Witchcraft: Ideology and Power - Research Paper Example

Witchcraft: Ideology and Power Witchcraft has a long history that can be traced back to ancient civilizations where laws can be found that support the persecution of those accused of witchcraft. Being a woman was sometimes all that was needed to support accusations of witchcraft and it was mostly women that suffered for this crime. As well, the elimination of paganism in favor of the Christian religion was also a goal of accusations of witchcraft. The use of accusations of witchcraft was used to control ideologies and this can be seen in Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible in which the history of the Salem Witch Trials was used to parallel the hysteria and prosecutorial nature of the McCarthy era in the 1950s when people were being pulled in front of Congress to testify about communism, also often being asked to name others through fear of the consequences of not cooperating. This parallel between the use of fear to control the public in witchcraft trials and in inquiries about communism shows that this type of tactic has not ended in the formation of social control. In examining the history of witchcraft, issues of power, and political manipulation are explored in order to understand the history and phenomenon. An accusation of witchcraft is predicated on the assumption in a belief of witchcraft. Codes and laws against the use of witchery have been seen as far back as the Code of Hammurapi from Ancient Mesopotamia where the use of drowning was one of the proofs of whether or a not someone was a witch. If the accused lived, they were a witch, if they died, they were not. This impossible thinking is the foundation of the accusation of witchcraft. Laws that were similar could be seen within the ancient Assyrian laws, as well as in the laws of ancient Jewish origin in which Exodus 22:18, Leviticus 20:27, and Deuteronomy 13:5 all discuss the death penalty for anyone practicing witchcraft (Behringer 57). The persecution of witches was often focused on the female gender. Ancient Rome had severe laws against witchcraft that could prove fatal to the accused. According to Behringer, “Harmful magic was a punishable crime in Ancient Rome…In the context of an epidemic illness with high mortality, 170 women were executed as witches in 331 BC” (48). This was a small amount in comparison to other rounds of persecution. Three different incidents that occurred in the second century produced thousands of executions. Because of magistrates who had power that had no boundaries, the use of magic was a tool where undesirable individuals who challenged something within the political or social construct were effectively removed. The focus on women can be explained by the mystery that surrounds the feminine as the vessel for childbirth and the masculine need to gain dominance over that power. Formations of patriarchal societies are represented by witchcraft laws that are not exclusive to women, but still have mostly female victims. Behringer writes that the use of this accusation and execution provided “the fatal conjuncture popular pollution anxieties and state power” (48). This can be interpreted for the anxiety of the populace as it becomes in an accusation without foundation or provability that could be satisfied by putting the accused to death. One focus that is defined within the persecution of witches is that of ideological control. Ideological control is defined by the imposition of impossibly harsh consequences for having the audacity to have an idea about life and the world that comes into conflict with the belief systems of a culture. According to Davies and Blecourt, “Witchcraft and witch beliefs were closely connected to questions of power hierarchy in local as well as national contexts” (9). They go on to say that “Trials about benevolent magic can thus be seen as an attempt by the authorities to educate the populace in the direction that they wanted, for economic, political, religious and cultural reasons” (Davies and Blecourt 10). The first major persecution of witchcraft recorded in Europe was in 1560 when 63 witches were prosecuted in Weisensteig, Germany (Behringer 83). In 1563, Elizabethan England adopted the first permanent law about witchcraft, but the traditions of witchcraft persecution had begun as the Christian religion swept through European nations. Accusations of witchcraft was a way of dampening pagan beliefs that often embraced the concept of magic, sorcery, and the use of powers that were considered supernatural. In the religious context, this also connected the good of the God in Christianity with a balance of evil that was represented by witchcraft. Through the development of a balanced theology, the Christian church could use both love and fear to control and direct the followers (Demos 25). The events in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 were the result of a hysteria that built when a group of young women were caught in the woods at night. Some reports say they were dancing naked in the moonlight, while other suggest that they were enacting rituals with a Native American maid named Tituba (although she is often characterized as African). However in order to escape punishment they began to accuse others of witchcraft, building a hysteria that held their community in its thrall (Hill 301). Arthur Miller used this event in order to craft a play in which the events of the 1950s under Senator Joseph McCarthy where the accusation of communism was creating the same kind of power and fear was paralleled to the events of the accusation of witchcraft in Salem Massachusetts. Miller focused on the character of John Proctor who eventually confessed in order to try and save his life, but was ultimately executed because he refused to name others (Miller 3). The character of John Procter embodies the story of witchcraft type accusations as they are based on foundationless theories and wreak havoc with the lives of those accused. According to Christopher Bigsby as he writes about Miller’s play, “Congressman George A. Dondero, in the house debate on the Mundt-Nixon bill, to ‘protect the United States against Un-American and subversive activities’ observed that ‘the world is dividing into two camps, freedom versus Communism, Christian civilization versus paganism” (Miller and Bigsby 6). As in the example of Proctor as he refuses to further the hysteria with more accusations to save his life, the United States was performing the same kind of ideological war against those with conflicting beliefs to the standards adopted by the state through ordeal of trials that included naming fellow conspirators. Through equating Communism with paganism, the parallel that was being raised was the same as had been raised between good and evil that supported the rise of the Christian faith in Europe. If one ideology was good, then an opposing ideology must be evil. The event of persecution for witchcraft has existed throughout written history as a way in which to control beliefs and to establish patriarchal power. As the play The Crucible examines the nature of persecution and the way in which accusation without proof can ruin lives, the work acts as a parable to the accusations of Communism in the 1950s and the consequences of modern day hysteria. Witchcraft trials were about instilling fear and establishing the dominance of men and of ideologies that were intended to control the thoughts of the population. In establishing that control, the direction of society was formed with the notion that the feminine was evil, while the masculine was divine. Even though men were prosecuted as well, the primary targets for accusations of witchcraft were women, the mystery of the power to bare life being a central core of the drive for men to fear women. Through the imposed control of incarceration and torture, men were able to control the population for thoughts and deeds, establishing that dominance. Works Cited Behringer, Wolfgang. Witches and Witch-Hunts: A Global History. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2004. Print. Davies, Owen, and Willem, Blecourt. Beyond the Witch Trials: : Witchcraft and Magic in Enlightenment Europe. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004. Print. Demos, John. The Enemy Within: A Short History of Witch-Hunting. New York: Penguin Books, 2009. Print. Hill, Frances. The Salem Witch Trials Reader. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2000. Print. MacBain, Jenny. The Salem Witch Trials: A Primary Source History of the Witchcraft Trials in Salem, Massachusetts. New York: Rosen Pub. Group, 2003. Print. Miller, Arthur and Christopher Bigsby. The Crucible. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1995. Print. Read More