The Devil and the domestic: Witchcraft, women's work and marriage in early modern Scotland

Witchcraft belief and accusation, in part, were a language about women in marriage, work and household (i.e. the domestic). But, witchcraft accusations were about more than just witchcraft beliefs, they were practices rooted in social relations of daily life. Two main allegations were made against Scottish witchcraft suspects. First, neighbors claimed that witches caused magical harm (called malefice) after quarrels. These quarrels were usually about work and accused witches were thought to harm a victim's household not the individual. Second, at trial witches were accused of having a heterosexual relationship with the Devil consummated through sex.; After the introduction, historical background and a discussion of methods and sources, the dissertation recreates the tangled social and legal processes that built a witchcraft accusation and brought it through a state-sponsored trial. Then the local context and history of a witchcraft accusation is explored through a detailed reconstruction of the village of East Barns and the forty-year case made against Isabel Young. But, witchcraft accusation and prosecution also demonstrate that Young's small community was fully enmeshed within wider cultural, social, ideological, economic and institutional webs that helped to shape consensus and create conflict within East Barns. The forces creating and shaping witchcraft accusations were thus simultaneously local and personal and national and European-wide.; Analysis of malefice and demonic pacts throughout the dissertation leads to the following three conclusions. Witchcraft accusations arose out of household, community and the maintenance of "good neighborhood." Alleged pacts between the Devil and female witchcraft suspects mirrored and subverted ideologies and practices of early modern marriage. Finally, words that formed a central aspect of women's verbal work resembled words that were deemed performative of magical harm. The wider associations of witchcraft and the demonization of key social relations and cultural linkages affected how early modern Scots saw and experienced women in their households, communities and marriage. I suggest that witchcraft tell us much about the contradictory ways that people thought about and lived their daily lives.