Witchcraft Accusations And Persecutions As A Mechanism For The Marginalisation Of Women

This books draws on feminist commentary from the disciplines of anthropology, history, law, politics and sociology in order to deal with the phenomenon of modern-day witchcraft. It focuses on the re-emergence of witchcraft beliefs in contemporary society, suggesting that witchcraft accusations and persecution are being used as a marginalisation mechanism of women. The re-emergence of witchcraft beliefs in contemporary society and the prevalence of the violence associated with such beliefs has received little attention within academic literature, yet witchcraft-related violence against women is, progressively, becoming one of the most pervasive forms of violence facing women today. This book addresses this gap in the literature, discussing the return of witchcraft beliefs to contemporary society, whilst assessing the effectiveness of international human rights law in protecting women from witchcraft accusations and persecution.

This book is a unique intersectional analysis combining culture, gender struggles and structural including economic transformations, both in the formation of gendered class society, patriarchy and capitalism.

After the successful and innovative first two editions, now in a new, restructured 3rd edition, this remains the most authoritative introduction for studying comic books and graphic novels, covering their place in contemporary culture, the manifestations and techniques of the art form, the evolution of the medium and how to analyze and write about them. The new edition includes: - A completely reworked introduction explores the comics community in the US and globally, its history, and the role of different communities in advancing the medium and its study - Chapters reframed to get students thinking about themselves as consumers and makers of comics - Reorganized chapters on form help to unpack encapsulation, composition and layout - Completely new chapters on comics and how they can be used to report, document, and persuade, as well as a new Preface by Karen Green Illustrated throughout, with discussion questions and activities for every chapter and an extensive glossary of key terms, The Power of Comics and Graphic Novels also includes further updated resources available online including additional essays, weblinks and sample syllabi.

Seminar paper from the year 2000 in the subject History Europe - Other Countries - Middle Ages, Early Modern Age, grade: 1,0, University of Sussex, language: English, abstract: Beginning in the 14th century, witchcraft-persecution in Europe reached its peak in the 16th and 17th centuries and gradually ended in the 18th century. Apart from this broad local and temporal framework, in the Historic sciences several elements of uncertainty still exist. For instance, the number of accused people varies from over 100,000 to a million, and their geographical and chronological distribution was extremely uneven. Moreover, the phenomenon of witchcraft can hardly ever be linked with a specific group of society, as "it involved both the educated classes and the common people". In this essay, however, we will firstly consider the appreciation of witchcraft by the elite as well as by the populace (section II). Thereupon, section III describes the preconditions for and the functions of witchcraft-beliefs. Then, section IV shows the interaction of traditional popular sentiments and contemporary authoritarian views and its results. Finally, section V. examines the causes for the transformation from a "private" handling of witchcraft to formal accusations, the affected people and the expansion of their number.

Using the example of Eichstätt, this book challenges current witchcraft historiography by arguing that the gender of the witch-suspect was a product of the interrogation process and that the stable communities affected by persecution did not collude in its escalation.

In this topical study the author argues that the naming and persecution of women as witches in the 16th and 17th century resulted from the powerful unresolved psychic conflicts of their persecutors. The historical and social contexts in which trials took place are examined for evidence of how attitudes and beliefs of the time came to play their part in the extraordinary development of this persecutory phenomenon. Ms. Heinemann asserts that the witch phenomenon is an example of the potential for destructiveness by the human imagination and shows the necessity of understanding unconscious processes in social phenomena today. The dark forces and process identifiable in the past continue to find expression in the demonization and persecution of men and women today. This book will be of interest to psychoanalysts, sociologists, social historians and women everywhere.

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Other, grade: 2,3, Technical University of Braunschweig (Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik), language: English, abstract: What makes a woman a witch? What kinds of stereotypes do witches in movies share with women? What is the source of these stereotypes? How are good and bad witches portrayed in movies and how is “white” magic depicted? In order to investigate these questions, I am going to conduct an analysis of the witches' depiction in three different, contemporary movies. My hypothesis is that despite multiple attempts to reform the movie character of the witch, for example via the introduction of “white magic” or good-hearted witches who support the protagonists, their depiction still consists of mainly negative, female stereotypes, so that an unchanged negative representation of the female gender can be observed in the movies I am going to analyse. This paper is structured as follows. First, I am going to start with a historical contextualization of the topic. In order to investigate the origin of the idea of “witchcraft” there will be an analysis of the historical events that led to its creation. Hereby, I will investigate the sources of the stereotypical “witch”. Therefore, I will provide an overview of the persecution of a “heretical” movement, which correlates with the later witch-hunts. Then, I will investigate the mental frame that led to the witch persecutions and the influence of the Catholic Church on the common sense in order to understand the development of this phenomena. After that, I will have a closer look on the characteristics of “witches” as women in order to clarify the stereotypes concering gender. Furthermore, I will introduce and discuss specific aspects of film theory, which are essential for the following analysis of the movies. Subsequently, based on the film theoretical aspects, I am going to analyse the depiction of witches in the movies “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters”, “The Last Witch Hunter”, and “The Witch”. Finally, I will finish this paper by concluding the overall outcome and by answering the research questions and the question whether my hypothesis was confirmed, based on my findings.

Witchcraft violence is a feature of many contemporary African societies. In Ghana, belief in witchcraft and the malignant activities of putative witches is prevalent. Purported witches are blamed for all manner of adversities including inexplicable illnesses and untimely deaths. As in other historical periods and other societies, in contemporary Ghana, alleged witches are typically female, elderly, poor, and marginalized. Childhood socialization in homes and schools, exposure to mass media, and other institutional mechanisms ensure that witchcraft beliefs are transmitted across generations and entrenched over time. This book provides a detailed account of Ghanaian witchcraft beliefs and practices and their role in fueling violent attacks on alleged witches by aggrieved individuals and vigilante groups.