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‘Evil witch’ conjures many meanings
By KEVIN FRYLING
Reporter Staff Writer
Although the first thing many people today think of when they hear the word “witch” is a shy young man in big round glasses or a green-skinned woman in a black pointy hat, a UB anthropologist says that for centuries witches were seen as something far more terrifying than anything found in “Harry Potter” or the “Wizard of Oz.”
The role in Western culture of the witch as a symbol of society’s most basic fears and anxieties—many of which appear deeply rooted in the human psyche by evolution—was the topic of conversation during yesterday’s UBThisSummer lecture, “The Evil Witch: Embodiment of Universal Human Fears,” presented by Phillips Stevens Jr., associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, College of Arts and Science.
“‘Witch’ and ‘witchcraft’ are among the most loaded words in anthropology; they have so many different meanings,” Stevens said, noting they not only conjure images such as those popularized by children’s fiction and literature, but also pagan religious practices; the persecution of innocent people, especially women, by religious extremists; mysterious nighttime rituals; and mass murderers such as Charles Manson, who called himself a Satanist.
“The witch serves the function of being the ‘nefarious other,’” said Stevens. “They’re the targets of our suspicions and fears.”
Among the characteristics that he said are typically shared by witches in every culture in which they’re present as a myth are the ability to change shape or disappear; the power of flight or “being in two places at once”; the use of animal as “familiars,” such as a black cat, an owl or a ram; the spread of disease; the ritual use of human blood or body parts; the abduction and murder of children; illicit sexual behavior; cannibalism; vampirism; and nocturnal activity.
“At least seven of these traits I suggest are rooted in evolutionary biology,” Stevens said. “Witches are social subversives; even the nocturnal aspect of witches’ activities illustrate that they’re the combined opposite of desirable social human behavior.”
For instance, he pointed out that research suggests the desire to protect children from harm—which witches refute through kidnapping and murdering infants for occult rites—stems from a universal human drive rooted in the biological desire to ensure the continuation of the species. The same appears true of cannibalism, which he said anthropologists have proven that almost no cultures engage in except as a survival tactic, as well as such sexual practices as incest and bestiality, both of which are universal human taboos. Historically, however, witches have been accused of all these things, he said.
While clearly not everyone harbors a belief in witches, Stevens said anthropological research has found that the only societies in which such superstitions are completely absent are those in which the people are classifiable as hunter gatherers or “nomadic pastoralists.”
“It’s in settled societies where people live fairly close to one another that witch beliefs are at their most elaborate,” he said. “And when these societies get to the point of unbearable stress, witch beliefs may come to the fore.”
This is the reason that the term “witch hunt” has become synonymous with the persecution of minorities by members of the majority, he added, noting that this is the most common manifestation of witch beliefs since non-nomadic societies can no longer resolve their conflicts by uprooting to a new location where unwanted “others” are absent. The widespread belief that Jews used the blood of murdered children to create matzo bread is a typical example of this behavior from the medieval period, he said.
While few might feel that such superstitious beliefs remain in modern cultures, Stevens said the paranoia that broke out in the United States and Europe regarding the alleged activities of “Satanic cults” as recently as the early 1980s to mid-1990s suggests that something of this universal fear of witchcraft persists to this day.
“Around the world,” he said, “nearly all of the traditional attributes of witchcraft were still being ascribed to these cults at the end of the 20th century.”