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CRIME AND SOCIETY, 1550-1750 LECTURE 5: WITCHCRAFT
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Next Week’s reading Laura Gowing, ‘Secret Births and Infanticide in Seventeenth-Century England’, Past and Present, 156 (1997), pp. 87-115. Read the article by Laura Gowing listed in the Core Reading. I would like you to compile a list of TEN intelligent questions which, if you were the tutor, you would ask your students to consider while working on the reading. At least one of the questions must concern the types of evidence used by Gowing. One of the question must relate to the language used by early modern men and women talking about pregnancy and birth. Other questions might concern the information contained within the articles, the sources used, the arguments put forward by the author and the methods she uses to make those argument.
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Outline of the lecture Not Paganism or Wiccans Origins of our cultural preconceptions Witchcraft as a crime
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Witchcraft is not illogical 4
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What is a witch? What does a witch look like? What characteristics does he or she have? Where do we get those ideas about witches? 5
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Witches of our Childhood 6 ‘The Queen’, Disney’s Snow White (originally 1937)
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Beautiful Witches 7 Maleficent, 2014Frozen, 2013 (Sleeping Beauty – c.1330)(The Snow Queen, 1844)
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Beautiful Witches 8 ‘Vivien’, by Frederick Sandys, 1863 ‘The Four Witches’, by Albrecht Durer, 1497
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The Hag 9 ‘Invidia (Envy)’ by Jacques de Gheyn II (1597) ‘Bewitched Groom’ by Hans Baldung Grien (1545)
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Witches and the supernatural 10 ‘Linda maestra! (Pretty Teacher!)’, Francisco de Goya Y Lucientes (1799). ‘Witch Riding Backwards on a Goat’ By Albrecht Durer, (1500).
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Magical Powers over nature 11 ‘The Witches’ Rout (The Carcass), by Agostino Veneziano (c. 1520).
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The Tempting Hag 12 Hansel and Gretel, the Brothers Grimm, 1812. Praying on the innocent (children) Plays on fears of kidnapping. But German.
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European Influence Hans Christian Andersen (Danish) The Snow Queen The Little Mermaid The Brothers Grimm (German) Sleeping Beauty Hansel and Gretel Snow White 13 ‘Invidia (Envy)’ by Jacques de Gheyn II (1597)
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The Distribution of Witches Germany: Estimated 50,000 trials Scotland: Estimated 3,200 indictments (1,500 executions) England: Estimated 2,500 indictments (500 executions) 14
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The Era of Witches First major trials: 1420s Last European execution: Anna Göldi, 1782 (Switzerland) Last Scottish executions: Janet Horne, 1727 Last English executions: 3 women in Devon, 1682 Europe: From the late medieval period to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. England: from the early modern period to c. the Restoration of the Monarchy. 15
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Temporal - Scotland 16 Scottish Data by Anna Mitschelle
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Geospatial - Scotland 17 Scottish Data by Anna Mitschelle
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Matthew Hopkins 18
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English Religious Upheaval Reformation (mid 16 th c) Devil a force in the world Catholic remedies no longer work Religious uncertainty (Mary, Elizabeth) Civil War (mid 17 th c) 1640s-1660s. Battle on (largely) religious grounds Puritans vs Arminians Austere vs Lavish religion Oliver Cromwell executes Charles I (1649) 19 Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector
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Witchcraft as a Crime 3 Statutes: 1542, Maleficium 1563, Conjuring spirits 1604, Destroying property, digging up graves, feeding spirits. 1736, Witchcraft repealed Private Accusation Required Everyone had a suspect 20 Malleus Maleficarum, 1490.
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Neighbourliness 21 ‘Charity Scorned’ Keith Thomas and Alan MacFarlane The Logic of Magic
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Misogyny? 22
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Summary Separating our stereotypes from historical reality. Role of women in society. Religious strife and unexplained phenomena. Power politics. 23
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