Witch-hunts, capitalism and women

Happy Halloween!

The Witches Sabbath by Francisco Goya

Control over a woman is the only form of dominance most men possesses, for most men are merely subjects of more powerful men. - Marilyn French

Being a woman is, well…complicated.

When we are young, we are surrounded by rules that seem to apply only to us. If you grew up as a girl, you certainly have heard from parents or adults, in general, the following and other commands: "sit straight", "that's not a girly behavior", "close your legs while sitting", "you are too pretty to dress/behave like that"…

Getting older makes things even more difficult. We suddenly become 'prey' and men stalk us at their will. We quickly learn to avoid situations that would put us in danger, we change our behaviors, and we strive to act straight and 'not be a whore'.

This constant fear molds us, it draws us back. We are never the powerful, courageous, or fearless ones. It is perhaps because of this that women are so intrigued by Halloween. A night in the year when we don't have to behave, where we have power, where we are witches.

In addition to its potential for empowerment, witchery has a complicated history. Through witch hunts, female power, sexuality, rights, and activism have been equated with dark forces and persecuted for centuries.

Witchery and witch persecution

The role of spiritual outlaw - priestess, medium, or healer - fits the cultural image of women and empowers disposed women in many cultures. African women in countries such as Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, for instance, have a long tradition of female spiritual leadership.

Some rituals allowed women to share men's prerogative. Marilyn French writes in her book A History of Women in the World: In some ceremonies, “possessed women could act like men, speak inconsiderately, and abuse their parents or superiors without paying compensation afterward. Religion could alter women's oppression, and also give temporary relief.”

Women in the past and present kept family and traditions alive. They were the keepers of village history. The rise of capitalism and colonialism dispossessed women of their lands and broke the communities’ ties through witchcraft persecution.

As Silvia Federici writes in Witches, witch-hunting, and women:

There seems to be… a peculiar relationship between the dismantling of communitarian regimes and the demonization of members of the affected communities that makes witch-hunting an effective instrument of economic privatization.

In Federici's books, she connects witch-hunts and the persecution of women with the extreme reshaping that occurred in societies where economic and social relations were transformed by the growing importance of the market.

She discusses the connection between land enclosures and increased poverty, as well as witch hunting. In Europe, from the 14th to the 18th centuries, many communal areas were converted into private lands, and land that was not so productive was bought up by the rising bourgeoisie. It deprived rural people of many of the resources they had before and caused a great deal of grief.

Old women and widows especially found themselves in terrible conditions. They lost their rights to continue to live on their late husband's land and saw themselves in poverty. It contrasted with the old manorial system that had done much to cater to widows and elderly people through a built-in system of relief.

Not surprisingly, many so-called witches were poor women who survived by begging from door to door. It's extremely telling that many of the accusations of witchcraft were about older women cursing pigs, cows, and crops. They were at least one-third of the witchery charges recorded by C. L’Estrange Ewen between 1563 and 1603 in the UK.

Those who prosecuted them charged them with being quarrelsome, with having an evil tongue, with stirring up troble among neighbours, charges that historians have often accepted. But we may wonder if behind the threats and the evil words we should not read a resentment born of anger at the injustice suffered and a rejection of marginalization. - Silvia Federici.

Breaking women bonds

In the witch, the authorities simultaneously punished attacks on private property, social insubordination, and the propagation of magical beliefs, which implied the presence of powers they could not control. Additionally, they punished deviations from the sexual norm that now placed sexual behavior and procreation under governmental control.

As to why the Devil had to be summoned to justify the operation, it is baffling, unless we assume that only through their demonization could behaviors that were tolerated or regarded as normal be rendered odious and frightening in the eyes of the broader population and even other women - for whom the witch's death was a lesson to learn if they followed her path. As the witch hunt progressed, many women took the lesson to heart and contributed to the accusations.

The witch hunt had many causes and a variety of consequences. Throwing women against women was among the most destructive. To be protected from being killed, many women changed their behavior to appear more pious and domestic. The suspicion of diabolism would accompany a woman throughout her life. And so would the fear of accusations.

Women and nature

Another aspect that has yet to be fully understood is how the witch hunt changed our relationship with animals. With the rise of capitalism, a distinct social ethos developed that prized the capacity to discipline and channel one's instinctual desires into labor power. Self-control became the hallmark of humanity, leading to a profound distinction between humans and animals, resulting in a cultural revolution. Prior to the advent of capitalism, the two worlds were assumed to be in continuity, with animals often being deemed responsible beings capable of even speaking.

As late as the sixteenth century this view of animals persisted in many parts of Europe. Dogs, for instance, were brought to trials for ‘crimes’ they had committed or as witnesses for their owners. They were capable of asserting, through their behavior, their innocence or guilt.

Through witch hunts, animals and the natural world started to be treated as mysterious and connected to darkness. Forests and nudity were associated with monstrosity and untamed wilderness, where forbidden liberation and sexuality emerged. Animals were also thought of as being able to be possessed by the devil and corrupt innocents to their side.

The Dreams of Sabbath by Francisco Goya

In this context of refusal of the natural world, women are seen as less ‘enlightened’. Unable to escape natural cycles, our capacity to bear children and raise them is intrinsically connected to our mammal counterparts. In contrast, because of our unique relationship to the process of reproduction, women in many pre-capitalist societies have been credited with understanding the secrets of nature. This understanding allegedly allowed them to control life and death and discover the hidden properties of things.

Practicing magic (as healers, folk doctors, midwives, or priestesses) was also for many women a source of employment and undoubtedly a source of power. That was both taken away and villainized through the centuries of witch-hunts all over the globe.

The Devil took over me

If indeed there were women who readily committed witchcraft, shouldn't we ask what drove them to so fiercely hate some of their neighbors as to plot to ruin them economically by killing their animals, spoiling their trades, and inflicting deadly torments on them?

How do we explain that such hatred had arisen in villages, where a century earlier life had been organized around communal structures and whose yearly calendar had been punctuated by collective festivities and celebrations?

Or was the demonization of the 'witch’ the very instrument of these divisions, necessary precisely to justify the ban against individuals who once had been considered central to communities and their culture?

Be that as it may, together with the 'witches’, a world of social/cultural practices and beliefs and practices that had been typical of precapitalist rural Europe, but which had come to be viewed as unproductive and potentially dangerous for the new economic order, was wiped out.

It's almost impossible to tell how many witches have died, especially since the records are frail and it wasn't a phenomenon restricted to Europe. In many colonies such as Mexico, local healers and dances were seen as witchcraft by Spaniards who judged and hanged them. They were also used to control revolts and impose Catholicism.

Across sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Oceania there are still witch accusations and persecutions. Women, especially older women in rural areas, are accused of witchcraft by younger men who persecute and expel them from their lands. It follows the same trend of dispossession of land and subjugation to capitalist control that happened centuries ago in Europe.

Books such as Silvia Federici's Caliban and the Witch and Witches, With-hunting and Women as well as The Witch by Ronald Hutton have a more nuanced take on the subject. They do not restrict witch-hunting to the European past but explore the topic in other parts of the world and in modern times. Worth checking with you are interested in the topic.

---

Caliban and the Witch. Based on Silvia Federici's Ph.D. dissertation, Caliban and the Witch is a famous book in feminist circles. If you want to go deeper into the topics of this text, this is the book.

Moving from the peasant revolts of the late Middle Ages to the witch-hunts, Federici investigates the capitalist rationalization of social reproduction. She shows how the battle against the peasant revolts and the conflict between body and mind are essential conditions for the development of labor power and self-ownership, two central principles of modern social organization.

The Witch. This movie is based on an ancient story from the witch-hunting period. The film's plot orbits around a psychological conflict between the repressive, patriarchal portrayal of Puritan society and the dark, murderous liberation of the witches. The main female character, Thomasin, finds little escape in her life, stuck on an isolated farm with her family. While accusations against her build up she cannot fight the evil already amongst them.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a remake of the 90's Sabrina the teenager witch. It takes on a much darker and more serious tone, filled with references to other horror stories. I have only watched the first two seasons. I would say that season 1 is fine and worth watching, while the second season would be more appropriate for teens. As Sabrina's 16th birthday approaches, she must choose between the witch world of her family and the human world of her friends.