Sexual Witchcraft

This week, our studies focused on witchcraft in colonial Mexico after the Inquisition. Ruth Behar’s article about how women used sexual witchcraft describes the ways in which women used witchcraft and why they felt they needed to use it against others. She claims that the main reason why women used witchcraft was to reverse their subordination to men and gain some degree of control over their husbands or lovers. The belief of magical power these women held empowered them to question and challenge the structures of inequality. Behar notes that historians often overlook the significance of witchcraft in colonial Mexico. However, these studies reveal important insight into the lives of women and the struggles they went through that convinced them of the need for a magical solution that would punish their oppressor(s), often without them knowing.

One of the main ways women administered witchcraft to their husbands was by making them eat their witchcraft. This was considered to be the most effective and direct way to administer the spell. One of the interesting points Behar makes about this method of administering witchcraft was that it was a way for women to “penetrate” men, so to speak, by physically putting a spell into the man’s body, in a way of reversing presumed gender notions. Also, many men were careful not to mistreat their wives out of fear that they would “pollute” them by serving them food while they were menstruating or using witchcraft against them.

Spanish religious elite viewed witchcraft as a sign of ignorance, curable with instruction and punishment. Many women, after performing an act against their husbands would feel bad and confess to the priest.

Witchcraft did serve in breaking down class barriers between women. Midwives and curandenas (folkhealers) were the main women that provided women from all classes with the herbs and ingredients necessary for performing a spell. It seemed that there were women everywhere who were lurking about, waiting to hear a woman complaining about their husband or lover, ready to offer her a remedy to her problems.

Men were not these women’s only victims. Women used witchcraft against other women and slaves used it on their masters to “soften” them. These studies of witchcraft reveal a lot about the Spanish society, including their fears of women assuming power over men by means of whichcraft.