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   Prof. Boswell's meanest TA (alpine_thistle@fandom.ink)'s status on Saturday, 14-Oct-2023 17:46:05 JST Prof. Boswell's meanest TA

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   The "witches" aren't your protofeminist girlboss ancestors. They are part of a dark and complex lesson about the dangers of authoritarian religion, centralized power, us/them propaganda, mob rule, and the scapegoating of minorities.

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     Prof. Boswell's meanest TA (alpine_thistle@fandom.ink)'s status on Saturday, 14-Oct-2023 17:46:06 JST Prof. Boswell's meanest TA

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     The "witches" weren't persecuted for being "witches." They were persecuted for being marginalized/vulnerable in societies that were undergoing massive, chaotic transformations, with populists and mobs who were looking for someone to blame.

     "Cunning folk" and "wise women/men" were often persecuted for being at the rural edge of societies that were moving away from the traditional, decentralized agrarian order. They often went to their deaths saying Christian prayers.

     AnthonyJK-Admin repeated this.
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     Prof. Boswell's meanest TA (alpine_thistle@fandom.ink)'s status on Saturday, 14-Oct-2023 17:46:07 JST Prof. Boswell's meanest TA

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     Often, "magic" was inseparable from medicine and religion (including Christianity). A "healing spell" might include folk herbalism, the invocation of a spirit or saint, and other rituals.

     The witch trials didn't take off until the very late Middle Ages into the Early Modern period, which is when European monarchies (including the Papacy) started consolidating power and began persecuting ALL kinds of nonconformists (including Jews, Christian minorities, gay people, etc).

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     Prof. Boswell's meanest TA (alpine_thistle@fandom.ink)'s status on Saturday, 14-Oct-2023 17:46:08 JST Prof. Boswell's meanest TA

     Since it's Halloween season, and I'm apparently Medieval-ish History Bill Nye on like three different platforms now, have some information about "witches."

     There was never really any such thing as a "witch." There were no "Burning Times." There was no underground pan-European goddess magic cult that was suppressed by the evil Christians.

     Many different cultures believed in different forms of magic, both good and evil, and had different names for the practitioners of this magic.

     AnthonyJK-Admin repeated this.