Téléchargez le livre : The Evolutionary History of Witch-hunting

The Evolutionary History of Witch-hunting

A Qualitative Darwinian Approach

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Éditeur :

Palgrave Macmillan


Paru le : 2024-12-06



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Description

Why did early modern Europeans hunt for witches? Were these persecutions a shrewd tool to oppress women or the poor, or were they just a way of making money? Or were witch-hunters primarily driven by a genuine belief in witchcraft? The witches’ sabbath, the diabolical pact, and the nightly flight were elements in the early modern concept of witchcraft that seem to have been intelligently designed to trigger persistent witch persecutions. But in contrast to what many past historical scholars presumed, witch-hunts were not based on intelligent design. So how to explain them? This book proposes a new model: Darwinian cultural evolution. It contends that witch-hunting’s apparent design emerged from a hidden evolutionary process in which cultural variants which accidentally unleashed larger persecutions were cumulatively preserved. Witch-hunting did not so much evolve to serve human interests but to ensure its own ‘selfish’ reproduction. Historians have often compared witch persecutions to the outbreaks of contagious disease, but only as a figure of speech. But shouldn’t we take the similarities more seriously? This book argues that witch-hunting was a cultural ‘virus’ that spread at the expense of its human hosts, and thus bridges the gap between qualitative history and the burgeoning field of Darwinian cultural evolution.
Pages
376 pages
Collection
n.c
Parution
2024-12-06
Marque
Palgrave Macmillan
EAN papier
9783031669354
EAN PDF
9783031669361
Informations sur l'ebook
Nombre pages copiables
3
Nombre pages imprimables
37
Taille du fichier
11397 Ko
Ce livre est accessible aux handicaps Voir les informations sur l'accessibilité
Prix
137,14 €
EAN EPUB
9783031669361
Informations sur l'ebook
Nombre pages copiables
3
Nombre pages imprimables
37
Taille du fichier
614 Ko
Ce livre est accessible aux handicaps Voir les informations sur l'accessibilité
Prix
137,14 €

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