Reply #7: Wow, [View All]

[cally]

I would hate to confess that to a priest. I'm glad your father is now sober and that the marriage is better now.

I'm fascinated by this time in women's history. I'm kind of blanking on the numbers tonight, but I think something like 20 to 30 percent of all women were burned as witches in parts of Europe. The church targeted the elder women healers who had tremendous status in the community and often ties to more traditional, non Christian or power elite, methods of healing and rituals. It was also around this time that men became the healers and doctors. The leaders began to fear poison---the women's weapon. I think I've heard that in other cultures, poison was also seen as the women's weapon.

Another interesting idea is that after this genocide, men started preferring young innocent women. Before this, men often preferred the older wise woman because she brought status. The Church started recommending young innocent women to powerful men because they were easier to control.

There was a wonderful PBS series on this a few years ago. I got interested and did research at the time.