In German: Die Vernichtung der Weisen Frauen
(The Destruction of the Wise Women.)
By Gunnar Heinsohn and Otto Steiger, Ausburg, 2005
This well researched and richly referenced German book, now in its 4th revised edition since it first came out in 1985 argues that there is a relationship between the increase in the European birthrates and the burnings of the witches.
Between 1300 and 1350 Europe lost about 1/3 of its population, and since the Church controlled 25 % of the land and the kings about 5 %, they suffered a huge shortage of workers for the fields, especially because more men than ladies died.
Less workers in the field meant also more “poverty” in powerful places, but as the birthrates did not pick up well afterwards means had to found, and they were. Until then the individual and ladies in particular had had access to knowledge of how to achieve family planning, including how to avoid getting pregnant in the first place and if this happened how to release the fetus either through herbs or from outside. The custodians of this knowledge were the wise woman. The wise woman was often the midwife who might have knowledgeable about herbs, spells, amulets, the cycles of nature, fertility rites, childbirth and pediatrics.
What was done to curb the influence of the wise women was on the one hand, that the church increased gradually the degree of sin related to participating or dealing in the above arts, and parallel the kings instituted stronger legal punishments for the same, while at the same time removing the independent functioning of the midwifes and subjecting them to state controlled male doctors. Health and healing which until then had been mainly a female occupation became male dominated.
The result in action was the witch hunt and later on a huge surge of the European population adding to the spill-over to other continents, where there influence and values then assisted accelerated growth rates there as well.
The book has a wealth of sources including some describing shortly the role family planning, contraceptives and abortion played among the Romans, the Mani sect, the Cathars, and the early middle age culture. There are several old drawings/wood plates reproduced that give an insight into this period. And the chapters are not limited to this time but follows the developement of population politics and the economic motivations through to modern times.
Just looked at the German Amazon where one can also find a couple of reviews:
_http://www.amazon.de/Vernichtung-weisen-Frauen-Gunnar-Heinsohn/dp/3899963407
Reading the most negative feedbacker who claims that most processes were begun by the people not the official procecuters, gave the idea to add, that the witch processes is an example of state instigated terror to control knowledge and populations. That we also ses today. A government programs a people and they help to do the work that serves the rulers and not the people themselves.
One can use translation machines to help out with translation of the reviews etc. on the Amazon.de site:
(The Destruction of the Wise Women.)
By Gunnar Heinsohn and Otto Steiger, Ausburg, 2005
This well researched and richly referenced German book, now in its 4th revised edition since it first came out in 1985 argues that there is a relationship between the increase in the European birthrates and the burnings of the witches.
Between 1300 and 1350 Europe lost about 1/3 of its population, and since the Church controlled 25 % of the land and the kings about 5 %, they suffered a huge shortage of workers for the fields, especially because more men than ladies died.
Less workers in the field meant also more “poverty” in powerful places, but as the birthrates did not pick up well afterwards means had to found, and they were. Until then the individual and ladies in particular had had access to knowledge of how to achieve family planning, including how to avoid getting pregnant in the first place and if this happened how to release the fetus either through herbs or from outside. The custodians of this knowledge were the wise woman. The wise woman was often the midwife who might have knowledgeable about herbs, spells, amulets, the cycles of nature, fertility rites, childbirth and pediatrics.
What was done to curb the influence of the wise women was on the one hand, that the church increased gradually the degree of sin related to participating or dealing in the above arts, and parallel the kings instituted stronger legal punishments for the same, while at the same time removing the independent functioning of the midwifes and subjecting them to state controlled male doctors. Health and healing which until then had been mainly a female occupation became male dominated.
The result in action was the witch hunt and later on a huge surge of the European population adding to the spill-over to other continents, where there influence and values then assisted accelerated growth rates there as well.
The book has a wealth of sources including some describing shortly the role family planning, contraceptives and abortion played among the Romans, the Mani sect, the Cathars, and the early middle age culture. There are several old drawings/wood plates reproduced that give an insight into this period. And the chapters are not limited to this time but follows the developement of population politics and the economic motivations through to modern times.
Just looked at the German Amazon where one can also find a couple of reviews:
_http://www.amazon.de/Vernichtung-weisen-Frauen-Gunnar-Heinsohn/dp/3899963407
Reading the most negative feedbacker who claims that most processes were begun by the people not the official procecuters, gave the idea to add, that the witch processes is an example of state instigated terror to control knowledge and populations. That we also ses today. A government programs a people and they help to do the work that serves the rulers and not the people themselves.
One can use translation machines to help out with translation of the reviews etc. on the Amazon.de site: