Despite the rationalism implicit in contemporary thinking, in many parts of the world like South Africa, belief in witchcraft exists and is a core belief, influencing the world-view of many people. In these contexts, witchcraft is believed to be responsible for every social experience including, illnesses, sickness and death. The witch-figure, imbued with jealousy, is believed to derive power to harm others with witchcraft through supernatural capacity and an association with the Devil. Witchcraft, it seems represents a theory of misfortune guiding the interactions between people and provides explanations, steeped in the supernatural, for almost every misfortune. Extending on the commonly held notion of violence against women, this doctoral study reflects witchcraft accusations and its violent consequences as an under-represented facet thereof. This follows the fact that historic and contemporary accounts of witchcraft position women as primary suspects and victims. Accused of witchcraft, many women face torture and ultimately death, even today. In this study it is argued that witchcraft accusations result from within a social context, supporting gendered relations that are powered. To this end, I apply a feminist psychological approach as a theoretical lens, allowing us to see witchcraft accusations as one strategy among those supporting male domination. In the first chapter, I outline the feminist psychological approach as an appropriate lens to view witchcraft-related violence. The understanding of witchcraft accusations gained through the application of feminist psychological theory is then applied in the second chapter, focusing on news reports. A focus on the newspaper representations of witchcraft violence is vital, given the media’s influential role in the lives of many. Attention is then focused on understanding of witchcraft held by community members, usually responsible for the violent attacks on those accused. The final chapter locates the witchcraft experience with women so accused. The purposeful repetition of theoretical points made in each chapter was essential. The repetition enabled me to apply the theoretical lens appropriately for each paper and to elaborate on the fundamental premise the PhD argues towards. The reader’s attention is drawn towards awareness of this purposeful repetition of the theoretical lens. It is imperative as together and separately, the chapters in this PhD, function to accentuate on an expression of gendered violence, steeped in a tradition supporting male domination. / Psychology / D.Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

This Bachelor thesis deals with fictional documentaries, and the aim is to show the aesthetics and the problems with the constructed reality that these films contain. The main focus is how this reality is constructed, which documentary aesthetic methods can be found and in what way you can see that it is a fictional movie and not a documentary. The analysis deals with the three movies, Rampljus, The Blair Witch Project and Påtryckaren. The movies are analysed from a documentary perspective and the method beeing used is constructed for this thesis to find some answers behind the fictional ocumentaries. / Uppsatsen behandlar fiktiv dokumentärfilm och vill lyfta fram dess estetik samt belysa den problematik kring det veklighetsanspråk som dessa filmer spelar på. Tyngdpunkten ligger på hur detta verklighetsanspråk skapas, vilka dokumentärt estetiska grepp som finns samt på vilket sätt det går att skönja att det är en spelfilm och inte en dokumentärfilm. I analysen behandlas de tre filmerna Rampljus, The Blair Witch Project och Påtryckaren. Filmerna analyseras utifrån ett dokumentärt perspektiv och den metod som använts är konstruerad för denna uppsats för att få svar på frågorna den fiktiva dokumentärfilmen.

The purpose of this essay is to explore actions of the representatives of the church during the first of the trials of what later developed to the great swedish witch-hunts between the years 1668–1676. The method of this study is microhistorical, where you look at local events that then can be applied on a bigger scale. The theoretical ideas applied are Michel Foucault theories of a society at war, and the dynamics between central power and peripheral power in that kind of situation. By applying these theories, the relations between central juridical directives and the enforcement of these in a local place can be studied. The main subject of interest for this essay is clerical representative Lars P. Elvius, who, during the trials, were the one responsible and the one the rest of the court relied on for interpreting the crimes of witchcraft, maleficum and other crimes of supernatural art. By looking at the directives and laws concerning witchcraft, how he interpreted the testimonies of the accused and what kind of verdict was given at the end of the trial, the relationship between central directives and peripheral enforcement is made clear. This study is part chronological and part thematic; the directives and laws presented first, followed by the interpretation during the trial categorized thematically, with correlating testimony and crime, and finally the verdict at the end of the trial.

« Il était une fois »… un professeur autrichien, Theodor Vernaleken, qui souhaitait diffuser les récits populaires et coutumes traditionnelles des régions alpines. Ce « Grimm autrichien » les restitue si fidèlement dans ses Contes des Alpes pour les enfants et le foyer et ses Légendes des Alpes qu’il adopte la forme dialectale. Pédagogue émérite, il annote ses récits de nombreuses remarques explicatives rendant ainsi ces témoignages accessibles. Le conte est un récit se déroulant « autrefois » « dans une contrée lointaine ». Les êtres fantastiques surgissent tout naturellement au moment opportun, pour permettre ou empêcher le héros de vivre heureux et d’avoir beaucoup d’enfants. Pour sa part, la légende vise à être crue. Dans ces contes et légendes, les habitants ou un membre de la communauté villageoise ont vu de leurs propres yeux, dans leur village, des êtres surnaturels. Ils nous racontent leur étonnement, leur peur découlant de leur confrontation à cet autre monde peuplé de démons. C’est ainsi qu’apparaissent des homoncules, des géants, des dragons et autres animaux fantastiques, qui parlent, se transforment, etc. L’homme est également confronté à des protagonistes démonologiques tels que sorcières, diables et revenants. Celui qui a transgressé les interdits ne pourra échapper à son destin, tel est le message de ces récits exemplaires et instructifs. Jusqu’à présent, aucune étude exhaustive, ni classification de ce genre littéraire n’a été réalisée. Ainsi, cette étude analysera, par une approche comparative, les récits démonologiques à travers l’étude des êtres fantastiques des textes rassemblés par Theodor Vernaleken. / “Once upon a time”… an austrian professor, Theodor Vernaleken, wanted to spread popular stories and traditional uses from the alpine areas. This “Austrian Grimm” restores them in his books Tales From the Alps for children and home and Legends from the Alps so faithfully that he writes them in dialect form. Highly skilled teacher, he writes lots of explicative notes on his stories making them understandable. A tale is a story, which takes place “a long time ago” “in a far faraway country”. Fantastic creatures appear quite naturally at the right time to allow the heroes to live happy and have lots of children or to prevent it to happen. As for it the legend aims to be believed. In these tales and legends inhabitants or a member of the village community have really seen supernatural creatures in their village. They tell us about their amazement, their fear from the confrontation with this other world populated with daemons. So dwarfs, giants, drakes and other fantastic animals and so on appear, speak and are completely transformed. Humans are also confronting demonologic protagonists such as witches, devils and ghosts. Who transgresses the interdicts cannot escape from his fate. That is the message of these exemplary and instructive stories. Up to now, no exhaustive survey or classification of this literary genre has been carried out. So, this work will analyse demonologic stories in a comparative way through the study of fantastic creatures in texts gathered by Theodor Vernaleken.

Ce mémoire explore le concept de la sagefemme-sorcière dans le contexte de la masculinisation et la médicalisation du processus de l'accouchement. En m'appuyant sur le roman The Birth House, par Ami McKay, je développerai trois chapitres qui traitent de l'histoire du domaine obstétrique, la chasse aux sorcières, ainsi que l'historique de l'archétype de la sorcière dans un contexte féministe afin d'illuminer la caractérisation de Dora et Miss Babineau en tant que des véritables sorcières, malgré qu'elle ne pratiquent pas de magie dans l'histoire. De plus, ce mémoire examinera les implications féministes de l'adoption littéraire de l'archétype de la sorcière en ce qui concerne la culture populaire et le climat politique actuel en Amérique du Nord grâce à l'adoption d'une perspective historique afin d'illustrer l'importance culturelle non seulement du roman, mais des personnages qui y habitent. / In this paper, I explore the notion of the midwife-witch and how it relates to the medicalization and masculinization of birth as portrayed in The Birth House by Ami McKay. This subject is divided in three chapters that give historical context to the emergence of obstetrics and the prosecution of midwives, the history of the archetype of the witch and how it is explored in the characterization of Dora and Miss Babineau, as well as the feminist implications of the figure of the midwife-witch and how it is relevant to the current political and cultural climate. I argue that McKay's novel fictionalizes the question of how witchcraft influenced the process of excluding women from medicine as well as reinforces the overall patriarchal subjugation of women. In turn, the text suggests that the key to transcending gender-based oppression lies in embracing the magick of womanhood: the power to create life. This thesis draws a timeline in the history of women's medicine, witch hunts, and feminism to show how these three elements interact in McKay's novel, which serves as a feminist retelling of the real-world implications and power of negotiating and claiming identity.

This thesis comprises an exploration of the plant commonly known as plantain, or Plantago major, through participant observation of an apprenticeship in traditional western herbalism in the Ottawa region of Ontario, Canada. The first section delves into ideas and manifestations of “weediness” and “invasion”, while offering medicinal/ herbalist views of such plants as a kind of counterpoint. This touches on learning to garden, soil, lawns, plantations, invasive species, protests, and extrajudicial police killings among other topics. The following section, “horror in the hedge”, takes us first on an “herb walk” in Ottawa’s Experimental farm before moving on to a discussion of medicinal understory plants and Plantain alongside hedgerows, witch trials, plagues of Covid-19 and vibration in healing. From here the final section discusses medicine, delving first into the darker side of things as they manifest in the realm of medicinal mushrooms, again touching on the over-harvesting of medicinals, and the discoveries of supposed messiahs. Following is an exploration of how herbalists see continuity between the terrain of the human body and the land, returning again to the “herb walk” as a pedagogic mode utilized by herbalists. Finally, this work is summed up by an exploration of herbal formulation and medicine making, of the Anglo-Saxon Nine Herb’s Charm and the potent power of the triad. Drawing on Plantain as a kind of talisman, and structured after the Lacnunga’s Nine Herb’s charm, this work is an anthropological invocation of animist traditions emerging from Europe. To these ends, the works of Anna Tsing, Tim Ingold, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guatarri, Donna Haraway, Michael Taussig, Silvia Federici, David Abram, and Victor Turner, among many others, underpin the theoretical framework of this project.

Denna text specificerar gotländska kyrkomålningar som föreställer Tjuvmjölkerskor. Syftet med studien är att skapa en förståelse för medeltida människors syn på tjuvmjölkerskor och hur de påverkade det medeltida samhället. Studien använder ett ikonografiskt tillvägagångsätt för att studera målningarna och hur tjuvmjölkerskorna framställs. En rumslig analys utförs även för att undersöka målningarnas placering inne i kyrkorummet. Kyrkan under medeltiden såg den kvinnliga sexualiteten som ett hot, ett sätt för henne att manipulera män och utföra onda handlingar. Kyrkan använde tjuvmjölkningsmålningarna som en metod att skrämma och påminna befolkningen om rätt och fel, men även om bestraffningen som skulle åläggas vid samröre med djävulen. Tjuvmjölkerskan avbildades som en vanlig kvinna med vardagliga föremål under medeltiden, vilket ökade rädslan att en tjuvmjölkerska kunde vara vem som helst. Hennes handlingar och bestraffning avslöjar dock hennes identitet. Tjuvmjölkerskan bidrog därför med oro och rädsla i det medeltida samhället. / This text specifies Gotland church paintings depicting milk stealing women. The purpose of this study is to create an understanding of medieval people's view of milk stealing women and how they influenced the medieval society. The study uses an iconographic approach to studying the paintings and how the milk stealing women are depicted. A spatial analysis is also used to examine the location of the paintings in the church room. The medieval church saw female sexuality as a threat, a way for women to manipulate men and perform evil deeds. The church used the thief milking paintings as a method of scaring and reminding the population of right and wrong, but also of the punishment that would be imposed when associating with the devil. The milk stealing woman is depicted as an ordinary woman with everyday objects in the Middle Ages, which increased the fear that a milk stealing woman could be anyone. However, her actions and punishment revealed her identity. The milk stealing woman therefore contributed to anxiety and fear in middle age society.

At no point in the apocryphal text does Judith, a wise and beautiful Jewish widow, sit on Holofernes, the Assyrian general laying siege to her city. Yet, in 1525, Barthel Beham, a young artist from Nuremberg, created Judith Seated on the Body of Holofernes, an engraving in which a voluptuous nude Judith sits atop Holofernes’s nude torso. Neither the textual nor the visual traditions explain Beham’s choice to perch the chaste woman on top of her slain enemy, so what sources inspired the printmaker? What is the meaning of Judith’s provocative position? The tiny printed image depicts the relationship between a male figure and a female figure. Thus, in order to appreciate the complexity of that relationship, I begin this thesis by reviewing what it meant to be a man and what it meant to be a woman in early sixteenth-century Germany. Because gender roles and the dynamics between the sexes were so complex, I encourage scholars to reevaluate Weibermacht (Power of Women) imagery. The nudity of Beham’s Judith and her intimate proximity to Holofernes suggest that Judith Seated on the Body of Holofernes is a Weibermacht print. In fact, Judith’s pose specifically echoes that of Phyllis riding Aristotle, a popular Weibermacht narrative. The combined eroticism of Judith’s exposed body and her compromising position would have appealed broadly to male viewers, but Beham likely targeted an erudite audience of well-educated, affluent men when he designed the multivalent print. Through close visual analysis and careful consideration of which prints circulated in early sixteenth-century Nuremberg, I argue that Beham’s Judith resembles witches riding backwards on goats, crouching Venuses, and a woman in the “reverse-cowgirl” sex position. Admittedly, it is impossible to know which sources Beham studied in preparation for Judith Seated on the Body of Holofernes, but I am inclined to believe that he wanted each of those jocular references to enrich the meaning of his work, providing a witty commentary on the power of women. But regardless of the artist’s intentionality, I think visually literate viewers would have recognized and enjoyed decoding the layers of meaning in Beham’s odd engraving. / text

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal. / Pour respecter les droits d'auteur, la version électronique de cette thèse ou ce mémoire a été dépouillée, le cas échéant, de ses documents visuels et audio-visuels. La version intégrale de la thèse ou du mémoire a été déposée au Service de la gestion des documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

This project examines the presence and significance of ecofeminism and pedagogy within contemporary Young Adult literatures, particularly girls’ ecofantasy literatures. Specifically, I examine the role and representations of the female body in nature and any real or perceived connections between them. To accomplish this, I bring the theories of several feminist, ecofeminist, and environmental studies scholars together with my primary texts, Green Angel and Green Witch by Alice Hoffman, to examine the depiction of the female body in nature through interconnectedness and reciprocity between human and non-human nature, green transformations, and the archetype of the witch. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013.