...Elizabethan Era Witchcraft, Witches, and Witch Hunts During the Elizabethan Era, the printing press had been invented and this helped spread printed copies of Bibles and other religious books. These books had contained ideas of witches and witchcraft. This had helped promote the idea of witch hunts and people became obsessed with finding witches. The supernatural belief of witches, witchcraft, and witch hunts had spread like wildfire across Europe and later to the newly made American colonies. Most people connect witches and witchcraft to the popular Salem Witchcraft Trials. Ideas such as alchemy, astronomy, and magic had also spurred the likeliness of witch hunts. Witches were blamed for events that could not be explained. The Bubonic...
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...Witchcraft accusations may begin as petty conflicts between women, but “During witch hunts, men legitimize violence against the accused women by using rumor and conspiracy, and the women are made credible scapegoats in the process” (Chaudhuri, 2012, p. 1214). Men are the driving force behind transforming petty village conflicts into acts of violence against women through the use of conspiracy and calculated attacks; men also rely on the women’s blind faith in the established gender roles in order to make their witchcraft accusations without much opposition. Men are the decision makers in Indian tribal societies and use these conflicts to serve their own interests (Chaudhuri 2012). “The women (the accused witch and those initiating the accusation against her) are thus bait or scapegoats in the entire conspiracy by the men in the village” (Chaudhuri, 2012, p. 1220). Traditional Hindu philosophy also influences the gender relationships in tribal communities; these communities have adopted Hindu norms for the expected behavior of women. “According to Hindu philosophy, a woman is virtuous if she listens to and believes her husband pati parameshwar (the husband is equal to god)” (Chaudhuri, 2012, p. 1220)....
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...I think that the United states has definitely evolved much further than to go on actual witch hunts in this day in age but similar things still occur. Society definitely engages in witch hunts in this day in age. There are so many ways that people are targeted that maybe even you can’t see the correlation. We have turned to other distractions to distract from certain economic issues. We have always blamed our problems on something that takes people's minds off of the real problems. The overweight, liberal media, and the democratic muslim bans are just some of the ways witch hunts are occurring today. The first example that society is engaging in witch hunts today is liberal media. People blaming journalists and news reporters saying that they...
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...From 1450 to 1750, witch hunts were rampant around areas in Europe that were already ravaged by conflict. Witch hunts were roused by paranoia among both the layman and the religious authorities alike. The typically uneducated layman were easy prey for an intense paranoia and needed an outlet to blame. Sommerville, a modern historian, wrote a paper for other historians with a more neutral viewpoint than the fearful people of the past, detailing how women reaching for power was seen as evil and that was a part of how they were associated with witchcraft (Source 1). At the time, women were often treated as if they were a part of a lower class to be subjugated, and like when any member of a lower group tries to ascend to a higher one, they...
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...Witch-Hunts, Then and Now Witch-Hunts, Then and Now, is the topic I have chosen for my research paper, which will define similarities and differences between the “Salem Witch Trials” and “The Second Red Scare”. The actions that took place during both events played on the fears of citizens to further the personal, political and social agendas of those individuals that conducted the trials. These two events are just two examples of how history repeated itself, where hysteria of the masses has been used as justification to trample on the basic rights that we, as humans, have come to believe as essential to our lives. I chose this research project because the effect of the McCarthy era tactics that infringed on the Constitutional rights of many Americans can be seen today in the policies and actions implemented since September 11, 2001. As an American, I am disturbed to see that we as a people and our government appear not to have learned from our past. During the eras of the Salem Witch Trials and that of McCarthyism, there existed a fear that the values of each society were being threatened from both internal and external entities. During the Court of Oyer and Terminer, influential members of the Salem community used the trials to punish ministers with in the colony who were seen as tolerant to other religions. There was a movement within the colony to relax the strict customs of the Puritans, but the community leaders wanted to maintain a tight control on their spiritual beliefs...
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...Its 1692 Salem, Massachusetts your neighbors are dwindling one by one. Extreme fear is in your heart, will I be next, will it be my wife, friend, preacher etc., who condemn me as a witch? That is what a witch-hunt feels like. Witch-hunts are designed to strike fear in your heart, to make you comply, to make you theirs. They are what one reverts to when they don’t want to own up to what they have done or have know idea how to explain what just really happened. In the case of Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, and David Evans this is their real life story. They were turned from envied Duke lacrosse players to hated rapists in a matter of a night of partying. Accused by Crystal Mangum, a stripper who was paid to preform at the party, who had...
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...Vulnerability to a Witch Hunt The fact is that Salem, Massachusetts is all about God and doing God’s work, yet they are believing a bunch of young girls and hanging people without evidence. People believed whoever the person before could blame, no one ever would think of anyone possibly lying or acting? If making a city vulnerable to a witch trial could be easy, Salem and the people living there definitely caused it. In Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”, religion, personal vendettas, and human faults, made the individuals and society in Salem vulnerable to a witch hunt. To start off one of many reasons Salem society was vulnerable to a witch hunt was religion. Religion was the main priority in Salem and almost anything said or done that wasn’t by the bible was witchery or evil. “At any rate very few indians were converted and Salem folk believed that the virgin forest was the devil’s last preserve.” This quote is simply explaining how easily things were blamed and or believed and how religion was the base of everything. Puritans believe if you swear on the bible...
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...In the past hysteria formed itself in many different way,which include the Holocaust,Muslims after September 11,2001. Hysteria changed all the world because of a person’s irrational fears. All these lead to modern day witch hunt. In present day, modern day witch hunt is still a fear in humanity. This causes people to panic over dumb things that are not factual. It has caused most people in the world to believe what they hear or what other tell them.Even some people know it’s true but say it is just so they can fit in because, they fear if they don’t believe something bad will happen The Holocaust was a good example of witch hunt. Hitler targeted Jews because,a man named Julius Streicher led all Jewish businesses to boycott(Matias 1).Things...
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...Historically, witch-hunts are known as an unfair judgement against innocent people derived from fear. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller talks about the Salem witch trials, writing an allegory that references the communists who were being persecuted during the red scare. In fact, witch-hunts can still be compared to events that occur in modern day’s American society. With this in mind it is important to point out racial profiling, which has been increasing lately. It is known as the inclusion of racial or ethnic characteristics in determining whether an individual is considered likely to commit an illegal act, leading to the unfair targeting of its victims. Arthur Miller profits from Salem’s history to address a higher concept, the McCarthyism,...
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...there were professional magicians who were found all over even in king’s courts. The magicians even could take apprentices. They were a significant part of the society. As the European society became more self-conscious and articulate, the notion that magic was a science began to fade and was linked with heresy and other negative thoughts like sorcery. The society came to reject the notion of safe and learned magic. There was even a purge to get rid of all magicians that were in England. If one were caught, practicing magic, spiritual and temporal punishments was accorded to them. The magician became to be treated and known as the latter day witches. The book looks into the complex that came from the transformation from the magician, to the witch and the various laws that came into effect during the Medieval times about the two. The book aids us in placing our understanding of medieval magic that was later known as witchcraft. Although heresy was part of the bad image that magic was furnished with hearsay, another was the long-standing Christian teachings that were about magic especially the learned magic that was rampant during the time. This led to later developments of magic turning into witchcraft. The earlier magic was tied to the culture and the way a people flourished. It was through the fear of persecution of magicians that led to a later day persecution of witches. The real stage that was the persecution of magicians set the stage for the purge of the witches especially...
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...As we are living in the 21st century, it is now proved that the witch hunts held in middle ages were quite absurd, and that the victims of witch hunts were unjustly executed by underdeveloped science and religious beliefs of the times. Some factors of the witch hunts mentioned in the video left some questions. Of many, the main question was, has the witch hunt really been rooted out and completely ended? The answer was no. It is ironic how even if we learn from history or even from our own experiences that the witch hunt is wrong, innocent people are still being unfairly accused, or even worse. But why is that? Even with the development of science, unveiled misconceptions of magic and enlightened religions, being different from another or being a minority is still considered wrong. We care about other people’s affairs, but we don’t care ‘that much’ to find out the truths about them. Instead, we enjoy being a majority and throw rocks at minority. It is cruel nature deeply embedded in human which is hard to be eradicated, and this may be the reason why witch hunts of the innocents have always been in existence with human throughout the centuries. It only got deepened with the growth of mass media and people’s consciousness and rationalization of witch hunts. Then, how do we solve this problem? With the answer above, it remains unsolved. In terms of witch hunts, rules, justice, and attentions we now have aren’t enough. We have to actually ‘grow up’, understand the seriousness and...
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...A Witch Hunt or Not Today, we are exposed to many details pertaining to a time when superficial abilities/powers were thought to be real and practiced. One of these situations was known as a witch hunt. A witch hunt was commonly known to take place when there was a search for those that were supposedly witches. Once caught, these individuals were usually persecuted. As time has passed, witch hunts have evolved and are looked at differently. Witch hunts now are viewed as campaigns against a person or group holding unorthodox or unpopular views which leads to persons with any known reasons wanting to punish another sometimes even for personal gains. This leads me to my question: Were people too quick to judge and given too much freedom to decide the fate of individuals whose actions were unproven, deemed against the law, or just misunderstood? It is hard to comprehend sometimes the decisions made by people and their effects on others. When decisions/judgments are made based on nothing but assumption and emotion, they can be sickening when we think about the pure injustice on the obvious innocence of the victims. These types of situations are considered, witch hunts. Sometimes, the very officials that proved whether or not the accused were guilty or innocent, forged evidence to support their own claim. Honestly, I have a difficult time looking into these stories because of how “stupid” (in my opinion) some of these people were and how outrageous their claims...
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...Instructor Course February 12th 2013 17th Century European Witch craze Abstract The 17th century was the height of witch craze in Europe, where many were executed and persecuted for witchcraft. Approximately eighty five percent of those executed for witchcraft were women and this frenzy continued in Europe all the way to the early twentieth century. The loss of life was so severe that it has been referred to some researchers as a holocaust. Did this hysteria against witchcraft reduce their numbers? No. The more violently they were executed, the more in number they became. Most of those executed were women and this form of massive attack on women signifies a type of genocide; one that focuses on gender rather than on a religious or ethnic group. In Reformation Europe, women were overwhelmingly tried as witches. In France and Germany, more than eighty percent of those executed as witches and in England, ninety two percent of those executed for witchcraft were women and in Russia, approximately ninety five percent were also put to death (Trevor 214). The practice of witch hunts subsided by late seventeenth century and by early eighteenth century, witchcraft trials were rare. The causes for the decline of witch hunts are numerous and complex. This paper will attempt to analyze the witch craze phenomenon concentrating on several questions: why did women suffer the majority of the executions? Why did the witch craze end in the seventeenth century? Why was there a sudden increased...
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...MAY 2014 STRESS KEYS TO MANAGING IT IN THIS ISSUE MORE O NL I NE www.jw.org TEENAGERS COVER SUBJECT r Find Bible-based answers to dozens of questions young people ask, including: ˙ “How Responsible Am I?” ˙ “Am I Ready to Date?” ˙ “What if My Parents Are Divorcing?” Also watch the video What Your Peers Say—Body Image. (Look under BIBLE TEACHINGS TEENAGERS) STRESS KEYS TO MANAGING IT PAGES 4-7 3 WATCHING THE WORLD 8 HELP FOR THE FAMILY How to Teach Teens Internet Safety 10 INTERVIEW A Consultant Surgeon Explains His Faith 12 The European Witch Hunts 14 THE BIBLE’S VIEWPOINT Meditation 16 ‘Wisdom Is Calling Out’—Can You Hear It? CHILDREN r Read illustrated Bible stories. Use the activity pages to help your children improve their knowledge of Bible characters and moral principles. (Look under BIBLE TEACHINGS CHILDREN) Vol. 95, No. 5 / Monthly / ENGLISH Printing Each Issue: 44,748,000 in 99 Languages This publication is not for sale. It is provided as part of a worldwide Bible educational work supported by voluntary donations. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the modern-language New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. Awake! (ISSN 0005-237X) is published monthly by Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.; L. Weaver, Jr., President; G. F. Simonis, Secretary-Treasurer; 25 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn, NY 11201-2483, and by Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Canada, PO Box 4100, Georgetown, ON...
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...The Marxist approach explains that witch-hunting was a product of the massive changes taking place in Europe. Witch-hunting was one way in which the upper class were able to subjugate the lower orders to be able to maintain control of their own economic and political benefit. The Marxist view suggests that misogynistic attitudes were motivated by economic fears and motivations. The state began to control reproduction, helped by the witch hunt. Demography became the first ‘state science’. Certain common medieval contraceptive practises were eradicated and witches were often the village midwives. Women were demonised, particularly from the lower classes, and their position in the family and in society, their sexual and maternal duties and their relationships with men and the qualities women should have were redefined. Witches were ‘loose’, promiscuous, prostitutes or adulteresses, women who exercised their sexuality outside the bounds of marriage and procreation, they rebelled, took initiative, talked back, argued, swore and did not cry when they were tortured and posed a challenge to male authority and the church. By contrast a virgin could not be a witch and pregnant women were rarely charged with witchcraft. The fact that this charge could be punishable even in the absence of any evidence shows these charges were not designed to punish but were aimed at modifying social behaviour. The biggest fear was the erosion of male authority which posed a major threat to...
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