What is Digg?42 Comments
- kp3469, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17i'm prepared to get modded down ... but this is some OLD news. i remember hearing this over 10 years ago. and, yes, i am old and grumpy.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Look, just admit it. They were witches!
It's indisputable! They weighed the same as a duck! - goat77, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Ok everybody, stop finding reasonable explanations for what may have happened in the past. Instead just blame yourself for it.
- Pacotheparrot, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Wow 20 diggs to the front page...hardcore...
- Zero51, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Human error does explain a judge ruling in favor of the popular belief, so as to protect himself from being accused of being a witch. It does explain how people who accused others of witchcraft were let off on smaller charges, and it does most certainly explain how many people can be killed on the pretense that those children had.
- Zero51, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3That has nothing to do with the Salem witch trials. Who cares if Witchcraft is a religion, the puritan view of witchcraft was of devil-inspired sorcery.
- elv1s77, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3sorry, I was just trying to make a point that terrorists are the new witches.
- AncientWeird, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I heard this theory about three years ago... Im pretty sure these "evil muffins" i heard about, and blaming mistakes were both responsible.
- david76, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Perhaps this also provides an explanation for the Book of Mormon.
- commongiga, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3there's a really good book about the sociological aspects and causes of the salem witch trials including local politics in the government and church. it's called salem posessed: a social orgin of witchcraft. i very much doubt rye had much to do with the entire ordeal.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674785266/sr=8-7/qid=1151517943/ref=pd_bbs_7/104-3754245-1471942?ie=UTF8 - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I think it was the fault of a religion that advocates killing witches.
"You should not let a sorceress live." (Exodus 22:17 NAB) - Matteos, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Was that an African Duck or a European Duck?
- groceryheist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Also, The persecution of Quakers during this period has been presented as a possible cause. Rye ergot may have gotten the ball rolling by putting the idea into people's heads, but it was the twisted culture of the puritans that contributed the trials. One factor is that when you put too many people who believe that everyone around them is good, then a person will believe he is bad. So when an oppurtunity to persecute someone for sin appears, hidden sinners will be the first to jump.
- david76, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I believe the point is to provide explanation for the "witches" behavior. Perhaps you didn't read the article?
- ripter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Say the kids made it up, and then things turned really bad. Even if the kids tried to say they made it up, no one would listen, the witch changed their minds. And how long before the kids start believing their own lie? If other people start claming the witch did things, maybe the witch really did do something that the kids saw… It’s the same effect that happens in accidents and such, people’s minds start changing the facts around and they begin to believe the lie.
- seatowngrrl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The bad rye certainly was part of it, but it also became a way to get land and other valuables away from certain families. Blame someone of being a witch, or of casting a spell to make your crops go bad and they go to jail or die, and who gets the land? the men ( seeing as a majority of the women accused were widows, or spinsters)
- phronko, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Obviously no one explanation will account for every aspect of a complex phenomenon like that. Human behaviour is complex, and any explanation of it is bound to be complex as well.
- goat77, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Or maybe it's to blame for you lacking cleverness or relevance in your comment?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1So it's OK to kill a few women here and there, because the bible allows it? And it's OK if you get it wrong, because God forgives, right dcipjr?
Just remember, his noodly appendage is watching. Ceiling cat is watching you too. - Lereas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This was part of the plot in Acceptable Risk, a Robin Cook book. Good read, if you like his stuff.
- noswar45, on 10/12/2007, -0/+160% comments relate to the article.
30% comments are about other comments.
10% monty python jokes.
100% Dugg - Lilblue, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Interesting article, I've heard of the idea before. There were some theorized social implications as well. Over the past few months I've been taking a U.S. Women's history course and learned about some of the possible social reasoning behind witch trials. It was a generation vs. generation issue. Most of the accusers were young girls, and the accused were older women, usually widows. Despite the constraints women had in Colonial times, there were loopholes to put women in certain self-dependent situations, such as widowhood. Widows were able to own part of their late-husband's land to keep them self-sufficient. Widows were allowed to have income to keep them off a public dole. A lot of younger girls may have resented these older widows for their 'freedoms' seeing that as a young woman at the time you were the most powerless member of society, property of your parents and eventually you would be married off and kept in the home raising a family. Through some physical quirks and 'natural vulnerability' they were able to accuse these older women of being witches, bringing them to trial and putting them out of their 'power'.
- mobtek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Who do you think infected the Rye hey?
- fyngyrz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It was the townspeople, and the town leaders, infected with religion that was the problem. Without that basis in irrationality, townspeople with or without ergot-based hallucinations would not have been harmed.
- shazeubaa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Old news. No digg. ;)
- rasterbator, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1The timer seems to start when the PAGE is loaded, instead of when the comment is started. This needs fixing for sure.
- geninstability, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1whew, thought it was just me.
- darrensouthcott, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This news is about 5 years old.
- nukethewhales, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1The rye seems to explain the fits the girls appeared to be having but it doesn't really explain the accusations. And there was nothing in the article about "Bad Rye" only affecting women so it should have affected some of the men if it really affected all the women who were throwing around the accusations. My theory is that one of the girls suffered from this affliction or something like it (my original thought was epilepsy) and got a lot of attention. Other girls saw this and started to fake it. Then one of the girls made the original accusations and the others just followed along.
- Novagenesis, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Human error doesn't explain a bunch of kids running around sure as -heck- that they saw something. I don't think -that- many kids would stay quiet about a lie while watching people they know well getting -killed-. They were -certain- they saw some really sick and twisted stuff....
The rye-based illness -has- happened before in recorded history, and its effects could be seen as a possible cause... Or it could just be a coincidence that Salem had a giant Rye crop... - somnus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Whenever I see the word "Wicca", I think of wicker chairs... I don't know if that makes them more or less evil in crazed puritan views.
- gregmo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1There are glitches no doubt. Rather annoying cuz it says that ive made a comment "6 minutes ago" after i had just posted it. Not cool.
- kronos42, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1@Novagenesis - "Human error doesn't explain a bunch of kids running around..."
We humans are awful at remembering what we saw, not only that, but 'Group Think' can even make adults believe they saw things they did not, mix that with a child's imagination while running around a spooky rye field at night, and presto 'real' witches.
We are subject to a ton of external forces that affect the way we think, we even have names for them like Mass Hysteria, Suggestion, Subliminal Advertising...
And remember: Anything you can get someone else to believe is a Fact.
/returns to his ham on Rye - pcheaven2k, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Is it just me or is it possible, just maybe, that they REALLY WERE WITCHES and had MAGICAL LIKE POWERS. Throughout human history we have feared and attempted to destroy anything and everything we didn't understand. Early chemists, scientists, astronomers and metalurists were feared and alot of them killed because society thought they were demons or possed some magical power. Witchcraft (Wicca) is not a study of DARK, EVIL or DEMONIC POWERS, it is more a religion that tries to find harmony and balance between humanity and nature. It is a deeper understanding of how things are connected with one another and how one action causes a different reaction. So it is entirely plausible that they really were witches that new certain mixtures of chemicals, plants, etc. would do certain things. No magic about that, just a deeper understanding of the world we live in than most people have (Myself included).
And no I am not a WITCH nor have I ever studied WICCA. I do know people who are WITCHES and I have had numerous long discussions with them. - elv1s77, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3Maybe "bad rye" is to blame for the Bush Administration calling anyone who questions them a terrorist?
- geninstability, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1yes, because they were OBVIOUSLY all witches. They floated, didnt they?!?!
- dcipjr, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Or ignoramuses like yourself.
- AncientWeird, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Is it just me or are we not able to edit comments anymore?
- vajra918, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Why must we search for excuses?
- illicium, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0ignore this
- madhatter349, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2Monty python an d the holy grail by far the greatest movie
- Zero51, on 10/12/2007, -11/+3Or maybe it was just human error, and we should stop trying to find things to blame our mistakes on.
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