Here's an interesting one to ponder. Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times (which is About.com's parent company) takes a look at a California researcher who believes that harsher weather leads to more accusations of witchcraft in under-developed nations. Professor Edward Miguel of UC Berkeley says that in Tanzania, during years which the country has unusual rainfall, the number of elderly women accused of witchcraft tends to double. In other words, have a year with droughts or flooding, and your chances of being killed for being a witch increase dramatically.
As we face a global change in food supply thanks to climate shifts, Miguel says that it's likely that rural areas in third-world countries will see more and more women charged with witchcraft, and likely killed for it. University of Chicago economist Emily Oster studied European witchcraft trial records, and found that over the course of two centuries, years with harsher, colder weather saw an increase in the number of women charged with witchcraft. There's also a theory that the Salem witch trials were rooted in a loss of food supply compounded by an influx into Massachussetts of settlers who were escaping massacres in Maine (read Mary Norton's In the Devil's Snare for more on the socio-political aspects of the Salem hangings).
Recently, there has been a significant increase in publicized witchcraft accusations in places like Africa and India. What's really striking about this is that the majority of the women targeted in these "witch killing" attacks are not in fact witches, but simply women who angered someone else in their village. Once the mob mentality takes over, there's little they can do to defend themselves.
As we face a global change in food supply thanks to climate shifts, Miguel says that it's likely that rural areas in third-world countries will see more and more women charged with witchcraft, and likely killed for it. University of Chicago economist Emily Oster studied European witchcraft trial records, and found that over the course of two centuries, years with harsher, colder weather saw an increase in the number of women charged with witchcraft. There's also a theory that the Salem witch trials were rooted in a loss of food supply compounded by an influx into Massachussetts of settlers who were escaping massacres in Maine (read Mary Norton's In the Devil's Snare for more on the socio-political aspects of the Salem hangings).
Recently, there has been a significant increase in publicized witchcraft accusations in places like Africa and India. What's really striking about this is that the majority of the women targeted in these "witch killing" attacks are not in fact witches, but simply women who angered someone else in their village. Once the mob mentality takes over, there's little they can do to defend themselves.
This is no laughing matter. I just read an article on Yahoo about people in the Congo being hung for other people thinking they were using black magick to steal and shrink mens penis’. Now I laughed out loud when I read that article, until I realized they were really serious. Those poor people are really being murdered for that crap. Then I also started thinking, didn’t the witch trials also have something to do with men getting their egos hurt because of women doing things better than them. well, maybe there is something to the whole weather thing and witch hunts. Someone should try to corrolate the missing penises with droughts or lack of food. Or maybe the Congo has lost something else and the penis theft is just a backlash from that lose. WHO KNOWS? I think it’s worth a second look.
LOL…..that would have been a lot of killing in Congo. I know I shouldn’t laugh about that either, but you made it funny. From what I understand Dragonwind, that was the case. Men were intimidated by the knowledge of women. And this caused envy and hatred. I believe that is the root of the burnings. I have two ancesters from the Salem trials but we have no knowledge if they were actually witches.
I read Mary Norton’s In The Devil’s Snare in college and wrote a book report on it. I think it does a poor job of explaining the Salem trials in relation to the Maine massacres. But that’s neither here nor there.
Witchcraft has always been percieved as a way to control the things that are beyond human control, like the weather or illness. For example, a lot of women throughout history who were local healers and midwives were valued in their community…until someone’s baby died during childbirth. Then that woman was practicing “black magick”. When a local medicine woman can’t control the weather (and none of us can), then she is accused of “black magick”. If your cattle dies due to a drought, blame a witch…etc, etc. The list goes on and on.
So the correlation between witch killings and bad weather makes a lot of sense.
For all of us witches are going to have to sick together.
And we are doing a good job too Billie Joe. Its like the sleeping giant has awoken.
It’s not a laughing matter! You’re all right! The problem is that it does exist and that’s why so many of us don’t even dare to come out of the broom closet. As for the men’s penises, maybe they need a better magnifying glass…. lol