Midterm #2 Lecture Notes

Question 1

Origination of Salem WH

Answer 1

• Salem Hysteria originated in home of Rev. Samuel Parris when his niece and daughter started having unexplainable fits
• Called doctors - It wasn’t epilepsy must be supernatural
• They thought they were bewitched so eventually these girls (9/11) started accusing people
• They first accused typical victims -There already was gossip about them

Question 2

Why is Salem unique?

Answer 2

1. Those accused for WC were not typical - full fledged Church members
   - if a church member was in league with the devil, anyone could be-obviously the devil is attacking the whole village (children saw invisible spectres flying around=and god wouldn’t let children lie)
2. use of rumours in accusations (if you didn’t like someone)
3. Witches teat - a sacred left from being bitten by the devil

Question 3

What happened to cause the hysteria in Salem?

Answer 3

• Children would go into the same hysterics and contortions in the preliminary hearings and were accepted - Historians don’t know what were happening with the kids
• Some kids could turn it on and off -> Some say it was psychological and spiritual, or they faked it sometimes because they felt pressured
• also potentially other historical pressures - indian wars; lack of permanence with land

Question 4

Salem trying process

Answer 4

• Women couldn’t be tried without govt precedence
• They had to wait months so women were held in jail
• Perfect storms of circumstance - as they held pressures
• New charter in may 1692 - the court of oyer and terminer was established to investigate witchcraft allegations
• It was done under pretty fancy govt processes
• Many trials last half a day- many women had no idea what to do - going to trial = death

Question 5

Salem - over 50 people falsely confessed

Answer 5

• They thought, I didn’t think I was a witch, but maybe I am, the devil got a hold of me without me knowing
• They also found out if you cooperated you weren’t tried right away, and at the trial everyone was found guilty and executed right away

Question 6

what was the Salem witch hunt?

Answer 6

• a series of trials for witchcraft between February 1692- May 1693
• Known generally as Salem witch trials, but they were actually conducted around a series of towns - Most infamous ones were in Salem
• There were 19 persons who were hanged, one pressed to death (rocks were stacked on hum to get him to confess, he didn’t so he died) and many died in jail due to conditions

Question 7

Historical Context to Trials

Answer 7

• in the 17th century in colonial NA, Xian and spiritual elements was a part in everyday life - especially satan,
• The political revolution in England and the catholic rule was overthrown by protestants
• Sporadic conflicts with French, English and First Nations
• Refugee crisis at home (people fleeing from the north with the attacks around modern canada)
• People coming down and passing through and some settling in Salem
• The background of Puritans
• Saw the English protestants of being too liberal

Question 8

How to find a witch in Salem

Answer 8

Spectral evidence (can't see with naked eye) 
Witch cake / Touch test / confessions / witches teat

Question 9

Witch cake

Answer 9

• made from rye meal and the urine of a bewitched person. It’s baked and fed to the dog
• Because the witch sends particles from their eyes and goes into the person and causes all the problem, you pee the witchy particles out and it goes into the cake witch gets agitated as the dog eats it which agitates and hurts/causes rashes on the witch

Question 10

Touch Test

Answer 10

The witch causes the ‘fit’ and if that person touches them and they stop the fit it proves their the witch (similar particles touching each other)

Question 11

Doctrine of Effluvia

Answer 11

Doctrine of expulsion - the thing that happens with the witch cake test (the witch particles coming from their eyes)

Question 12

More on the ‘fits’ of the kids in Salem

Answer 12

• What would be causes?
  
  • Sources of trauma - refugee and destruction
  • Poison in the rye bread (like LSD) so people would just be tripping / Fungal poisoning
• Mass hysteria
• Why can’t we can’t just say that it was an accumulation of bringing over European ideology and a ‘logical’ reaction of the history with witches reacting with the crazy political goings on in NA

Question 13

Magic from POV of anthropology (WC in Africa)

Answer 13

• “magic refers to methods that somehow interface with the supernatural and by which people can bring about particular outcomes” (stein and stein)
• Sorcery = antisocial magic
  Common anthropological approach:
• Witchcraft - innate capacity
• Sorcery - deliberate choice, learned skill

Question 14

EE Evans-Pritchard

Answer 14

• His work still holds water Because he was the first scholar to look at magic as not just something as primitive/backwards/lesser than European religion and science
• Argued that witchcraft was perfectly rational to those who believed it - it was their way of understanding the world
• He looked at the Azande
• His work was important because he focused on the mental component of different cultures - and looking at cultures (“primitive) different ways of thinking not as a mistake or as underdeveloped or clouded in emotion but by trying to find an alternative reason

Question 15

Brief description of Azande’s view on magic

Answer 15

• Witchcraft is attributed to unexplained events - natural things (not like, a man cheating on his husband) -> people in the west call “being in the wrong place at the wrong time” or bad luck
• Often times it ends in a ritual where the person promises to not do it again even though it was an inevitable thing - the person who’s toe got stubbed goes to the ‘witchy’ person and says hey you’re witchyness caused this, and the witch would say sorry and preform some type of reconciliation ritual

Question 16

two movies we watched

Answer 16

“Salem witch hunt”

“strange beliefs”

Question 17

Notes from Strange Beliefs video

Answer 17

• “Is their motives and notions of reality so different from ours or are they just expressed in an unfamiliar way”
• It is in connection to death where the Azande’s understanding of witchcraft makes the most sense
• Witches can injure someone just inherently - it’s a psychic attack, often subconsciously
• Witchcraft is a substance that is physically in the body of witches (by the liver)

Question 18

WC Tools

Answer 18

• The rubbing board (used by an oracle) - Helps establish who is causing the misfortune
• Poison oracle: Feeding things to different animals - their death or lack of death will give answer
• The oracle and witchdoctor are different - The witchdoctor combats magic
• So among the Azande - witchcraft is psychical energy

Question 19

WC and AIDS - a way to explain unfortunate events

Answer 19

• AIDS functions similarly to WC
• both have delayed display of symptoms
• understanding of life being eaten away by invisible forces
• children and fertility targeted

Question 20

WC and The Kuranko

Answer 20

Michael D Jackson

anthropologist who did research with the Kuranko in N Sierra Leone in 70s

Question 21

Stereotype of WC among Kuranko

Answer 21

opposite to ideal social behaviour

• Morgoye vs no personhood
• friendly vs predatory
• open vs secret
• devoted to fam vs works w coven

Question 22

Kuranko as Confessional society

Answer 22

• those who confess are on deathbed or are killed
• women usually have range of relationships that offer or deny her power, this offers control (in illness autonomy is denied even further - a confession could be a desperate attempt to air grievances/give meaning to the sickness)

Question 23

James L Brain’s Mobility theory for WC (Africa)

Answer 23

• Some social structures are more likely to foster witch beliefs than others
• Hunter-gatherer societies very rarely have witch beliefs
• Those that do tend to have some attachment to property- witches as coming from another tribe-when witchcraft is identified they leave the area
• Societies with little/no mobility and high attachment to property are more likely to have witch beliefs
• When property is threatened - reactions against witches are stronger
• Brain’s theory matches up with social change theories for witch hunts in Europe
• eg. Decline of witch hunts happened when there was an improvement of healthcare and food quality

Question 24

James L Brain’s theory for why women? (Africa)

Answer 24

• Witches usually assumed to be women because in these societies property is inherited along patrilineal lines
• Women marry into families and produce heirs, but have no claim to property
• Underlying fear that women want this property and will use malevolent means to get it - The fact that they come from another family

Question 25

Occult Definition from Marcello Truzzi (1935-2003) - (studied sociology = pseudoscience and paranormal)

Answer 25

• [The term Occult comes from Latin - occultus meaning hidden]
  1. Beyond the range of ordinary knowledge, mysterious
  2. Secret, disclosed or communicated only to the imitated
  3. Of or pertaining to magic, astrology, and other alleged sciences claiming use or knowledge of secret, mysterious or supernatural

Question 26

• common denominator in definitions of occultism - an anomaly

Answer 26

• He argues that anomaly’s are historically and contextually specific - so what exceeds normative knowledge changes over time
• Things can shift from occult to science status

Question 27

Two kinds of anomaly

Answer 27

• Anomalous objects
  
  • Sasquatch, aliens, etc. supervisor
• Anomalous processes
  
  • Ordinary things that are in someway put in extraordinary circumstances reacting in weird circumstances - eg. pins and dolls and when they come together / planets and their alignment and birth

Question 28

Esotericism definition

Answer 28

• Used to refer to secret knowledge, teachings
• used in scholarship rather than occult
• Catch-all category for things that are not religious, scientific, etc - Something secret or deliebaretly hidden
• Mode of knowledge only accessible through personal, mystical experience
• Esotericism versus occult
• Greek esoterikos - inward private
• Connection to attitudes of alchemists/astrologers in medieval period
• Elitist mindset-Need for initiation to access understanding

Question 29

Difference between Von Struckard and Truzzi’s interpretation of the occult

Answer 29

• Von Stuckrad: secrecy plays a role in esotericism in that the absolute knowledge these discourses discuss can only be accessed through special methods, foundational knowledge, group memberships, etc.
• Cf. Truzzi: occult = anomaly
• Von Stuckrad more interested in elaborate systems of hidden truth (more big picture - ‘absolute truth’)
• Truzzi includes more idiosyncratic elements, e.g., yeti, aliens, etc. (looks at smaller details)
• Von Stuckrad: hidden knowledge of absolute truth can be found in many historical periods

Question 30

Rosicrucians mythic origin

Answer 30

based on texts - Fama Fraternitatis (Fame of the Fraternity) - offer perfect knowledge
theory is the these texts (that describe Christian Rosenkreuz) started as a joke - he traveled to jerusalem and studied with rel masters - returned to Germany and founded fraternity of the rose cross (he lived in 14/15 ce)

Question 31

Rosicrucians historical origin

Answer 31

• Historical origin of books - they kinda just popped up, claim dates of origin by those who allude to them in their texts (like ancient texts)
• Order of the Golden and Rosy Cross founded in 1750s
  
  • No longer exists - failed pretty fast

Question 32

Freemasons Historical origins

Answer 32

• 17-18th ce-People gathered in groups called lodges
• Originally thought to be lodges/barracks for communal living of masons (pretty elite worker)
• Some connections to masonry, but that was eventually severed from philosophical pursuits
• Grand Lodge formed in 1717 when 5 lodges merged
• They’ve been heavily involved in the enlightenment movement, and political movements (French movements)

Question 33

Freemasons Mythic origins

Answer 33

• King Solomon and mythic building of first temple in Jerusalem (10th bce)
• Medieval stone masons
• Like masonry carves a stone into perfect form, freemasonry thought to carve a person/society into perfect form through development of knowledge

Question 34

Freemasons 3 degrees

Answer 34

• Entered Apprentice
• Fellow Craft
• Master Mason
  Don’t really have any common rituals internationally anymore-But do have things in common:
• All have signs and gestures to indicate membership, rituals and philosophical teachings
• Shows international connections
• Must keep these things and all others secret

Question 35

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

Answer 35

• philosophy of hermeticism
• Order founded 1888 in England by William Robert Woodman (1828-1891), William Wynn Westcott (1848-1925), and Samuel Mathers (1854-1918)
• Magical order - formed with the goal of doing magic (it was starting to be a fringe/cool thing to be interested in)
• Preformed magical rituals - speak to gods
• Essentially neoplatonist stuff with an Egyptian flavour
• Knowledge is gained through them

Question 36

Text - 15th century translation of Corpus Hermeticus (2nd – 3rd century CE)

Answer 36

• Dialogue between a teacher and a student
• Attributed to Hermes Trismegistus (Hermes the Thrice Great)
• Mythical figure associated with Hermes (Greek) and Thoth (Egyptian)
• Both associated with writing and magic
• Written in egypt and cycled around Roman Empire

Question 37

Cipher Manuscripts

Answer 37

the texts at the root of their hermetic order’s rituals

Question 38

Hermetic - initatory rituals

Answer 38

• Higher up you go, the more you learn - the highest you can get results in being one with the divine
• Similar to the Neoplatonist rituals
• Had to go through rituals to join
• The levels and initiations were strictly controlled and confidential - hierarchal

Question 39

Alestair Crowley

Answer 39

• was member of golden dawn in 1898

- established his own magical order from things learned in ordo temple Orientis

Question 40

Thelema (crowley)

Answer 40

• He didn’t make this up, this knowledge was given to him on his honeymoon in modern day Egypt in 1904
• This was given to him from a spirit of Horis - named Aiwiss. It was a spirit that through him wrote stuff down -> called the Book of Law
• He saw himself as a messianic figure or the Aeon of Horis / the harbinger of the Aeon of Horis

Question 41

Magick (in his book of law)

Answer 41

• his is true magic, distinct from fake magic
• The primary purpose of magick is through a variety of practices, discover your true purpose - True Will
• Has alchemy (western) influences and yogic (eastern) influences
• This true will is not what you want, it’s what the universe wants for you
• Our conduct needs to be in accordance with our True will - so there are no ethical laws, we are all just to follow our true will -true will leads to enlightenment

Question 42

Theosophical society

Answer 42

• Founded 1875 in New York by William Quan Judge, Henry Steel Olcott, Helena Blavatsky
• Helena Blavatsky was primary influence -when she left the group, it fell apart
• formed a society around Helena’s communication with the Great White Brotherhood

Question 43

Prisca theologia

Answer 43

• In very distant past, the world had perfect knowledge and a complete religion
  
  • Over time, that knowledge and religion became degraded
  • All existing world religions are partial versions of this original

Question 44

ascended masters/great white brotherhood

Answer 44

• were once humans who had progressed through levels (initiations) of development to become spiritual beings
• studying the oldest religious traditions members of the society could gain knowledge
• Studying the knowledge of the great white brotherhood and these ancient religious traditions you could reach the same plain as these masters (egyptian/babylonian/Hinduism)

Question 45

fox sisters

Answer 45

(Margaret and Kate)
-the starters of spiritualism
-house in Hydesville, NY
-They heard weird noises, the sisters said they could communicate with the noises by banging on the walls
-They thought these were spirits (murdered peddler)
0People started to come and see this, and eventually they started to advertise this and people paid to come and see

Question 46

other elements of spiritualism at the start

Answer 46

• Stage shows E.g., Eddy Brothers’ farm
  
  • Sceptics often staged their own shows as a means to demonstrate the spiritualism shows as fraudulent-hey would follow around and make money in their own way
• Spirit photography also popular -photography was not very well known so people could easily get tricked
• Most prominent form of spiritualism was the home-based séance

Question 47

Women became authoritative mediums - why?

Answer 47

• Victorian ideas of how women were thought to behave
• Seen as passive (repository of all things that are male) so they could allow spirits to enter them
• Victorian morality - women were penetrated, men were penetrators -> underlies a lot of social norms in this time

Question 48

why so many occult groups in the 19th ce?

Answer 48

-Industrial Revolution - made people question their original beliefs -Introduction of tech and science - had a magical sheen
-Decline of influence of mainstream churches=The releasing of Darwin’s book - evolution challenging
-Influences of other religions - eastern religion (buddhism= there were other half decent religions out there)
Massive social change: Civil War aftermath (US), increased immigration, changes in women’s rights, slavery abolishment, etc.

Question 49

Why were the groups occult?

Answer 49

• Esotericism could combat new scientific theories (especially evolution)
• Could offer comfort in midst of change- Could allow people to combat social norms and structures
• Esotericism as social protest:
• Spiritualism: women could subvert norms about feminine passivity, etc.

Question 50

Appeal of secret societies

Answer 50

• White, middle/upper class mens’ privileges were being eroded by suffrage movement, abolition, economic instability, etc.,
• Mainstream churches were trying to appeal to women and immigrants
• Men only groups like Freemasons were often seen as antidote to “feminization” of society
• Secrets established them as distinct/better than others -Predominantly white, middle/upper class, Protestant men with white collar jobs
• Everyone could join theoretically, but immigrants, non-white people, lower classes could not afford the fees

Question 51

what is Read (from burning times) trying to say about WC?

Answer 51

(speaking more to WC now then in past)

• WC is an ancient and ultimately misunderstood practice; no need for fear or aggression against witches
• Assumes continuity between contemporary witches and early modern witches
• Assumes that WC is a universal phenomena-eg. healers in Mexico and Peru
• All witchcrafts share pagan roots with an emphasis on healing and women’s powers

Question 52

How scholars approach the myth perpetuated in the burning times (old date/xian church changing fertility god…)

Answer 52

• Because these narrative do not meet the standards of historical inquiry they are rejected
• Study how the narrative fits with the context of modern witchcraft communities
  
  • “Burning Times Myth”

Question 53

a myth in popular usage is any narrative that doesn’t meet these 3 criteria

Answer 53

1. the event is in a numerically fixed position in the sequence of elapsed time-We can affix a date to the event
2. there are written sources associated with the event- We have reputable written records that discuss the event
3. the only significant actors are human- No gods, ghosts, spirits, etc., are integral to the story

Question 54

Lincoln’s focus in defining narrative

Answer 54

focus on the truth claims a narrative is making and how an audience receives those claims

Question 55

Fable

Answer 55

a narrative where neither the narrator nor the audience assumes that there is a truth claim being made

Question 56

Legend

Answer 56

narrator claims to be retelling a true event, but the audience does not accept the story as credible

Question 57

History / Myth

Answer 57

Narratives in which the narrator claims to be presenting a truth claim AND that the audience accepts as credible could be considered
-credibility is determined by acceptance of audience

Question 58

How to separate myth and history?

Answer 58

• Truth claim + credibility + no authority = history
• Truth claim + credibility + authority = myth
• Myths don’t just claim to reproduce some true event; the event depicted plays a role in how a social group defines themselves

Question 59

Burning times myth reflects this discrimination

Answer 59

• Contemporary witchcraft first developed in the 1940s but European, North American society still predominantly Christian=Generally resistant to new religions - still persecution of modern witches (lose jobs/children)
• the reflection of this persecution in the myth places it in a longer historical trajectory: continuation of early modern discrimination - justification almost of their own suffering/experiences (narrative established contemporary concerns of sexism/environmentalism within the longer tradition)

Question 60

power of comparing modern critics to early modern witch hunters

Answer 60

• Unfavourable comparison; implicit critique of those opposed to contemporary witchcraft
• Potential shaming of modern folks who are acting like these medieval barbarians
  
  • As contemporary witchcraft becomes more accepted, will the Burning Times Myth have less authority?

Question 61

Neopaganism

Answer 61

• movement in 19th ce
• heavily influenced by romanticism (late 18th ce)->Reaction against Industrial Revolution, valorization of nature
• Pagan practices assumed to be related to nature worship
• Nostalgic reconstruction / invention of the past - antidote to current shitty stuff -> Umbrella term for a variety of groups that try to recreate, reinvent, etc., pagan practices

Question 62

Things within umbrella of neopaganism

Answer 62

• Norse paganism
  
  • Still around, but often associated with white supremacy
• Druids
• Egyptian paganism
• Greco-Roman paganism
• Goddess worship
• Wicca/witchcraft

Question 63

various WC traditions

Answer 63

Varieties of traditions

* Gardnerian
* Alexandrian
* Feminist (Dianic covens)
* Eclectic
* Individual or Solitary Witches - Like witchcraft but can’t handle other witches  * Churches-E.g., Wiccan Church of Canada