Witch Hunt Studies

The Pursuit of Witches and the Sexual Discourse of the Sabbat

by Scott Hendrix

Published in Antropologija 11.2 (2011): 41-59

During the European Witch Craze (c.1450-1650) tales of the “witches’ sabbat” circulated across the continent. These... more During the European Witch Craze (c.1450-1650) tales of the “witches’ sabbat” circulated across the continent. These tales included lurid details of sex and debauchery conducted between women and demons, supported by numerous confessions given by accused women. However, historians have long noted that there is no evidence that any such “sabbat” ever occurred. This paper argues that the idea of the “witch” was a category of person created by a European clerical elite convinced that Satan was active in the world, and tales of the sabbat were generated by these same elites in order to spread awareness of what many viewed as a real and present danger. This concept was one part of a hegemonic discourse that many found useful for its explanatory power and its anxiety reduction benefits.

Only Connect

by Brian Cowan

Review of: Mark Knights. The Devil in Disguise: Deception, Delusion, and Fanaticism in the Early English Enlightenment. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. 336 pp. $55.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-19-957795-8.

http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=33522

Mark Knights's 'The Devil in Disguise' aims at offering an introduction to the later Stuart period, and especially the... more Mark Knights's 'The Devil in Disguise' aims at offering an introduction to the later Stuart period, and especially the conflicted decades that followed in the wake of the Glorious Revolution. Unlike a conventional textbook, it does not aim to be comprehensive; but much like a textbook, its goal is to explain to newcomers why the later Stuart period of English history is important and interesting. To that end, it argues that the dawning of an "early Enlightenment" in England made the decades in and around the Glorious Revolution significant enough for us to
pay attention to them today.

Analysis of Incidents of Witch Hunts (1980-2005), (with Gary Jensen and Tia Steven)

by Soma Chaudhuri

Work in progress

Although the early modern craze ended several centuries ago, hundreds of women are known to have been killed in India... more Although the early modern craze ended several centuries ago, hundreds of women are known to have been killed in India in recent decades based on accusations of witchcraft and the number assaulted may have been in the thousands (Barman 2002). Similar attacks can be found in African and Asian nations as well (Berringer 2004). In short, women are still being accused, attacked and killed based on accusations of witchcraft. 

Modern attacks in India differ from the early modern witch hunts in several ways, but the key difference is that such attacks are against the law. Murder of someone as a suspected witch is a crime. Escalating trials and executions in early modern hunts were possible because they were processed through courts based on laws defining the heretic witch. Once trials were underway confessions and accusations against others spread and witch hunts could escalate into witch panics. In contrast, attacks in modern India do not escalate into panics. 

One striking similarity between witch hunting in modern India and the patterns reported for early modern is that 23 of 29 cases involved accusations that the woman attacked had caused illness, disease or death. Accusations of causing disease are very common in third-world attacks on women as witches. Moreover, the theories introduced to explain certain features of early modern witch hunts have been introduced in discussions of these smaller scale attacks as well. Scapegoating, village rivalries, inheritance conflicts and female threats to patriarchy are introduced in explanations of early modern hunts and similar theories are raised to explain attacks on itches in contemporary India. In short, although there are differences between the large scale early modern hunts and the village-level attacks, findings in historical research provide a framework for initiating a systematic study of attacks on witches in India.

This paper is an attempt to initiate such research through a compilation of  police records, cases identified in field research in villages of West Bengal  and prior documented cases of women attacked as witches in the area. Those sources yielded data on over 300 cases with extensive data compiled for over 70 cases. Although no claim is made that the data are based on a total population or a random sample of attacks, they do provide a more thorough foundation to begin a descriptive analysis than earlier studies. 

Extending the Logic of Functional Explanations: A theoretical model to explain the victimization process during Indian witch hunts. (in Crime and Victimization in the Globalized Era. Edited by K Jaishankar and Natti Ronel, under contract with CRC Press, Taylor and Francis).

by Soma Chaudhuri

Book Chapter. Work in progress

Herb-Workers and Heretics: The Beguines

by Roslyn Frank

This paper on the Beguines is part of a larger study and relates closely to another paper A Diachronic Analysis of the religious role of the woman in Basque culture: The Serora and her Helpers" that is also available online: http://uiowa.academia.edu/RoslynMFrank/Papers/462178/A_Diachronic_Analysis_of_the_Religious_Role_of_the_Woman_in_Basque_culture_The_Serora_and_her_Helpers

During the Middle Ages and early Renaissance, the word beguine was used by women to identify themselves as members of... more During the Middle Ages and early Renaissance, the word beguine was used by women to identify themselves as members of a wide-spread and influential women's movement. The same term was used by their detractors and overt opponents, with the highly charged negative meaning of "heretic." The etymology of the term “beguine” and ultimate origins of the movement have never been satisfactorily explained.