Practicing+WItchcraft+of+the+Medieval+Churches

How Do “You” Know They Are A Witch?

By: Donna Griffin


 * __Topic:__** I chose this topic because I am fasinated with witchcraft. I am also interested in the theories of witchcraft in Germany. German witches themselves resembled witches elsewhere. About 80 to 90 percent were women, fitting the usual pattern, and most were poor, old and rural. The German construction of the eval female witch went along with a construction of the "good woman, " identified with the Virgin Mary in Catholic areas and with the pious housewife and mother in Protestant ones, and defined by domesticity and subservience. My anscestors came from Germany so who knows I may have had witches in my family. This leads me to my argument.


 * __Argument__**: “How did they know they were a witch?” Did they have a device that went around dictating witches? I don’t believe so. So how did they know there were witches? The German lands of the Holy Roman Empire were the center of the European witch hunt, persecuting with a ferocity almost unknown elsewhere. The number of deaths is unknown but is undoubtedly a majority of the total European figure. The German lands were also the home of a large number of influential demonologists, both supporters and opponents of witch hunting. The pope provided his blessing and encouragement to Papal Bull of 1484. It was on account of some of the beliefs about witches and describing the process of examination and trials (extracts of Hammer of Witches). When Bishop Johann Gottfried von Aschhausen or the Witch-bishop came into rule, he established witch-hunts and built prisons, where once a person was arrested, they had no way of escaping and they were not allowed a proper defense (Witches.net para.1). In other places in Germany they built ovens and stakes were set up to put to death those found quilty or accused of witchcraft. Some that were put to death was as young as two years old. Many of the people that were condemned as witches were under suspicion due to their enemies wishing to get some kind of revenge (Witches.net para. 10). Some were considered witches just by the way they dressed or if they were used as a midwife. Many prominent people were trialed and hung for witchcraft and their properties were sold to pay for their trials and anything left went to the bishop (Witches.net para. 4). German witches were often single women who had a reputation for lack of subservience to men, and although in a large German witch-hunt virtually any woman, and many men were all vulnerable to accusations. Despite the prominent role of courts and authorities in German witch-hunts, they were not unpopular, in many areas witch hunts were actively demanded by just ordinary Germans, particularly in times of bad weather and widespread crop failure. The height of the witch hunt was marked by increased cold, glacial advance and climactic deterioration (Burns, pg. 115). Most witches were blamed just simiply because the community did not want to infringe on the power of God or which of their own sins God would punish (Burns, pg. 6 - 8),

Resources:

Burns, William E. (2003) "Witch Hunts In Europe and America". Retrieved, Sept. 27, 2010

Gardner, Gerald Brosseau (Jun., 1939) "Witchcraft", Folklore, Vol. 50 No. 2, pp.188-190. Retrieved, Sept. 27, 2010 published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises. Ltd.

Hendricks, George (Apr., 1964) "German Witch Mania", Western Folklore, Vol 23. No 2. pp. 120-121. Retrieved, Sept.27, 2010 published by: Western States Folklore Society

Kramer, Heinrich; Sprenger, Jacob Extracts from "The Hammer of Witches" completed by The Papal Bull, the German inquisitors in 1486.

Stephen, Michele (Aug., 1999) "Witchcraft, Grief, and the Ambivalence of Emotions, American Ethnologist, Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 711 - 737 published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological Association. Retrieved Sept. 27, 2010.

Tangherlini, Timothy R. (Summer-Autumn, 2000) "How Do You Know She's a Witch?" Western Folklore, Vol. 59 No. 3/4 pp.279-303 published by: Western States Folklore Society

Other Resources:

"German Witchcraft and Witches" Around the World (2000-2001) []

"Witchcraft, Grief, and the Ambivalence of Emotions", by Michele Stephen (Aug., 1999), American Ethnologist, Vol.26, No 3. pp.711 - 737 published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological Association.
 * __Article Analysis #1:__**

Anthropology's relationship to psychoanalysis is different today from what it was many years ago. There is an abundance of detailed ethnographies owing little or nothing to psychoanalytic theory and a great deal to the conviction that witchcraft and sorcery is a unique entity that must be understood within its own terms of reference.
 * Focus:**

as a human being ||< The term sorcerer, usually means: a man of sorrow. He brings sadness and grief to others and who has suffered grief and pain himself. Symbolizing death and mourning, identify him when he appears in public. In depriving himself of all social and sensual gratification, he must strictly isolate himself from rest of society. ||< The witch figure could be simply a scapegoat that has a specified psychological meaning grounded in the ambivalence of emotion, provoked by the death of a loved person. || by mystical means leads to a social margin or death and the actions of the culprit are seen to be outside the moral order, uncontrolled, and provoked purely by malice or evil, witchcraft is identified. || appear diametrically opposed ||< The sorcerer is publicly identified and acknowledges his role and powers to inflict death on the town or community. ||< The witch's identity is always a matter of rumor and suspicion, with no one openly admitting tobeing a witch. ||
 * <  ||< Sorcery ||< Witchcraft ||
 * < Identified
 * < Accusations ||< Where responsibility for death and illness is given to powerful individuals, usually men, whose actions are considered to be consistent with the moral order of things, and who are socially rewarded for their activities, sorcery is operating. ||< Accusations of harming others
 * < Differences: They

The important point here is that fantasy themes do not determine the nature of cultural forms. It has been proposed that a special kind of imagery thought, which can be refer to as autonomous imagination, mediates between inner needs and desires and the external cultural context in order to create unique symbolic forms. It has been suggested that the witch giure provides a classic example of a special kind of imagination.
 * Implications:**

"German Witch Mania", by George Hendricks, (Apr., 1964), Western Folklore, Vol 23, No 2. pp. 120-121, published by Western States Folklore Society. Man has conquered the moon, by coming, going and stepping foot on the moon; but when will he give up belief in witchcraft and black magic?
 * __Article Analysis #2:__**
 * Focus:**

witches to the extent of having witch -hunts || Crimal superstition in Germany is more frequent now than at any time in the past 50 years. || still has its witch and almost every village its devil's servant. This mania still morally corrupts many people. As an offical praise from the Roman Catholic Church, there are no statistics, but an estimation that up to 70 lawsuits involving witchcraft are before German courts every year. || by fellow villagers with being witches are too afraid to take actions against their tormentors. They would rather endure beatings or smashed windows than go before a court. ||
 * || Then || Now ||
 * Superstitions || As in the darkest Middle Ages, people believed in
 * Trials || The Bamberg trials was one of the most brutal trials in Germany. At least 600 people were burned as witches in the years 1623 - 1633. In 1589, in one town alone, 133 witches were publically burned in just one day. || Almost every town in Germany
 * Consequences || Interrogations consisted of the boots, cold baths, forced feeding with salted herring, immersion in baths of scalding water laced with lime, laceration of the neck using a rope, the prayer stool, roasting of an iron chair, and scorching the skin of the armpits or groin with burning feathers dipped in sulfur. Convicted witches were also subjected on the way to the gallows by having their right hand cut off or women would have her breast torn off with red-hot pinchers. || Most of the women charged

In general conceptions of the witch and of witchcraft were not constant from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Motivations to affix the term, witch, to certain individuals seem to have changed considerably. While one might expect their abilities to cure illness and remove curses, would have been frequently accused of witchcraft. This does not appear to be the case, at least not until the nineteenth century. By that time, calling someone a witch had different consequences than in the seventeenth century.
 * Implications:**