00:00The witch hunt was a war against women, it was a coordinated attempt to degrade them.
00:05demonize them and destroy their social power.
00:07That's what Silvia Federici wrote in her book Caliban and the Witch.
00:10At this time of year, it's good to open the door to the history of a persecution that found its target in women.
00:15perfect enemy
00:16to reinforce a social order in which they were subordinate and men retained power.
00:21Being a woman increased the chances of being labeled a witch,
00:24But being a black, mulatto, or enslaved woman could arouse even more suspicion.
00:29Because the persecution was not the same in Europe as in the territories we know today as Latin America.
00:34Cartagena was an example of this.
00:36In 1610 the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition was established there,
00:40where conduct contrary to the Catholic faith was investigated.
00:43First it was applied to heresy and soon expanded to condemn practices such as witchcraft.
00:48The problem is that anything that deviated from accepted beliefs smelled of supposed magical powers.
00:53For example, some practices of African origin were interpreted by the Spanish inquisitors
00:57as diabolical manifestations.
00:59Therefore, among the accused there were mainly black and mixed-race people,
01:04especially women.
01:05And indigenous people were not spared from persecution either.
01:08They could be accused of witchcraft, shamanism, herbalism, or folk healing.
01:12Now, it is true that white men were also persecuted,
01:15except that they were much more understanding.
01:17They could be accused of being liars,
01:19whereas a woman or a black person who had done exactly the same thing
01:23She could end up accused of witchcraft.
01:24But how did we get to the witch hunt?
01:26A persecution considered by some feminist movements
01:30as one of the biggest episodes of violence against women
01:33and the extermination of their knowledge.
01:35Those who had knowledge of midwifery, medicine, botany, were persecuted.
01:39traditional healing practices, in short.
01:42The origin of this story is on the other side of the pond.
01:44In Europe, two events occurred that changed the course of this persecution.
01:47The historian María Emilia Gopre explains it very well and in much more detail.
01:51how we got to this point.
01:52But here we will summarize it in two points.
01:54In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII published a bull that supported the persecution of witchcraft,
02:00which justified the prosecution of thousands of women.
02:02Shortly afterwards, around 1486, the inquisitor Heinrich Kramer wrote Maleus Maleficario,
02:09a book that offered instructions for identifying, interrogating, and prosecuting suspected individuals.
02:14And he spread the dangerous idea that any woman, even his neighbor, could be a witch.
02:18All of this created a breeding ground in a society that was becoming increasingly misogynistic.
02:23in which women were losing spaces of power and access to knowledge,
02:27added to religious wars, bad harvests, diseases and economic crises.
02:32Times of total uncertainty in which people were looking for someone to blame.
02:37To whom? To the witches.
02:38Between 1400 and 1750 there were around 40,000 to 50,000 victims.
02:44Another 50,000 would not have ended up at the stake, but they would have been tried.
02:49Silvia Federici reviewed that history and explained that the persecution was not limited to bonfires and torture.
02:55There was also sexual violence.
02:56The accused women could be stripped naked and completely shaved.
03:00Because it was believed that the devil hid among her hair.
03:03They were pricked with needles all over their bodies, including their vaginas, in search of supposed marks of the devil.
03:09They were frequently raped or investigated to see if they were virgins.
03:12And if they did not confess, they were subjected to new forms of torture.
03:16Even executions became public spectacles attended by the community so that the punishment would serve as a warning.
03:22warning.
03:23Think for a moment about the effect it had on women to see their neighbors, friends, or relatives condemned.
03:29And to think that the same thing could happen to them if they suspected any sign of demonic perversion in them.
03:34And even with all that, it wasn't easy to keep each other company.
03:37Because meeting could mean that they were organizing that raid.
03:41In fact, Federici points out that during this period the English word gossip,
03:45which in the Middle Ages was used to refer to a close person or friend,
03:49It acquired a derogatory connotation related to gossip.
03:52A change that reflects how bonds and solidarity between women were forced to weaken.
03:57In Europe, it is estimated that around 80% of people accused of witchcraft were women.
04:02those who were considered weak in body and mind and linked to sin.
04:06A dangerous image that served to justify his persecution and that persists even to this day.
04:12What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
