Essays on Witchcraft

Anthropology of Religion, Magic and Witchcraft;

Anthropologies speak of religion; they usually mean it as magic and witchcraft. Witchcraft involves things, events and processes that are held to unseen on the outside the real things of the ordinary working experience and also, the normal physical cause and the effects exerted by them.
Hindu cosmologies, as well as a Shakta Tantric way of life adore Kali as the definitive authenticity or Brahman. Kali is also well-regarded as Bhavatarini literally savior of the world. Current devotional appointments fundamentally visualize Kali as a munificent mother goddess
The mother Kali, despite her being so compassionate to the children, and ...

History

Paper Due Date

Introduction

This paper discusses the historical topics of Bacon’s rebellion in Chesapeake and the practice of witchcraft in New England. Both these events were caused by social, economic or religious factors that affected the colonial America. In the middle of 17th century, around 80 New England colonies were indicted with the practice of witchcraft. New England colonists were known to have strong conservative convictions, witches and demons and other supernatural instances were common in daily life. Whereas, Bacon’s Rebellion was led by Nathaniel Bacon in 1676 was a popular revolt in the colonial state of ...

Religion is strict with its limitations; a matter often destroying the specific constructive liberal structures of the society. Although it is not considered detrimental, the extensive rules that religion often imposes create more harm than good to its members. With such strict commandments, the response of the people were rather common; to hide secrets, to deal with matters in a hypocritical manner, presenting themselves clean when they actually are doing something else behind the back of the church’s knowing. Among the primary characters who could be noted for such consideration of the church’s laws include John Proctor ...

American Past

Bridget Bishop was the first woman to be hanged during the well-known Salem due to accusations that she practiced witchcraft. The case against Bridget Bishop includes deposition taken mainly from lay people who came forward to accuse the Bishop Bridget of witchcraft. She had some of classic attributes that made her New England neighbors to incline being associated with the witch. She was alienated from the religious faith of the community because she never attended worship services. Moreover, she ran a tavern where excessive drinking and game playing were common. She was seen as embodying relaxed sexual traits because ...

Part A:

John Proctor was one of the most complex characters in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. He has both positive and negative qualities to his personality. Primarily, Proctor is honest, dependable, and a man of solid moral. However, he is not always the pillar of morality. Perhaps most noticeably is the negative propensity he has for cheating on his wife. He is lustful after one of the young girls in the village: Abigail Williams. Eventually the two begin an affair. The affair ends before the play begins, igniting Abigail’s intense jealousy toward Proctor’s wife. It also ignites the ...

WitchCraft

Witch is considered as an individual who have inborn ability to do mischievous acts, so that they can harm others. Witches do not always harm other intentionally, most of the time, they themselves are not aware of the fact they witch, and they may harm others unintentionally, as they do not have any idea that other individual will suffer badly because of this act. Witchcraft in the traditional societies is different than the witchcraft in the modern popular culture. The traditional beliefs regarding witchcraft are different as compared to the contemporary beliefs regarding witchcraft. There are several traditional concepts ...

The task of this brief opinion essay determines both arguments, for and against, the guilt of Rebecca Nurse as pertains to the evidence and perspective concerning the Salem Witch Trials. First is my argument against the guilt of Rebecca Nurse. According to the document, Thomas Putnam’s wife Ann testified that Rebecca Nurse “appeared to me only in her shift,” and urged her to “write in her book,” which was a “hellish” temptation (“Testimony Rebecca Nurse,” 170). Ann further claims that Rebecca had threatened to tear out her soul said the Lord Jesus Christ could not save her. First ...

It is important to observe the times when allegations of witchcraft happened to understand the stories of the Salem witch trials.
In January of year 1692 in Salem Village, Reverend Samuel Parris’ daughter and niece became ill. When they did not get well, William Griggs, who is the village doctor, was called. Griggs’ findings of bewitchment caused the power that would eventually become grounds for death punishment by hanging of nineteen women and men. Aside from that, a man was then crushed to death, and seven other men died while in prison, and the lives of many people were ...

Salem Witch Trials

The events that transpired in Salem, Massachusetts occurred between the years of 1688 and 1693 constituted the most significant witchcraft outbreak in the history of the New England colonies. The entire event was quickly labeled as “colossal mistake” by the government after they had passed.(Ray, 2010) With this in mind the question remains; how did it get started and how did it get out of hand so quickly?
Salem is a town in Massachusetts that has unfortunately earned its reputation from these trials. It was founded in 1626 when settlers led by Roger Conant settled in Naumkeag after ...

Historical records indicate that the belief in the supernatural world emerged in Europe as early 13th century. These harsh realities were commonly experienced in the villages that later spread to the colonial New England rural lands. During this period, the witchcraft was often associated with the use of a certain spiritual and supernatural powers to harm others in return for their loyalty. In 1692, Salem Witch Trials in the United States represented a unique history of Witch hunts to the entire world. This society decided to carry out unjustified accusations in order to stabilize fear and prevent the further ...

Human beings are social creatures who live in a society under different social regulations. There are many activities which take place in the society, some are acceptable while others are considered to be a threat and unacceptable to the society. Even with human freedoms, there are regulations on the extent of human freedom in a social society. The activities it is engaged in and the type of people who love in it identify a society.
As much as there is social, diversity in the society in terms of religious, cultural, political and economic practices and believes, there are practices ...

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One of the most prolific plays of the 1950’s was The Crucible. Arthur Miller’s play about the Salem Witch Trials is a book that not only transcends time but also speaks to a wide audience. In the play the protagonist John Proctor is portrayed as a tragic hero, he makes mistakes in his comfortable life but by the end of it realizes his mistakes and dies on his path to self worth. He is his own worst enemy and is torn apart by his own guilt from the acts of lechery and ...

Introduction

Cotton Mather was an influential Puritan minister of New England in USA. He was the son and grandson of two prominent Puritan ministers Increase Mather and Richard Mather. He was a prolific writer who had 468 publications to his credit. Some of the books written by him like 'Magnalia Christi Americana', 'Bonifacius' and 'The Angel of Bethesda' are very important for American history (GSU 2011). He completed his graduation at the age 16 from Harvard University, thereby becoming one of the youngest graduate ever from the institution. Mather like his father Increase Mather was a strong defender of Puritan ...

The 17th century was riddled with strong beliefs in the supernatural and the presence of Satan on Earth in colonial North America. Witchcraft was majorly used by peasants with particular charms associated with evil spirits and demons for prosperity in their agricultural activities. There was in fact literature on the same written around the same time. For instance, Joseph Glanvill in 1668 claimed proves of the existence of these powers in witches and ghosts in a treatise titled “Against Modern Sadducism”. This and other works by the likes of Cotton Mather, a minister at the Boston North Church, raised ...

The aim of this essay is to present you with an analysis of ‘Arthur Miller’s Play ‘Crucible’. The analysis of this play is to present you with a portrait of the historical context in which the play was written as well as the meaning underlying its plot in relation to its author’s profile.
Arthur Miller is an author whose plays have been received with great enthusiasm on behalf of his readers / audience. It is commonly acknowledged that Miller’s plays have been talking to the hearts of their audience since they seem to depict through their ...

Persecution has been a round for sometime and can be traced historically from the time of Jesus to the present time. Christians were persecuted for their faith in the hands of the Jews. Many Christians have been persecuted in history for their allegiance to Christ and forced to denounce Christ and others have been persecuted for failing to follow the laws of the land. The act of persecution is on the basis of religion, gender, race, differing beliefs and sex orientation (Davis 220). Persecution is a cruel and inhumane act that should not be supported since people are tortured ...

The evolution of racial slavery in America was a slow process, which commenced with both white and black servants occupying an almost equal position in their master’s home. Since no rules or regulations governed the state of slavery in the nation, both races could acquire freedom. It later, however, became evident that this could not be the case for black servants. The growing animosity and white racism between the planters and the servants made it impossible for the black servants to gain their freedom. By 1641, Massachusetts legalized slavery, and with it came a set of rules to ...

The fact that Tina hears voices that command her to perform hygienic activities is a first sign of abnormal psychology. Auditory hallucinations are usually referred to as symptoms of schizophrenia, but before setting a diagnosis, Tina’s case must be carefully evaluated by taking into consideration all the information that she provided, included her own believe that her symptoms are a result of a witchcraft performed by her boyfriend for controlling her and the current research in the field of psychopathology.
As Tina confessed that she has used methamphetamines heavily in the past several months, this can be an ...

Explain Why There Were No Major Witchcraft Scares in the Chesapeake Colonies and No Uprising like Bacon's Rebellion in New England
Explain Why There Were No Major Witchcraft Scares in the Chesapeake Colonies and No Uprising like Bacon's Rebellion in New England
The Chesapeake Colonies constituted the colony as well as Dominion of Virginia while the Bacon rebellion was made up of an armed group of Virginia Settlers against the leadership of Governor William Berkeley. The Chesapeake colonies lacked a strong family structure, a developed religion as well as developed towns and cities, and hence there were witchcraft scares ...

Main Argument of the Readings

Silvia Federici, Chandra Mohanty and Alicia Muszynski discussed in their respective articles the sociological facet of the inferiority perceived upon women. “Insatiable sexuality”, in the case of Federici, socioeconomic differences for Mohanty and race-gender stratification noted by Muszynski all point to reasons why women, under different classifications, receive unfair treatment. The three articles stand united in explaining that women received discrimination because of their biological sex and that it is a demeaning factor when added with other condescending characteristics such as socioeconomic conditions and race.

Personal Argument on the Readings

On a personal note, I perceive the connection between the three articles as highly ...

Introduction

The Crucible is a historical motion picture released in 1996 and adapted from a play by Arthur Miller. The plot of the film is based on real events and these are the Salem Witch Trials which took place in 1692. Salem is a religious Puritan village located in modern day Massachusetts. The infamous Salem Witchcraft Trials occurred in 1692 after several girls fell victim to hallucinations and seizures. During this period, religion extremity in the lives of the local people caused them to attribute surprising activities to the cohorts of the devil, for example witches. This movie screenplay is ...

The conclusion in the article shows that indigenous medicine and personnel believe that there should an effort to understand and learn more about traditional medicine. The questions that come into mind are whether this kind of medicine should be entrenched to mainstream medicine. There should be research undertaken to look into the use of indigenous medicine. Another question that is raised here is the extent at which witchcraft and indigenous medicine are related. There is a lack of differentiation between the two areas. The Aboriginal introduced herself as witchcraft. The issue is how true the statement. If the ideas ...

Paranoia is deeply entwined with the human psyche, and parallels can be seen across generations. This is made extremely clear with Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, written in 1953, which parallels the communist-hunting era, so characterized by Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy and his incessant search for communists, against the backdrop of the Salem Witch trials. There are indeed many parallels which can be made.
In both the anti-communist atmosphere of the Cold War and the paranoia of ultra-religious Salem in 1692, there was an element of “the enemy is among us”. It was, to an extent, taken for ...

In the essay “Devil In Salem Village” from Portrait of America, Edmund S. Morgan describes the terror that had spread through Salem, Massachusetts, when the locals were convinced that many of the women living in the city were in fact witches. In this essay Morgan outlines the factors that ultimately led to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Morgan starts with how the Massachusetts Bay colony was founded by the Puritans in 1630 as a model Christian community. However, by 1680, the Puritan movement was perilously in danger of losing its following. Many of the youngsters had become “increasingly ...

The human inclination to seek explanations for the strange and unusual is as old as human civilization. The supernatural has always provided a convenient rationale for forces that are beyond human control and understanding. War, disease and other natural phenomena are misfortunes that have been ascribed to the influence of witchcraft, of a force directed by a malevolent intelligence bent on subverting the harmony of a godly universe. Patriarchal European society has historically assigned witchcraft a decidedly feminine cast, an image that was formalized during the Middle Ages by the church and in print. The result was centuries of ...

One of the foundational principles of modern anthropology is that cultural phenomena are not to be judged through the prism of cultural bias. In Madumo, A Man Bewitched, Adam Ashforth blurs the line between observer and participant but preserves the sanctity of cultural context. His book is a hybrid of sorts, a melding of fiction and ethnography, a story and an observation, but it does not seek to make the subject matter more palatable or comfortable for a Western reader. Ashforth lays the story before his audience and tells us that when it comes to spiritual matters, he is ...

Introduction

The Salem Witch trials were a series of hearings in the Counties and these hearings were carried out with the aim of prosecuting people who were accused of engaging in witchcraft. Although they were known as the Salem trials, they were carried across different provinces in the counties of Essex, Suffolk and Middlesex. Most people believed in witches and there were probably practicing witches in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1692. Witches have existed in Salem and Andover since 1692 until today. There were 58 cases of witchcraft in the England ...

Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern England

Witchcraft has long been a fascination of artists and authors throughout the world and in early modern England, this fascination was rife. Traditionally, witchcraft is closely associated with women and frequently, its presentation throughout art forms involves the image of the female form. However, it is clear that in doing this, we are deliberately ignoring half of the gender relationship and fundamentally misunderstanding the gender roles of men and women in early modern England (Apps & Gow 6). A common misconception is that witchcraft was a metaphor for the oppression of women by men but, in truth, this is most ...

Witchcraft refers to alleged magical and supernatural performances which range from one cultural set up to another. Witchcraft has existed for many years. People believe that witches perform actions which are not only aimed at harming them but also which are against their will. These actions cause despair, pain, and suffering to individuals, family members and society at large. People have blamed witches for causing strange, untreatable diseases, bad luck, barrenness, impotence, abrupt death, and illness in animals. As such, practice of witch crafty has been condemned worldwide due to much pain inflicted on individuals who blame their misfortunes ...

The age of enlightenment took place in Europe between 1600-1700s, sparked by a number of philosophers including; John Loker, Isaac Newton, and Pierre Bayle. Majorly, this was the age of historical cultural and intellectual progress aimed at transforming the state of society in terms of knowledge. Also, it focused upon deductive and logic reasoning and rationality in the government system. The leaders responsible for academic movement regarded themselves as elite, and their role was to see the world towards progress. At this period, the world was still in the dark ages full of irrationality, superstitions, witch hunts and traditions. ...

Introduction

Hidden in mystery and practices that challenges human understanding through its complex relations, occultism is considered as the domain of obscure practices, defying science and religion. Being widespread in many African countries, occultism is believed to be practiced in secret within various circles, performed by witch doctors or other insiders of occult practices, as a solution for healing but also for generating certain benefits or advantages. This paper analyzes the influence of occultism and witch doctors in Africa, by examining if and how occult practices are used for healing or as a remedy for treating ailments or “magical illness” ( ...

Religions in societies that are tribal are based on what is happening around them. There is no specific founder of religion as every tribe had their religion based on what was happening to them at the time. The beginning of religion is covered with many myths and folklore and of people who are claimed to have been close to God. Most anthropologists claim that Christianity is filled with animism where people believe in a supernatural being that takes care of their entire problem (Frykenberg 67). Additionally, the term animism became such a popular term that it was used in ...

Introduction:

Mary Conde’s book ‘I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem’ uses the Salem Witchcraft Trials as a background for the political implications of a post slavery scenario where the political implications are great. There are also some ironies which can be observed since the Puritans who ended up as abolitionists entertained the worst excesses as regards cleansing and purifying the nation of witches and Conde plays on that notion with subtle irony. The sense of catastrophe is also imminently felt especially in the analogous dynamics of the novel. Tituba is imbued with fantastic and wild notions of witchcraft which ...

Salem witch trials refer to a series of trials and executions of people who were allegedly involved in witch practice. All these incidents of witch practice took place during seventeenth century in newly established colonies of New England, Massachusetts. Puritans used to inhabit in these colonies and their theocracy is blamed for such trials that took place in an organized manner. This paper intends to discuss Salem witch trials, role of puritans in these trials and several other related aspects.
Puritanism is a part of Christian belief that emerged in the England at some point in seventeenth century. Puritans ...

1. Compare and contrast the British and Spanish imperial enterprises in the Americas up to the early 1700s. Please consider these nations’ goals, practices, and achievements in the New World. Useful readings would include the textbook, Gray’s documents, and the article by Hackel titled “Spaniards” on the course website.
First of all, geographically the British and Spanish colonist journeyed from the similar location of Europe. However it is important to note that each country, Spain and England, had separate languages and cultures. These influences would permeate the new colonies, instilling the results of these differences to this day. ...

Introduction

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is widely acknowledged as the greatest English language playwright. He was born and raised to a middle-class glove-maker in Stratford-upon-Avon, England (Cohen, 6). He wrote masterpiece poems, plays, short stories and books about 400 years ago and his works have been timeless. Two of Shakespeare’s most celebrated works are the play titled Macbeth and the novel titled Merchant of Venice. Shakespeare’s upbringing in a middle class family and lack of adequate education predisposed him to a challenging life which motivated him to write as a way to express to future generations the turmoil and ...

Othello, considered as one of the most painful Shakespearean tragedies (Bradley 176), is a fine demonstrator of a man’s mental vulnerability when temptation begins to penetrate his mind, blurring his judgment. In the book Shakespearean Tragedy, Othello is not only a noble hero who is brought down by fatal jealousy, perhaps, because he has married before his time “But, I pray you, sir, Are you fast married? (II, 10-12), according to Iago, but also a protagonist of domestic tragedy that is characterized by repetitive themes, such as love and hate, intrigue and jealousy, revenge and suspicion, self-interest, racism ...

Women have long been considered second class citizens (if considered citizens at all!) throughout the course of world history. Often dismissed from history books, I feel that it is important to recognize their role in Spanish colonialism. By carefully analyzing important events, I endeavor to draw out examples of how women have helped shape the Spanish colonies and the great danger they were put in my Spanish Inquisitors. By looking at gender roles one can determine how these roles played a part in the Spanish society and how they have changed. I propose that women did indeed provide instrumental ...

Introduction

Witch hunt is a term that originated from the medieval act of people actually seeking out suspected witches and accusing them of colluding with the devil to cause misfortune among the people. Most of the victims targeted by these persecutions happened to be innocent civilians and as such, often died for accusation they were not familiar with. This led to the development of the popular and modern application of the phrase witch hunt as the investigation, supposedly meant to uncover subversive activities but in actual sense used to harass and undermine those deemed to be of a dissenting view ...

One of the highly-rated movies and best-selling novels in the 21st Century is the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. In fact, in addition to the 8-series novel, the movie series definitely gained everybody’s interest. However, there is a contradicting issue regarding this masterpiece, wherein many Christians and conservatives claim that it is not good for watching or reading. The inclusion of witchcraft, sorcery, magic, and so on throughout the series led these people to judge the movie as violent and inappropriate for the public – especially their children. Indeed, the Bible itself stands against such practices. It does ...