Witch Craze Dbq
be taken into account regarding the witch craze, in a society that was suffering from severe economic hardship.
By the mid-17th century, there were signs of improvement as inflation decreased and population growth steadily slowed down which meant there was less stress to feed the population. People obtained greater social mobility, which led to people feeling more secure within themselves and their village. The 1590’s saw a peak of economic distress but it seemed the witch-hunts stopped when there were fewer economic troubles affecting people. However, this can be seen as a substantial explanation as modern witch-hunts are also based on economic issues and finding someone or a group of people to scapegoat.
In conclusion, the prosecution
of witches was a tragedy of its time taking the lives of a number of men and women. The high incidence of women among the accused relates more to their sex-specific roles as women had certain capacities such as pregnancy, birth, and nursing - and other assignments that society deemed a woman’s work. Men appear to have been mystified in the early modern period about how women did these things.” Therefore, there is a constant psychological link as it could be said underlying jealously sparked off the witch-hunt period as a way of eliminating a threat, in the form of women. Other theories including the idea of pressures such as projection and sublimation in addition to Freud’s sexual development all provide a dependable explanation that can be used. Psychologists overall provide a number of explanations to explain the witch-hunts. Although it is questionable why this only lasted a 100-year period, it could be said psychological pressures were still existent but were not as strong due to greater prosperity amongst the sexes and less reliance on torture. With events such as the reformation period and ‘age of anxiety’ it can be said this may have brought forth stronger psychological effects on people and therefore led to a greater number of women being accused.
By the mid-17th century, there were signs of improvement as inflation decreased and population growth steadily slowed down which meant there was less stress to feed the population. People obtained greater social mobility, which led to people feeling more secure within themselves and their village. The 1590’s saw a peak of economic distress but it seemed the witch-hunts stopped when there were fewer economic troubles affecting people. However, this can be seen as a substantial explanation as modern witch-hunts are also based on economic issues and finding someone or a group of people to scapegoat.
In conclusion, the prosecution
of witches was a tragedy of its time taking the lives of a number of men and women. The high incidence of women among the accused relates more to their sex-specific roles as women had certain capacities such as pregnancy, birth, and nursing - and other assignments that society deemed a woman’s work. Men appear to have been mystified in the early modern period about how women did these things.” Therefore, there is a constant psychological link as it could be said underlying jealously sparked off the witch-hunt period as a way of eliminating a threat, in the form of women. Other theories including the idea of pressures such as projection and sublimation in addition to Freud’s sexual development all provide a dependable explanation that can be used. Psychologists overall provide a number of explanations to explain the witch-hunts. Although it is questionable why this only lasted a 100-year period, it could be said psychological pressures were still existent but were not as strong due to greater prosperity amongst the sexes and less reliance on torture. With events such as the reformation period and ‘age of anxiety’ it can be said this may have brought forth stronger psychological effects on people and therefore led to a greater number of women being accused.