Also, the witch hunts started around the same time peasant women started recognizing their intersectional class struggle. So women rebelling against the status quo were declared witches.
The Mallus Maleficarum is the most cited text when discussing witch hunts in a feminist light. It was written by a priest in the 13th century and includes a section on identifying witches based on inherent traits of women. Among those traits are “loose tongues”.
Edit: as for a book that discusses this topic in feminist theory, there’s the Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation
Thank you for this. I don’t really have the energy for more books.
My backlog is enormous already, so I listen to them in my car… cliff notes is helpful, lol, but a long road trip is a great way to learn some shit!
As a side note, the drunken botanist is an amazing book but not for audiobook because it has drink recipes. You miss half the book ignoring the recipes while driving, and I hear they make great drinks. But napoleans buttons was so good, about the impact of specific materials on the world and how those interplay with the environment around them (napoleon’s buttons’ title is reference to a potentially apocryphal accounting that the cold, something they hadn’t planned one being as bad as it was, froze and failed the leaded buttons on their uniforms, causing them to freeze to death)
It was also a way to take valuable non-reproductive/sexual labor from women. The wise women whose medicine works (for a given value of works, but much better than humoral medicine) were doing valuable labor that men wanted. Like I’m glad medicine eventually became scientifically based, but it would’ve done that even if it was seen as women’s work.
Also, the witch hunts started around the same time peasant women started recognizing their intersectional class struggle. So women rebelling against the status quo were declared witches.
I’m guessing there must be a book or three about this? It sounds really interesting.
The Mallus Maleficarum is the most cited text when discussing witch hunts in a feminist light. It was written by a priest in the 13th century and includes a section on identifying witches based on inherent traits of women. Among those traits are “loose tongues”.
Edit: as for a book that discusses this topic in feminist theory, there’s the Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation
tldr: here is a nice review, that summarizes the most important points https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/book-review-malleus-maleficarum
Thank you for this. I don’t really have the energy for more books.
My backlog is enormous already, so I listen to them in my car… cliff notes is helpful, lol, but a long road trip is a great way to learn some shit!
As a side note, the drunken botanist is an amazing book but not for audiobook because it has drink recipes. You miss half the book ignoring the recipes while driving, and I hear they make great drinks. But napoleans buttons was so good, about the impact of specific materials on the world and how those interplay with the environment around them (napoleon’s buttons’ title is reference to a potentially apocryphal accounting that the cold, something they hadn’t planned one being as bad as it was, froze and failed the leaded buttons on their uniforms, causing them to freeze to death)
Caliban and the Witch is an amazing book. I think everyone needs to read it.
Nah, it was just a land grab. Claiming witches was just a good excuse to take their land.
It was also a way to take valuable non-reproductive/sexual labor from women. The wise women whose medicine works (for a given value of works, but much better than humoral medicine) were doing valuable labor that men wanted. Like I’m glad medicine eventually became scientifically based, but it would’ve done that even if it was seen as women’s work.