Witches & neighbours
Subtitle: the social and cultural context of European witchcraft
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: Mar 20, 1996
Language: eng
Number of pages: 456
Description: "In his reinterpretation of the course and causes of the witchcraft fears and persecutions which bedevilled Europe for centuries, Robin Briggs draws on the latest research into the local realities behind the phenomenon. In particular, he employs his own extensive work in the rich archives of the duchy of Lorraine, in those Franco-German borderlands which saw so many of the known cases. Briggs shows us a people diverting ordinary and not-so-ordinary grievances into a complex structure of blaming and scapegoating. Villagers inhabited a harsh and dangerous world, where real and fantastic fears constantly mingled. There had to be causes, there had to be neighbours in league with demons - once they were identified, surely freedom would come? Briggs skilfully and stylishly traces - by study of real cases and real lives, individual hysteria and disillusionment, institutional scepticism and opposition - the ways in which beliefs about witchcraft responded to changes in European society."--BOOK JACKET.