03222nam a22004695i 4500001001800000003000900018005001700027007001500044008004100059020001800100024003500118050001500153072001700168072001700185072002300202072001900225100007800244245012700322250001800449264007900467300003300546336002600579337002600605338003600631347002400667505015600691520147400847650002802321650003202349650002202381650002702403650003602430650002602466650002402492650002202516710003402538773002602572776003602598776003602634776003602670856004602706978-3-031-66936-1DE-He21320251030114607.0cr nn 008mamaa241207s2024    sz |    s    |||| 0|eng d  a97830316693617 a10.1007/978-3-031-66936-12doi 4aD203.2-475 7aHBJD2bicssc 7aHBLH2bicssc 7aHIS0100002bisacsh 7aNHDx3M2thema1 aHofhuis, Steije.eauthor.4aut4http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut14aThe Evolutionary History of Witch-huntingh[electronic resource] :bA Qualitative Darwinian Approach /cby Steije Hofhuis.  a1st ed. 2024. 1aCham :bSpringer Nature Switzerland :bImprint: Palgrave Macmillan,c2024.  aXV, 376 p.bonline resource.  atextbtxt2rdacontent  acomputerbc2rdamedia  aonline resourcebcr2rdacarrier  atext filebPDF2rda0 a1. Introduction -- 2. Foundations -- 3. Functions -- 4. The Theory -- 5. Witch-hunts -- 6. Explanations -- 7. Cases -- 8. Reflections -- 9. Conclusion.  aWhy did early modern Europeans hunt for witches? Were these persecutions a shrewd tool to oppress women or the poor, or were they just a way of making money? Or were witch-hunters primarily driven by a genuine belief in witchcraft? The witches’ sabbath, the diabolical pact, and the nightly flight were elements in the early modern concept of witchcraft that seem to have been intelligently designed to trigger persistent witch persecutions. But in contrast to what many past historical scholars presumed, witch-hunts were not based on intelligent design. So how to explain them? This book proposes a new model: Darwinian cultural evolution. It contends that witch-hunting’s apparent design emerged from a hidden evolutionary process in which cultural variants which accidentally unleashed larger persecutions were cumulatively preserved. Witch-hunting did not so much evolve to serve human interests but to ensure its own ‘selfish’ reproduction. Historians have often compared witch persecutions to the outbreaks of contagious disease, but only as a figure of speech. But shouldn’t we take the similarities more seriously? This book argues that witch-hunting was a cultural ‘virus’ that spread at the expense of its human hosts, and thus bridges the gap between qualitative history and the burgeoning field of Darwinian cultural evolution. Steije Hofhuis is a historian and works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Berlin Social Science Center, Germany. 0aEuropexHistoryx1492-. 0aIntellectual lifexHistory. 0aSciencexHistory. 0aCivilizationxHistory.14aHistory of Early Modern Europe.24aIntellectual History.24aHistory of Science.24aCultural History.2 aSpringerLink (Online service)0 tSpringer Nature eBook08iPrinted edition:z978303166935408iPrinted edition:z978303166937808iPrinted edition:z978303166938540uhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-66936-1