Witch-hunts have not been consigned to the history books. An alarming number of witchcraft-related deaths are still happening each year across nearly every continent.
The Nightmare by John Henry Fuselli, 1781.
Wikepedia
From ancient Greece to modern-day TikTok witchcraft, the world of witches has been a changing one.
The ‘Malleus Maleficarum,’ a medieval handbook, was used to try and execute supposed witches. Its influence lasted for centuries – including at the Salem Witch Trials.
Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
The idea of organized satanic witchcraft was invented in 15th-century Europe by church and state authorities, who at first had a hard time convincing regular folks it was real.
Seventy-eight percent of the people executed for witchcraft in New England in the late 17th and early 18th centuries were women.
Jef Thompson/Shutterstock.com
Powerful men often proclaim baseless accusations to be a ‘witch hunt.’ But American witch trials have always targeted a persecuted minority: women.
An old Canadian law which outlaws magic fraud is about to be eliminated. This print by William Hogarth, ‘Credulity Superstition and Fanaticism,’ from 1762 epitomizes the Enlightenment view that witchcraft and religious fanaticism go hand in hand.
William Hogarth/1762
An antiquated Canadian law against magic and witchcraft is about to be repealed. A close look at its history reveals that it is far less superstitious than it appears.
Witches at a protest against Donald Trump in St. Paul, Minnesota, 2018.
Fibonacci Blue
So often used to condemn women through history, feminism is reclaiming the word ‘witch’ in the 21st century. Some men also want to get in on the act.
A medieval engraving of the persecution of witches: historians are increasingly demonstrating that belief in witchcraft survived in Western Europe well into the 18th, 19th and even 20th centuries.
Wikimedia Commons
Sociologists know what conditions make it more likely a mass delusion will take hold and spread through a group – whether adherence to a fashion fad or belief in a doomsday cult.
Robert Eggers’ “The Witch” is a scary representation of Puritan life in the 17th century.
(The Witch, A24 Films, 2016)
Robert Eggers’ indie film The Witch brilliantly chronicles Puritan life in the 1630s. Horror soon ensues as children disappear into the woods and one girl, Thomasina, is accused of witchcraft.
FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers at hearing on allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
A ‘witch hunt’ is what Trump called investigations into his campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election. An anthropologist explains the connection between witch hunts and social control.