Notion Anglais sur les Witches

MYTHS AND HEROS

Witchcraft

        I will tell you about the influence of society on witches. A witch is a woman, ususally an old person who has evil magic powers. Witches often wear a pointed black hat and a black cat. She affect injuriously with witchcraft. The witch is able to fly on a broomstick. The witch is a rather scary imaginary character. Now, let's see the term of witchcraft, witchcraft often refers to the practice of some form of magic, in which the witch works with global energies, be they plants, lunar cycles, seasons or even entities.

To what extent did the myth of witches influence the way women were treated ?

In a first time we are going to see the witchcraft in the society, in a second time we are going to see the place of women in the society

1. WITCHCRAFT IN THE SOCIETY

        Witchcraft is a social phenomenon that begins in ancient times. According to cultures, witchcraft was considered with varying degrees of suspicion and even hostility, sometimes with ambivalence. Some religious doctrines consider any form of magic as witchcraft, proscribe it or place it in the rank of superstition. They contrast the sanctity (le caractère sacré) of their own rituals with the practices of witchcraft.

Depending on the context and the cultural environment in which the word is used, it indicates different or even opposing ideas. Each society has its own conceptions of tradition, belief, religion, rites, relationship to the afterlife and death, and good or bad spirits; sometimes it's impossible to find an equivalent from one culture to another.

For example, we studied the witchcraft around the world during the Prehistory, the Contemporary and the Middle-Ages in Britain, Europe, Greece and Germany. In this countries, catholics, protestants and inquisitors incriminated women and Christian because for the Church, witchcraft was anti-christian. Inquisitors play a sadistic role, they torture the population incriminated, for example → they strip the witches / tie their arms with their legs / prick the private places.

1. WOMEN IN THE SOCIETY

        In this society, people were highly judged and not considered as they should be. Women were compared to witches, but since there are two types of witches, they were often judged without knowing who they really were.

So, there were two types of witches, the benevolent and the malevolent.

The benevolent witches helped people with medical herbs. They saved people's lives and helped women with their fertility.

On the contrary, the malevolent ones cast spells on people, partised black magic in order to hurt people, made people sterile and cursed them.

In the Middle-Ages, the Chruch accused women of witchcraft because they were not respecting the religions rules and for the Church, women who didn't live by their rules could be witches. When they were accused of witchcraft, they were arrested, tortured, burnt, beaten to death or drowned, they were sentenced to death.

We can say that how women are treated depends on how people see witches. People have different vision of witches so of women.

Witches take an important place in society, indeed, witchcraft was practiced practically only by women. 80% of witchcraft trials involved women

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