Street Roots • Oct. 27-Nov. 2, 2017
Culture
Page 11
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Joseph E. Baker's
“Witch No. 1 ’’from
1892 is a lithograph
illustrating the
mythological events of
the Salem witch trials
o f the late 17th
century.
WITCHES, fro m page 10
English legal history - were two elderly
widows in their 70s: Anne Whittle (aka
until now,” Spooner said. “It became a story
Chattox) and Elizabeth Southerns (aka
in which a lot of other concerns could be
Demdike), both blind and appearing to come
addressed, about marginalization, exclusion
straight from the pages of a fairy tale.
and persecution.”
The representations of the witch as sexy
Both publications implied that the
or hag-like are two sides of the same coin,
witches were a threat to the patriarchal
metaphors for the two things society, both
institutions of the church and what passed
then and now, fears most in women - sexual
for orthodox medicine, and they were
liberation and aging.
brought down accordingly. Both also used
“What’s really disturbing about the hag is
the inflated claim that there were 9 million
when she becomes sexual, and when the
victims of the witch trials - an estimate
sexy one loses her youth, she becomes the
made by German scholar
hag,” Spooner said. “The sexy
Gottfried Christian Voigt in
one can be recuperated by
1784 - and so have been
patriarchal culture - why
Tli® represents-
condemned because of
wouldn’t it like a sexy witch?
Ileus
of
the
witch
historical inaccuracy.
But when the hag becomes
In conservative England and as sexy or ha®-
sexy, then that becomes
later in New England during
lik e are two sides threatening.”
the Salem witch trials of 1692- of the same coin?
Uneducated and poor,
93, hanging was preferred to
Chattox and Demdike were
metaphors lo r
burning.
most likely wise-women,
the
two
things
“The burning witch is not
common in isolated village life,
society,
both
then
accurate of England at all,”
making small sums as healers,
and
now,
fears
Spooner said. “It was a
using charms or ointments
Protestant country, and that
most In women - when doctors were not readily
was not considered hum ane.... seinal liberation
available. It’s safe to assume
that if they and their neighbors,
Witchcraft is represented
and aging»
believed they had powers for
differently in different
good, they would also believe
countries, so while (in Europe)
those powers could be used for
it was much more sexualized,
hexes and wrongdoing against those who
representations in Britain were not at all.”
aggrieved them.
Witches in England and in the United
Spooner pointed out that these women
States are characterized by the other type of
became obvious scapegoats during a time of
Halloween costume you’ll find on the
religious and political upheaval. In remote
shelves - the one with the pointy hat,
areas like Pendle, Catholics continued to
broomstick and warty hooked nose - the
practice openly during the English
hag.
Reformation, and stories from the town
At the center of the Pendle Witch coven
soon reached King James I, who had two
trial of 1612 in Lancashire County, England
intense interests - Protestant theology and,
- perhaps the best-known coven trial in
after a visit to Denmark where he’d
attended a witch trial, witch hunting. His
book “Daemonologie” instructed his
followers to prosecute any practitioners, and
in his native Scotland, witch hunting reached
far more brutal extremes.
“Society chooses who it wants to exclude,
and it finds reasons to exclude them,”
Spooner said. “To shore up their sense of
self and consolidate their own identity,
societies have to reject certain things -
throw them off. So to deal with the social
pressures that were fermenting at that time,
they had to pick someone, dirty people
outside of the community, that they could
get rid of to bolster their own strength. It
was arbitrary - it could have been anyone -
but it was useful that those women were
there and already were the object of social
tensions.”
One of the arguments against feminist
interpretations of the witch trials is that
women were often the accusers. But if
Chattox and Demdike were both local wise-
women, poor and marginalized and in
competition, it is logical that they would
be ready to accuse one another when the
witch hunters began paying attention to
Pendle. Their competition ultimately led to
each other’s, and to their associates’,
demise.
In addition to duplicity among the
Lancashire witches, many believe they were
coerced into confessions. Starved and sleep
deprived when they stood before a court,
they ended up saying what they thought
they were supposed to say. But although
that fits with the picture of the witch as
oppressed victim, Spooner believes this isn’t
how we should remember them.
“We shouldn’t get rid of the evil witch
completely because for many of those
women, that is how they thought of
themselves. If you take that away from
them, then they don’t have anything - that
was their way of reclaiming some power in
horrible circumstances. You can see from
some of the confessions, there’s a real
sense of enjoyment in it, like: ‘Right, I’m
just going to make up the most extravagant
thing I can think of. Yes! I am going to ride
off on a black beast!”’
In 2012, Spooner was involved in the
400th anniversary of the Lancashire witch
trials. She was surprised to find how lively
this history remains in Lancaster where the
executions took place.
“Some people would want to merchandise
it - sell pointy hats and brooms - and others
just said, ‘No. Absolutely not. This is not
appropriate. People died. They were real
people who were executed as a miscarriage
of justice, and we have to be sensitive and
respect that,”’ she said.
As for Halloween, Spooner doesn’t
necessarily think we need to pay similar
respect on that day.
“I think Halloween is slightly different
because it’s not linked to a particular event
or specific set of historical circumstances. I
love Halloween. There’s something
celebratory and joyful about it that we
shouldn’t ignore. That in itself can be
positive and even political,” Spooner said.
“It’s a chance to raise up social fears and
deal with them in a way that is comfortable.
We can enjoy being scared, but it’s not really
scary. It’s innocence. It’s letting off steam,
and that forms a really valuable social
function.”
Courtesy o f B ig Issue North / INSP.ngo