Blog #1: Witchcraft Accusations

        This past week in class we focused on the history of magic, witchcraft, and the occult spanning from the years 1500-1700. Something discussed that I wanted to dive into more deeply was how European colonizers misinterpreted many indigenous traditions as magic and accused the indigenous people as practicing witchcraft. European colonization was occuring on many continents including the Americas, Africa, and Asia during the 1500s-1700s as discussed in “A History of Magic Witchcraft and the Occult.” The reading highlighted several specific indigenous groups that had their traditions misinterpreted including the Kongo, Mesoamericans, the Navajo, and the Inuit. We learned in class that when Europeans came to these civilizations, they often brought with them Christian beliefs which prevented them from interpreting indigenous beliefs with an unbiased perspective. 

One specific example of this that the reading mentioned that I thought was particularly important to discuss was in Central America with the Mayan people. Many missionaries who arrived in Central America were uncomfortable with Mayan magic arts and believed that these magic arts conflicted with their Christian beliefs. This led to the religious persecution of many Mayan peoples simply because they were practicing their own religion. Learning about this persecution was very interesting because I had some prior knowledge of religious persecution at the hands of European colonizers, but did not know that some instances of persecution occurred because of the individual being suspected of witchcraft. 

During previous class discussions, this had been a topic brought up quite frequently with individuals such as Martha Carrier being killed for practicing witchcraft during this time as well. Martha Carrier and Mayan magicians both being executed due to suspected witchcraft even though they lived in different areas of the continent and were involved in very different types of “witchcraft” signifies to me that this time period, anyone who was acting out of the ordinary or in an unexplainable way to a person of power was suspected as practicing witchcraft. These individuals were not allowed to defend themselves or cite other reasons for their behavior besides witchcraft. The conflict between Martha Carrier and her accusers (and many other women accused of witchcraft) and the indigenous peoples and their colonizers appears to be a power imbalance where the group with more authority used it to accuse those with less authority of practicing witchcraft when they expressed any unfamiliar behavior. This seems to be a pretty common theme in the various witchcraft accusations we have discussed which is why I wanted to briefly touch on it with this blog post.