satija, 2013, p. 61). Although women do have limited land rights as unmarried daughters, wives, and widows in these