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Deviance B

Deviance B Deviance Seminar Week 2

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  1. Please reply to this thread with a brief summary/key points of at least one text from the general reading. When reading whole books /edited collections, look at the Introduction and, from this, identify at least one other chapter that will be useful for the discussion.
     
  2. J.A. Sharpe, 'Witches and Persecuting Societies', /Journal of Historical Sociology/, 3 (1990), 75-86. * Interpretations of the western European witch-craze have portrayed it as the outcome of a plot by lawyers and clerics, as a side effect of patriarchal oppression, as a means of keeping people’s minds off the class struggle, as the outcome of drug-taking, or the result of long term socio-economic change in village societies. (p. 75) * Witch beliefs have been present in many societies, but the type of persecution occurring in western Europe between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries was distinctive due to the presence of an official ideology labelling witches as enemies of society, as well as the existence an official legal system prepared to prosecute and punish the crime of witchcraft. (pp. 78-79) * Witch panics were the result and strengthening of the ‘Christianisation of the people’ of Western Europe and the emergence of the nation state: the witch could be portrayed not only as a perpetrator of individual crimes but also as an embodiment of total evil. All sections of society agreed on the need to fight witchcraft. (pp. 79-80) * Intensified fears over witchcraft was an aspect of an alliance between church and state to control the populace: Dupont-Bouchat portrays the church as ‘waging a war’ against ‘rural mentalities, the practices of popular culture…the practices and the behaviour which did not conform to the new principles and new attitudes which it wished to push forward’. * Stresses the significance of pressure from above in creating the witch-craze. * Important to recognise that these processes were complex. For example, records from courts in the Netherlands display numerous types of behaviour with various reactions to the behaviour changing over time, and these were sometimes relatively tolerant. Moreover, it cannot be too strongly claimed that the witch-craze was merely imposed from above because there was genuine fear of witchcraft amongst the peasants, meaning that the judicial system often acted in a way to lessen these fears; this was achieved either by prosecuting the accused to remove the perceived threat, or alternatively to reassure the region that the accused was in fact innocent. The reality was more flexible than is usually assumed. (p. 82) * A successful ‘persecuting society’ is dependent upon the compliance of a considerable amount of people separated by attributes such as their social function, their position in the social hierarchy and their gender. Persecution is not universally the same and its application must be adapted to fit in with the appropriate historical and social contexts. (p. 83) * Historians have generally neglected how witchcraft is unquestionably real for the societies that believe in it, rather than merely being something invented by the agents of persecution. * Overall, though, the European witch-craze remains an unclear subject. (p. 84)
     
  3. Thanks for getting this started Lucy. I especially like your point about the inherent tension in the idea of a 'persecuting society'.
     
  4. William G. Naphy and Penny Roberts, Fear in early modern society (Manchester University Press, 1997) * Fear was all pervasive within European Society between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries. This was due to several reason; The Black death and pandemic plague, creating demographic change, the Papal schism and the reformation, causing religious change, the rise of nation states altering politics, and socio-economic change arising from proto-industrialisation, increasing urbanisation, and the shift from feudalism to capitalism. However, fear is a constant theme throughout history, with persistently deep-seated fears of crime, terrorism and unemployment. It is just that more documentary evidence has come to light regarding the Early European World. * In cases that have been examined, fear within a society has resulted in the uniting of the people behind a common interest, and occasionally a common enemy, identified most often with outsiders. For example, when calamity occurred e.g. fire or outbreak of plague, authorities used scapegoats who fulfilled the stereotypes of an ‘evildoer’, exacerbating people’s fears and justifying their persecution. This scapegoating indicates the ability of fear to act as a unifying factor, reinforcing solidarities between social groups and encouraging co-operation. Jews, Lepers, witches, vagrants, the poor, heretics and foreigners, were all targeted as scapegoats, blamed for the poisoning of wells, the spread of disease, arson etc. Catholic preachers feared desecration from burying heretics, lepers and Jews, and refused to bury heretics in consecrated ground. Nevertheless, only in the most extreme cases did the unifying power of fear result in the persecution of marginal groups. * The ‘witch-craze’, however, is the most dramatic and hostile manifestation of the collective anxiety of Early Modern European in action. This fear heightened during the reign of James VI. Speculation arose that witchcraft was behind the disastrous journey Anne of Denmark experienced in 1589. Charges were placed on several women who were supposed to have raised the storms which delayed Princess Anne. Not only were the women charged with this, it was also alleged that they later made attempts to kill the King by means of witchcraft and poison. The matter of these trials against Meg Dow, Agnes Sampson, Lady Fowlis and Hector Munro, involved the murder the children and adults, poison, personal abuse, sorcery, devilish incantations, and consultation with witches. * Agnes Sampson was accused of 102 articles and confessed to 58 including the raising of storms, attempting magical murder, and trafficking with the Devil. It was also revealed that there had been three separate attempts to kill King James VI and the queen. Firstly, cats had been bewitched and thrown into the sea with a view to raising a storm and drowning the queen as she journeyed to Scotland. It was then claimed that a picture of James was made from wax and passed from witch to witch to be enchanted. Lastly, a toad was apparently hung up by its heels, ‘dripping between three oyster shells and nine stones, cooking slowly for three nights’, from which poison was extracted to be dropped into the pathway of the king. Agnes Sampson was executed in 1591. * However, witchcraft was treated with a degree of scepticism, and penalties for its practice were not always inflicted according to the rigour demanded by statute law. Moreover, trials tended to use the accused as a means to popularise the conviction of a particular person/group of people.
     
  5. M. Douglas, 'Witchcraft and Leprosy: Two Strategies of Exclusion', Man, 26 (1991), pp. 723-36 * The fear of insidious harm created accusations and is what links witchcraft and leprosy. The idea that links these two deviants is the idea of disease. Witches were understood to look similar to ordinary people so they were hard to identify. With leprosy, one could be a carrier of the disease without showing signs of infection so once again they became a hidden threat intent on causing injury. The reality and unreality of harm was not considered. If there was even the smallest, most dubious amount of evidence, it was enough for people to believe in, hence why so many deviant groups were created. However, the fear of infection is real and this is heightened by society’s lack of understand surrounding disease and the causes of it. * For a behaviour to become deviant, libel alone is not enough and it has to do enough damage to be considered a public nuisance. The accusations remain largely the same during the period but changes its target from one group/individual to another. Once a deviant has been identified they then become the target for other accusations of deviancy that are deliberately hard to prove or disprove. * In Africa, witchcraft accusations became part of political strategies, as it mustered support for a cause. It then became a way to identify and rule over a minority, before becoming a way to identify outsiders. This is similar to the changing use of accusations of leprosy in Western Europe regarding leprosy. In Europe, there was a growth in judicial control from the end of the 30 years’ war and accusations reduced significantly. By the 19th century, reason began to overcome superstition and witch-hunts became less justified. An increase in legislation that everyone followed was influential in reducing the number of accusations. * In Eastern Europe, leprosy was not seen as a sin, as shown by the existence of Leper knights and their civic rights were safeguarded due to a greater understanding of the contraction and development of the disease. This is contrasted to Western Europe where lepers were originally accused of blood libel. Then from the 12th century, leprosy accusations were being used as a political weapon and the targets were changed, as what happened to witches in Africa. Now beggars and vagabonds were accused of having leprosy and they were stripped of citizenship as well as being accused of other deviant behaviour. This was an attempt to cure ‘social blight’ by isolating and punishing an imagined disease. * Deviancy and accusations became an abuse of privileges and the idea of a leper became a metaphor for social disorder and the desire for those in power to control the population. This creates a link between cultural history and medical history. As medical understanding grew, it became less justified to punish those with disease or those accused with having the disease. The growth the medical understanding also gave way to an age of more reason than superstition meaning deviancy became less socially justified.
     
  6. Oldridge, D. (2005) Werewolves and flying witches pp.96-111 * Oldridge begins his argument rather whimsically, illustrating the difference in perceptions of werewolves in today’s society and in pre-industrial Europe. “Comic movies like Teen Wolf would be impossible in a culture that regarded werewolves as a real threat.” (pp.96) * In medieval and Renaissance Europe, the idea that humans could transform themselves into beasts was widely accepted, and provided a topic for serious philosophical and legal debate. “On Saint Michael's day, while in the form of a werewolf, [Garnier] seized a young girl of ten or twelve years old near the Serre woods...There he killed her with his paw-like hands and his teeth, and ate the flesh of her thighs and arms, and took some to his wife” (pp.97) * Scepticism and suspicion began to emerge among the high ranks of European society and Renaissance intellectuals; “Stories of this kind are either untrue or at least so extraordinary that we are justified in withholding credence” – St. Augustine. (pp.99) This resulted in a pan-European reduction in werewolf persecution, especially in comparison with witch trials. * Crucially however, Oldridge argues that Renaissance scepticism was “not based on empirical evidence or scientific rationalism; rather, it derived from decidedly pre-modern concerns about the power of the Devil and the nature of miracles.” (p.99) This is essentially the crux of Oldridge’s argument; the necessity to view ‘modern’ cynicism of werewolves with a degree of caution. As he goes on to state, their rejection of werewolves was only replaced by the farcical belief that witches could fly. * He stresses that the ‘supernatural’ as we may view it today, was very much the reverse in pre-modern Europe. * The refusal of educated Europeans to accept the physical transformation of werewolves did not make them dismiss the phenomenon entirely. The Old Testament king was changed by an act of God (King Nebuchadnezzar who metamorphosed into an ox and an eagle whilst in exile), so surely it was possible for the devil to induce physical changes? * Oldridge, during his analysis of witches in pre-industrial Europe, suggests this may in fact have been the consensus during this period; “Most learned writers on witchcraft focused on the Satanic aspects of the crime: they saw witches mainly as rebels against God who cemented their apostasy by making a Satanic pact” (pp.105). * The supernatural belief that, in order to save a plethora of ‘witches’ all travelling to a given area possibly miles away from their homes, was called “spirit travel,” (pp.106) whereby “their spirits will be ravished out of their bodies as they lay in their beds.” However, this was later proved invalid by James VI who stated “The soul's going out of the body is the only definition of natural death.” (pp.106) * Oldridge implicitly suggests that intellectuals such as Remy, Boguet and James VI whose views when plucked out of historical context seem inexplicable today, were in fact entirely conventional in pre-modern Europe. He even implies that they were somewhat conservative in their approach as they merely conformed to ‘modern’ thinking. * As an onlooker it seems that Oldridge is stressing the importance of perspective. Throughout his piece he made sure the reader was aware that however ludicrous a pre-modern notion of witchcraft or werewolves may seem, it must be placed in historical context.
     
  7. Oldridge, D. (2005) Werewolves and flying witches Ch.6, pp.96-111
    • The modern conception and depiction of werewolves is informed by both history and Hollywood. The werewolf today is viewed as purely mythical. • Hollywood often depicts werewolves as romantic figures who are driven by impulses beyond their control. The curse of lycanthropy reflects our primitive, animal instincts. The werewolf has also lost much of its terrifying visage, appearing in popular movies such as Teen Wolf. • However, in medieval and Renaissance Europe lycanthropy was widely accepted and was a topic of serious political philosophical and legal debate. • As opposed to the modern sympathetic viewpoint, werewolves were malicious creatures that took pleasure from the harm they caused and they were strongly associated with magic and the Devil. • In the late stages of the early modern period and early stages of the modern period, these beliefs became relegated to the status of “folklore”. Sabine Baring-Gould believed that the symptoms of supposed werewolves arose from bestial desires that were normally hidden and could be linked with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. In the case of those that believed in lycanthropy, he pointed to the "superstitious" tendencies of the uneducated mind. • However, the majority Renaissance intellectuals also thought the belief in werewolves to be unfounded. Though unlike modern sceptics, their argument was “not based on empirical evidence or scientific rationalism; rather, it derived from decidedly pre-modern concerns about the power of the Devil and the nature of miracles.” Furthermore, the same ideas that led educated men to reject the existence of werewolves caused many to believe in the power of witches. • In the book of Daniel, the Bible appeared to provide an example of human transformation: when King Nebuchadnezzar was sent into exile, he ate grass like an ox and "his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws". The Old Testament king was changed by an act of God, whose ability to perform miracles never questioned, whether the Devil could achieve the same results was a major point of contention. Scholars like Boguet concluded that the human soul simply could not exist inside an animal's body. However, intellectuals who believed in physical transformation pointed to the evidence of injuries caused by ferocious wolves or wolf paws that had returned to being a human hand after being severed. • A third possibility was that lycanthropy was an illusion created by devil or his followers. As the French judge Nicolas Remy noted in 1595, it was "incredible that anyone can truly be changed from a man into a wolf or any other animal. Yet there must be some foundation for the opinion so obstinately held by so many". • As with werewolves, there was a clear conception of witches in the early modern period, “Most learned writers on witchcraft focused on the Satanic aspects of the crime: they saw witches mainly as rebels against God who cemented their apostasy by making a Satanic pact. Many experts also believed that witches practised devil worship and acts of desecration at nightly gatherings, or "sabbats", usually held in remote places.” • The main point of contention surrounding witches concerned sabbats and whether these were physical or spiritual gatherings. Nicolas Remy noted in 1595 that Christ himself was "taken up" by the Devil "and set upon the pinnacle of the temple" (Matt. 4: 1-1 I). He argued that there truly was a physical sabbat, for the devil had the power to transport witches. Others however, argued that witches used a form of “astral projection” to travel to sabbats. Many believed this form of spirit travel was impossible however. For example, James VI argued that a witch’s soul leaving the body would be akin to death and rebirth, something only Christ could achieve. • Overall Oldridge gives the reader a keen insight into the thinking surrounding the supernatural during the early modern period. He urges us to abandon our modern conceptions from the very beginning and provides the context for both the modern and early modern perceptions of the supernatural. He details the lively debate between contemporaries, and stresses that by considering these debates we gain a better understanding of prejudices in the early modern world.
     
  8. J. Dillinger, ‘Terrorists and Witches: Popular Ideas of Evil in the Early Modern Period’, History of European Ideas, 30 (2004), pp. 167-82.
    • Pre-modern concepts of moral Evil influence present day culture (21st century terrorism). • Popular ideals of evil in the early modern period were established by church and state administrations. The Ten Commandments were used as an ethical guideline on what was considered good and evil. Consequently, there was no conceptual differentiation made between crime and sin • The two worst kinds of evil in the early modern period were terrorism and witchcraft. Early modern terrorism referred to mass poisoning or more commonly arson, and almost all arsonists were assumed to be vagrants who were members of large arsonist conspiracy organisations often working for foreign powers. Witches were believed to be those who made a pact with the devil and practised maleficum to harm individuals and regions. These two types of deviants shared a number of characteristics including secret organisation to form conspiracies, sheer malice (no reason for crime) and resemblance between victimiser and victim (idea of contagion). • The evils of arson and witchcraft were believed to be epidemic, in other words they were growing and spreading in mindlessly destructive ways (like the plague). This fear of contagion invigorated increased social control enforced by both the state and church. • Idea of banality of Evil was prevalent in early modern period, whereby any behaviour which was even slightly contrary to society’s normal behaviour was categorised as evil alongside much more severe crimes. However, by the late seventeenth century the social logic of Evil was declining primarily due to the rise of state building and the Enlightenment. Abstract and universal rules established by large, complex and impersonal bureaucratic territorial systems to identify evil subordinated personal, local and denomination dispositions and prejudices. Furthermore, the intellectual movement of the Enlightenment secularised and demystified the ideal of banal Evil. • Early modern ideas of Evil, manifested in the example of terrorists and witches, originated in the Middle Ages, more specifically in the middle of the 14th century. Persecution of heretics such as Cathars and Waldensians and anti-Semitism associated early modern imagery of Evil with conspiracy. Furthermore, the Black Death lent credibility and strength to the idea of conspiracy theories and contagion.
     
  9. P. Roberts, 'Huguenot Conspiracies, Real and Imagined, in Sixteenth-Century France' (2004), Ch. 4, pp.55-69
    -During times of social political instability, minority or marginal groups form the basis for conspiracy theories and are perceived as threatening, making them scape-goats. Huguenots were used as scape-goats due to their following a faith different to that of their monarch, making them easy to accuse of treachery as they were seen as agitators who were enemies of the kingdom and of true religion, by not living by the same religion as their king. - Often the campaign is enforced or ecouraged by the auhtorities. But in some cases subjects warned rulers of the dangers of toleration and that co-existence was not an option, as in the case of the post-reformation religious conspiracy theorists who feared religious minorites like the native Protestant Huguenots in France, seenig them as a threat to the Catholic majority in light of the reformation. Provincial fear of Huguenots was widespread, urban communities strove to prove they were vulnerable to attack used dispute between faiths to strengthen their case. National events associated with Huguenots involvement affected the local authorites, as when in the aftermath of Tumult of Amboise, the governor of Provence was warned of the part taken by many in his province, showing how the provinces also came to fear and act against the Huguenots. - Acts of rebellion which were assumed to be associated with the Huguenots, such as the Conspiracy or Surprise of Meaux of 1567 which preceded the St Bartholomew's Day massacre of Huguenots in August 1572. There seems to have been little proof of their involvement in the plot, but some earlier attempts to steal the crown were used to justify the massacre of Huguenots. Despite these attempts they failed at a national level as conspirators but succeeded further by asserting their influence at court and encouraging resistance to tyrranical rule than through trying to take power by force. Therefore, there was some basis in the ruling Catholic's fear of the Huguenots, but none to warrant the massacre of St Bartholomew's day which would then still suggest a strong element of scape-goating. - The crown's decision to make peace with the Huguenots increased provincial and national security anxieties, as their position as deviants meant that only by conforming to Catholocism would they be acceted and trusted by society, no matter the peaceful terms or acts. - Provocative language and accusations served to bolster claims of the Huguenots treachery, emanating from actual incidents and unfounded rumour. This was despite threats such as the Catholic League who were a more worrying enemy to monarchical authority, but Huguenots were still under suspicion due to their perceived threat to the norm. So rumours that suggested Hugenots were conspiring with foreign Protestants were supported by claims that Huguenots were not native to their locality, despite many being from well-established families, to make them seem more 'other' and seperate from society. - Huguenots often blamed for crimes commonly associated with outsiders, such as arson, due to them being enemies of the community and inclined to destroy Catholic culture. - The issue of regional security is evident in the language regions used to express the degree of their vulnerability, employing superior credentials as 'largest fortified town' or 'principal frontier', as the Huguenots inspired genuine fear within border regions of Protestant invasion. Regions wished to gain favour with the crown to protect themselves from invasion using their Catholicity status as another credential and a strike against the Huguenots. - In the peace negotiation of 1581Catholic reluctance to allow the Huguenots into even local positions of authority due to its potential to compromise local security and allow for conspiratorial activity, in turn began to see the Huguenots being identified more and more with conspiracy. - Historians suggest that the Huguenots actions and statements suggest a radical potential that was never realised. Accusations attributed to them were based on flimsy evidence and although very much feared, foreign incursions were rare and were not surprise attacks but open warfare, rather than the feared view of 'sneaky' and 'underhand' Huguenots. But, infiltration of municipal posts by democratic means did bring the Huguenots closer to taking control of the towns, so we see again that their threat was not what was feared, of subterfuge, surprise attacks and undermining of Catholic principles but the use of asserting their influence through other means. - Huguenots were not universally dismissed as traitors, and most did not reject the king, nation or their community but hoped they would be persuaded. Their labelling as conspirators was a strategy to question their validity and stop the spread of Protestantism.
     

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