Material Culture Flashcards
(8 cards)
Murrell, Rachel. Dressing the Witch: Clothing, the Body, and Accusations of Witchcraft in Puritan New England. (Dissertation; 2021)
Main Topics
* The role of clothing in Puritan New England, especially during the Salem Witch Trials.
* Clothing as a signifier of social status, gender, and spiritual morality.
Main Objectives
* Use Material Culture to show how clothing symbolized spiritual and moral status, contributing to witchcraft accusations.
* Examine how gender, class, and theology intersected in the scrutiny of women’s bodies, especially their dress and moral purity.
* Place the witch trials in the broader context of economic shifts, social mobility, and theological uncertainty in 17th-century Puritan New England.
* Contribute new insights to witchcraft studies by integrating material culture, gender theory, and legal history.
Murrell, Rachel. Dressing the Witch: Clothing, the Body, and Accusations of Witchcraft in Puritan New England. (Dissertation; 2021). Key Thesis and Core Objective.
Thesis:
* In Puritan New England, clothing symbolized spiritual status, gender conformity, and social class, with deviations seen as signs of moral corruption and potential witchcraft.
Core Objective:
* Highlight dress as a material and symbolic signifier, arguing that witchcraft accusations often arose from visual and material cues of deviance.
Murrell, Rachel. Dressing the Witch: Clothing, the Body, and Accusations of Witchcraft in Puritan New England. (Dissertation; 2021). Methodology.
Material Culture Theory
* Draws on Material Culture Theory (Jules David Prown) to examine how clothing and material objects acted as cultural markers in Puritan society, especially during the Salem Witch Trials, where dress deviations signaled moral or spiritual transgression.
Feminist Material Culture Lens
* Uses a feminist lens (Leora Auslander, Alice Jardine, Marilyn Westerkamp) to explore how gendered dress expectations influenced witchcraft accusations and how women’s bodies and appearances enforced social and spiritual norms.
Theological and Social Context
* Analyzes how Puritan beliefs about modesty, spirituality, and social order shaped clothing perceptions, where deviations signified moral corruption or witchcraft.
Textual and Visual Analysis
* Works with written records (court descriptions, publications) to interpret clothing as a visible sign of spiritual decay, building on Puritan theology and the concept of “Visible Sainthood.”
Historical Context and Social Control
* Examines clothing as a tool of social control, regulating class distinctions and gender roles through sumptuary laws, reflecting broader social anxieties and fears of disorder.
Murrell, Rachel. Dressing the Witch: Clothing, the Body, and Accusations of Witchcraft in Puritan New England. (Dissertation; 2021). Key Findings and Main Conclusions.
Clothing as a Moral and Social Signifier
* In Puritan New England, clothing symbolized spiritual state, gender conformity, and social status, with deviations seen as moral corruption and grounds for witchcraft suspicion.
Witchcraft Accusations and Class/Gender Tensions
* Accused women, like Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba, were marginalized (poor, disabled, enslaved), with accusations reflecting fears of social and moral disorder.
Material Culture as Social Control
* Sumptuary laws and clothing norms enforced rigid hierarchies, using material culture to regulate virtue, gender roles, and social mobility.
The Body as a Site of Spiritual Conflict
* Puritan theology linked the body to spiritual health, especially women’s bodies, which were seen as vulnerable to demonic temptation through revealing clothing.
The Salem Witch Trials as a Response to Instability
* The trials occurred during social and economic upheaval, as Salem transitioned from a religious community to a commercially connected town, triggering fears of blurred social lines.
Visual Culture in Puritanism
* Puritans used visual signs (clothing, behavior, possessions) to assess virtue, with these codes reinforcing conformity during crises.
Gender, Theology, and Visual Discipline in the Witch Trials
* Women were more frequently accused due to Puritan views of material excess and spiritual weakness, with clothing enforcing gender hierarchies and identifying “dangerous” individuals.
Material Objects as Interpretive Tools
* Drawing from Material Culture Theory, Murrell uses clothing to offer new insights into belief systems, anxieties, and social order in early colonial societies.
Murrell, Rachel. Dressing the Witch: Clothing, the Body, and Accusations of Witchcraft in Puritan New England. (Dissertation; 2021). Limitations.
Overemphasis on Clothing as a Central Lens
* Limitation: Focus on clothing may overshadow other critical factors like political tensions, religious fanaticism, and personal motivations.
* Why it Matters: Reducing the trials to dress risks oversimplifying the complex social, political, and theological crisis.
Limited Engagement with Broader Legal and Political Structures
* Limitation: Lack of analysis on legal procedures, court dynamics, and power structures.
* Why it Matters: Understanding the legal system (e.g., spectral evidence) is essential for comprehending how accusations were legitimized.
Material Culture Focus Could Sideline Lived Experience
* Limitation: Emphasis on material culture may overlook the personal and emotional experiences of the accused and accusers.
* Why it Matters: The trials involved real human suffering, fear, and death, which are underexplored.
Scarcity of Material Evidence Limits Conclusions
* Limitation: Strong interpretive framework based on sparse physical evidence.
* Why it Matters: Raises questions about the reliability of inferences from legal records and sermons.
Minimal Attention to Race and Enslavement Beyond Tituba
* Limitation: Limited exploration of how race and slavery intersected with witchcraft accusations.
* Why it Matters: The racialized dimensions of fear and “othering” deserve deeper analysis, especially in the context of colonial hierarchies.
Limited Comparative Perspective
* Limitation: Focus on Salem without a broader comparative lens.
* Why it Matters: A comparative perspective could clarify what made Salem unique or similar to other witchcraft traditions.
Gender Analysis Lacks Intersectionality
* Limitation: Gender analysis could benefit from considering how class, race, age, and marital status interact with gendered expectations.
* Why it Matters: These factors influenced vulnerability to suspicion and interpretation of appearance.
Some Theoretical Overreach
* Limitation: High-level theoretical frameworks may impose modern constructs on historical actors.
* Why it Matters: The tension between contemporary theory and historical context needs careful management.
Murrell, Rachel. Dressing the Witch: Clothing, the Body, and Accusations of Witchcraft in Puritan New England. (Dissertation; 2021). Scale and Scope.
Scale: What the article covers
* Combines historical analysis, material culture, and gender theory to explore clothing as a symbol of social status, spiritual virtue, and gender conformity in Salem Witch Trials.
* Microhistorical (focused on specific individuals) and macrohistorical (examines socio-theological structures).
* Temporal Scope: Covers March 1, 1692—first official examinations—and traces tensions from early colonial migration to late-17th Century economic shifts.
* Geographic Scope: Primarily Salem Village, Massachusetts, but connects to Puritan England, broader New England, and Atlantic trade networks.
* Analytical Scope: Incorporates material culture theory, Puritan theology, sumptuary law, and gender studies.
* Focuses on clothing as a cultural artifact that constructs social hierarchy, signifies moral character, enforces gender norms, and legitimizes witchcraft accusations.
Scope: What the article argues and why it matters
* Central Thesis: Clothing in Puritan New England was not merely decorative but a material expression of divine order; deviations could provoke moral suspicion and witchcraft accusations.
* Key Contributions:
* Innovative Framework: Uses material culture and feminist theory to reinterpret established ideas.
* New Evidence Lens: Highlights the centrality of clothing as evidence in witch trials, beyond just testimonies and confessions.
* Cultural Anxiety: Argues economic change, social mobility, and gender deviance triggered Puritan panic, manifesting in the policing of dress.
* Intersectionality: Emphasizes how class, gender, and race shaped who was accused and how they were judged.
Murrell, Rachel. Dressing the Witch: Clothing, the Body, and Accusations of Witchcraft in Puritan New England. (Dissertation; 2021). Sources
Primary Sources
* Court Records: Example: Sarah Good’s black silk hood, from Tituba’s testimony, shows how clothing symbolized moral and spiritual transgression.
* Massachusetts and Connecticut Sumptuary Laws (1630s-1670s): Example: Laws banning luxurious fabrics for lower-status individuals demonstrate how clothing enforced class-based morality and hierarchy.
* Sermons and Writings by Puritan Ministers: William Prynne and Cotton Mather condemned excessive fashion, linking appearance to inner virtue, reinforcing Murrell’s argument on material signs of salvation or damnation.
* John Winthrop’s 1630 Sermon (“A Modell of Christian Charity”): Cited to show that Puritans believed in a divinely ordained social order, where deviation from dress codes signaled spiritual rebellion.
* Descriptions of the Accused: Sarah Good, Tituba, Sarah Osborne’s clothing and social positions illustrate how material poverty or excessive adornment triggered suspicion and signified moral transgression.
Secondary Sources
* Jules David Prown – Material Culture Theory: Used as the methodological foundation, arguing that clothing reflects societal anxieties and theological beliefs.
* Laurel Thatcher Ulrich: Supports the idea that fabric and garments were socially charged and crucial in identity-making and spiritual boundaries.
* Leora Auslander and Alice Jardine: Feminist material culture scholars, whose work informs the analysis of women’s dress as both alluring and dangerous.
* Stephen Innes and Robert Blair St. George: Social historians whose research on economic change and social instability underpins the use of clothing as a visual tool during social hierarchy shifts.
* Marilyn Westerkamp: Her ideas on gendered activity inform Murrell’s reading of clothing as a double-bind for women, who could be accused of witchcraft for both extravagance and poverty.
* Martha L. Finch: Focused on sumptuary laws and moral panic, reinforcing the idea that visible markers like clothing identified the “elect.”
* John Demos: Social historian whose insights on visible signs of weakness are used to argue that clothing became one such sign during the Salem trials.
Murrell, Rachel. Dressing the Witch: Clothing, the Body, and Accusations of Witchcraft in Puritan New England. (Dissertation; 2021). Links to Other Historians
