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Edited on Tue Jun-07-05 04:10 AM by BlueIris
out there lately. Not like we should be surprised given the current climate in America, right? In 2004, I was horrified to pick up a published bestseller on the history of the development of images of the Devil in folklore in America (Judeo-Christian-derived images, mainly) and find a bunch of blatantly historically inaccurate information about the murder of women deemed witches in their societies between about 1300 and 1900 (in the West). I mean, this was a book that was published within the last two years. By a reputable publishing house. I'll go Google the title in a minute, for revolting kicks, but among other b.s., often "sourced" to only one single other book or "scholar" in the author's bibliography, the author claimed that the only people killed as witches were older women. The author's statements about why towns/members of groups like the Inquisition/members of other groups, including other churches burned women labled "witches"? The older ones resembled some early Europeans folk-art images of devils. There are actually a multitude of additional reasons my own research over the years (well, the years before the country went insane, that is) indicated older women were burned, including, as one person here has pointed out, the fact that many older women were providing midwifery services, and as older members of society, (no longer of child-bearing age, no longer 'sexually desirable') they were viewed as less useful. Of couse, many, many of the "witches" burned were also girls as young as 11, 12, and 13, which some (sane) historians (from our sane years) attribute to about a thousand disturbing things, including the new desire to demonize any form of burgeoning female sexuality.
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