Witch-Hunting in Eastern Europe in the 9th–13th centuries: Anthropology of the Phenomenon

Abstract

The term ‘witch-hunting’ has been used to denote two different phenomena: persecution of pagan traditions by adherents of monotheistic religions and world-wide known archaic ‘trials’ of individuals accused of causing harm to the community by witchcraft. The article attempts to reveal the process of witches’ executions in Eastern Europe in the 9th–13th centuries. For this purpose, the 4 ‘ideal’ and standard witch-hunting motives are described. Those are as follows: 1) fanaticism of followers of Abrahamic religions; 2) faith in sabotage activities by means of witchcraft; 3) the need for a community to join efforts in the face of a common enemy during social plagues and miseries; 4) violation of standards and regulations by a defendant which, as they believed, might adversely influence the community. With evidence from materials on the history of Eastern Europe the paper traces all the four motives. Archaic forms of witch-hunting prevailed, the process was like a communal trial against an imaginary culprit. Details of witch-hunting activities in Eastern European are well similar to any processes of the kind in any other regions of the planet. As a rule, those were individuals that had confronted the community who were charged with witchcraft; in other cases those were socially isolated persons. Witch-hunting was also accompanied by robbery and lethal beating. Сulprits were sentenced by ‘trial by ordeal’. During the studied period such violence was condemned by Christianity and probably other Abrahamic religions (this situation changed by the beginning of the Modern era). So, these murders had contributed to ‘team-building’ around community institutions on the old, pagan basis. In such cases, the community began to lay claim to the functions already transferred to the state administration. Abrahamic witch-hunting manifested itself mainly in the suppression of pagan revolts, and, as a rule, motives 2, 3 and 4 were not the case. Intermixture of pagan traditions and monotheistic witch-hunting took place only when communal institutions exercised authority within a new state system of law or when society was on the tribal stage of development.