Familiars: Kinship and Environmental History in Feminist Analyses of Witchcraft

Abstract: Feminist scholarship can be renewed in witchcraft studies by working at the intersections of women’s and environmental history. Women’s bodies are their own environment, devoted to the nurturing and feeding of the next generation. They are contained in some respects, but are also seen as disturbingly porous and open to exterior phenomena. Whether the issue was spiritual contamination, or environmental toxins, or famine, women were at the intersections of early modern fears about the control of nature for the flourishing of their families. Mark Fiege and Lyndal Roper, among others point the way to thinking about women’s bodies, reproduction, and fertility—and fears about infertility and infant mortality—as a new way to understand both the relevance of both fields to understanding witchcraft studies.