Happy Halloween! This new series is related to witches but not witches – it’s the Anti-Witches! What was up with the Benandanti of Renaissance Italy? Why did they use fennel stalks to fight witches armed with sorghum sticks? And what did the Inquisition have to do with it? All this and more today on Dead Ideas!
And be sure to review us so you can get your picture drawn in the historical time period and culture of your choosing!
Co-hosts: Nick (lead host) with Anna and B. T. Newberg (co-hosts)
Time/place: The Friuli, Italy, 1575 CE
Dead idea: The Benandanti
Main Sources
Ginzburg, C. (1983). The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Trans. Tadeschi, J. and Tadeschi, A. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Zika, C. (2015). “Witches as ‘Others’: Mobilizing Emotion in 16th and 17th Century Images.” Lecture distributed via Emotions Make History (podcast), Episode 15, October 22nd.
Maps, pics, references, and more at http://www.deadideas.net. Music and graphic design by Rachel Westhoff.