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050 4 _aD203.2-475
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100 1 _aHofhuis, Steije.
_eauthor.
_4aut
_4http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut
_988640
245 1 4 _aThe Evolutionary History of Witch-hunting
_h[electronic resource] :
_bA Qualitative Darwinian Approach /
_cby Steije Hofhuis.
250 _a1st ed. 2024.
264 1 _aCham :
_bSpringer Nature Switzerland :
_bImprint: Palgrave Macmillan,
_c2024.
300 _aXV, 376 p.
_bonline resource.
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
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347 _atext file
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505 0 _a1. Introduction -- 2. Foundations -- 3. Functions -- 4. The Theory -- 5. Witch-hunts -- 6. Explanations -- 7. Cases -- 8. Reflections -- 9. Conclusion.
520 _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.
650 0 _aEurope
_xHistory
_x1492-.
_968968
650 0 _aIntellectual life
_xHistory.
_970673
650 0 _aScience
_xHistory.
_965232
650 0 _aCivilization
_xHistory.
_966788
650 1 4 _aHistory of Early Modern Europe.
_968969
650 2 4 _aIntellectual History.
_970675
650 2 4 _aHistory of Science.
_966101
650 2 4 _aCultural History.
_966790
710 2 _aSpringerLink (Online service)
773 0 _tSpringer Nature eBook
776 0 8 _iPrinted edition:
_z9783031669354
776 0 8 _iPrinted edition:
_z9783031669378
776 0 8 _iPrinted edition:
_z9783031669385
856 4 0 _uhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-66936-1
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