11 Witchcraft Accusations

When witches are defined as someone accused of being supernaturally evil (Steadman and Palmer 2007), witchcraft accusations and witch hunts are, unfortunately, still occurring, even in “Western” countries.  You’ll learn more about how previous scholars have attempted to explain these witch hunts, citing the Salem witch trials of the 17th century and the European witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries, but suffice it to say that these explanations run into many of the same problems you’ve read about in previous chapters.  For instance, one popular explanation posits that witch killings reduce anxiety and fear in a population.  This book argues that one of its primary purposes is to purposely create and use anxiety and fear to influence the behavior of others.  We hypothesize that witchcraft accusations and witch killings function as forms of communication like many of the other behaviors mentioned throughout the book.

A less depressing, and less realistic, example of this will be given since witchcraft accusations are not the happiest of phenomena.

Imagine a non-denominational church where it is against doctrine to high-five another person with your left hand.  One member of this church was seen by another member high-fiving their friend with their left hand.  The witness took this information to their religious leader.  The next time the whole congregation met at church, the religious leader accused six unnamed individuals of being witches and threatened them with expulsion because they high-five each other with their left hands.  The member that was seen left hand high-fiving was sent a message that their behavior was not in accordance with their religious tradition.

This is one way witchcraft accusations (and potential subsequent killings) can be used to intimidate people, or those associated with those people, who challenge successful traditions or existing power structures.  The original member from the example didn’t even have to be named in order for the point to get across.  Of course, when individuals are named and/or killed, the intimidation effect can become stronger.

Witchcraft accusations showcase some of the weaknesses of the sociological explanation.  Continue into this section to discover how a behavior that can have the effect of removing participating members of a group has provided adaptive benefits to those who engage in it.