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A history of witchcraft around the world
A history of witchcraft around the world
A history of witchcraft around the world
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Witches are present in many popular television, movie, and book series, such as True Blood, Harry Potter, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch.These witches have magical powers that allow them to manipulate the world around them which can be used for either good or evil. The fact that these powers are used for evil is the truly frightening part. For example, many of the witches and wizards in Harry Potter are death eaters for Voldemort and use their powers for evil by killing people and causing chaos within society. This is why people have a fear for witches, even if they are good they still have the potential to perform evil, life destroying acts. Their powers can be used for the greatest evils. Witches and witchcraft started way before the times of our modern day media.
For centuries, women (and even a few men) would be accused of being witches. From the early Romans to the Salem witch trials to even modern day voodoo, the idea of witchcraft has existed. However, witchcraft most likely does not exist and it is just part of the imagination. Even according to Asma, the author of On Monsters, “Witches were the monsters foremost in the imagination” (197). People made up witches as an explanation for situations that could not be explained. People want explanations for what is going on in the world and when they cannot receive answers, they make things up to gain answers, even though ultimately these answers are not true. It makes people feel somewhat content, even though the answer may not be accurate. A great example of this is ancient Greek mythology. All the myths written in the days of the ancient Greeks were used to explain why certain things happened because science back then was not advanced enough to explain them. Witches also fo...
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...haracters are called witches remains the same. They have powers that are unexplainable by any form of science or technology. They are now just viewed in a more positive light because many people now desire powers like that and dream that they are magical. They are not terrified by the thought of witches because they understand that they can be good.
Works Cited
Asma, Stephen T. On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2009. Print.
"Salem Witch Trials." Conspiracy Theories in American History. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2003. Credo Reference. Web. 14 February 2012.
Winkler, Peter. "National Geographic: Salem Witch-Hunt--Interactive." National Geographic - Inspiring People to Care About the Planet Since 1888. Web. 15 Feb. 2012.
Yanak, Ted and Pam Cornelsion. The Great American History Fact-finder. Houghton Mifflin, 1993. Print.
Witchcraft was anything considered as “the act of invoking spiritual powers to accomplish a supernatural task", such as telling the future (The Salem Witch Trials: A Reference Guide). However what defined a witch soon became ambiguous; people would accuse someone of witchcraft if said person was talking to themselves or had the witch’s mark, which was often just a mole (The Salem Witch Trials: A Reference Guide). Witches were severely feared because they were thought to be serviceable to the devil. Puritans believed the devil had supernatural powers similar to those of God’s and he would use his powers for selfish sadistic intentions. Puritans believed Satan was active and walking among the earth, and he would attempt to recruit witches to serve him. Puritans were petrified of this possibility because Satan can only be constantly looking to wreak havoc (The Salem Witch Trials: A Reference Guide). Soon people commenced witch hunts and accused witches and wizards were incarcerated and put on
Randomly accusing innocent people of being devilish, atrocious witches is extremely far fetched and unusual for people to do today. However, in the 1690’s in Salem, Massachusetts, it was a daily occurrence. After seeing people do odd things happening at the time, people got scared and accused them of witches to get rid of them, send them to jail, and possibly kill them. Even worse, the accusers may have actually been sick or insane, or they could of been faking it to get revenge on their enemies.
Witchcraft had always fascinated many people and been a very controversial topic in North America during (seventeenth) 17th century. Many People believe that witchcraft implies the ability to injure or using supernatural power to harm others. People believed that a witch represents dark side of female present and were more likely to embrace witchcraft than men. There are still real witches among us in the Utah whom believe that witchcraft is the oldest religion dealing with the occult. However the popular conception of a witch has not changed at least since the seventeenth century; they still caused panic, fear and variety of other emotions in people…………………….
In today’s times, witches are the green complexed, big nosed ladies who ride around on broomsticks at Halloween. Back in the 1600’s, witches looked like average people, but they worked alongside the devil. Salem, Massachusetts, was a religious town of Puritans. They were strong believers in God, and had believed that witches were the devils workers. Everything was usual in Salem in 1692, until, 9-year-old Elizabeth Parris and 11-year-old Abigale Williams had sudden outbursts of screaming, contortions and convulsions, the doctor came and diagnosed witchcraft (Blumberg, Jess) And from this time on, the people of Salem believed there were witches all around them.
When someone thinks of a witch, usually he or she thinks about Halloween or the movie The Wizard of Oz. However, during the 16th and 17th century, witches were feared by many. The accusations of witches during this time is the highest reported, more than 500,000 people were tried and more than 100,000 were executed. Many people of the modern era know and believe that witches are not real. This was not the case in the beginning of the 16th century to the end of the 17th century. Individuals were prosecuted as witches because people wanted money and to clean up their community, they were women, and the communities needed a scapegoat for their misfortune.
Asma, Stephen. On Monsters :An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print.
Because these witches were servants of the devil, they were thought to be the enemies of God and Christianity; they were the "ultimate heretics" (265). The "witch craze" era lasted for about 200 years, from 1560-1760 all over Euro...
Although witch trials were not uncommon in Puritanical New England, none had reached such epidemic proportions as Salem. In 1691 the mass hysteria began when several young girls dabbled in witchcraft and began acting strange. When villagers took notice the girls were seriously questioned and so they began naming people, mainly woman, who had supposedly bewitched them (Boyer, p66). Several other who had been accused were woman displayed ‘unfeminine’ behavior and those who
Witchcraft was relentlessly thought as the work of the devil with only sinful and immoral intentions. Julio Caro Baroja explains in his book on Basque witchcraft that women who were out casted from society and unable to fulfill their womanly duties became witches as a way to compensate for her failed life. They were thought to be a threat to society as they dwindled in evil magic. This misunderstanding may have originated from the literary works of Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, in their published book, “Malleus Maleficarum”. Accusations of being adulterous, liars and dealing with the devil materialized because of the...
People have believed in witches for centuries before the Salem witch trials even occurred. Before the Salem witch trials began the Puritans migrated from England to the United States of America to break off of the Church of England. The reason they did this was to start fresh in their own way and to rebuild their faith how they thought it was suppose to be (Kallen). The Salem witch trials relates to rights and responsibilities in American History because of the way people were treated and punished.
Gilmore, David D. "Why Study Monsters?" Gilmore, David D. Monsters: Evil Beings, Mythical Beasts, and All Manner of Imaginary Terrors. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. 210.
...em Witchcraft Hysteria is that the women were trying to stand out and tried to prove social equality because of social and attention seeking. So basically, they wanted to be noticed. I feel the search for power is a common aspect of the human nature because everyone wants more than others and that is what brings dissatisfaction of what we have. Also, coming from my cultures point of view which is highly and greatly superstitious a culture, we know that every evil has consequences so therefore, I take it to be that the girls knew that witches would face several consequences. Moving further, the counter point in Laurie Winn Carlson's article has no substantial evidence to support her theory. Furthermore, they wanted to seek the power and respect they never had the opportunity of having and wanted to benefit from it. This argument supported by sociologist Dodd Bogart.
shows the witches are ones who believe in evil spirits, as most witches are portrayed as.
...ches and witchcraft have been passed down through generations to generations. From way back to the 1200’s to today in the present times, that is how long witches have been around. As of the history of witches and witchcraft, stories were used to keep the history alive inside the stories written in ancient mythology to Walt Disney’s movies. Check your family history. What and who were they. Were they witch hunters or were they a witch? There’s more to the story of Halloween or All Hallows Eve than meets the eye. What story or legend will come next?
By contrast, self-proclaimed witches still have a function in some societies today, mainly in the developing world. Magic, however, is often a word used to describe certain people’s modes of divination, mainly those in the developing world.... ... middle of paper ... ...