Witch hunts are increasingly portrayed in some feminist circles as an attack by
men on a "sacred feminine," on women who are said to have had access to powers ofhealing and understanding through their interconnectedness with nature. Thisessentialist reading is not, however, a historical reading. ---- The history ofwitch hunts is that of a patriarchy that made women who deviated from the norm adanger. The patriarchy of the modern period is based on mythological andhistorical accounts, religious, but also on philosophical and medical texts[1].The medieval and modern periods pick up beliefs that women's discussions lead torumors and insurgencies. The patriarchy feeds and fuels these misogynistic fears,it is impossible to know the exact origin and whether this fear existed beforethe control of women. It is this patriarchal order that will create the figure ofthe witch, the misogyny of the witch hunts being to be compared, under multipleaspects, to racism.A misogynistic storyThe first witch trials took place between 1324 and 1325 in Kilkenny, Ireland.What we can call witch hunts begins around 1420 in Switzerland. The heyday wasbetween 1560 and 1580 and continued until the 17th century when the last trialsand convictions for witchcraft took place.The witch is generally portrayed as flawed, dumb, lascivious, manipulative,drunk, gluttonous, etc.[2]. To these myths, science and philosophy will provideadditional reasons to be wary of women. They notably follow Aristotle[3]whodescribes the female sex as a "failed male" combining "imbecility" (mentalweakness) and "debility" (physical weakness)[4]. Women are seen as necessaryerrors of a Nature[5]which would only aim to make boys, girls being failed beingsof monstrous essence, out of the norm but essential for reproduction[6]. ,because of their weakness and intellectual inferiority, are predisposed to betempted by the devil[7]. The publication of this book (1486-87) will acceleratethe witch hunt.It was worrying that a woman was not under the control of a man, widows,prostitutes, single mothers were feared. Their situation often pushed them tomarginality which also led to trials for witchcraft.Francisco de Goya, The Conjuring (The Witches) , 1797-1798, oil on canvas, LázaroGaldiano Foundation, Madrid.Women are accused of being incubi, working for the destruction of Christianity toallow the advent on earth of the kingdom of Satan, which they invoke during theSabbaths. Feminine devilry is found in her ability to charm men and therefore totake control over men like Salome or succubus. If a lawyer defended a womanaccused of witchcraft too much, it could mean that he had been bewitched. In1420, during the first "pyre of vanities", personal effects were thrown into thefire, judged to be objects leading to sin, to vanity. Among these: mirrors,cosmetics, dresses, jewelry, musical instruments but also books considered immoral.If beauty accessories can lead to being condemned for witchcraft, so canugliness, because perceived as potentially evil. This is also why many elderlywomen, considered ugly and therefore stripped of their femininity, are condemnedto the stake. Their ugliness is equated with the traits of the devil and death[8].When the women were denounced, they were completely shaved with a hot iron inorder to search their bodies for "marks of the devil": scars, stains on the skin,"toad's paws in the white of the eye" , insensitive areas, excessive thinness...Each bump, mole, imperfection could be used to prove guilt during witchcraft trials.Between the 13th and 14th centuries, women were categorized and sorted, notablyby preachers and moralists . We separate the nuns from the lay people and, withinthe lay people, the married women, the widows, the virgins and the little girls.Widows are seen as the most scandalous , accused of being matchmakers or witcheswho poisoned theirhusbands . It was disturbing that a woman was not under thecontrol of a man ; widows, prostitutes, single mothers were feared. Theirsituation often pushed them to marginality which also led to trials for witchcraft.Jews and witches are accused of ritual murders of Christian children. This wouldtake place in particular during the sabbaths, that is to say black masses, thisword referring directly to the Jewish shabbat (day of rest which must be devotedto prayer).Salvator Rosa, Witches' Sabbath, 1635-54, oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts,Houston.Another proof of devilry lies in unreason, which is questioned spiritually andmedically throughout the period. One of the beliefs was that the uterus is ademon that moves through women's bodies, causing them to lose control, i.e.making them hysterical. Hysteria characterizing both madness and female anger,the hysteric is one who does not respect the rules of propriety to which womenmust submit. These rules being partly dictated by religion, any woman who stepsout of line, moves away from the role that God would have given her can thereforeonly be a devil.Beautiful, ugly, alone or crazy: all witchesThe systemic nature of the witch hunt is demonstrated by its proximity to thepersecutions suffered by Jews over the same period. Witches, like Jews, are seenas the source of many human misfortunes and the loss of their piety. We can traceanti-Judaism back to the spread of Christianity in the fifth and sixth centuries. From then on, the Church set up a segregation prohibiting in particular Jewsfrom eating with clerics, from mingling with Christians during Passover, " mixed" marriages, funerals which follow the rite, etc. Then in the 7thcentury comeforced conversions: practicing Jewish rites can be punished by death. It wasduring the first crusades that the figure of the Jew was linked with that of thedevil, and that the first massacres of Jews took place, notably in the cities ofSpeyer, Worms, Mainz, Cologne and Metz.All this led, in the 14th and 15th centuries, to accuse them of poisoning thewells, of spreading the plague to kill the Christians. Witch hunts andanti-Judaic persecutions are fueled by fear of plague epidemics. Today it isbelieved that the plague epidemic was amplified by the witch hunt, in particularbecause it was accompanied by a massacre of cats, symbolizing human andespecially female weaknesses. This would have participated in the proliferationof rats, and therefore in the acceleration of the epidemic justifying the stakesfor witchcraft and heresy.13th century German Jews . The systemic nature of the witch hunt is demonstratedby its proximity to the persecutions suffered by Jews over the same period.Similarly, Jews and witches are accused of ritual murders of Christian children.This would take place in particular during the sabbaths, that is to say blackmasses, this word referring directly to the shabbat (day of rest which must bedevoted to prayer). Several heresies[10]had already been reproached for makingsabbats, but it was in 1438 that we find the first occurrence linking it to agathering of sorcerers[11]. The Inquisition makes the direct link between thewitches' sabbath and the Jewish shabbat[12].The inquisitions then concerned all people considered deviant by the Church, i.e.mystics, sorcerers, homosexuals, adulterers, etc. We find the same infamousprocedures for persecuting Jews and women. To prove the evil character of Jewishmen, we will accuse them of being partly women[13]. They are represented withfemale bodies, horns, breasts, breastfeeding... They are accused of having, likewomen, menstruation which would be the blood of Christ who, let us remember, waskilled by the Jewish people. Racism and patriarchy work together by feeding eachother.Racism and sexismTraditional representations still bring Jewish people (especially men[14]) andwitches closer together: long and hooked noses, long thin and calloused fingers,even hooked and clawed. But the clothing of the witches is also a reflection ofracist and sexist crosses, the pointed black hat accompanied by the blackclothing of the witches is initially a traditional German Jewish dress.Accusations against women are then used to hunt down and burn Jewish people andaccusations against Jews to hunt down and burn women.Witches have therefore never been women with magical powers, and witchcrafttrials have not been trials against women practicing herbal medicine or with aspecific connection to mother earth. These women were hunted down and killedbecause they were women, just as the Jewish people of the same period were killedfor racist reasons, racism and patriarchy interpenetrating to creatediscrimination. The witch hunts are the product of a misogynistic and classistdiscourse since it was aimed mostly at poor women. It was a tool of control thatwas meant to keep women in fear. Moreover, during the enclosure movement, whichtook place in particular in England between the 12th and 16thcenturies, womenwere accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake because they offered strongresistance to this movement which transformed previously collective land intoprivate property, suppressed the right of use[15]and transformed agriculturalland for human use in pastures, favoring the advent of wealthy landowners. Therebellions of women who rose up against this were then eradicated by accusingthem of being witches.Sarah (UCL Bordeaux)To validate[1]A. Gargam, B. Lançon, History of misogyny from Antiquity to the present day ,Arkhé, 2013.[2]A. Dubois-Nayt, N. Dufourneau, A. Paupert, Revisiting the "quarrel of women".Discourse on gender equality/inequality, from 1400 to 1600 , University ofSaint-Étienne, 2013.[3]Aristotle, History of Animals, in Complete Works, Gallimard, 1994.[4]C. Gros, Image of women in Florentine historiography of the 14th century , Aixen Provence, 2009.[5]M. Rénéric-Chauvin, Rereading the multiple facets of the sacred and profanefeminine , 2012.[6]Gargam, B. Lançon, op. cit.[7]P. Snyder in A. Dubois-Nayt, N. Dufournaud, A. Paupert, op.cit.[8]Michelle Perrot "My" history of women , Seuil, 2006.[9]C. Gros, 2009, op. cit.[10]In 1326, a first papal bull from John XXII equated ritual magic with heresy.[11]In texts of Christian demonology, as well as in the Gospels, the witches'sabbaths will be called "synagogues of witches" or "synagogues of the devil" .[12]But also with Kabbalah which becomes "Cabala" and synonymous with magic,occultism or conspiracy.[13]Gay men suffered the same persecution and were tried for witchcraft for thesame reasons.[14]Jewish women are the main absentees, since we have very few sources thatspeak of them.[15]Right to use seeds and ears on seigniorial lands.https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?chasse-sorcieres-intersection-patriarcat-antijudaisme_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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