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Albrecht
Dürer: Witch riding backwards on a goat,
copperplate engraving
(repro-negative), c. 1505
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Witches are old, ugly haggish women. At least that is
a common viewpoint of the twenty-first century. However this is not a time
bound phenomenon according to Lyndall Roper. The author, whose 2004 book Witch Craze focuses on the psychological
aspects of the witch-hunts that occurred throughout Europe over the 400 years
from the fifteenth century forwards. Looking at the accounts of torture and
executions that were committed during the era, Roper constructs her argument
that “older women were strongly over-represented amongst the victims of the witch
craze,” (Roper, 161). Official records illustrate that the majority of women
prosecuted for witchcraft were older than age forty and largely the women had
experienced motherhood. One example of this is the town of Nördlingen, Germany
during the years 1589-98 where there were 35 individuals which were executed as
witches. All but one were female, and roughly twenty of those women were at
least forty years old with an additional six having had adult children. Similar
incidences occurred throughout Europe during the period, leading to Roper’s
conclusion that fertility played a significant role in contributing to the
witch-hunts. She contends that older women, especially menopausal and
post-menopausal were more likely to be accused of being witches due to the fact
that they were more likely to be envious of young mothers who were in the prime
of their life. Furthermore society’s expectations regarding women’s roles as
being rooted in fecundity would contribute to the negative view of older and sterile
women.
Why do you think that so much emphasis was placed on
fertility and infertility during this era? Was it just social
beliefs/traditions or was there a more calculated, logical reason?
Roper, Lyndal. Witch Craze: Terror and
Fantasy in Baroque Germany. 1st ed. New Haven: Yale UP, 2004. Print.
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