Witches in Sixteenth-Century Germany: The belief in witches, what they were accused of and why 'The witch trials demonstrated fear of the power of women’s sexuality. The female witch was understood to be a product of woman’s excessive carnal lust who were affiliated with fornication and orgies with the Devil. This made them more susceptible… Continue reading Halloween Compilation 2022
Category: Human-Animal Relations
Fear of Wolves in Sixteenth-Century Germany
Keywords: werewolves, Johannes Geiler of Kayserberg, Olaus Magnus, rabies, fatalities From 1570, Europe experienced a ‘little ice age’ that brought harsher winters and wetter summers, resulting in failed crops and outbreaks of disease (Soergel, 2012, p. 24; Bailey, 2013, p. 161). The ice age froze rivers which enabled wolves to travel while impeding traffic for… Continue reading Fear of Wolves in Sixteenth-Century Germany
Ox Worship and the Demonisation of the Foreign Other
Keywords: golden calf, Ship of Fools, heresy, de Bry, Albrecht Dürer In Exodus 22, the Israelites feared Moses had abandoned them and would not return to lead them when he received the Torah on top of Mount Sinai. They asked the brother of Moses, Aaron, to ‘come, make us gods who will go before us’… Continue reading Ox Worship and the Demonisation of the Foreign Other
Bestiality and Human-Animal Hybrids: Inter-Faith Relations and the Corruption of the Christian Body
Keywords: Monstrous Births, Bestiality, Jews, Monstrous Races, Cynocephali A tale spread across Europe during the sixteenth century of a monstrous birth that possessed the legs and a curled tale of a canine, and the upper body of a young boy. An illustrative woodcut of the ‘dog boy’ posed like an ethnographic portrait appeared in Konrad… Continue reading Bestiality and Human-Animal Hybrids: Inter-Faith Relations and the Corruption of the Christian Body
The Human-Animal Debate in the Colonisation of Native Americans
Keywords: Colonisation, Bartolomé de Las Casas, Amerigo Vespucci, Native Americans, Spanish With the European ‘discovery’ of the New World, it became advantageous to see the less developed Native Americans as akin to animals to justify their colonisation and enslavement. Spiritual conquest was used to help facilitate physical colonisation, therefore, missionaries soon followed conquistadores. Spanish missionaries… Continue reading The Human-Animal Debate in the Colonisation of Native Americans
Dana K Rehn 