Witchcraft Accusations and Persecutions as a Mechanism for the Marginalisation of Women

Download or read book Witchcraft Accusations and Persecutions as a Mechanism for the Marginalisation of Women written by Samantha Spence and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2017-08-21 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This books draws on feminist commentary from the disciplines of anthropology, history, law, politics and sociology in order to deal with the phenomenon of modern-day witchcraft. It focuses on the re-emergence of witchcraft beliefs in contemporary society, suggesting that witchcraft accusations and persecution are being used as a marginalisation mechanism of women. The re-emergence of witchcraft beliefs in contemporary society and the prevalence of the violence associated with such beliefs has received little attention within academic literature, yet witchcraft-related violence against women is, progressively, becoming one of the most pervasive forms of violence facing women today. This book addresses this gap in the literature, discussing the return of witchcraft beliefs to contemporary society, whilst assessing the effectiveness of international human rights law in protecting women from witchcraft accusations and persecution.