Witches - The history of a persecution

Serie/Series: Nej/No.
Författare/Author: Nigel Cawthorne.
Genre: Fakta/non fiction, historia/history.
Språk/Language: Engelska/English.
Sidor/Pages: 230.

(English below)


Handling: Under cirka 300 år anklagades runt 100 000 människor (mest kvinnor) i både Europa och bland nybyggarna i Amerika för att vara häxor. Tiotusentals människor brändes på bål. Man behövde inte ens göra något fel, det räckte med att någon pekade ut en som häxa så var man i princip körd. Oavsett hur mycket man än försökte bevisa sin oskuld blev man alltid misstrodd, för det är väl precis det en anhängare av Satan skulle säga? Men vad dömdes dessa människor för egentligen och hur resonerade man i de olika länderna där detta skedde? Varför trodde man att tortyr var en bra metod för att få fram sanningen och inte exakt tvärtom?

Min åsikt om boken: Detta är en välfylld faktabok om olika häxrättegångar runt om i västvärlden. Författaren utgår helt ifrån rättegångsprotokoll och uppvisar ett ganska intressant samband mellan en orolig värld och en ökad risk för att såna här hysterier ska skapas och sprida sig som en löpeld. Det framgår också klart och tydligt att man inte var intresserad av att få reda på sanningen, utan man ville mest ha någon att skylla på och gärna tortera folk. Unga, vackra kvinnor var speciellt utsatta (överraskande...). Men inte ens barn undkom varken toryrkammaren eller bålet. En hel drös med sadister fick härja fritt land och rike runt.

Bara för att belysa hur man tänkte så ska jag ge ett exempel från sid 17, där en anklagad man kallad Reverend Burroughs säger följande: "There neither are nor ever were witches that, having made a compact with the Devil, can send a devil to torment other people at a distance", he said. Denying the existence of witchcraft was proof of being a witch". Logiken... Till och med en hund stod anklagad i Salem och dömdes som häxa. Den hängdes. Jag tycker detta illustrerar mänskligheten på ett rätt träffande sätt, då det varken är första eller sista gången man gjort nåt liknande (Förintelsen, folkmordet i Rwanda och andra ställen osv). Och sedan det typiska kvinnoföraktet. Var en kvinna för vacker, smart, stark, maktfull, "ful", otrevlig eller "vild" så måste hon automatiskt ha varit en djävulsdyrkare. "Riktiga" kvinnor höll sig på sin kant och gjorde vad de blev tillsagda. Vi har kommit en bit därifrån, men inte lika långt som vi gärna vill tro... En mycket bra och informativ bok, som dock innehåller en hel del beskrivningar om tortyr, men utan att bli för mycket. Mycket läsvärd!


Mitt favoritcitat ur boken:

"The fear of witches was also widespread among the Germanic peoples,who spread throughout Europe during the decline of the Roman Empire. As in the Greco-Roman world, such powers were especially attributed to women, and the old hag who practised witchcraft became a common figure in litterature. In Northern Germany, sacred women were venerated as tribal soothsayers as women were the conduit of nature."
- sid 34.

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Story: During approx. 300 years around 100 000 people (mostly women) stood accused of witchcraft in both Europe and colonial America. Tens of thousand people were burnt at the stakes. You didn't even have to do anything wrong, it was enough if someone accused you of being a witch and you'd be done. No matter how hard you try to prove your innocense you would not be believed, because isn't that exactly what a follower of the Devil would say? But what was these people really punished for and what was the thought process in the different countries when all of this went on? Why did people think torture was a good method to extract the truth from people and not exactly the opposite?

My opinion of the books: This is a well packed book about different witch trials around the western world. The book is based of trial documents and demonstrates a pretty interesting connection between a chaotic world and an increased risk for hysterias like this one to emerge and spread like wildfire. It is also clear that people weren't interesting in getting the to the truth, they just wanted someone to blame and torture. Young, beautiful women were especially targeted for this (suprising...). But not even children got away from the torure chamber or the stake. A bunch of sadists were free to roam the lands and do their thing.

Just to illustrate how people were thinking during this time, I'll give an example from page 17, where an accused man called Reverend Burroughs says the following: "There neither are nor ever were witches that, having made a compact with the Devil, can send a devil to torment other people at a distance", he said. Denying the existence of witchcraft was proof of being a witch". The logic... Even a dog was accused in Salem and was found to be a witch. It was hanged. I think this illustrates humankind pretty well, since this in neither the first or the last time something like this has happened (The holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda and other places and so on). And then the typical misogyny. If a woman was too beautiful, smart, strong, powerful, "ugly", unpleasent or "wild" she must be in league with Satan. "Real" women were reserved, followed the protocol and did what they were told. We have made some progress regarding that, but not as much as we'd like to think... A very good and informative book, all though it contains some descriptions of torture, but without it being too much. It's worth a read!

My favorite quote from the book:

"The fear of witches was also widespread among the Germanic peoples,who spread throughout Europe during the decline of the Roman Empire. As in the Greco-Roman world, such powers were especially attributed to women, and the old hag who practised witchcraft became a common figure in litterature. In Northern Germany, sacred women were venerated as tribal soothsayers as women were the conduit of nature."
- sid 34.