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Over the centuries, the concept of Witchcraft, as it presented within religion and society, evoked a variety of responses and attitudes that permeated throughout the cultures of the world. Christianity incited wars and hysteria and chaos in the name of extinguishing the practice of Witchcraft. Today there are prominent religions within many cultures that uphold the practice of witchcraft as a feasible manifestation of spirituality. The term conjures a variety of images for a diverse range of people. To the Azande, witchcraft and oracles and magic existed in everyday life as permeation of the Zande culture. In Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic Among the Azande, E.E. Evans-Pritchard focuses on the beliefs associated with witchcraft and how they manifest in the social structure of the Community. Evans-Pritchard wrote little about the exact methods he used when collecting the data and he
Part one was about Witchcraft because “it is an indispensable back-ground to the other beliefs” (pg 21). He starts with the idea that witches, unlike in Western Cultures, practice through psychic acts instead of spells or incantations or potions. Witchcraft among the Azande is an inherited trait. It is important to add that a Zande witch is considered and Evil Agent, just as in Western Cultures. Death, regardless of circumstances, results from witch intervention and as a rule “must be avenged” (pg 26). Unlike the accepted western cultural belief that only woman are witches, a Zande man or woman, possesses an equal chance of being a witch. While noting that the Azande believe in witches as a specific person, Evans-Pritchard explains that they do not think of witchcraft in association with a particular witch, rather they think of it impersonally. This probably relates to the fact that in Zande culture an act of Witchcraft cannot be undone. After a misfortune, all one can do is find the witch
Were the witch-hunts in pre-modern Europe misogynistic? Anne Llewellyn Barstow seems to think so in her article, “On Studying Witchcraft as Women’s History: A Historiography of the European Witch Persecutions”. On the contrary, Robin Briggs disagrees that witch-hunts were not solely based on hatred for women as stated in his article, “Women as Victims? Witches, Judges and the Community”. The witch craze that once rapidly swept through Europe may have been because of misconstrued circumstances. The evaluation of European witch-hunts serves as an opportunity to delve deeper into the issue of misogyny.
According to the lecture, a man named Reverend Samuel Parris started the up rise of witchcraft in the early 1691, when his daughter Elizabeth Parris and niece Abigail Williams became ill. Parris questioned the young girls who were doing witchcraft, which they named Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne. Later, they were killed. Moreover, others started to follow and blame their neighbors for their animals becoming sick or if someone was to pass away. Human-beings appear to have this trait that they are mindless sheep and do not recognize that because someone else does it, it is not acceptable to shadow in his or her footsteps. Furthermore, due to their absence of modern knowledge, the village people were incapable to make civil and justifiable
. She claims that the proceeding force connected with lady as-witch in this combination creative ability handles the problem on the power that surpasses embellishment and design the particular discernment connected with witches and witchcraft throughout. Looking at these kind of queries could encourage selection that the mention of their imagination and prejudices attached to the particular "lady as-witch" idea that the current strain on females building in popularity can easily trigger anger these days. She slyly evaluates having less adequate traditional beliefs with regards to the part women performed inside creating our community, at a variety of instances.
It cannot be ignored that the large majority of those accused of witchcraft were women, although regions fluctuated on average 80 percent of witches were women. This may be used to argue that witch-hunting
The growing practice of Neo-Paganism in America has caused many to turn their heads. The misunderstanding of the religion has caused many to equate the practitioners with the popular conception of typical "witches," that perform black magic rituals, satanic sacrifices, and engage in devil-inspired orgies. After many years, the Neo-Pagan community has cleared up many misconceptions through the showing that many of them do not engage in activities, and are rather participating in a religion, just as those would that participate in a Christian community. It's unacceptance continues, perhaps due to its non-conformity to the ideal of worshipping a Christian God. Through the use of ethnography, anthropologists and sociologists are able to present the public with a much different view than what we are bombarded with in popular media.
Religious influence, the manipulation of fear, and the frightening aspects of witchcraft all are very influential to the popular belief of witchcraft during this time period. The popularity of witchcraft in this time period is important because it has shown how in the past when there is no logical explanation they would automatically blame Satan and say it was Satan’s doing. It also shows that history repeats itself because during the Cold War many individuals were accused of being communist even though there was no hard evidence proving this accusation; however, out of fear people will still be convicted, just like during the witch trials. Moreover, witch trials were not only influenced by many things but they have been influential; therefore, showing that they influenced things in our time
The term witchcraft is defines as the practice of magic intended to influence nature. It is believed that only people associated with the devil can perform such acts. The Salem Witch Trials was much more than just America’s history, it’s also part of the history of women. The story of witchcraft is first and foremost the story of women. Especially in its western life, Karlsen (1989) noted that “witchcraft challenges us with ideas about women, with fears about women, with the place of women in society and with women themselves”. Witchcraft also confronts us too with violence against women. Even through some men were executed as witches during the witch hunts, the numbers were far less then women. Witches were generally thought to be women and most of those who were accused and executed for being witches were women. Why were women there so many women accused of witchcraft compared to men? Were woman accused of witchcraft because men thought it was a way to control these women? It all happened in 1692, in an era where women were expected to behave a certain way, and women were punished if they threatened what was considered the right way of life. The emphasis of this paper is the explanation of Salem proceedings in view of the role and the position of women in Colonial America.
Evans-Pritchard does a more encompassing analysis of the magic used by the Azande by trying to understand the abstract questions from their perspective. Magic, in the case of the Azande being witchcraft, runs their society. It is their “natural philosophy”, used to explain occurrences instead of rationalism (Evans-Pritchard 18). It runs their system of values. Evans-Pritchard describes how it affects every aspect of Azande life from domestic life to fishing. Their misfortunes are due to witchcraft unless it was done by sorcery. Witchcraft is the “idiom in which Azande speak about them and in which they explain them” (19). Evans-Pritchard is quick to explain this facet about the Azande and it shapes how he observes a Zande. He was able to learn their idiom and apply the “notions of witchcraft as spontaneously as themselves in situations where the concept was relevant” (19). Like Malinowski, Evans-Pritchard states that he cannot expect to ask a Zande to analyze his or her own “doctrine” (23). It would be beyond their capabilities. But, Evans-Pritchard provides a solution. By observing many situations that involve witchcraft, he can “extract the principles of their thought” (23). He hopes that by watching the Azande and the witchcraft he will get a better idea of how their logic system works. He clarifies that the Azande’s use of witchcraft does not account for “the existence of phenomena” (21). Evans-Pritchard gives scenarios that explain a Zande’s chain of thought. If an
...all. He highly stressed that the different factors of change of business, Quaker ministers preaching to the Puritans, and overall disagreement of ideas among the townspeople. He doesn’t seem to think that the people deliberately accused their rivals of witchcraft and not committing fraud but involuntarily fed into the lies they were told and had strange reactions when told to convey what they saw. He talks about how all of their problems were solely intertwined to create the Salem Witch Trials and only discussed after the fact. His point of view seems to think they were inherently hysteric about witchcraft, seeing as how over 40,000 people were executed for it in England, and only amplified their worries of life surrounding them. In summary, his points are saying that the outbreak of witchcraft gave an explanation on how these tragedies might have seemed unavoidable.
1 Nachman Ben-Yehuda The European Witch Craze of the 14th to 17th Centuries: A Sociologist’s Perspective. The University of Chicago, 1980. 15. 2 Levack! 123.3 Levack 164.
vulnerable to the Devil’s blandishments. A lurid picture of the activities of witches emerged in the popular mind, including covens, or gatherings over which Satan presided; pacts with the Devil; flying broomsticks; and animal accomplices, or familiars. Although a few of these elements may represent leftovers of pre-Christian religion, the old religion probably did not persist in any organized form beyond the 14th century. The popular image of witchcraft, perhaps inspired by features of occultism or ceremonial magic as well as by theology concerning the Devil and his works of darkness, was given shape by the inflamed imagination of inquisitors and was confirmed by statements obtained under torture. The late medieval and early modern picture of diabolical witchcraft can be attributed to several causes. First, the church’s experience with such dissident religious movements as the Albigenses and Cathari, who believed in a radical dualism of good and evil, led to the belief that certain people had allied themselves with Satan.
Sidky, H. Witchcraft, lycanthropy, drugs, and disease: an anthropological study of the European witch-hunts. New York: Peter Lang Publishing Inc., 1997.
Social Anthropology seeks to gauge an understanding of cultures and practices whether they are foreign or native. This is achieved through the studying of language, education, customs, marriage, kinship, hierarchy and of course belief and value systems. Rationality is a key concept in this process as it affects the anthropologist’s interpretation of the studied group’s way of life: what s/he deems as rational or plausible practice. Witchcraft and magic pose problems for many anthropologists, as its supernatural nature is perhaps conflicting to the common Western notions of rationality, mainly deemed superior. In this essay I will be exploring the relationship between rationality and witchcraft and magic, and will further explore rationality as a factor of knowledge.
Witchcraft persecution peaked in intensity between 1560 and 1630 however the large scale witch hysteria began in the 14th century, at the end of the Middle Ages and were most intense during the Renaissance and continued until the 18th century, an era often referred to as the Enlightenment or Age of Reason. Representation of witches, nay, representation in general is a political issue. Without the power ot define the female voice and participate in decisions that affect women -similar to other marginalised groups in society- will be subject to the definitions and decisions of those in power. In this context, the power base lay with men. It can be said that the oppression of women may not have been deliberate, it is merely a common sense approach to the natural order of things: women have babies, women are weak, women are dispensable. However the natural order of things, the social constructs reflect the enduring success of patriarchal ideology. As such, ideology is a powerful source of inequality as well as a rationalisation of it. This essay will examine the nature of witchcraft and why it was threatening to Christianity.
Belief in witchcraft is the traditional way of explaining the ultimate cause of evil, misfortune or death.” The African worldview is holistic. In this perception, things do not just happen. What happens, either good or bad, is traced back to human action, including “ancestors who can intervene by blessing or cursing the living.” Witches, on the other hand, harm because they want to destroy life.