Distant reading case study "witchcraft"

🙌 This case study was inspired by a course I teach with Prof. Susan Schreibman (FASoS Maastricht), who suggested some of the digitised historical sources and databases.

Reasons for studying witchcraft records and witch trials

On the one hand, analysing (historical) records on witchcraft and witch trials offers insight into how societies construct and perpetuate narratives around "otherness", fear, and social control. On the other hand, the self-perceptions of individuals embracing magic and seeing themselves as practisioners of witchcraft can tell us something about (alternative) spirituality, self-empowerment, and attempts to reconnect with (marginalised) traditions. In many historical and cultural contexts, witchcraft is also a highly gendered concept, which creates opportunities for feminist and intersectional readings.

Sources on witchcraft and witch trials

Data sets related to witchcraft and witch trials can range from historical records to modern (pop-cultural) perceptions and present-day witchcraft controversies in regions like the Congo, where children and teenagers (from poor backgrounds) are often accused and banished from their homes. The article The agony of Congo's 'child witches', written by Mpoyo Gael for Africa News, attributes this problem to "mushrooming cults" but also to a legacy of conflict and war. Below are resources relating to different time periods and geographic areas that you may want to explore:

Digitised historical records

• The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft (University of Edinburgh, Scotland) provides a detailed database of witch trials in Scotland from 1563 to 1736, including information on accused individuals, accusations, and trial outcomes.
• The Hanover Historical Texts Collection includes some transcriptions of witchcraft trial records from various countries, including the USA, England, and Germany.
• The Danish Archive of Folklore is an example of a more recent collection that does not have an explicit focus on witchcraft but includes records relating to magic and ideas of the supranational, e.g. in the form of folktales and songs. Archives of this kind can be an interesting resource to find out about concepts of witchcraft in cultural memory and customs.
• The Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project (University of Virginia, USA) focuses on the well-known Salem witch trials of 1692.
• The Digital Witchcraft Collection (Cornell University Library, USA) offers pamphlets, books, and legal documents on witch trials in England and New England during the early modern period.
• Witch trials in early modern Switzerland can be traced through legal documents assembled by the Canton of Fribourg and published online in the Collection of Swiss Law Sources.

Modern debates on witchcraft in social media posts and YouTube comments

Witchcraft is suprisingly present on social media platforms, from Reddit to video platforms such as TikTok. In July 2024, Olivia Petter wrote the article WitchTok: How witchcraft became the latest controversial wellness fad for the Independent, in which she quotes author Emma Griffin:

The rise of platforms like TikTok and Instagram played a significant role in making witchcraft more visible and accessible. This is a positive development. However, it’s crucial to approach these practices with respect and awareness of their origins and meanings.

Also, the article addresses challenges of commercialisation (e.g. the sale of overpriced equipment such as crystal balls) and unrealistic expectations. These issues are also discussed in YouTube videos like Ella Harrison's Social Media Witchcraft: Grifters, Aesthetics, Imposter Syndrome, which has 151 comments. Interestingly, Ella Harrison describes herself as a "German folk witch" and is active on several platforms. Using the Python scripts shared in this repository or other tools for web-scraping, you should be able to assemble an interesting data set of user reactions and debates related to modern witchcraft for text analysis.

Here, it may be interesting to include how people respond to popcultural depictions of witches in comics, films and novels. The trailer for the WGN America horror series Salem, which subverts the events of the real Salem witch trials and assumes that "witches are real", has over 400 YouTube comments.

If you are more interested in how present-day audiences discuss historical witchcraft and actual witch trials, you can consider collecting comments on history lectures, documentaries and other educational videos on YouTube. For example, Brian A. Pavlac's video What really happened during the Salem Witch Trials has an impressive number of over 8000 comments.

Questions for Data Analysis

In your data analysis, you can follow the steps outlined in Skill 2.1 on Voyant Tools and Skill 2.2 on Case Study. You may also want to discuss the following questions with other students:

• Do your chosen records reveal (past or present) societal attitudes towards groups such as women, strangers, or the poor?
• Do your records tell you something about the fears and perceived threats behind the persecution of (suspected) witches?
• What role do judicial and religious authorities play in these records, and how do they use legal or moral arguments to justify persecution?
• If you have chosen records in which people embrace magic and claim to practice it themselves, what do they gain from it?
• Can we learn something about moral panic, scapegoating and / or (defiant) sub-cultures from your chosen data?

Be sure to use several different tools in Voyant for your analysis. Additionally, consider comparing different types of records, e.g. those representing the perspectives of different social agents.