Max Dashu: Witch Hunts and The Cultural Legacies of Misogynist Persecution
Hosted by The Vancouver Women's Library

SAT / May 13, 2017 / 7:30PM
515 W Hastings St. / Fletcher Challenge Theatre

The early modern Terror of witch-hunting was the crucible of modern "Western Civilization." Its impact on women's freedom—speech, mobility, professions, bodies, sexuality—was profound. Yet witch hunts have become a metaphor without their own significance ever being understood digested. Females, the old, disabled, poor, queer, and cultural minorities were targeted as "devil-worshippers." (And some victims really were folk healers, midwives, and diviners—as well as bold and indomitable women.) We'll look at how the witch craze was escalated through torture trials, who was persecuted, and the role of the state, churchmen, doctors and professors in propagating diabolist mythology. How did witches' bridles, sexualized-racialized torture, and diabolist ideology influence European culture, and get exported as tools of colonization? What are the legacies of this repression in the present day? It's crucial to understand this prehistory of modern patriarchy and empire, as we move to decolonize ourselves and the dominant culture.

Debrief & Afterparty at The Vancouver Women's Library
1255 Kingsway St.

Max Dashu founded the Suppressed Histories Archives in 1970 to research and document women's history from an international perspective. She built a collection of 15,000 slides and 30,000 digital images, and has created 150 slideshows on female cultural heritages across human history. Dashu's work bridges the gap between academia and grassroots education. It foregrounds indigenous women passed over by standard histories and highlights female spheres of power retained even in some patriarchal societies. Dashu is known for her expertise on ancient female iconography in world archaeology, women shamans, witches and the witch hunts, mother-right cultures, patriarchies and the origins of domination.