This chapter explains the persecution of women as witches and why, in some societies and times, women are primarily branded and persecuted as witches. The authors use three variables to explain witch hunts: Patriarchy, cultural beliefs, and structural changes within society. First, witch hunts have been used to enforce women's exclusion from highly valued spiritual knowledge and establish patrilineal property regimes. Second, they have been used to enforce social beliefs in the existence of persons, mainly women, who use supernatural power to cause misfortune, (e.g., illness, deaths, bad crops) in their communities. Third, witch hunts have also been used to protect the old moral economy and, at the same time, to promote the new economy of accumulation. Importantly, the authors note some recent expressions of the rejection of such belief in the witches and demand for proof of witchcraft.
Advertisement
