The phenomenon of witch hunt. The case of allegations of witchcraft in Salem village
Copyright (c) 2016 Casandra Fargas García
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Abstract
At the dawn of a new century, in 1692, the village of Salem was the scene of one of the leading processes of accusations of witchcraft in history. A group of little girls presented an unnatural behaviour, such as muscle spasms, pain and hallucinations. The diagnosis led to the conclusion that they had been bewitched and, consequently that the village was being attacked by witches living in the community. This became in a series of indiscriminate accusations for the crime of witchcraft. This article aims to explain the phenomenon of witch hunt, as well as the most relevant aspects in its conception. Therefore, the gender factor will be a key point as the accusations were usually against women. Finally, this development will end with an explanation of the case about accusations of witchcraft in the village of Salem.
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