Historiographical Review: Witchcraft When studying witch craft over the past 500 years or so, authors have covered a lot of material. , the In Carlo Ginzburg’s work, The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century, he attempts to locate the origin of the ‘Benandanti’ belief and how it came to be in the Friuli region of Italy. The Benandanti were a group of people who believed that during the Ember Days of the year, after they fell asleep, that their souls left their bodies and went off to fight witches in the night. Ginzburg goes into great detail on the many trials associated with the benandanti during this time. In Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum’s work, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft,
At some point during the 15th century, Witchcraft was a normal part of everyday life. Witches accompanied religious ministers to help the ill or to deliver a baby. They were regarded as having spiritual power in their communities. When something went wrong, no one questioned the ministers or the power of the witchcraft. Instead, they questioned whether the witch intended to inflict harm or not.
Marie’s aunt also uses Voodoo in a bad way because she too is innately evil. She killed her sister out of jealously and rage that Marie Levant, her niece had the gift rather than her daughter Marie-Claire. Her aunt knowingly let her daughter Marie-Claire be a pawn in Allez’s plan of zombification. She embraced the fact of reinforcing devil worshipping, zombification and making the world fear
Hoodoo was a secret religion (or folk magic) practice by West Africans. They used Hoodoo to cure diseases, for protection, and occasionally punishment. The purpose of Hoodoo was to allow people access to supernatural forces to improve their lives. Hoodoo is claimed to help people attain power or success ("luck") in many areas of life including money, love, health, and employment. Hoodoo is neither a religion, nor a denomination of a religion—it is a form of folk magic that originated in West Africa and is mainly practiced today in the Southern United States.
“. Yes, he was stone, stone dead. I placed my hand upon the heart and held it there many minutes. There was no pulsation. He was stone dead.
Magic was almost always related to a relationship with the Devil, which made it inherently evil. Moreover, the witches gained their power by worshipping Satan. By doing his bidding on Earth, he in turn granted them with extraordinary powers. Moreover, witchcraft does not work like anything we thought it did
He went through the same process as everyone else. He was required to leave his belongings, shaving of the hair, the marking of a tattoo, and then shower. Philippe died in, Steinberg recalls the moment he found out, and what it was like recalling the memory of
Witchcraft in Mexico came from the Hispanics and pre-Hispanic cultures. They do ceremonies using all types of herbs and poisonous to eliminate evil spirits. They have also used dead animals like snakes, love charms and even holy water from the lake. In case of lack of herbs and dead animals, they have also used modern medicines as an alternate for some that is suffering from evil spirts. “The participants have their very own convention in March in Catemaco, Mexico.”
The Beginning of it all Several hundred years ago, many Christians and other religious persons, had a strong belief that the Devil could give people, known as witches, the power to harm others in return for their loyalty to him. A "witchcraft craze" spread throughout Europe from the 1300s to the end of the 1600s. Tens of thousands of supposed witches—mostly
Martha Ward’s book “Voodoo Queen: The Spirited Lives of Marie Laveau” aims to dissect the complicated identity of the 19th-century voodoo priestess and her daughter of the same name. This book is the first study of the powerful religious leaders in a way that dismantles the common narrative of voodoo equating evil. During her examination of the Laveau legacy, Ward skillfully presents primary and secondary sources, as well as oral testimonies (1935-1943) from the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration. With a combination of archives that has considerable depth and breadth, Ward is able to analyze one of the most dynamic heritages in American Voodoo.
A large portion of the population in Haiti follow the Roman Catholic Religion, however, there is an understanding that Voodoo may be the National Religion of Haiti. In the
The first Ghost Dance began in 1869 with the spiritual visions of a prophet named Wodziwob, a Northern Paiute from the Walker River Indian Reservation in Nevada. In his vision, Wodziwob was told that the Indian dead would return and with them the old, happy life, provided that Native people tirelessly devoted themselves to around dances. Native adherents assembled for dances that lasted four or five days. Dancers collapsed from exhaustion and received visions in which they saw their deceased relatives. This Ghost Dance spread throughout native California and up into Oregon in the 1870s.
A stereotype is defined: “To believe unfairly that all people or things with a particular characteristic are the same.” Another definition is: “As a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.” There are numerous types of stereotypes based on dress, culture, sex, location, and race characteristics. They are oftentimes discriminatory in judgement. Even though, some stereotypes may have some truth to them, it is inexcusable to state all people in a specific area or similar characteristics are the same.
Witches practice witchcraft which grants access to let witches have communication with the devil. Furthermore, “the culmination of the mythology of witchcraft came about from the 15th to the 18th centuries in the depiction of the witches Sabbath” (Carroll). Witchcraft is talked about and defined in the book, The Element Encyclopedia of Ghosts & Hauntings, saying, “Witchcraft is an ancient art that utilizes the powers of nature and the mind to bring out desired effect” (Cheung 539). In addition to that, witchcraft works by using certain combinations of natural elements to draw certain energies.
As I said, what they possibly though were witchcraft back then could be something treatable by now. Unlike in 1690’s, they didn’t have proof to back their hypothesis that it was bewitching. But now that the reason behind the said incidents were already established and proved wrong by people who studied what might have happened back then. People might still believe witchcraft does exist in present time solely because they have no idea that it might just be an illness that they had no idea about. That the reaction of people around toward something can affect greatly on how things can be
