Witchcraft, Gender and Society in Early Modern Germany

Erscheinungsjahr 2007
ISBN: 978-90-04-16093-4
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 124, 288 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 610 g

Reihe: Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions

Recent witchcraft historiography, particularly where it concerns the gender of the witch-suspect, has been dominated by theories of social conflict in which ordinary people colluded in the persecution of the witch sect. The reconstruction of the Eichstätt persecutions (1590-1631) in this book shows that many witchcraft episodes were imposed exclusively ‘from above’ as part of a programme of Catholic reform. The high proportion of female suspects in these cases resulted from the persecutors’ demonology and their interrogation procedures. The confession narratives forced from the suspects reveal a socially integrated, if gendered, community rather than one in crisis. The book is a reminder that an overemphasis on one interpretation cannot adequately account for the many contexts in which witchcraft episodes occurred.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Durrant, Jonathan B

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Alternative Glaubensformen Okkultismus und andere religiöse Praktiken
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Tables, Maps and Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations

Introduction

PART I
1. Witch-hunting in Eichstätt
2. The Witches

PART II
3. Friends and Enemies
4. Food and Drink
5. Sex
6. Health
7. The Abuse of Authority

Conclusion

Appendix 1. The Interrogatory of 1617
Appendix 2. Occupations of Suspected Witches or their Households

Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Jonathan Durrant, Ph.D. (2002) in History, University of London, is Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Glamorgan. He has published on the witch persecutions and is editor of the Witchcraft Bibliography Project Online.