Reference no: EM133229696
Read the article, "This Map Shows the Scale of the 16th- and 17th-Century Scottish Witch Trials" located in the module resources. When reviewing this article, you may consult the map or the text. As you examine the article, find stories, details, and words that stand out as topics of diversity.
How does your peers' understanding of the article inform your understanding of seeing the same historical moment from more than one perspective?
While reading this article, the diversity-related word that stood out to me was 'woman.' When looking at an account of a historical event, it is important to consider what perspective of the event we are hearing. Historically, women's voices have been marginalized and I'm sure that if a woman's perspective of these events was recorded, we would have had a much different history. Diversity is what makes people unique and instead of celebrating these unique women, they were called witches and murdered. Sadly, these women were not witches, they were mothers, sisters, friends, and wives. Because these women did not fit the societal standard of what a woman should be at the time, they were persecuted and tortured to death. In the case of Isobel Young, whose husband claimed "that his wife had attempted "to kill him with magic after quarreling about an unsavory house guest." it sounds like she just didn't take her husband's things lying down.
What this story, and many other stories in history, tell us about the relationship between culture, identity, power, and history is that whoever has the power and falls within the confines of the acceptable identity within a society will write history. Those in power are in control of the historical narrative and are the voices that we have heard for generations. If more diverse perspectives were recorded during this event, then countless lives could have been saved in other "witch trials" elsewhere. Exploring all voices and perspectives, especially marginalized ones, is the only way that we can gain the whole picture of a past event and the only way to preserve the truth for the future.
-Avery
After spending some time with the article, the term that stood out to me the most was the author Steve Katz's observation that the European witch hunts represented a "fear" of women by dominantly white, male Christian society. They rationalized this fear with how women might coerce or control men, and in that context was perceived as "sorcery." I felt this stood out as a topic of diversity because it represents a core inequality between men and women in society, where men used their power and influence to unfairly persecute and execute those who challenged their position of authority. Reading some of the anecdotes, it sounds like the only "crime" that occurred was that a woman demonstrated "patterns of verbal and physical aggression," as noted with the example of Isabel Young. The fact that her husband was a primary accuser helps to reinforce the notion that gender inequality and social norms played factors in the witch hunts of Scotland.
This resource also told us much about Christian European culture in the 17th century and how seriously people took accusations of witchcraft as an affront to their religious values or people's identity as a "servant of god" or some equivalent. We can still observe these disparities in gender identity today, where marginalized groups continue to be stereotyped. Any attempt to think or act differently might not simply be rejected but considered a threat to their society.
In the context of history, this map shows an evident and systematic pattern of persecution for women throughout Scotland. It highlights a crucial facet of history that the other resources from this week tried to impart. We can teach history in several ways, but its context is essential. Before reading this article, it made me think about the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts. However, I didn't consider much about those events' underlying cultural, identity, and power factors. Now that I have learned more about these trials in other parts of the world, I can't help but wonder more about how diversity played a role in these historical events.