Nadiia Horbul
Professor Johnson
English 151
3/20/2023
Draft Annotated Bibliography
Witches represent the fear and desire of society
Throughout history, witches have been both feared and admired, representing society's deepest fears and desires for power.
Bever, Edward. “Witchcraft, Female Aggression, and Power in the Early Modern Community.” Journal of Social History, vol. 35, no. 4, 2002. 955–988. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3790618. Accessed 19 Mar. 2023.
Summary:
"Witchcraft, Female Aggression, and Power in the Early Modern Community" by Edward Bever is an article that discusses how accusations of witchcraft were often used as a means of suppressing and controlling single women in early modern Europe. The author argues that women accused of witchcraft were often seen as violating gender norms by exerting power and aggression, which was deemed inappropriate for their gender. The article examines various cases of witchcraft accusations against single women and how these accusations reflected larger social anxieties about female autonomy and power. Bever demonstrates how witchcraft suspicions were used in early modern Europe to suppress female power and maintain patriarchal dominance through a careful study of different witchcraft trials and contemporary literature.
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He is considered a leading expert in the field of witchcraft studies. His work is published by Oxford University Press, the world's largest university press with the widest global presence. That is why the author is considered to be highly credible. I can use his article to support my claim that witchcraft accusations served as a means of regulating female behavior and enforcing patriarchal norms. And support my claim about the particular group of women who were accused of
But witchcraft is ipso facto, on its face and by its nature, an invisible crime, is it not?...” (Miller Act 3, p.100). Again an example of how fear and control have led this community to unjustly try and convict people they see as
The first set of witchcraft persecutions occurred during Elizabeth 1st reign, this was Around 1563. Commonly people associated witches with a woman and the beliefs were the following of that they have made a pact with the evil spirit Satan. The rush of the witch persecutions mainly happened after 1563 and by the time period of 1750 roughly 200,000 witches were tortured, burnt, or hung across the whole of Western Europe. Therefore, in this essay, I will be mainly focusing and arguing which of the hysteria surrounding witchcraft and witchcraft trials had a greater impact in Britain or the American colonies in the time period of the 17th century. And I will be arguing it following different factors which could contribute to this such as the social factors geographical factors, religious factors and also control law and order.
The witch panic started in Salem, Massachusetts hanged 19 people and inspired a wide-swept fear of the Devil and witchcraft that lasted for over a year. Historians have discussed why this panic occurred for years, producing a slew of opinions on what caused one small community to erupt into such fear. Two such historians, Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, attempted to understand the 1692 Salem witch trials by analyzing Salem Village’s social and economic tensions dividing the community in the book Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft. Yet the two historians ignore the largest group of participants in the witch trials: women. When looking at the documents recording the events of 1692, however, a historian cannot escape the importance of the young girls who were first afflicted and started the accusations.
Characters who confess and name other “witches” are viewed as glorious people who ultimately choose God over the Devil, giving them power over others in the village. In contrast, characters who deny witchcraft claims are disgraced. Accused witches who do not confess are convicted and executed
Most of the people accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witchcraft Trials were women. While historian Carol F. Karlsen delves deeper into societal values that led so many women to be accused, in her book The Devil in the Shape of a Woman by focusing on social norms of the time, Elizabeth Reis, in her book Damned Women, focuses on the impact of gender in religion. They both discuss the importance of gender at the time, and the impact it made for the trials. There is not one clear reason why women were the main targets but each historian looks at a different aspect in 17th century American society where gender played a role. Both take a look at the way society functioned in the late 1600s and womens’ roles within the broader community.
Similarly, during the witch trials, those accused of witchcraft were often targeted due to their religious beliefs, practices, or sexual orientation. This parallel shows how power targets and punishes individuals based on their background rather than any actual
The 1600s were a very religious and superstitious time. People’s faith in God was strong, however it also brought them great fear of devil. It was easy to accuse anyone who did not follow social standards of conspiring with the devil and practicing witchcraft. Once somebody had been accused of being a witch mass hysteria and panic ensued.
“The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England,” written by Carol Karlsen, is a nonfiction book about the roles women played in colonial New England and why they were targeted solely in the witchcraft madness that plagued Massachusetts and Connecticut from 1630 to the 18th century. Karlsen states that most women who were accused of witchcraft were most likely seen as a threat to the social, economic, hierarchy, and demographic states of New England. Karlsen mainly wrote the book to explain the social structure of society during this time and how and why women were targeted as witches. The book is also divided into three different sections that focus on different reasons as to why women were harassed as witches.
Lilli Walters Mr. Glorfield English 11a 15 December 2022 Us and Witches Imagine you and your friends have been caught dancing in the woods at night. You did not think it was a big deal, but before you know it you are accused of being a witch and threatened to be hanged. There is no good way out of the situation. If you tell the truth, saying you’re innocent and was just dancing for fun, everyone thinks you’re lying. If you tell them you are guilty of being a witch, that would be lying, and while they might release you, they will make you accuse others of being a witch.
"The story of witchcraft is primarily the story of women . . . ." Karlsen argues for the relevance and importance of women’s roles in the panic of witchcraft fear in 17th Century American society. She subtly contests that specific interests were at work in the shaping of witchcraft accusations; book elaborates that a specific type of woman risked accusation based on her demographic representation in society. Karlsen further elaborates on her theme with,
Witchcraft accusations not only deal with religion but also call out those who are a danger to society. This goes hand-in-hand with the accusations made during the Red Scare where innocent people got accused of being a threat to society as communists, which is spoken very well by John Proctor. “I cannot speak but I am doubted, every moment judged for lies, as though I come into a court when I come into this house!” (2.605). This statement shows that those who spoke out against the normal beliefs and attitudes that members of society shared faced unnecessary repercussions.
Historiographical Review: Witchcraft When studying witch craft over the past 500 years or so, authors have covered a lot of material. , the In Carlo Ginzburg’s work, The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century, he attempts to locate the origin of the ‘Benandanti’ belief and how it came to be in the Friuli region of Italy. The Benandanti were a group of people who believed that during the Ember Days of the year, after they fell asleep, that their souls left their bodies and went off to fight witches in the night. Ginzburg goes into great detail on the many trials associated with the benandanti during this time. In Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum’s work, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft,
As Whitney mentioned, the witch hunts occurred in the 17th century were due to the fears of women becoming “economically and psychological” independent, and threatening the male control of property and social order. Those women were viewed as “discontent” meaning the refusal of accepting their predetermined social status (Whitney 85). In contrast, men who had high authority and social status like the Putmans and Parris could purposely manipulate women and instigated the public resentment to falsely accuse, and cruelly eliminate their enemies such as Rebecca and other accused witches. Certainly, the girls and women in the Putman and Parris’s families who made the false accusations of witches and witchcraft were wielded by
In 1692, people were accused of casting spells, which meant they were siding with the devil in Salem, New England. Many people who lived in the countryside of Salem believed that the Holy Bible were God’s direct words and should be followed precisely. Women were more likely to be accused of casting spells because they were expected to be at home, listen to their husband, and weren’t aloud to be ministers so there were more likely to preach the devil. People believe that women aren’t good enough and men are superior to women, even now in this century. There is still a pay in inequality between the average men and women.
After reading “Devil in the Shape of a Woman: The Economic Basis of Witchcraft “by Carol Karlsen I was intrigued by Karlsen’s interpretation, and upset about the ways women were treated. During these witch hunts women and men alike were accused of the crime, but the majority were women. I found it interesting that she related the commonly known Puritan beliefs, which lead to accusations of witchcraft, with gender roles. She ultimately says that Puritans feared these accused women because they symbolized female independence. I found it shocking that women, often the wealthier, had a greater chance of being let go of their accusations if they had a husband to spoke on their behalf.