Modern-Day Indian Witch-Hunts

In August of this year, residents of a village in Jharkhand state, India were subjected to fatal abductions from their homes, and severe beating. These residents, five women, were all accused of practicing witchcraft and were then blamed for unlucky accidents that occurred throughout the village.

Superstitious beliefs fueled these attacks, and prompted the death of these women. The beliefs of those we’ve studied throughout the semester also – coupled with economic problems, political unrest, and a plethora of other factors – were victimized and suffered as a result of their actions, and of accusations thrown against them. Through our studies, we’ve seen women accused of witchcraft for poor weather patterns, illnesses, reduced crop growth, and many other qualms that still occur today.

With the arrest of fifty villagers involved in the attack, this would appear to be a larger incident in a smaller village. We’ve seen mass prosecutions occur, such as in Basque and Wurzburg, which make these numbers seem like drops in a bucket in comparison, they are still lives that have been taken too soon, and taken forcefully by others. 

Image credit:

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2319281.1439065843!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_970/543197240.jpg?enlarged

Witch Hunts in Europe vs Witch Hunts in Africa

A laymen would believe the witch-hunts in Europe to be a backwards, disorganized affair. However time and time again it shown that the witch-hunts in Europe were a very legalized, record based process. The witch-hunts would never have taken off and been as widespread without the growth of the legal powers of the church and state. Only when inquisitors were given the ability to coerce "information" out of the accused "witches" could the ideas behind the cumulative concept become legitimate and widespread. (Levack 304-305)

In Europe there were tens of thousands of of prosecutions, which can be attributed to the legal process. In Africa however while there have been witch-hunts and witch cleansing, they have not reached the heights that they did Europe. This can in part be attributed to cultural differences and the lack of Christian influence in Africa. Levack seems to argue however that it was in fact a lack of a legal process in Africa that has kept the numbers of the accused from reaching dramatic levels. In Africa the prosecutions and executions were all in the form of vigilante justice. There was no legal process and no torture therefore the cumulative concept could never take root in Africa.

Are there any other reasons that witch-hunts in Africa did not reach dramatic levels?

What other differences do we see between European witch-hunts and African witch-hunts? 

Witch-hunts and the Modern State

      An interesting aspect of the reading by Levack is that although the specific hunting of witches has for the most part ended in western nations the same processes that caused it remain. The fear of modern social deviants has resulted in similar persecution as those perceived to be witches in early modern Europe. In the United States there were witch-hunts for communists during the Cold War and in Europe during Nazi occupation, Jews and other social and ethnic minorities were persecuted to an extent that dwarfs the persecutions experienced by perceived witches in the past. The main difference between the witch-hunts of early modern Europe and those that have happened more recently or could potentially happen in the future is that it is the modern state in western society that is mainly persecuting "witches". Should they be they members of a particular ideology contrary to their government's positions or styled terrorists the people now representing witches can be persecuted on a much larger scale than was ever possible when it was mainly local communities who were responsible for persecutions. Although witches are not necessarily being persecuted currently, the the capacity for witch-hunt style persecutions against others is just as great now as it was during the early modern era in Europe.    




Do you believe that mass persecution in the style of witch-hunts is possible today? How is it that the change in the source of the persecution from local communities to the state has changed the groups being targeted for mass persecution?

The Decline of Witch-Hunting

I have always supported the idea that the use of torture perpetuated the witch-hunts and was one of the most important factors that kept the witch-hunts alive for as long as they were. In the 17th and 18th century however the widespread witch-hunts began to dwindle, so much so that by 1782 the last officially sanctioned witch execution took place. (Levack 253) This decline and eventual end is largely thanks to the prohibition of torture. In the 17th and 18th century many critics of torture began to emerge, deeming it an inefficient method for obtaining information, pointing out its many flaws. One such critic was Christian Thomasius, Thomasius is quoted saying "I am afraid that if someone tortures you or me, we will confess to everything that the torturer wants to demand." (Kors and Peters 447) As more and more ideas similar to these began to emerge pressure was put on administrations that utilized torture until it eventually subsided.

Why do you think critics of torture took so long to emerge or vocalize?
What other aspects helped lead to the decline of the witch-hunts?

Roper's enlightened witch-trials

Tomorrow's reading in Roper is about the influence of the Enlightenment and how it changed the ideas and proceedings of witch interrogations and trials.The trial of Catharina Schmid is a focus of Roper and used to display her argument from the beginning to the middle of the chapter. As Roper explains, Catherina's trial which took place in southern Germany, used torture that violated rules, was targeted towards an elderly woman (74 years old), and displayed a separation between the lower class (Schmid) and the upper (Roper, 227 and 231). However there is a new significance to this case. As Roper explains, this case took place in 1745 which was over 100 years after the attributed end to the witch crazes that caused mass panic and executions and with the Enlightenment came an increase in record keeping (Roper, 228). Her major point through all of this is the detail of the emotion that scribes recorded through the entire process. Although the trials followed a similar format, instead of focusing on the confessions the scribes during the Enlightenment focused on the testimonies of others throughout the case. Why would there be such a drastic change in focus for proof? Roper briefly explains that due to the long break between 1650 and the reemergence of witch-trials in the 18th century the court systems had to redesign their tactics because they didn't have access to many of the original doctrine (Roper, 231). As a student of history I would like to believe that people learn from previous history. Thereofore, and I think this is what Roper is trying to argue as well, because of the lack of records concerning the search for proof there was an increase in displaying this process and what people said through the trial for future generations to come. Within her chapter she also discusses the Enlightenment and some other characteristics that influenced the witch-trials, briefly what are these new ideas? Also, if at the end of these witch hunts, just like those earlier in the 16th and 17th centuries, there were still executions of people were these changes truly significant?


source: Roper, Lyndal. Witch Craze. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.

 

“Not So Serious…” The Spanish Inquisition and Witches

   Oftentimes the Spanish Inquisition gets a bad rap. Even though countless individuals were persecuted for being Jewish or Muslim, no one can argue that a plethora of people were victimized by means of a bloody purge to rid Iberia of witchcraft and magic. On the contrary, a small percentage of the total number of people accused and brought before inquisitorial courts during the period between 1540 and 1700 were charged with Superstition and Witchcraft, according to Christina Larner (CP, 2015). Out of almost 45,000 total charges only 3,500, or roughly 8%, were based on witchcraft and magic. Furthermore out of 535 executions in the region of Aragon during 1540-1640, a measly 12 souls lost their lives because of accusations of superstition and witchcraft, most receiving the “mildest penalties [of]… confession and absolution,” (qtd. in CP, 2015).

    Although any loss of life is a sad occurrence, the numbers in Spain illustrate a significant downplay compared from the massive witch-hunts that were occurring in northern Europe during this time. While many of the magistrates over witch trials in northern Europe were secular, in Spain the Catholic “Inquisition had jurisdiction over all offenses involving… superstition and magic…” (qtd. in CP, 2015). It was in this role that the Inquisition presided over the cases of accused witches and magicians during the early modern period. Addressing the issue of the amount of severity that witches were dealt, or more accurately NOT dealt, resides in the common notion that individuals who were accused of witchcraft were actually attempting to invoke God’s power through the use of legitimate Church “magic”. Larner contends that many did not know that they were sinning and that had they of known it, they would have stopped. Moreover the “only reason that the [commoners’ practice of magic] did not qualify as Church ‘magic’ was that the practitioners violated the Church’s monopoly on divine access,” (qtd. in CP, 2015).

    Needless to say the leniency that accused witches in Spain received during the Inquisition nullifies the belief that all were treated with extreme harshness. Since most inquisitors “assumed that most accused of magic were sincere Catholics who truly did not knowingly call upon demons,” they would receive much lighter punishment compared to more serious offences such as heresy, sodomy, and opposition to the Inquisition (qtd. in CP, 2015).

 

An early 19th century engraving of what many experienced during
the Inquisition. However, according to Larner individuals who were accused of
witchcraft and superstition were almost always not subjected to torture.

Why was the main focus in Spain was on different issues than witchcraft and magic, while many other regions were focusing their attention on eradicating all forms of magic practice?

Do you feel that Spain’s recent past at the time contributed to the Inquisition’s attention to religious matters?

Source:

Wolbrink, Shelley, comp. Course Packet: History of European Witch-hunts. Springfield, Missouri: Drury University Carbon Copy, 2015.

Implicit Partnership: Witchcraft and the Atlantic World

Elizabeth Reis (CP 217) discusses the idea that witchcraft in America was often deemed as such even when it went against the standards laid out in the Malleus Maleficarum. While the American judicial system also used confessions to convict witches, they weren't looking for the same thing European Inquisitors were looking for. In Europe, if confessions didn't edify the notions that the Inquisitors already had about witchcraft, they generally weren't accepted.

In contrast, Reis writes, "Simply to sin implied the forging of an implicit covenant with Satan, a spiritual renunciation of God. For Puritans, to become an actual witch demanded the acceptance of a more literal and physical invitation from the devil. But during the Salem witchcraft trials and other episodes, these distinctions were blurred" (CP 218).

What do you think of this idea of implicit partnership? Does it remind you of any other readings we've done this semester?