The Age of Witchcraft

In this post, I wanted to take the time to share some of my thoughts on this week’s reading, and pose a few questions I would have loved to discuss in class or personally research moving forward.

In our reading this week, our book discussed the correlation between a woman’s age, and her being accused of practicing witchcraft. The text noted that elderly women were likely to be accused of being witches, largely because they might have lost the familial structure that once provided them protection and stability. These accusations helped to form the common stereotype of a witch as a wrinkled, old woman. In this sense, witches seemed to represent elements that were particularly undesirable for women in Western culture: not being considered physically attractive and aging.

I might even go so far as to say that there is also a bit of an inherent contradiction within this stereotype. From the beginning of the most prevalent period of witch hunts in the 16th century into the modern era, elderly women have been connected with witchcraft. Some in society may have seen these women as frail, and disenfranchised. Yet simultaneously these same people may have believed them to be capable of repeatedly performing powerful dark magic. In this sense, elderly women accused of witchcraft were seen as both physically weak and as able to perform impactful immaterial spells and magic.

I would be curious to find out if this connection between witches and the elderly holds true with witch stereotypes in other cultures, particularly, in cultures where elderly women are not seen as lesser but rather, elderly individuals are treated with great respect and revered as community leaders. I would be particularly curious to research this subject in places such as Japan and China, as Japan has one of the highest life expectancies in the world. In China and Japan it is common for many generations of a single family to live together in a single house, and children are traditionally duty-bound to care for their parents' physical, financial, and spiritual needs. I would love to learn how this attitude might have helped to separate the idea of evil witchcraft from elderly women. I would also be eager to investigate the prevalence of this stereotype in India. In India, elders are often considered the leaders of the household, who play key roles in providing advice and insight to younger family members and in raising grandchildren.

Historically, in both Western and Eastern cultures we see varying degrees of social regulation surrounding how the elderly are treated, and I would love to examine how common depictions of witches are positioned across these societies.