Niamh Brown - Witchcraft PDF

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Niamh Brown - Witchcraft...

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Niamh Brown - Common factor among witchcraft accusations was unrest within the local community - Scarce economic resources were certainly a contributing factor: not the most important trigger for witchcraft accusations - Crisis in gender relations, social friction caused by the new set of attitudes towards the poor - Witch beliefs provided a means of power, both for the accused and persecutor, which they might otherwise be denied - Stereotypical image of the witch as ‘primarily women, primarily poor, and disproportionately widows’ is largely inaccurate (Emily Oster, ‘Witchcraft, Weather and Economic Growth in Renaissance Europe’, The Journal of Economic Perspectives 18 (2004), p.216.) - Clear that some witchcraft accusations were a form of social control; a means used by men and some women to keep deviant women in their place (Louise Jackson, ‘Witches, wives and mothers: witchcraft persecution and women’s confessions in seventeenth-century England’, Women’s History Review, 4 (1995) p. 77.) - Question of power is continually raised: one reason that women were mainly accused over men might be, quite simply that men would not need to resort to witchcraft to harm others - Social conflict also important: local tensions that the power that witchcraft wielded can be fully appreciated - ‘Nearly every human relationship which went wrong could lead to accusations of witchcraft’ (Behringer in E. Bever, ‘Witchcraft, female aggression and power in the early modern community’ Journal of social History 35, 4 (2002), p.959.) - Macfarlane is certainly correct when he states that ‘witchcraft accusations were not merely the result of tension between two individuals, but rather between a group of villagers and an individual suspect’: Alan Macfarlane, Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England: A Regional and Comparative Study, 2nd edn (London, 1999), p.206. - Large variety of combinations of social classes involved in witch trials demonstrates that the culture of witch beliefs permeated all of society - Upheaval in the religious, social and economic structure of society: changes = catalyst - Emily Oster’s theory was that adverse weather led to economic difficulties affecting the rural population, which due to ‘an existing cultural framework that both allowed their persecution and suggested that they could control the weather’, meant that witches were a convenient scapegoat: Emily Oster, ‘Witchcraft, Weather and Economic Growth in Renaissance Europe’, The Journal of Economic Perspectives 18 (2004), p.217. - Macfarlane and Gregory argue that economic pressures were a cause of witchcraft accusations due to the social tensions they caused - Whilst economic anxiety had some bearing on allegations of maleficium, this was usually a symptom of a different problem rather than a reason for accusations in itself....