History 465- Week 13 Post-Witchcraft

It was interesting to look at witchcraft in the context of Latin America colonialism, because the word witchcraft conjures up images for most of us of the Salem witch trials, or of the stereotypically witch cackling over her cauldron of potions. I found it fascinating that witchcraft was actually used as a tool by women to in some way balance out the gender power system that existed at the time. Ruth Behar talks extensively of this, going into detail about how women exercised power in the private domain, yet even in the private domain it was possible to strongly influenced men in the public domain. I like how she pointed out that women’s power often did not involve controlling material goods or being able to control activities, but rather was in what she termed the “symbolic domain”. Furthermore, despite being less obvious it was by no means trivial. Although cases of witchcraft showing interactions between two women like the Maria de la Candelaria/Michaela de Molina case we looked at did happen, witchcraft by-in-large was a method of women exerting control on men.

It was interesting to read how witchcraft was really not considered that big of a deal, a “minor sin”. I guess it’s my saturation with the Salem witch trials thats gives me the idea that all witchcraft was deemed worthy of death, but I was surprised to find that the inquisitors actually dismissed the crime of witchcraft lightly. Nevertheless, a method women used to gain power was instantly labeled as harmful, perhaps mainly because it did allow women to gain some power in relation to men. It is obviously not viewed as some extreme form of heresy or sacrilege, yet society still formed a legal viewpoint against it. Once women found a way to gain power, it was instantly countered by a formation of “shame” associated with it. Behar aptly calls this the “paradox” that exists when women exercise power.

Martha Few discusses in some detail the fact that religion played such an essential role in gender roles of this time. Religion seems to have been a very common theme throughout all of our studies in this class, whether it be the idea of the cosmos found in southern Latin America, or the views towards war found in Mexico, or the religion the Spanish friars imposed upon the indigenous when Spain came to conquer much of Latin America. Religion can limit the practices of a society (as seen with the views towards sex) or provide opportunities for gender roles to change and shift from what they previously were. Either way, there is no doubt that religion and society are strongly intertwined throughout early Latin America history.