Word: witchcraft
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...belief in witchcraft has existed foran immeasurable time period, perhaps beginningwith ancient shamman's concept of "sympatheticmagic" and holding with modern day concepts ofoccultism and New Age religion. History is rifewith stories and reports of witch-hunts, initiatedand perpetuated by hysterical masses desperated todefeat the all-powerful supernatural. A centralissue to address, then, is the need for people tocontrol these supernatural forces of witchcraft.Did the people they targeted as witches haveunnatural control over their surroundings? In mostcases in colonial America, the accused witches didnot have excessive personal or social power.However, their victims, as well as the hystericalcommunity, perceived them...
...that many of the witches whoconfessed did so under torturous conditions. Inthe late 1500's and early 1600's in Europe, theaccused were tried, tortured until they confessedand immediately put to death for practicing blackmagic.2 In Salem, the accused were not tortured;thus initial and convincing confessions ofactually practicing witchcraft were rare...
...George Lyman Kittredge, Notes on Witchcraft(Worchester, Massachusetts: The Davis Press,1907), p.46...
...Hans Sebald, Witchcraft: The Heritage of aHeresy (New York: Elsevier North Holland, Inc.1978...
...From "Witchcraft and the Human Need forControl," by Abigail A. Kohn '90, IndependentStudy for the department of Folklore andMythology, Spring...