Introduction
The witches were people who were believed to destroy the society and they were mostly women, many were poor or elderly and most were unmarried. These people were alienated from their neighbors this is because they were seen as different and therefore they were not liked by others in the society. A woman was fired from work due to her nails, makeup, and clothing as she was associated with witchcraft.
There are the puritans that founded a colony and were persecuted due to their belief in Christianity. They banned theater, games of chance, and all the morality that was governed by the church. This is because they decided to have heaven been established on earth and due to this utopia then they were greatly persecuted. As the traditional society was met with the forces of modernity and the beginning of the stages of industrialization then a strong anti-modernist reaction resulted. (Jeffrey, 1987)
Main Part
Two things that resulted in that are the evolution and the beginning of the attempts to analyze the bible from the historical perspective. The witch hunts took place after the middle ages and were carried out by civilized people. These people had the thought that it was not wrong to carry out their activities this is because at this time there were changes in the economy with capitalism, with the culture change whereby there was the raise in renaissance and the religion with the reformation. Such changes led to people practice on these activities.
The western civilization was by there was activities like slavery been carried out, the disparities between the rich and the poor were made and there was the destruction of culture and thus these activities encouraged these hunts. The most educated, the literate, the well trained and the urban elites were the most known people who did these hunts. This is because at that time the people’s cultures were done away with and thus they became more civilized as industrialization was taking place at the same time. Thus people learn new ways and means of survival, unlike the traditional era where they had the culture dominating and had different views concerning the witches.
During this age, the Christian view of witchcraft was a confusion of how the people thought of witches and it was something that was not easy to understand. Most of the authorities thought that witchcraft could not harm because it was not real. A debate rose where different church authorities had different beliefs on the existence of witchcraft and the harm it could cause and due to these differences the church broke and at the same time reformation was taking place.
The witch hunts mainly targeted the women and thus it became hard to trace a man who was a witch. This is because they said that women were mostly tempted by the devil and that is why the women are witches. Most of the witch hunts involved government authorities as they decided that a problem with the witches existed and the danger was seen as an organized plan that was led by the devil. The witches were also seen to cause harm through raising storms, killing people, and cause of bad luck. Therefore the authority had to investigate the secret informants and the torture to acquire information. (Elaine, 1984)
In Europe, some parts experienced intense hunts while others experienced moderate persecutions. The factors that led to this great variety in hunting included: the power of the central government; the independence of the local government; the tensions that were created by wars; the failure in economies or the famine and the uncertainties about religious conformity. Many people died due to these witch hunts were by some villages were wiped out due to the witch hunters’ exaggeration that most of the witches live in the same area this led to killings of people that led to many people losing their lives and even others were innocent but they were affected if a certain village was targeted.
In this modern time, the witch hunt is seen as organized persecution of a group of people were by the people who are eliminated are believed to be able to use supernatural powers to harm the society and also the nation as a whole.
The difference between the witch hunts today and those that were in Europe is that: the European witch hunts had the belief of the devil who was concerned in organizing people to destroy society; They had large scale involvement of the government authorities this means that they were directed by the government on what to do so it means that they had to first make consultations from the government before they carried out the investigation; there were also courts for these witches therefore if one was a witch then there was the law that was used for trial before further action was taken. The healer witch was seen as an innocent, enlightened victim of the evil male witch hunters and the trials that were made showed that the white witches were not charged.
They had theories about the proposed witches who were members of the pagan sect that was believed to worship the horned God. Today in some parts of the world people are persecuting others for allegedly being witches whereby the governments are not involved. The modern witches have tried to resurrect the witchcraft activities but they are not able because these witch hunts have had a high impact on them due to the persecution that the concerned people had to face. (Jonathan, 1998)
Conclusion
The witch hunters have has a high impact on the society because even if they worked to do away with the witches they also affected the economy of that society. This is because they were only concerned with killings and thus they could clear a whole village claiming everyone was a witch. This affected the people’s performance because they had no time to carry out their activities due to the fear of been killed. In this witch-hunting propaganda and trials there are many tortures to the concerned person in which he or she is seen to be of harm to the society and therefore should be done away with.
Much of the emphasis is placed on women who are seen to be witches as they are weak and easily tricked by the devil but the thing is that both women and men can be witches. Today this witch-hunting has a high impact because there is no government involvement and therefore they end up killing innocent citizens and also the helpful people in the society.
Reference:
Jonathan, B (1998). Witch craft in Europe. Past and present publication. Cambridge university press.
Elaine, J (1984). The age of the witch hunts and their effects. Indian: Indian university press.
Jeffrey, D (1987). The history of witchcraft. 3rd edition. London: Longman.