To start with, we shall first discuss the meaning of witchcraft. Witchcraft has been assigned many meanings by several people, but in real meaning, a witch is a person who possesses a supernatural power suspected to cause harm, misfortune, or even injuries to others. Witches defined in this broad perspective had some characteristics or possessed a similar trait such as isolation from the community, the act of being malicious, or even inheritance of this witchcraft from another witch. Witchcraft was associated with both men and women, though in many communities, they associated it with women. In European history, the meaning of witch and witchcraft had a more detailed definition. A witch was a person who exercised maleficent power by virtue of having made an agreement with the devil.
Estimates in early modern witch trials claimed that about 80-90% of the population were women in the European country. According to Barstow, he argued that though the witches possessed an abnormal power, he had little faith in modern society as healers or even diviners. In fact, he associated the most stereotype of witchcraft with the women. According to Kramer and Sprenger, in their book of witches- Hunter, they described women as unfaithful and sexually insatiable, unfaithful, and they even quoted these classical, biblical, and medieval sources. However, in the same category, Julio Caro mentioned in his book Basque Witchcraft of the Sick that old women were his typical witches. He continues to say that a woman will become a witch in the initial failure of her life as a woman after frustrated love affairs have left her with importance or disgrace.
In another circumstance, women are blamed for being the source of problems. According to Jeffrey Burton, he says that women are all the center of the problem in society. He argues that folk magic or witchcraft was another valid alternative for women. He accepted all concept definitions of witchcraft, terming it as violent, feminine discontent that involved criminal activity since he associated witchcraft with deviation rather than the traditional religion. According to his argument, he claims that the European witch was not just to be understood as a sorceress but as an incarnation of the hag.
In addition to women’s witchcraft, William Monter’s study of witchcraft affirms that the widespread use of magic in Europe is linked with women’s use of magic in need of compensation for the legal and economic disadvantages. He continues that he lays his persecution that sex was their crucial factor more important than even age, poverty, or any other thing. He continues to say that single women were also designated victims of witchcraft. He concluded by stating that the females, according to gender analysis, were the most influenced by witchcraft and magic.
Also, on gender analysis, Christiana Larner, a sociologist, produced the most detailed investigation on witchcraft. Through his skills in sociology, history, and also religion, he accepted the idea of the use of witchcraft by the poor village females. He found that gender was the central issue and that women were potential witches and were thought to be associated with thoughts of evil. The issue of witchcraft was sex-linked and was persecution of women such as the same thing could be associated with men on killers being a persecution of men as far as gender was concerned.
According to Cotton Mather of The Apocalypse of the Witches, the early generations during colonialism were susceptible to the influence of magic or the devil. However, through interpretation of the Bible, the life of the Puritan was characterized by a continuous struggle between good and devil. The devil, they believed, selected women and children since they were the easiest target and to continue to despise in his work. During the year 1688, still in colonial times, the children of Mason Goodwin contracted strange diseases, which was a symptom of demonic possession. Mather, however, treated them with prayers while still fasting to express her spiritual realm. Later, in 1689, he published the whole incident, terming it as witchcraft and possessions by the devil.
In addition to witchcraft and gender, there were few scholarly studies engaged in gender and the question of why so many witches were women until the 1990s. Christina Larner, in the book Witchcraft and Religion, brings out the question that many feminists were asking was whether it really woman hunting. Larner incorporated the idea of gender into the realm of serious scholarship, hence prompting other historians to engage on the subject of witchcraft. However, without losing the significance of gender relations in the subject of the witchcraft trials, Larner argued that Patriarchy and misogyny were not necessarily the root of the witch hunt but rather the conditions that fostered the hunts. Larner affirmed that witchcraft was associated with sex-related crime rather than sex-specific crime by carrying out an investigation on how sex-related influenced the outbreaks. However, Larner does not neglect the idea of a high number of accused women and concedes the deeply entrenched misogyny.
In contemporary the major criticism of the argument that a witch-hunt was a woman-hunt was that the witch oppression could not have been a thoughtful form of suppression against women because women also accused witches. In addition to Larner’s argument, Clive Holmes suggested three ways in which women partake in proceedings against women. These ways included testifying about possessed women, reporting on physical searches on witches and possessed women, and also to testify their experience as the victims of the witchcraft attacks. However, to summarize his conclusion, both women and men believed in the reality and existence of witchcraft and feared witches; therefore, both men and women took part in the accusations of witches.
In addition, Larner affirms that men viewed women as having life-bearing and menstruating abilities, which were mysterious and dangerous if uncontrolled, according to men. In his argument, Lyndal Roper really supports Larner’s argument that the witch-hunt was a witch-hunter rather than a concealed woman hunt since society, in a real sense, believes in the supernatural and magic in everyday life. However, Roper was more interested in something that made women more vulnerable to events and the position of women in Europe during the sixteenth century. She was also interested in the partiality of older women among the accused witches. In her conclusion, Ropers argues that the witch craze was about women. The witches could do mysterious things like killing Babies, ground their carcasses into powders, and use that powder to add more power.
Another scholar is Diane Purkiss, who also outlined the idea of witchcraft and gender. In her research on how women are closer to witchcraft and witches, as well as how they are related to society, Diane examines female witnesses and characters at witch trials. She continues to add that the stories that were relayed on depositions were powerful fantasies through which the women exchanged their fears and concerns about housekeeping and motherhood. Furthermore, she expressed that despite the witches being anti-mother, they were anti-housewives, thus threatening women who were responsible for bearing and raising children.
In conclusion, despite the significant contribution these historians have made to the study of gender in history, they also failed to give any substantial attention to highlighting the witchcraft of men as a gender. However, some historians, such as Lara Apps, have been trying to consider male witches as the subject of witchcraft as far as gender is concerned. However, during the ancient period, people used to think witchcraft was a female thing. But still, the aspect of male witchcraft has no detailed evidence to answer the question of whether the male witch was regarded as effeminate and really fitted in the fantasy of witchcraft figure.
1. Julian. Goodare, “A Source-Book of Scottish Witchcraft (review), “The Scottish Historical Review 86, no. 2 (2007): xx, doi:10.1353/shr.2007.0078.
2. Goodare, “short title,” xx.
1. Judika Illes, The Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Complete A-Z of the Entire Magical World (London: HarperElement, 2005), xx.
2. Illes, short title, xx.
1. Liv Helene Willumsen, The witchcraft trials in Finnmark, Northern Norway (Bergen: Skald, 2010), xx.
2. Willumsen, short title, xx.
Bibliography
Goodare, Julian. “A Source-Book of Scottish Witchcraft (review).” The Scottish Historical Review 86, no. 2 (2007), 338-340. doi:10.1353/shr.2007.0078.
Illes, Judika. The Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Complete A-Z of the Entire Magical World. London: HarperElement, 2005.
Willumsen, Liv Helene. The witchcraft trials in Finnmark, Northern Norway. Bergen: Skald, 2010.
Levack, Brian P., ed. The witchcraft sourcebook. Routledge, 2015.
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