1/28/2024: Interesting Documents & Seeds For Exploration

Our first discussion on Wednesday (1/24) was thought-provoking and planted seeds in my mind for further exploitation. I am certain that these themes regarding women, otherness, and deviance will be recurring throughout the semester. Below are my three key takeaways from the documents we explored and the conversations that we had.  

1. Malleus Maleficarium. What a pleasant book! I was baffled to hear that it was the second best-selling printed book for over two centuries, just behind the Bible. With it being such an influential text at the time, I cannot help but wonder who was reading it and what their thoughts were. Did people believe it all to be true? Was this text used to defend witchcraft accusations? How did it impact society’s view toward women? I am quite intrigued. 

One of the key things that stood out to me from this text was the contradictory depictions of women. On one hand, women are described as weak and incapable. As Kramer says, “women are intellectually like children” and “since they are feebler in both mind and body, it is not surprising that they should come more under the spell of witchcraft.” However, on the other hand, women are inherently evil and possess destructive devilish powers. Kramer described women as “a foe to friendship, an unescapable punishment, and a domestic danger,” and that “when a woman thinks alone, she thinks evil.” 

2. Otherness. As I learned in our reading, the Other is an individual who does not belong. The other is different, lesser, and inferior. The Other is not necessarily a numerical minority, but instead, their status results from specific traits and characteristics that separate them from a more powerful, superior group. The other is an outsider who does not have any possibility of being accepted– they are perceived as “different in kind,” something that one cannot change. In this way, the Other and their offspring are doomed to be the Other forever. 

Beyond making me think about how I view “Others” in my own life, this passage helped me better understand the hysteria of witchhunts. While I often find myself wondering how people could have possibly accused and executed women in such a frenzy, I now can see how this “Other” mindset was a way to justify witchhunts. Accusers separated these women from themselves in their minds. To them, these evil, possessed women were not one of them. They did not belong. They were a different kind, hardly human. In this sense, I can understand how it may be easier to harshly persecute individuals when you view them as completely separate, inferior beings. 

3. Communities and deviance. Communities exist by maintaining their geographic and cultural boundaries, thus keeping intact a shared identity. Deviance pushes people to the furthest margins of a community, which, in a way, helps define the boundaries and behavioral norms of that community. Therefore, since deviance plays an important role in outlining boundaries and expectations, societies should not seek to eliminate all deviant behavior. Instead, they should contain it. 

While it took some time for me to wrap my head around it, I now agree with the idea that deviance is important in society. Without people pushing the boundaries, we may not even know where the boundaries lie or how far they go. Deviance allows us to define legal and cultural expectations. Beyond this, without deviance, there is no change or progress. History is made by those who break the rules.