HIS102Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Heinrich Kramer, Lyndal Roper, Jacob Sprenger
Document Summary
Disorderly conduct, the reformations, and communal control in the early modern witchcraze. Witch-hunts more broadly in the context of the construction and practice of gender roles. Regional variations: 90% women in some places, other areas majority tried are men. Maleficia vs. benevolent magic: witch as bearing ill-will, harm, demonic power. Vulnerability of women to witchcraft allegations given structure of gender relations. Significance of looking at the witch trials this way. 1)the narrative/mythology of the witch: witch"s body, witch"s social activities: social and political conditions: reformation climate for beliefs in the devi, interpersonal relations: village-level, historical micro-studies, malleus maleficarum (the hammer of the witches) Inversion of order and sexuality: anti-fertility rites, perverse maternity. German inquisitor, pope sixtus iv, bishop of augsburg, 1482. Crusade against witches, reinforcement of sacrament of marriage and procreation. Popularity of malleus maleficarum, usage or relevance in the witch trials. Weather conditions, food and/or crops, modes of travel.
