Witchcraft Final Presentation

Blog #10: Testing the Witch

For my last blog I wanted to research the different ways to test whether or not someone was a witch. Throughout the semester, these had been brought up rather sporadically, and each time I thought to myself how impossible, crazy, and downright insane these methods were for testing if someone was a witch. Many of them were difficult to pass and their linkages to witchcraft seem fairly weak. Three tests I want to cover include the swimming test, the urine cake test, and the touch test. The following blog will explain each test in detail by highlighting why they predicted if someone was a witch, how the test occurred, and how the type of test came about. The first test, the swimming test, is one of the most well known ways that individuals were historically tested for being a witch. The swimming test, explained in “A History of Magic, Witchcraft, and the Occult,” tied the accused witch up and threw them into water to see if they would sink or float. If the person floated, they were a...

Blog #3: All about Voodoo

These past few weeks, I have learned more about Voodoo both from the book “A History of Magic Witchcraft and the Occult,” and from the movie, “The Witches of Eastwick.” I wanted to touch on what I had learned from this book and movie but also dive into what more research on this subject taught me. Before taking this class, I did not know much about Voodoo except for what Voodoo dolls were used for and that it is seen in New Orleans. My prior experiences with Voodoo comes from experiencing this magic tradition firsthand in New Orleans and seeing many television shows and movies referencing it. The book, “A History of Magic Witchcraft and the Occult,” explained Voodoo history, stating that Voodoo (which is also referred to as Voudon), began as a religion in West Africa and was brought by African slaves to various French colonies. Due to the French banning all other religions besides Catholicism, enslaved individuals practicing Voodoo had no choice but to become Catholic, and mer...

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 particula...

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