A&M lecture to focus on history of witchcraft

“The Science of Witchcraft” is on the Halloween lecture menu today at Texas A&M University-Texarkana, with history professor Courtney Hubbart presenting on the topic at 12:15 p.m. in University Center 326 on the school campus, 7101 University Ave.

The lecture, which is part of the school’s Program for Learning and Community Engagement, will focus on deviant behavior in the Middle Ages and what led to more than 30,000 people being killed in Europe in the mid1600s after being accused of witchcraft.

Hubbart said that at first, educated males were accused of witchcraft, black magic and sorcery instead of women.

“Books were written in Latin and there are not a lot of accusations against women because people thought they weren’t educated enough to be able to dabble,” she said.

The invention of the printing press changed that dynamic, with books being translated into native languages and becoming widely available.

“I think technology has a lot to do with it,” she said of the accusations. “With the printing press, more literature was translated into vernacular and native languages. The Bible was translated into native tongue, and powerful writing was available to more people.”

Hubbart said people then began questioning the world around them, particularly women, who then made up 80 percent of those accused of witchcraft.

“The world has a longstanding cult tradition of considering women more inclined to deviant behavior,” she said. “They are physically weaker, emotionally more unstable and all of these things compiled together to create the perfect storm of demonic and satanic influences.”

Misfits, minorities and older women were often victims of witch hunters, who used a book called the “Malleus Maleficarum” to determine if someone was a witch or not. The name of the book translates to “The Hammer of Witches,” and it included barbaric methods of interrogation, some of which resulted in the death of those accused of dancing with the devil.

During that same time, the scientific revolution was occurring, and eventually people learned to look at happenings in a more educated way, she said.

“With the scientific revolution, people started looking away from the supernatural after two centuries of witchcraft hysteria. They found more rational explanations,” Hubbart said. “After this period, there’s a lot more cynicism about things not observed in nature.”

Religion also played a large role in witch hunts, she said, as the Catholic Church trained many of the scientists and theologians who searched out the supposed witches.

“Science and religion have a rocky relationship,” she said. “I think they turned to science as a way to sort of appease the issue, with science becoming more popular. It’s a lot less energy and stress to focus on science than possible supernatural occurrences.”

Hubbart holds a Master of Arts degree in European history from Texas Tech University and has served as an adjunct professor of history at A&M-Texarkana since 2016.

PLACE is a faculty-led program designed to create a community of learners comprising A&M-Texarkana students, faculty, staff and the community at large. PLACE chooses an annual theme around which to organize a lecture series and other activities that provide focal points for learning and discussion. This year’s theme is “Science and Technology.” The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Dr. Corrine Hinton, PLACE chair, at corrine.hinton@tamut. edu and visit the PLACE website at tamut.edu/ place.