The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe - Assignment Example

History Final Part One Question 5 Geertz’s discussion of culture in his piece on “thick ” How can we read the issues of mysticism, heresy, magic, and witchcraft in late medieval and early modern Europe, by placing them within Geertz’s specific cultural anthropology methodology? The early modern historians of the 19th and 20th centuries approached their subject mostly in a circumspect manner due to the sources limitations. In the 19th century, they used methods and sources that benefited them from anthropologists and folklorists’ work by the use of dialectics to provide insight that is valuable. Many folk practices and folktales have been catalogued in the ethnographic encyclopedia and folkloric motifs as a standard guide. These works allow the historian to crosscheck critically the practices and customs that were documented in primary sources. Our area of focus is going to deal with blood and its relationship to the early modern European (Redwald 27). The blood and the bodily symbolism are not only going to reflect the individual and social beliefs but also be able to interpret as they have the values and concepts that can be used to understand how people’s identity is built in a given society that they belong to. Anthropology methodologies are normally concerned with people’s culture; we are going to deal with an anthropological study of magic, witchcraft, heresy and mysticism commonly known as paganism. Paganism ranges in various ways of high magic (known as ceremonial magic); through witchcraft these two have varying cosmologies and mythologies, but they have a common unifying belief in communication with other spirits and deities in other worlds. These are usually experienced in one’s consciousness (Matteoni 97). According to Sprenger and Institoris’ analysis about witchcraft to have an effect, there must be the witch, the devil and God’s permission to concur in all the mentioned things. So the definition of many late medieval icons about the devil is not easy as one cannot tell the extent to which the devil is present in people’s minds (James 70). According to Peter Burke, the definition of “people” in western culture existed from the opposed categories: the nobility for the commoners, the literate for the illiterate, the rich for the poor, and the clergy for the laity. Historiography witchcraft reflects the problem of witch figure perception by different parts of society, and historians have taken into consideration the socio-economic problems and changes in religious tensions, early modern society, perception of the witch figure, effect of reformation and its gender relations (Levack 74). It’s quite difficult to distinguish between witchcraft and magic, but it’s advantageous to start with the physical perception of the witch and the object exchanged for the devil’s magical power it possesses. For the theologians, witchcraft was a religious crime while for other members of the society, it was perceived as the main source of sickness and death as they feared maleficium. This shows that it did not represent the same menace and danger to all people. That is the reason why it is vital to have the accused and the victim in order to understand people’s feelings and fears. Maleficium was a by-product of false religion as it caused harm to others; thus there was the notion of ritual devil worship whereby the witches met to worship their master (Kramer and Sprenger 45). After the reformation, there were widespread witchcraft intellectual ideas that originated from the Catholic medieval Europe. One was able to read this in the protestant context reflecting on the witch’s body, as there was a sign left by the compact of the devil. The body of the witch, according to the theologians, represented evidence for the devilish alliance while for other people it was a source of danger and anxiety that would affect their lives. Diabolism insisted on the heretical content mainly because of the legal persecution as the main focus of beliefs of accusation remained the physical effect produced by witchcraft. Anthropology enables us to focus on the importance of symbols to tackle different issues in one's culture by reflecting their meaning inside a culture, and the level of awareness of people who used them. When the past information is missing on the written documents, we can refer to the ethnographical materials that focus on our area of interest of symbols or other subject. The use of sorcery idea and magical theories was worldwide acknowledged. Although witch trials were mainly the concern of the religious world of the late medieval and early modern Europe and thereafter New England, the basic belief of supernatural aggressors and witches existence was to be found in the pre-industrial cultural context. There are some characteristics that are suggested and cosmologically valid for the witch model: social disapproval; invisible means to harm; witch’s activity inside a given community that is in relation to kinship; witch figure may be inherited and can counter-magic as in the possibility of defending oneself from witchcraft. In some societies the notion of witchcraft does not exist; that is why it is necessary to explore people’s mentalities on how they cope with the alleged diseases and anxiety that arise as a result of witchcraft (Matteoni 115). The magical other world discourse is mythological; Ken Rees shows how people are influenced by myths to join paganism. He argues that individual myths play a formative role in the choice that one makes when choosing a magical practice. Using the term “myth” as a controlling image includes the values, beliefs, and attitudes that determine how one behaves….; “the personal seeker of mythology is within a family’s roots, social class background, ethnic, gender identity, and cultural milieu” (Thomas 86). Part Two Question 5: When heresy trials died down, witch hunts increased. Keeping in mind the social, cultural, economic, and especially religious changes in Europe, discuss why this was the case Heresy is the belief in existence of witchcraft, which was for many years considered a pagan superstition or a fantasy that had its origin in dreams. However, since the beginning of the thirteenth century that belief was considered superstitious nonsense (Nelson 97). Witchcraft is a true phenomenon and was practiced in some parts of Europe. This was a legacy of the local religions that were not fully Christian in nature. The folk religion believed in the existence of supernatural powers and evil spirits on earth. These witchcraft beliefs were used to ward off any misfortune that was expected to occur. The heresy trials are among those things that led to the development of the capitalist mentality which ideology was ownership of private property and wealth. Those who were previously owners of the property became beggars requesting for charity. The widows were excluded from feasts. There were social injustices manifested when women became scapegoats for all the evils that took place in the society, such as deaths, animal diseases, failure of crops and many other evils that befall the community. It was not until1484 that Pope Innocent VIII issued a bill that made witchcraft a form of heresy and hence empowered the inquisitors to eradicate it from the Christendom. Witch hunting came up as part of the ruling class offensive deals to respond to the struggle in previous centuries between classes and the crisis that resulted from accumulation of the ruling class. Witch hunt was practiced by some sections of the ruling class around whole Europe. The practice was done to control reproduction in Europe, to confiscate property, demonstrate beggars to enforce social control over people and their gender roles and to exclude women from the political, economic, and social activities. The witch trials witches were meant to break up the old forms of communal life and to condemn some of the traditional practices. This is a weapon that was used to hinder the restructuring of social and economic development. The phenomenon spread over a huge area; although there were different explanations for the witch hunt, they do not differ; instead they show how widely the witch hunt was done. According to Mary Clalms, witches were mostly women whose intellectual, physical, moral, economic and spiritual independence and activities threatened the monopoly of men (Levack 86). The witches were people from the low class. Most women who were accused of practicing witchcraft were poor peasants. Those who accused them were either rich men who hailed from the same community with them and who were their proprietors or members of the clergy. Despite the fact that women were the ones considered witches, there also existed men who performed all sorts of magic, and they were not killed as the women. This was because women were viewed to be spiritually weak, feeble in their intelligence and more vulnerable to Satan than their male counterparts. Women were killed en masse all over Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in a claim that they were witches. In some towns where there were many who were killed, around a hundred people per day and sometimes a few per week were killed depending on the number of witches in that town. The killing of witches went on for about two centuries, and this brought a lot of tension in Europe, which finally destroyed the networks, spread fear among people and increased resistance. This had been going on until, when the population was sufficiently subordinated, the capitalist social relations, the emerging states, and church got their claws into people’s lives. Witch hunt was organized and well coordinated attacks. The church was the one that defined problems with the witches, while the doctors were given authority to examine, condemn and torture them and the lawyers’ work was to press charges and to oversee the legal proceedings. The state administrators were the ones who organized the executions. The trials and executions were public affairs, which the whole community was supposed to attend, including the close relatives of the witches, especially their daughters. The witch hunters with the doctors, administrators and clergymen could arrive in town and the whole village could be expected to turn up for the show of the trial and a grand affair which was to be culminated in the execution (Levack 102). The witch hunt was a mechanism that was to control and subordinate women whose economic and social dependence was a threat to the social order that was emerging. It rose during the time of social upheavals (Nelson 343) when the medieval family structure became obsolete due to the development of industrial systems in Europe, characterized by urban settlements and production of goods. These led to the adoption of new conditions where women were to step aside in their traditional duties and seek work. As a result, women entered the labor force that threatened the generative force of men because they had a competition for jobs. In communities that did not offer women any job, the women became midwives and they gave herbal medicine to people – a role which could have been performed by male doctors. According to Silvia Federicl, the most significant event that was as a result of witch hunt in Europe was the rise of the capitalist society and the formation of the modern proletariat (Kramer and Sprenger 54). The campaign that was unleashed on terror against women was not matched by any other persecution, and this weakened the resistance of the European peasants against the assaults that were launched against it by the state. Witch hunt led to the division between men and women and destroyed the witchcraft practices in the world, the beliefs that they had and any social subject whose existence was not compatible with that of the capitalism. Religiously, the issue of witchcraft intensified during the 16th century when many classes that were uprising were crushed down (Mettioni 76). These classes included the reformists, the catholic/protestant splitters, the Lutherans, and the different Christian sects, with the state and the church becoming more powerful and interlinked. These led to the rise of universities and professions. Women were excluded from these areas of power. The greed of the church to take control over the administrative duties and to gain control over the ideology was not only witch hunting but also inquisitions of any group that targeted the church. Works Cited Kramer, Heinrich, and James Sprenger: The Malleus Maleficarum. New York, NY: Cosmo Inc., 2007. Print. Levack, Brian. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe. New York, NY: Longman press, 1995. Print. Matteoni, Francesca. Blood Beliefs in Early Modern Europe. London: Hertfordshire University Press, 2009. Print. Nelson, Mary: Why Witches Were Women: A Feminist Perspective. London: Oxford University Press, 1975. Print. Redwald, Hugh. The European Witch-craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries and Other Essays. New York, NY: SAGE Publishers, 1969. Print. Thomas, Keith. Religion and the Decline of Magic; Studies in popular Beliefs in sixteenth and seventeenth-Century. England Press, 2003. Print. Read More