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What is Witchcraft?
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Witchcraft and Witch-Trials, 1470-1700
In this course, Dr Francis Young (University of Oxford) explores witchcraft in the British Isles. In the first module, we look at what witchcraft actually is. In the second module, we turn to look at witch-hunting and the trial of witches, asking how and why witchcraft became a matter of judicial concern. In the third module, we focus specifically on the Matthew Hopkins witch-hunt of 1645-47, before in the fourth module looking at the decline of the witch-trials and the reasons behind this. In the fifth and final module, we look at the decriminalisation of witchcraft and what this meant for the survival of those who self-identify as witches.
What is Witchcraft?
In this lecture, we attempt to establish an understanding of what witchcraft itself is, focusing in particular on: (i) the historiographical background to studies of witchcraft; (ii) the difficulties faced when attempting to define witchcraft, looking at three case studies to highlight the differing perspectives with regards to witchcraft; (iii) positive, contemporary evaluations of witchcraft; and (iv) the functionalist and feminist approaches to studying witchcraft and their problems.
I'm Dr Francis Young,
00:00:05and I work for the University of Oxford's Department of Continuing Education.
00:00:07The theme of this series is witchcraft,
00:00:12and we're going to begin by asking the question. What is witchcraft?
00:00:14Broadly speaking,
00:00:19there are two different approaches to this which
00:00:20might be described as an anthropological approach to witchcraft
00:00:23and historicism approach.
00:00:27The anthropological approach to witchcraft views witchcraft
00:00:29as a near universal human phenomenon,
00:00:33something that is found in most human societies and
00:00:37should therefore be studied from the perspective of anthropology.
00:00:40The historic cyst approach, on the other hand,
00:00:44will take the view that witchcraft needs to
00:00:46be considered in its particular historical circumstances.
00:00:48So most approaches in history to witchcraft combine
00:00:52elements of both of these approaches.
00:00:56But I'd like to give you three examples to begin with,
00:00:59which might make clear why it's quite difficult sometimes
00:01:02to say what witchcraft really is.
00:01:06Take, for example, the view that was held in late,
00:01:10mediaeval and early modern France,
00:01:12of which is as demon worshipping sorcerers who belong to cults
00:01:14of devil worshippers and met in groups and the witches Sabbath.
00:01:19Compare that to the English view that was taken
00:01:24in early modern England,
00:01:28of which is as individual people, usually women
00:01:30who had caused misfortune to people. By looking at them, we're in an ill favoured way
00:01:34and cursing them
00:01:40and compare that again with a belief that is still found today. Sometimes
00:01:41in contemporary Uganda.
00:01:47That which is,
00:01:49are people who become cannibals and eat human flesh in
00:01:50order to gain wealth and prestige within their communities.
00:01:54it's difficult to see anything clearly in common
00:01:58between those three different views of witches,
00:02:01except perhaps a paranoid belief in people who exist in order to do evil.
00:02:04And, in fact, the Latin word for witchcraft.
00:02:11Melodic idiom has exactly this meaning. Doers of evil, the doing of evil
00:02:14and sometimes witchcraft in the late Middle Ages and the early modern
00:02:19period is described by reference to this word as monolithic witchcraft.
00:02:23The idea that there were people intent on doing evil,
00:02:28usually with some kind of supernatural element in it.
00:02:31But the definition of witchcraft
00:02:35is a very tricky thing.
00:02:37Indeed,
00:02:39one approach to witchcraft is to see it as a kind of inversion.
00:02:40So whatever is wholly whatever is good,
00:02:45whatever is considered morally approved by society,
00:02:47which is our whoever does the opposite of that.
00:02:51In other words, they are people who glorify evil.
00:02:55And that certainly seems to be one way
00:02:58in which early modern people imagined witchcraft.
00:02:59But defining witchcraft is difficult because there
00:03:03is no true essence to witchcraft.
00:03:05Witchcraft was an accusation made against people.
00:03:08There are very, very few examples.
00:03:12You could probably count them on the fingers of one hand
00:03:14of people who avowedly and freely said that they were witches.
00:03:16Being a witch is something which is said about you.
00:03:22It's an accusation made against you. It's a pejorative. It's an insult.
00:03:24It's an accusation, which is a terrible smear for most of early modern history.
00:03:29But of course, this is no longer the case.
00:03:36Today we find many people who would
00:03:38actually identify culturally or even spiritually with
00:03:40the witch and in particular with the figure of the woman accused of witchcraft.
00:03:44That's a contemporary cultural phenomenon.
00:03:48But it shouldn't obscure the fact that in the
00:03:50late middle ages in the early modern period,
00:03:52witchcraft was something to be feared.
00:03:54And it was an accusation that people, generally speaking,
00:03:56almost certainly did not want made against them,
00:03:59so this shouldn't lead us astray.
00:04:03The fact that witchcraft is sometimes
00:04:05positively evaluated in our contemporary society.
00:04:06Well, if it's impossible to define witchcraft in any clear way,
00:04:10a different approach is to look at who was accused of witchcraft.
00:04:13And in Europe,
00:04:19people accused of witchcraft were generally women of low social status.
00:04:20So, given the difficulty of defining witchcraft,
00:04:26could we see witchcraft
00:04:30as the witchcraft persecutions,
00:04:31the witch trials as a way of trying
00:04:33to eliminate a particular kind of undesirable person,
00:04:36that is to say, socially and intellectually rebellious women.
00:04:40Well, this is one approach to the historiography of witchcraft,
00:04:44which we might describe as functional is, um
00:04:48functional is, um,
00:04:51would see witchcraft accusations as serving a particular social purpose.
00:04:51And they were therefore made by people who wanted
00:04:57to a just society who had a particular social agenda.
00:05:00And by making accusations of witchcraft,
00:05:03they could eliminate a certain kind of person
00:05:06and achieve a particular social and religious result.
00:05:08Now, wow,
00:05:11dimension of dysfunctional ist approach is a Marxist approach to witchcraft.
00:05:11This can be traced back to Jewel Michelle in the 19th century,
00:05:16who viewed witchcraft accusations as something which was targeted
00:05:20against the socially marginal against the lower orders of society.
00:05:24And it was, in effect,
00:05:28an attempt to destroy anyone in the lower orders
00:05:30of society who rebelled against authority as then understood.
00:05:34This develops in the 20th century into
00:05:40a feminist understanding and analysis of witchcraft,
00:05:42and this is particularly associated with the view that
00:05:45most of those accused of witchcraft were women.
00:05:49And that indeed was true for most of Europe for most of the time,
00:05:52and a feminist analysis of the witch trials has tended to view them
00:05:56as Gein aside or femicide so a
00:05:59deliberate attempt to exterminate undesirable women.
00:06:02Now there are some problems with functional ist approaches.
00:06:06One problem is that they can be excessively reductive,
00:06:10seeking a single explanation for what was, in fact a complex phenomenon
00:06:13that manifested itself differently in different times and in different places.
00:06:17Function ist approach is also tend to take it as read
00:06:23that the authorities didn't actually really believe that witchcraft was real,
00:06:26and all the evidence is that they really did believe that so
00:06:31a functional ist approach tends to see witchcraft accusations as instrumental,
00:06:34they were intended to achieve a certain social or religious result,
00:06:38but the evidence points to the opposite that
00:06:42actually people did really believe and fear,
00:06:44which is
00:06:46now.
00:06:48It is true that women of low social status
00:06:49where the primary victims of the witch trials.
00:06:51But it's also true that a minority of men were almost always accused.
00:06:54So we can't view Witchcraft is something
00:06:58that was exclusively a misogynistic accusation.
00:07:00Although misogyny played a very important role
00:07:03and there were some regions, for example,
00:07:06Iceland and Normandy were almost exclusively men were put on trial for witchcraft.
00:07:07So clearly, this is a more complex phenomenon
00:07:12in some areas,
00:07:15and sometimes accusations were directed against
00:07:16Children against the disabled ethnic minorities.
00:07:19And this doesn't invalidate feminist approaches.
00:07:22But it does mean that we might need a
00:07:25more refined approach that recognises that accusations of witchcraft
00:07:27We're often directed at the vulnerable,
00:07:31with gender being one factor among several.
00:07:33But it's also worth noting that witchcraft accusations did
00:07:36not exclusively victimise the vulnerable and the marginalised.
00:07:39Sometimes they were made against people of higher social status.
00:07:43So perhaps a non reductive approach is needed to witchcraft,
00:07:47which acknowledges that people really did believe in witches and fear them.
00:07:50And before we start seeking reductive explanations for what people did.
00:07:55It's important to try to understand the beliefs that underlay those fears,
00:07:59even though they might seem strange and alien to us in our contemporary society.
00:08:03
Cite this Lecture
APA style
Young, F. (2023, February 17). Witchcraft and Witch-Trials, 1470-1700 - What is Witchcraft? [Video]. MASSOLIT. https://massolit.io/courses/witchcraft-and-witch-trials-c-1470-1700/the-decriminalisation-of-witchcraft
MLA style
Young, F. "Witchcraft and Witch-Trials, 1470-1700 – What is Witchcraft?." MASSOLIT, uploaded by MASSOLIT, 17 Feb 2023, https://massolit.io/courses/witchcraft-and-witch-trials-c-1470-1700/the-decriminalisation-of-witchcraft