HIST 332 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Old Ideas, Middle Ages, Heinrich Kramer
26 Mar 2019
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Idea of a personal access to the supernatural is there in the concept of witches" encounters with the devil and demons. Holy women"s encounter with the supernatural and arguing that it is god is not that different from witchcraft. Witch hunts began in the early 15th century but then there was a hiatus until the later 16th century. Period of the serious witch hunts were in the late 16th and early 17th century. One of the reasons we are discussing the subject today is because it became a major issue for second wave feminists in the 1960s/70s. Some of these feminists tended to identify with witches and consequently they took an interest in witches in the past. They tended to see witches as people like themselves: women who didn"t want a subordinate role in society and fought against it but patriarchy forced them back into their place.
