Quoted By:
>Another unsustainable claim is that “outbreaks of witchcraft” as a phenomenon of belief with a social function, that is, with the function of being an escape valve in times of deep political and social unrest. The problem is that not every period of unrest generates “outbreaks of witchcraft” as a fact of belief. In fact, the only time that attests to an outbreak of widespread belief in witchcraft was that of late medieval Europe, as the outbreaks in Africa are local and not general as they were in the 15th century in Europe and did not involve an entire culture as occurred in the Christian West. an outbreak that remained alive until the 17th century!
>The claim that collective neuroses or schizophrenia would be responsible for the outbreaks simply does not shed light on such a long-lasting and impactful phenomenon, given that the entire elite – judges, intellectuals, writers, clergy, kings – of the time took the wave of witchcraft seriously, which shows its incorporation into the system of thought between 1400-1700
